Gas bills: 1.5 million customers overcharged by faulty meters

supermassive

In reponse to some information I received on here - you were incorrect.

I am charged £4 per 'top up' of my gas meter.

I have now asked EDF, and this what they've said:

There has been a technical fault occurred during the manufacture of the meters. The faulty meters have been running down credit put on the meter slightly faster than they should have been due to a problem with the mathematical formula that reduces the credit as gas is used.

We’ll be writing to all affected customers by Christmas, they’ll receive a bar coded letter which they can take to a Post Office, along with their proof of identity, to receive their refund in cash. The refund will include an estimate of overpayments up to end March 2015 to cover the winter period.

We’ll also add 0.5 per cent interest above base rate.


Which is all well and good if you think that £4 per top up of £10 is a negligible amount. It is not negligible to somebody like myself on an extremely tight budget. I don't particularly care if they've got something in place to refund and give a projected refund in the future - there's no reason at all they should be allowed to take money from me now and not give me what I pay for.

Good luck to any of my other bills that come in. You've not got a hope in hell of getting paid. Then good luck to my credit record. Good luck to ever getting out of rental, or getting a job in a bank again.

Lovely.

molerat

There has been a technical fault occurred during the manufacture of the meters. The faulty meters have been running down credit put on the meter slightly faster than they should have been due to a problem with the mathematical formula that reduces the credit as gas is used.

which is exactly what others on here have stated. The calorific value, which is part of that mathematical formula, has been incorrectly set.

Cardew

supermassive wrote: »

I am charged £4 per 'top up' of my gas meter.


Which is all well and good if you think that £4 per top up of £10 is a negligible amount. It is not negligible to somebody like myself on an extremely tight budget. I

I think you have failed to understand the issue here.


What do you feel is the relevance of a charge of £4, for a top up of £10, to this issue?

SwanJon

supermassive wrote: »

I am charged £4 per 'top up' of my gas meter.

This sounds like it is an entirely different issue.

Your meter will only take money from your top up when it thinks it is owed something (paying back emergency credit, paying back a bill)

If your meter is taking £4 form every top up and you haven't used emergency credit then it thinks you have a bill to pay back.

You can see from the screens on the meter what's happening.
Start with the card out, and the meter showing your credit for gas.
Pressing and releasing the red button will cycle through three screens:
For gas -> OWED -> Index
The last of these (if present) is the meter reading - this shows how much you use.
Once back on 'for gas', press and hold the red button until the screen changes. You will now see a number in the corner of the screen. Every time you push and release the red button the screen will change again.

You are looking for:
27 - GD remaining - how much is left to pay back (if this is zero the meter doesn't know about it)
25/26 - GD Week MIN/MAX - how much you are paying back each week towards the bill. This will only be taken if there is a value on 27
00 - Last Credit - how much you topped up last time
01 - Las for debt - how much of the last top up was taken for debt payment
02 - Last for EmCr - how much of the last payment was used to pay back the emergecny credit
03 - Last for gas - how much of the last credit went to be used for gas
10 - Tariff Cost 5 - the price per kWh
17 - Standing Charge

Armed with this info, go back to EDF. They will be able to see how long the meter has been taking this £4 and refund any over payment.

If it is the shop charging you £4 per top up, then report them to the network (PayPoint, PayZone, Post Office)

supermassive

Cardew wrote: »

I think you have failed to understand the issue here.


What do you feel is the relevance of a charge of £4, for a top up of £10, to this issue?

What do I think is the relevance being charged 40% extra? That it's putting me out of pocket, that's what. I'm absolutely happy for you if 40% of your money is disposable and you won't miss it, but for some people, it's tipping point and has a serious knock-on effect. I'm not sure why you think the overcharging isn't relevant - it's the entire point of this thread, that people have been overcharged.

To clarify - I have NO outstanding bills, I was in credit when I had the prepay meter fitted.

I topped up £20 and it took £19 off me, leaving me £1 in credit.

I called and complained and they 'refunded' the £20 - which is yet to be seen.

The meter is now charging me 40% extra for 'debt'. The 'debt' doesn't exist according to the screens on the meter and according to the generally unhelpful people at EDF.

I think I'll start keeping my paypoint receipts.

(I could go on and on about the mockery of logic in charging prepay customers a higher tariff in the first place, seeing as they're zero risk)

SwanJon

So it looks like this is unrelated to the CV issue that is the subject of the thread.

What did you discover on screens 00-03?

Prepayment cusotmers are charged the same price as paying the bill when it arrives, not more.
Management of the prepayment system costs more than for standard meters.

supermassive

SwanJon wrote: »

So it looks like this is unrelated to the CV issue that is the subject of the thread.

What did you discover on screens 00-03?

Prepayment cusotmers are charged the same price as paying the bill when it arrives, not more.
Management of the prepayment system costs more than for standard meters.

EDF have told me it's the meter, and that it's this very fault that is the subject of this thread.

Now I'm being told it's not?

I'm so close to just jacking it all in. Go sofa surf in someone else's house and let them deal with companies that couldn't run a bath.

[Deleted User]

supermassive wrote: »

What do I think is the relevance being charged 40% extra? That it's putting me out of pocket, that's what. I'm absolutely happy for you if 40% of your money is disposable and you won't miss it, but for some people, it's tipping point and has a serious knock-on effect. I'm not sure why you think the overcharging isn't relevant - it's the entire point of this thread, that people have been overcharged.

To clarify - I have NO outstanding bills, I was in credit when I had the prepay meter fitted.

I topped up £20 and it took £19 off me, leaving me £1 in credit.

I called and complained and they 'refunded' the £20 - which is yet to be seen.

The meter is now charging me 40% extra for 'debt'. The 'debt' doesn't exist according to the screens on the meter and according to the generally unhelpful people at EDF.

I think I'll start keeping my paypoint receipts.

(I could go on and on about the mockery of logic in charging prepay customers a higher tariff in the first place, seeing as they're zero risk)

Just rule out "standing charge debt ". This would show as "owed " on the first or second press of the red button on the "credit " screen If you are absent from the property or not crediting too often there may be a build up of standing charge debt, approx £1.50-£2.0 per week is deducted for weekly standing charges.. If you fall behind on that then the meter will whisk away a bigger amount to get standing charges up to date. This is over and above any true debt on the meter on screen 26. If all is OK then you ve got a duff meter and it simply need changing. If possible get a credit meter installed for a 25% reduction in tariffs if you can pay by direct debits and get onto a 1 year fixed tariff

ChumpusRex

supermassive wrote: »

EDF have told me it's the meter, and that it's this very fault that is the subject of this thread.

If EDF told you that, then EDF are wrong. It is that simple.

Unfortunately, my experience is that call centre staff at energy companies don't understand pre-payment meters and frequently give incorrect advice.

molerat

ChumpusRex wrote: »

If EDF told you that, then EDF are wrong. It is that simple.

Unfortunately, my experience is that call centre staff at energy companies don't understand [STRIKE]pre-payment meters[/STRIKE] and frequently give incorrect advice.

corrected for you