Faulty Electric Meter?

Justiceforme

Last January I had to have my electric meter replaced not of my own choosing. The meter had two different electric dials, one for daytime and the other was supposed to be for Economy 7. We do not have any storage heaters or an emersion heater.
I was with Npower at that time. In April, I switched to a fixed deal with Scottish Power. On reading my bills I saw a sudden surge during the summer months. The bill was around £60.00 dearer, £20.00 extra a month. I contacted them to discuss the matter a few weeks ago. I was told to keep checking the meter reading to see if the Economy 7 was moving in the daytime and it was. The Economy 7 dial should not have been moving during the day time because it is designed to be used during the night time period.
After nearly 2 weeks Scottish Power contacted me and said that they thought the new meter was faulty. I stated that if had been undercharged for my bill, I was not prepared to pay because it was not my fault. If I have overpaid I wanted a refund.
Scottish Power are going to replace the meter on the 6 December.
They will not be able calculate the correct costs until the meter has been used for a certain period. This could take months to sort out. I have requested previous bills from Npower to see if they can compare costs.
Any advice would be helpful.
Many thanks

dude89

Justiceforme wrote: »

Last January I had to have my electric meter replaced not of my own choosing. The meter had two different electric dials, one for daytime and the other was supposed to be for Economy 7. We do not have any storage heaters or an emersion heater.
I was with Npower at that time. In April, I switched to a fixed deal with Scottish Power. On reading my bills I saw a sudden surge during the summer months. The bill was around £60.00 dearer, £20.00 extra a month. I contacted them to discuss the matter a few weeks ago. I was told to keep checking the meter reading to see if the Economy 7 was moving in the daytime and it was. The Economy 7 dial should not have been moving during the day time because it is designed to be used during the night time period.
After nearly 2 weeks Scottish Power contacted me and said that they thought the new meter was faulty. I stated that if had been undercharged for my bill, I was not prepared to pay because it was not my fault. If I have overpaid I wanted a refund.
Scottish Power are going to replace the meter on the 6 December.
They will not be able calculate the correct costs until the meter has been used for a certain period. This could take months to sort out. I have requested previous bills from Npower to see if they can compare costs.
Any advice would be helpful.
Many thanks

I will just copy my post from the other thread

Sorry but I'm not actually going to give specific advice for your situation but I do take offence to your attitude to the situation. So even if you have used it then you want to get away with not paying for it? It's ok I, and everyone else for that matter will pay for it through increased bills. It's ok, honestly don't worry about it, put it towards something nice for Christmas from me. Yet if you've overpaid you are demanding a refund. Win/win for you then. So do you think SP are at fault because a piece of equipment went wrong? They didn't make/install it.

Companies have a certain amount of time (either 12 months or 6 years) depending on how this situation applies to the billing code and they have every right to expect the correct amount to be paid or refunded. Normally in these cases, estimates of usage invariably favour the customer, though if I were your complaints handler and you came on with that attitude i would give no slack at all

Justiceforme

Well I was asking for advice but you have not really provided any. In future stick to the subject. And what would you do if this happened to you the? You seem very judgemental to me. I never said that I would refuse to pay for the correct amount of electricity used. I said I'm not willing to pay for a faulty meter reading, which increased my bill by more than £60.00 during the 3 summer months. No Scottish Power did not replace the new meter. As they are my provider it is their responsibility to sort it out and provide me with the correct billing.
It was replaced by a company called MeterPlus Ltd, so is it their fault? I'm not a scrounger or a cheat and have always paid every bill on time without problems or queries.

ChumpusRex

If you have an E7 meter and the "night" reading is going up during the day, then this almost always results in your bills being lower than they should be, as you will tend to use most of your electricity when the meter is mistakenly recording it as cheap rate.

The other issue is that you have an E7 meter and no storage heaters or immersion heater. This is almost always a lot more expensive than getting your meter changed over to a normal meter.

It sounds like the only thing to do is wait for the meter to be tested and the bill sorted out.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

[QUOTE= I stated that if had been undercharged for my bill, I was not prepared to pay because it was not my fault. If I have overpaid I wanted a refund.
[/QUOTE]

So it's your way or the highway?!

Justiceforme

Well I ask the question again was it my fault, am I guilty? If the meter is faulty? A simple yes or no will do. If you have plenty of money and wish to send me the extra £60.00+ to pay my bills that would very nice. £60.00 is my food bill for 2 weeks.

Justiceforme

ChumpusRex wrote: »

If you have an E7 meter and the "night" reading is going up during the day, then this almost always results in your bills being lower than they should be, as you will tend to use most of your electricity when the meter is mistakenly recording it as cheap rate.

The other issue is that you have an E7 meter and no storage heaters or immersion heater. This is almost always a lot more expensive than getting your meter changed over to a normal meter.

It sounds like the only thing to do is wait for the meter to be tested and the bill sorted out.

Thanks for message. The problem is Scottish Power have not agreed to test the meter. They just want to change it.
(The other issue is that you have an E7 meter and no storage heaters or immersion heater. This is almost always a lot more expensive than getting your meter changed over to a normal meter.)

Are you saying it would be more or less expensive to change to a non E7 meter? Its not very clear to me. Npower always charged me at the same rate for both meter readings, day & night. Scottish Power say they can't do this.

Can I refuse to have the meter changed?

With thanks

[Deleted User]

I am still baffled as to what type of meter you have now, is it an old style mechanical meter with" low "at the top and "normal " at the bottom, or have you got the digital meters which have three readings ( plus a display of 88888) Low, Normal and T for total . If your old style meter was moving the "low " dial away from the dead of night (12.30 to 7.30) that is to your benefit as it puts the cheap rate into a more usable period. It would have a timer switch out of synch. Most of them that I see are like that. Its not really anything to do with any suppliers that your meters timerswitch is out. The digital ones , mostly , are better if their timerswitches are controlled by radio teleswitch or built in timers
If Scottish Power have been charging you for the same rate for both low/normal ,you have been billed single rate tariff for both rates, some suppliers cant do that and would need a change of meter

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Justiceforme wrote: »

Can I refuse to have the meter changed?

so now you want to keep the meter?

spiro

Most suppliers will charge to come out and test a meter. If it is found to be inaccurate they will refund the charge. They do it this way round is because in most cases the meter is not inaccurate.

Cardew

Justiceforme wrote: »

Its not very clear to me. Npower always charged me at the same rate for both meter readings, day & night. Scottish Power say they can't do this.

Can I refuse to have the meter changed?

With thanks

Even with an Economy 7 meter, some companies(BG and E-on for example) have the ability to place customers on a 'normal' 24/7 single rate tariff. To achieve this they simply add the totals from the two meter readings and treat as a single total. e.g. 1,000 units(kWh) on the off-peak dial and 3,000kWh on the day(peak) reading is treated as 4,000kWh on a single rate tariff.

Scottish Power do not have that facility and if you have an E7 meter you will be placed on an E7 tariff. There have been a couple of people on MSE recently who hadn't realized this was the situation.

Now, as you state the E7 off-peak dial is moving during the day, this wouldn't have mattered to NPower(or you) as they simply added the two totals regardless on which dial they were recorded.

However with SP it does matter because the readings on the off-peak meter during the day should have been charged at the high rate and you have been getting the electricity at low rate prices.

Now as you stated: 'The meter had two different electric dials, one for daytime and the other was supposed to be for Economy 7.' the fault is almost certain to be that the mechanical clock is slow - a common fault. This clock switches your supply to off-peak for 7 hours usually around midnight to 7am(times vary across the country and with BST/GMT)This means that you have had the advantage of getting daytime electricity at cheap night rates.

It also means that the fault could have existed for years - as it wouldn't have affected you, or NPower.

So by reporting the fault you have rather shot yourself in the foot as the faulty meter worked to your advantage.

It also makes your claim that your bills are £60 higher seem implausible, unless you are claiming that the meter has developed a second fault and is over-recording after you joined SP. That over-recording very rarely happens but will be checked after it is changed.

Can I refuse to have the meter changed?

Of course not - it is faulty, to SP's disadvantage; you correctly have reported the faulty symptoms;)

You have two choices it seems - have another E7 meter and stay on an E7 tariff with SP. Or have a 'normal' meter fitted and change your tariff with SP to a single rate tariff.

The chances are you will finish up owing SP money, which they will probably write off!