Massive bill due to energy company unable to cater for my meter

nicbir85

Hi

Will try to keep this as brief as possible. I moved home last June and when I did I asked my supplier (Co-op) to take over the supply as they have always been good value and easy to deal with. When I contacted them I explained my new flat was all electric and gave them the details of the meters. I don't have a day and night just two standard meters and I wasn't sure how it would work. I explained I wasn't sure if one was day and one night but that my current supplier should be able to advise.

The switch took longer than expected and I never received any notification of them taking over the account and I couldn't access my online account to submit meter readings. I called them in September and they worked out that they had entered my email address incorrectly (though it was the same email address as for my old account with them) and resent me my welcome pack and sorted the log in. Then from around December I was unable to log on to the account again. I phoned and they said they were having IT issues with no idea how long it would take to resolve and just to keep coming back and trying. I eventually got access in April and submitted meter reads online but i then found that I was being charged the same rate for both meters. The welcome pack had described the electricity as Economy 7 so I just assumed I had a day and a night rate but then I received my final bill from previous supplier and they had one meter on a heat rate and the other on a standard rate. I phoned Co-op and explained this and they said they would look into it. they then phoned to explain they couldn't cater for the meters I had because one is a booster meter and just tops up my electricity. I am unsure that this is correct as when I look online info seems to suggest that actually it is a meter just for storage heater.

Anyway I am still waiting to hear back regarding a complaint I have raised around all this and have been told to expect a call tomorrow or by the end of the week but I just wanted to check if anyone had had a similar experience or whether anyone knew if Co-op had any duty to check first that they were capable of catering to my meter before agreeing to switch me?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Bark01

You need the co-op to tell you exactly what meter you have, its likely to be legacy meter type originally offered by your local electricity supplier. Your supply may need to contact the local MOP to identify it for you.

If it is a legacy tariff then its unlikely there will be any other suppliers who will take it on, but you should be able to transfer back to the original supplier and pay them at their rates, which might be cheaper.

OhReally_2

nicbir85 wrote: »

Hi

Will try to keep this as brief as possible. I moved home last June and when I did I asked my supplier (Co-op) to take over the supply as they have always been good value and easy to deal with. When I contacted them I explained my new flat was all electric and gave them the details of the meters. I don't have a day and night just two standard meters and I wasn't sure how it would work. I explained I wasn't sure if one was day and one night but that my current supplier should be able to advise.

The switch took longer than expected and I never received any notification of them taking over the account and I couldn't access my online account to submit meter readings. I called them in September and they worked out that they had entered my email address incorrectly (though it was the same email address as for my old account with them) and resent me my welcome pack and sorted the log in. Then from around December I was unable to log on to the account again. I phoned and they said they were having IT issues with no idea how long it would take to resolve and just to keep coming back and trying. I eventually got access in April and submitted meter reads online but i then found that I was being charged the same rate for both meters. The welcome pack had described the electricity as Economy 7 so I just assumed I had a day and a night rate but then I received my final bill from previous supplier and they had one meter on a heat rate and the other on a standard rate. I phoned Co-op and explained this and they said they would look into it. they then phoned to explain they couldn't cater for the meters I had because one is a booster meter and just tops up my electricity. I am unsure that this is correct as when I look online info seems to suggest that actually it is a meter just for storage heater.

Anyway I am still waiting to hear back regarding a complaint I have raised around all this and have been told to expect a call tomorrow or by the end of the week but I just wanted to check if anyone had had a similar experience or whether anyone knew if Co-op had any duty to check first that they were capable of catering to my meter before agreeing to switch me?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Have to say, I'm struggling with this one because:

1. If you have 2 meters (rather than 2 registries) then each meter will have it's own MPAN

2. Most suppliers cannot cater for 2 MPANS supplying the same address (although this can be got around ny making a different address e.g. the garage, the annex, etc)

3. Each MPAN defines the meter associated with it, so no supplier would put you on a dual rate tariff when the MPAN defines you have a single rate meter.

4. Not really clear what meter readings you would have given at switchover, as a dual rate tariff would have called for 2 registry readings when you say each meter only has one.
Even if you supplied the 2 meter readings as the regsitry readings, that would imply only 1 MPAN/meter supply has been switched, so the former supplier would have an issue when the Co-Op tried to give them 2 readings for a single rate meter to produce you a final bill with. And you'd still be getting a bill from the former supplier for the supply that has not been switched.

All quite confusing, sorry.

Wolf3

From the way you describe it i would say your property does have 2 MPAN's. One MPAN / Supply Number for each separate meter. Your "Day" meter is a single unrestricted meter for your regular electric usage and is available 24 hrs a day and charged at a normal rate. Whilst your "Night" meter is a single Off Peak / Restricted Hours Tariff meter for the storage heaters and is only used for a set time period, hence the restricted hours and should be charged at a lower rate. As the previous poster noted most suppliers don't cater for what is called a dual MPAN property, Co-Op wont have a tariff for the off peak meter hence they will charge you at the full Daytime rate which you have described.

As for the course of action you could take there are a number of options available to you. If you are willing you could ask Co-Op to change the meter to an Economy 7 or Economy 10 if available which would give you the cheap night rate you require for your storage heater usage. This might not allow the storage heaters to charge for as long as they currently do depending on how many hours the Off Peak meter allows but this does give you access to lots of tariffs available on the market in the future.
Alternatively, as Co-Op have been billing you for your storage heater usage at an expensive rate since June, you should be able to request an Erroneous Transfer back to your previous supplier as Co-Op have not been able to offer the tariff you were sold. Your previous supplier will be able to bill you at the cheaper rates for this same period as they support this meter set-up and if you wanted to you could ask them to change the meter as above to give you freedom to change suppliers in the future

Hope this helps