Economy 7 the wrong way due to supplier reading

lstar337

Cardew wrote: »

His dilemma however is that he better off(having followed Npower's bad advice) in that he is paying night(off-peak) rate for 17 hours daytime use. Hence this in his first post:

Good point that I totally missed!

Paying the single rate would still have you better off than putting the E7 around the right way.

I can only see more of these mix ups in the future now that suppliers are being forced to totalize.

wellpaidstillskint

So.... This made an interesting read. I have a similar issue.

We're with British Gas, and have an Economy 7 deal. I noticed when I checked the bill that we were using waaaaaaay more power at night than during the day, which makes no sense. So I went and had a wee look at the meter, and the same thing has happened to us - we're being billed day rate at night and night rate during the day. Meter was going up on the supposed 'night' number even tho it was during the day.

I called BG to report this, explained the situation to the call centre, they went and checked all of our meter readings, and also checked the readings for the previous owners of the property (we've been in less than a year) and it looks like they have always been this way around. BG didnt seem to grasp the concept and I gave up trying to explain.

Same question from me really, should I try again to explain the situation and get a corrected bill? Or just keep my mouth shut and cite today's call if they ever question it?

I will add that a former colleague of mine ended up with a £1000 bill from Npower after a similar mixup, so I am wary of continuing on..

help!!:)

Thanks,
Cat

[Deleted User]

For Wellpaidstillskint, just make sure you dont have one of the old style 24 hour timerswitches. With those old things many are nowhere near the correct time and the cheap 7 hours could be anywhere in the 24 hours, hence night rate advancing in the day. Radioteleswitch and digital meters with their own built in clocks are usually more or less correct. when the cheap 7 hours is , say , in the middle of the day I dont think the suppliers are too fussed about this as they can never guarantee exactly when the cheap rate times are.

Modgepodge

Exactly the same thing happened to us, with npower. We submitted readings (accurately), they wrote to us a year after we moved in to day they owed us £800. As wed only paid them £1200, I thought his seemed top good to be true and phoned them. They said the readings were probably the wrong way round, and switched them over, but as it was their error, LET US KEEP THE MONEY. We left it as a credit on the account (I didn't want to get it back, spend it then be told we owed them money) until we moved out 2 years later, when we got £500 refund (I assume we were underpaying by a total of £300 over those years - around £10 per month, as we were on E7 when we probably shouldn't have been.)

So anyway. I think you'd have a good case for them not to back bill you, based on this, and also as it was their advice to switch in the first place. I'd play innocent, but put some money aside 'just in case'. Hey will possibly realise their mistake eventually, but I believe there are limits (a year?) on how far they can back bill you when it was their error.

Cardew

Some while ago some people posted they realized the same situation had occurred. So they changed to a 'normal' (i.e. not E7) meter with a company who didn't aggregate readings(e.g Scottish Power) and lived happily ever after.

ukdya

npower put in a new meter in 2010 as an adition to another old heat meter
the owners wer both over 80 then. now during a no bill for 18 months scenario they "realised somehow" that since 2010 they had been reading the night for day etc and the bill for the 5 years would be £754 extra. so as apparently part of the no bill for 18 months they offered to write this off
as a "nice " gesture for incompitance. now one owner is dead and the widow is now 86 and having had stroke and brain surgery is trying to let me explain why she has a bill for £2450 for npower's inaBILLity and why they have read meter upside down. I,m trying to get thru to her but I have decided I am not able to explain adequately and hope the ombudsman can give a clear explaination.

wellpaidstillskint

sacsquacco wrote: »

For Wellpaidstillskint, just make sure you dont have one of the old style 24 hour timerswitches. With those old things many are nowhere near the correct time and the cheap 7 hours could be anywhere in the 24 hours, hence night rate advancing in the day. Radioteleswitch and digital meters with their own built in clocks are usually more or less correct. when the cheap 7 hours is , say , in the middle of the day I dont think the suppliers are too fussed about this as they can never guarantee exactly when the cheap rate times are.

It's a modern-ish digital meter, I don't think that's the issue. For the sake of my conscience I'm going to try again to report to B.G> (Unlike the OP they never advised me anything, so I can't say it was their fault).