Gas meter dispute

Kbobizzle

Hi this is my first post here but I am at the end of my tether.

I switched from Npower to EDF last year. EDF flagged up a possible mistake on my opening gas meter reading as this conflicted with what Npower told them. On my closing bill, Npower had ignore the read I sent them and instead put that my read was a different amount. It also put that a read I gave them in June was simarlarly wrong.

EDF opened a dispute and told me to tell Npower on 26th November 2014 which I did . They closed my gas supply and refunded me what was left on the account.

I knew something was wrong. Npower had changed my gas meter in April 2014 and I suspected this could be the problem. When I contacted Npower and informed them of this dispute, I asked whether these conflicting reads could be due to the new meter which they emphatically told me no, that couldn't be the case.



I have paid Edf an estimated amount since but have waited over 6 months to be resolved.


After raising a complaint with EDF that this was taking too long, they have investigated the issue and have found that it was in fact Npower that never updated the meter exchange details before the change of supply and sent the incorrect meter details and closing read for registration with EDF. This why my meter reading wouldn't tally. Npower had continued to bill me wrong from April to October 2014 and ignore my meter readings or record them as inline with your their estimates of the previous meter.



Needless to say I am extremely disappointed that I have waited 6 months to discover that what I suspected to be the problem, is infact what happened even though Npower told me this would not be the case.


As of yesterday, EDF have informed me that Npower have now agreed the gas change and final meter read but I have now been left with a debit of over £700 since we have been paying an estimated amount from November to April. Our direct debit is going up to £330 a month!

I have asked EDF to negotiate to make my direct debit amount smaller and I have emailed Npower to complain!

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I feel like I've lost all trust in energy suppliers. Does anyone advice on what to do next?

Thank you

littlerock

I use EDF but for electricity only. I have a direct debit and the amount is adjusted annually at start of billing year, to reflect estimated annual usage. If I approach the end of the billing year with a pending shortfall in payment (around now), the dd is adjusted to collect the outstanding money over the last couple of months of the billing year. However it is then adjusted back to a monthly figure for the new year which reflects the new year's total estimated usage.

Is your £330 per month an adjustment to collect this year's anticipated shortfall ? in which case it should be adjusted back from May to reflect estimated usage in forthcomg year? Or is the new year's dd figure far too high due to the screw up by Npower last year , which is making your annual usage seem much higher than it actually is?

Have you documented your experience as a case history? I always find numbered points in chronological order starting with the oldest first and working forward is useful when dealing with utililities or bureaucrats. You could start with a couple of years normal usage summarised before the Npower screw up then list the sorry saga in date order in numbered points. (Maybe add an appendix listing your appliances and. how long in use each day).

I have always found EDF OK to deal with but once it gets messy you need to set it all out for them in an easily readable form. So anyone taking it on can grasp the essentials of your case history in one document . This makes it more likely to get followed up . ( Don't forget to include your account numbers with both Edf and Npower and any other reference numbers and dates of correspondence or phone calls.) This will also be useful for the regulator if you decide to appeal to them.

nPower

Kbobizzle wrote: »

Hi this is my first post here but I am at the end of my tether.

I switched from Npower to EDF last year. EDF flagged up a possible mistake on my opening gas meter reading as this conflicted with what Npower told them. On my closing bill, Npower had ignore the read I sent them and instead put that my read was a different amount. It also put that a read I gave them in June was simarlarly wrong.

EDF opened a dispute and told me to tell Npower on 26th November 2014 which I did . They closed my gas supply and refunded me what was left on the account.

I knew something was wrong. Npower had changed my gas meter in April 2014 and I suspected this could be the problem. When I contacted Npower and informed them of this dispute, I asked whether these conflicting reads could be due to the new meter which they emphatically told me no, that couldn't be the case.



I have paid Edf an estimated amount since but have waited over 6 months to be resolved.


After raising a complaint with EDF that this was taking too long, they have investigated the issue and have found that it was in fact Npower that never updated the meter exchange details before the change of supply and sent the incorrect meter details and closing read for registration with EDF. This why my meter reading wouldn't tally. Npower had continued to bill me wrong from April to October 2014 and ignore my meter readings or record them as inline with your their estimates of the previous meter.



Needless to say I am extremely disappointed that I have waited 6 months to discover that what I suspected to be the problem, is infact what happened even though Npower told me this would not be the case.


As of yesterday, EDF have informed me that Npower have now agreed the gas change and final meter read but I have now been left with a debit of over £700 since we have been paying an estimated amount from November to April. Our direct debit is going up to £330 a month!

I have asked EDF to negotiate to make my direct debit amount smaller and I have emailed Npower to complain!

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I feel like I've lost all trust in energy suppliers. Does anyone advice on what to do next?

Thank you

Hi Kbobizzle

I'm sad to learn the delay in updating your meter details has caused your final bill to be incorrect.

If you can send me an email using the details on our profile page and mark the email "MSE" in the subject header, I'll get this updated for you. Please include your account details, the details from the sticker or card attached to the new meters (or a photo) as this will help me check our records, and the starting meter readings with EDF.

Regards

Jess