Massive electricity bill that I can not explain!

[Deleted User]

Personally I would nt trust some of the dumbo meter readers we v e got, that one who came round could just as likely have got it wrong.I had the same trouble once with an old lady who was over charged £700 due to a duff reading by the meter reader AND the girl who came round later to double check. They both read it wrong. It was a tricky dial meter read where 3 dials were aligned on borders
Dial meters can be tricky to read on occasions but I have found them to be very reliable, more so than digital meters. Can you upload a photo of the meter ?
The OP backs up my claims that EDF, and other suppliers dont give a toss about any OFGEM 2 year inspection rules and OFGEM dont neither. I have complained often enough about the disgraceful running of the utililities to OFGEM. Incidents like this abound throughout the country, no wonder energy theft is on the increase

matelodave

It's not necessarily going to help in this instance, but how often do you read the meter and how often do you send the reading to the supplier. A photo of the meter would help just in case someone has read in wrongly in the past.

Regular reading and recording (make up a spreadsheet) at least monthly, but ideally weekly can show your usage and will highlight any discrepancies before they become unmanageable or unexplainable. You can also respond and do something to correct it quickly

A regular monthly meter read to the energy supplier will also help establish a pattern of usage which makes it easier to investigate anomolies.

Random billing and meter reading together with not checking and correcting estimates are a recipe for grief when something goes wrong and for some reason most people seem to put up with it.

If you know what you use, when you use it and you know what your tariff is, then you should be able to work out how much you need to pay and be able to identify any problems

rabbit_burrow

I'm glad you clarified that you pay £229 per quarter, your original explanation was a little misleading:

12amat wrote: »

As a customer, I requested them to work this out with common sense. I paid my last bill based on my annual statement (£229).

12amat

Sorry rabbit_burrow you are right it was actually misleading. What I was trying to say is that based on an annual statement, quarterly I should pay £229.That means that annually I should pay £916.

I personally took the meter reading for the last 5 years every 3 months as agreement and I am 1000% sure that since April 2013 there were NO anomalies and that is why I always paid my bills without argue. There is always been a constant consumption in summer time and winter time. I pay around £300/quarter in winter and around £100/quarter in summer.

I swear I never mis read the meter, if I knew that I did something dodgy I wouldn't had wasted my time writing letters to complain. That is why I am so stressed, I am an honest person and I don't deserve this treatment from EDF and I don't deserve to pay for electricity that obviously I didn't use.

EDF agrees with me that I couldn't have spent 12000Kwh in 2 months but they insist that I gave them the reading wrong for the last 5 years! I mean .... come on!!!! For 5 years!! Are they implying that I am a cheater then?!? I understand if I misreading once or twice in 5 years but constantly ..... on purpose... please!!

I really don't know what to do, please help or advice because I am going crazy! How can I win this cause?

dogshome

Hi 12amat - Please reply to sacsquaccos question - Is this a 'Dial' meter that has a seies of dials, (like little clocks), each with just a single hand on the face?

The dial on the L/hand side measures 10,000kwh for each increment and is easily mis-read ( Say the pointer is resting on the figure 3 - To have actually have to be reported as reading 3, the next dial on the right which measures in 1,000 of Kwh should be reading O or 1, if it is reading 9 then the10,000 dials reading is not 3, but 2

[Deleted User]

OP has a dial meter. I would ask for a second visit from an EDF meter reader as a verification( hopefully not some newbie ). surely then the OP will have to , either , go by the what the meter says, or request a check meter fitted alongside the dial meter to verify that the meter is working ok. That is the only two options as far as I can see

12amat

Hi dogshome, yes it is a dial meter with 6 little clocks going from 0 to 9.

The funny think is that my last reading was 47850 and the EDF meter reader after 2 months was 60074. It looks like the first digit is wrong. If the meter would have been 50074 instead of 60074 everything would make sense, with a 2 months consumption of over 2000Kwh. I think something happened to the meter when the indicator turn the 50000Kwh.

I said this to the engineer and his answer was that it would be very unlikely. I would say unlikely but not impossible, considering that the meter is from 1969 and last tested in 1989 (dates gave me by the engineer).

I think EDF should start my account from the April reading and get money from Feb-April reading from my quarterly statement instead of charging me £1700 for these 2 months.

molerat

What is your meter reading today ? Read the meter every day for a week and then every week to see what you are using. A meter is unlikely to speed up and slow down again.

[Deleted User]

Either you, or the meter reader has simply read the first digit , ( the 10,000 kwhs dial ) wrong. I havent had any trouble with any dial meters going wrong apart from a pointer dropping off once in all the years, so they are pretty reliable. Proberbly the meter reader got it wrong, ask them to come out again and do it properly this time. If you would like to PM me, I can give you my email and you can send me a photo of the meter

12amat

Today I used up 8 Kwh. Make sense. Something happened between Feb - Apr. that I can't explain. EDF explained it saying that I gave them the reading wrong for 5 years.

Sorry, I refuse to believe this as it was me that provide the reading for the last 5 years and I am 1000% I gave the right ones! I am not a cheater and if they want to prove that I mis read the reading for 5 years they can be my guest.

On the contrary I can prove that I use around 6500Kwh/year but I need a full year to prove it from April 2013 to April 2014. So far from April 2013 to July 2013 I used up 600kwh (it is summer time) but as you can see I am right on line to reach 6000Kwh by next April 2014.