Help - Day and Night Meter Readings the wrong way round

OneTwoOrThree

Help!

I've been in my house for 5 year and with the same supplier for all this time. I have today realised that the supplier has got my day and night meter readings the wrong way round.

80-90% of my electricity usage is during the day, and (after my test today) goes through 'reading 1' on my meter.

The remainder is night usage (kids night lights etc) and goes through 'reading 2' on my meter.

I have been giving my provider regular meter readings online, and they have come round regularly (annually or maybe 6 monthly) to take readings. When I input my own, I am asked for reading 1 and reading 2 and I have been inputting these correctly.

When I look at a bill, they don't use the reading 1 / reading 2 terminology, but instead use day & night. I can now see that are charging my night rates for reading 1, and day rates for reading 2 - ie the wrong way round, in my favour.

What should I do now? I'm scared I owe them lots and lots of money which I can't afford. Also, I chose my supplier and tarriff based on my usage - I suspect this means that I have chosen the wrong supplier as my usage pattern is different.

Thanks for your help

[Deleted User]

Thats not uncommon at all, so long as you are absolutely sure that rate 1 is day on your meter, then you have been billed too cheaply for your electric. Usually they will attempt a catch up bill. If you push it they may back down and scrub it as its as much their fault as yours. i have been bleating on to my management ( I work for G4S for BG, EDF ) about meter readers having no idea at all about eco7 digital meters. They usually just put anything what shows a 1 into the night field and hope that the suppliers knows which is which. BG dont tho, and people end up getting all the expensive day units billed at the cheap night rate. Its up to you what you do about it, you can just sit back as many do and accept the bargain electric bills. I have emailed the Brit Gas Transposition dept many times about this flaw in meter reading training and brought it up to management countless times and nothing ever gets done. We have had people on here however who ve had attempts to back bill for years and ended up having all the debt being scrubbed, that was with EON if I remember right. Also check your timer switch is operating properly, 12.30 am to 7.30 am is approx time for the cheap period in my area, (S. Yorks ), if thats wrong it skews the 7 hours into a different slot

dogshome

Night rate (kids night lights etc) ?
80% to 90% Elec use is during the day ?

Are you not useing the Night rate for Storage Heaters and Hot Water, and if not, how are you heating your home ?

Where Night/Day rates have been swapped in the past, often the supplier will apply the 12month back-billing rules and only ask for an adjusted payment on the power you have used in the last 12 months

Suppliers take a simplistic view on Day & Night allocation - ie The highest consumption reading must be the Night Rate because of the amount of power drawn by Storage heaters and the Hot water Immersion tank
But
I have the feeling that you have Gas CH and Hot water - hence my questions
Now if you have and it's from that same supplier that you have had for the last 5 years, they had all the information required to make an informed decision, or at the very least, query it with you, which is reasonable arguement that they should not back-charge you at all

Again if you do have Gas, with only 10% - 20% of your Elec being used at night, you would be better off with a 'Standard' meter, but the cost will still go up from the appx. 6p per Kwh you have have been paying on your 'phantom' Day rate to roughly 15p

Wywth

OneTwoOrThree wrote: »

Help!

I've been in my house for 5 year and with the same supplier for all this time. I have today realised that the supplier has got my day and night meter readings the wrong way round.

80-90% of my electricity usage is during the day, and (after my test today) goes through 'reading 1' on my meter.

The remainder is night usage (kids night lights etc) and goes through 'reading 2' on my meter.

I have been giving my provider regular meter readings online, and they have come round regularly (annually or maybe 6 monthly) to take readings. When I input my own, I am asked for reading 1 and reading 2 and I have been inputting these correctly.

When I look at a bill, they don't use the reading 1 / reading 2 terminology, but instead use day & night. I can now see that are charging my night rates for reading 1, and day rates for reading 2 - ie the wrong way round, in my favour.

What should I do now? I'm scared I owe them lots and lots of money which I can't afford. Also, I chose my supplier and tarriff based on my usage - I suspect this means that I have chosen the wrong supplier as my usage pattern is different.

Thanks for your help

Inform your supplier. I'm not sure how huge a difference it will end up being, but if it is large, the supplier will probaby be happy to agree to a repayment plan on request.
I doubt there is much difference as you say you input the figures yourself. If there was a huge difference, then surely you would have noticed the registries were transposed earlier.
You may even find the supplier owes you some money :beer:

You should do a new comparison based on your correct consumption figures (but be wary of changing supplier if you do owe some money as the supplier may not be so keen to agree a repayment plan if you are no longer their customer - a change of tariff with the same supplier shouldn't cause any issues.)

[Deleted User]

Hi onetworthree, the differnces with a transposed meter can be considerable. I and my freind have photographed quite a few of peoples transposed bills, a lot of people only use one kwhr in the eco7 hours and 15-20 in the day. A typical night storage user, and I see the readings often are very similar split with day and night with the night reading usually being higher. Non night storage is approx from one seventh of total and upwards night units. If thats how a supplier would operate, as dogshome suggested, that they just assume the highest reading is night, then they are bonkers. Really there should be no need to even have a transposed readings dept at all. In all my years of complaining to BG we at G4S have never even had any feedback to our managers to sort out meter reader training, I reckon one hour would be enough. We must get two or three a week on here with the same problem of day/night reversed. Out there in the real world its rife. I have little old ladys chuck me out of the house when I have informed them of their cheap rate of electric they have been getting. Most seem to be happy to leave well alone and not complain to BG
Wyworth is correct, they will be happy to give you a repayment plan, but only night storage users end up getting a repayment, my freind has just sorted out a long term mess up with £5000 owing , mostly because night storage is rare, its the other way round

undaunted

I'd do nothing and admit nothing until you are certain of the facts if I were you!

What do you mean by test? (Eg your own or suppliers meter reader visited)?

Thereafter you continue to state your position - you have correctly provided meter readings, piad all bills raised etc and any error is entirely theirs. Let them then suggest any resolution to you.

If they can get away with it they may just try & rebill you in full. If you contest it however you may be able to argue that back billing rules should apply here (limiting any rebilling to 12 months).

macman

Why on earth are you on E7 if you use 80-90% on the expensive day rate?
E7 is primarily for night storage heaters and immersion heaters. Typically you need to use 30% on cheap rate to make it pay.
A couple of kid's night lights cannot possibly account for 10% of your consumption.
You need to sort out your meter issue, but in addition you need to switch to a single rate tarff ASAP as well.

Craigy1_2

My dad had it the other way round and it was in his favour, he was with British Gas and they would only pay out for the last year, he had been living in the house for 11 years with the meter round the wrong way. So just say you'll only pay for the last year, If these big bully companies can do it why can't you?

lstar337

I think the OP is long gone by now. Check the date in this thread.

ic

My parents had this, and as such saved a fortune as they didn't actually have any eco7 heating to benefit from the overnight cheap rate (which was actually being charged for their daytime use). I pointed this wouldn't go on for ever, so they changed to a single rate meter, then moved supplier. Never had to pay for the undercharge!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

ic wrote: »

My parents had this, and as such saved a fortune as they didn't actually have any eco7 heating to benefit from the overnight cheap rate (which was actually being charged for their daytime use). I pointed this wouldn't go on for ever, so they changed to a single rate meter, then moved supplier. Never had to pay for the undercharge!

That's a shame, the debt was pushed onto the rest of us then