They lost my meter reading...

buckaroobanzai

Hi, so I recently transfered from EDF to Npower and in the process someone has messed up my readings.

On the 13th of May I gave my Gas meter reading as requested, I cannot remember what the figure was and I didn't jot it down, though based on previous usage and knowledge of what I use it should have been in the area of 7700. Npower then sent this reading to EDF for my final bill, on the 13th of June EDF issued my final bill which quoted around 7850 as the final reading which as you might imagine caused me to have a huge gas bill, I immediately checked my meter to ensure they were wrong and my meter read 7763.

I contacted Npower to ask them what figure I had given them when I first signed up and they said they could not find a reading, they did not go as far as to admit that they had lost it but agreed I had given them one and it could not have been the figure EDF had quoted.

I then contacted EDF and informed them of their mistake, they have withdrawn the bill and say they will now negotiate with Npower as to what the end figure should have been. Which leaves me now at the mercy of two energy companies.

Is this allowed? If they have messed things up are they allowed to just guess at what the figure would have been without my input and charge me regardless? I left EDF in credit and in such a way as to make sure there was money enough money left in credit to cover final bills, now it seems there will not be as the EDF adviser told me that the bill they decide will not be as high as they had quoted originally but would be higher than normal as it was an estimated figure.

Is there anything I can do?

Thanks in advance for reading this lengthy question, even if you can't help I'm glad it got noticed and that someone tried.

Pineapple88

Its not the sort of thing that should happen but unfortunately it does occassionally. NPower should ask you to take a meter reading today and then a reading on Friday next week. They will work out what you have used during the week and based on this will estimate what the reading was when you joined them. This should give a reading pretty close to the one you gave originally and unfortunately if you do not have the original reading then its bset way to estimate the reading.

In a situation like this it may work in your favour and you may get a larger refund from EDF or it may go agaisnt you and you get a slightly lower refund- given that we're in the low usage part of the year though it shouldn't make too much difference. As long as you are billed up to the current reading on your meter then you pay more to one company/less to the other and vise versa but you will pay the same amount overall.

Wywth

buckaroobanzai wrote: »

Hi, so I recently transfered from EDF to Npower and in the process someone has messed up my readings.

On the 13th of May I gave my Gas meter reading as requested, I cannot remember what the figure was and I didn't jot it down, though based on previous usage and knowledge of what I use it should have been in the area of 7700. Npower then sent this reading to EDF for my final bill, on the 13th of June EDF issued my final bill which quoted around 7850 as the final reading which as you might imagine caused me to have a huge gas bill, I immediately checked my meter to ensure they were wrong and my meter read 7763.

I contacted Npower to ask them what figure I had given them when I first signed up and they said they could not find a reading, they did not go as far as to admit that they had lost it but agreed I had given them one and it could not have been the figure EDF had quoted.

I then contacted EDF and informed them of their mistake, they have withdrawn the bill and say they will now negotiate with Npower as to what the end figure should have been. Which leaves me now at the mercy of two energy companies.

Is this allowed? If they have messed things up are they allowed to just guess at what the figure would have been without my input and charge me regardless? I left EDF in credit and in such a way as to make sure there was money enough money left in credit to cover final bills, now it seems there will not be as the EDF adviser told me that the bill they decide will not be as high as they had quoted originally but would be higher than normal as it was an estimated figure.

Is there anything I can do?

Thanks in advance for reading this lengthy question, even if you can't help I'm glad it got noticed and that someone tried.

When you move supplier, you provide your meter reading to your new supplier (npower) who then uses this to start your account from and passes the reading to the old supplier (edf) so they can produce you a final bill.

Now you say npower have "lost" the reading you provided?
And you didn't keep the figure either?

Of well, then presumably the meter reading was estimated.

The difference in meter readings of about 100 cubic metres of gas would be worth about £40. But that is not the important figure. The figure you want to know is what the difference in the cost of that 100 cubic metres of gas would be between the two different suppliers as any subsequent adjustment will affect bothe suppliers. Lets be generous and say you saved say 10% changing supplier, so the difference would be perhaps about £4.

Having said that, as the meter reading used to start your account is higher than it is even now, I would report this to nPower and they probably will revise the earlier estimated meter reading (because then nPower will get more money from you).
The revised lower meter reading they use will be agreed with EDF who will provide a refund of any resulatant overpayment.

nPower

buckaroobanzai wrote: »

Hi, so I recently transfered from EDF to Npower and in the process someone has messed up my readings.

On the 13th of May I gave my Gas meter reading as requested, I cannot remember what the figure was and I didn't jot it down, though based on previous usage and knowledge of what I use it should have been in the area of 7700. Npower then sent this reading to EDF for my final bill, on the 13th of June EDF issued my final bill which quoted around 7850 as the final reading which as you might imagine caused me to have a huge gas bill, I immediately checked my meter to ensure they were wrong and my meter read 7763.

I contacted Npower to ask them what figure I had given them when I first signed up and they said they could not find a reading, they did not go as far as to admit that they had lost it but agreed I had given them one and it could not have been the figure EDF had quoted.

I then contacted EDF and informed them of their mistake, they have withdrawn the bill and say they will now negotiate with Npower as to what the end figure should have been. Which leaves me now at the mercy of two energy companies.

Is this allowed? If they have messed things up are they allowed to just guess at what the figure would have been without my input and charge me regardless? I left EDF in credit and in such a way as to make sure there was money enough money left in credit to cover final bills, now it seems there will not be as the EDF adviser told me that the bill they decide will not be as high as they had quoted originally but would be higher than normal as it was an estimated figure.

Is there anything I can do?

Thanks in advance for reading this lengthy question, even if you can't help I'm glad it got noticed and that someone tried.

Hi buckaroobanzai,

If you'd like me to take a look into this for you and make sure that the reading being used is as accurate as possible, please pop me an email with your details on (the address is on my profile page).

I'll also make sure this is investigated to see why your original reading wasn't noted down.

Best wishes,

Adam