Metric gas meter billed as Imperial - British Gas

carlosuk

Hi,


British Gas have recently changed my meters to smart meters and when doing so I have discovered that my replaced gas meter was metric and I have been getting billed as imperial.


I have always wondered why my meter had 5 digits to read but when submitting meter readings online, it only accepts 4 digits, I queried this many years ago and was told to ignore the first digit.


I raised the issue with British Gas (I had photographic evidence of the old meter including the serial number, the digits and where it says M3 which I sent them) who after a few days confirmed that my meter was setup wrong on their system and I did in fact have a metric meter and being billed for imperial and they were passing it onto a specialist team to investigate further.


Yesterday, I got a voicemail whilst I was at work from the specialist team saying that they were investigating my issue and have asked the gas network company who serves my property to investigate further, so I called back whilst I was on a break and the person who was dealing with my case wasn't available so I asked the person who had answered my call what was going to happen who said she couldn't comment and would get the person dealing with my case to contact me, who hasn't.


I intend to call up again in the morning to chase up again, as I don't understand why they need to investigate with the gas network as they have acknowledged there was an error on their part and so in my mind they just need to refund me the amount I've been overcharged since I became a British Gas customer 6 years ago.


Am I right or am I taking a too simplistic view?


Thanks!

CashStrapped

It will just be back office procedure. They probably need to go through 6 years worth of bills to ensure the error goes back throughout your bill history. The recalculation will have to take into account the various tariffs you were on for those years, so it is not a straight forward thing.

With a bit of luck you may be due a decent re-reimbursement. This probably needs to be authorised by someone up the food chain as it may not be an insignificant amount.

Just let them get on with it and enjoy the result when it comes through.

dogshome

Wow ! - Thank heavens you had the wit to photo the old meter before it was removed.

In simple terms the mix-up means that for every £1worth of gas you actually used, you were charged £2.83p, and also overpaid the VAT by 9.15p.

BG seem to be following through the process to correct the error, but, if I were in your shoes I would WRITE a leter headed Complaint to establish a firm timeline of when you first alerted them of the problem

andyf15

hi

i was with Npower for 3 years ,but took advantage of last years MSEs february collective switch to british gas,i gave BG my meter readings for gas and lekky, as they were new providers ,i assumed that both the final bill and the new bill would tally up (i did query final bill from Np as it only had 4 digits that never corresponded with 5 digit meter reading i sent to BG<but was told its ok and everythings sorted for switch ) ,,,unfortunateley i just left it as i was happy with saving money under Bg,but as ive just received my first annual bill from BG who just put my DD upto £376 a month from £74 without any notice, i was shocked to be charged £2572 just for gas usage ,,,,,im not great with the calculations but i seem to get it at roundabout i used 5,000 m3 units,, 55,000kwh usage from march last year,,,,im totally bamboozled by this figure ,,,,,,it seems to have gone tits up from July to Sept where and from i used 23860 kwh and from Oct to Dec where 37414kwh was used Jan to March is now sitting at 10665 kwh,,,so as you can see im dismayed at the usage i called both Bg and NP yesterday and NP have told me to contact BG who have now opened up a backroom case (dont know what this is ) and have put dd bck to what it was in the meantime,
im thinking that theres something seriously wrong with my meter which is a libra 310p as it keeps switching off ,and i have to reset it this is now happening every other week,,,i cant believe that that much gas could be used i live in a 2 bed semi with good loft insulation walls are cavity insulated too,theres two adults me n mrs work shifts and my daughter ,,,gas is only for heating and water,,,,any help or advice would be most helpful

firefox1956

andyf15 wrote: »

hi

i was with Npower for 3 years ,but took advantage of last years MSEs february collective switch to british gas,i gave BG my meter readings for gas and lekky, as they were new providers ,i assumed that both the final bill and the new bill would tally up (i did query final bill from Np as it only had 4 digits that never corresponded with 5 digit meter reading i sent to BG<but was told its ok and everythings sorted for switch ) ,,,unfortunateley i just left it as i was happy with saving money under Bg,but as ive just received my first annual bill from BG who just put my DD upto £376 a month from £74 without any notice, i was shocked to be charged £2572 just for gas usage ,,,,,im not great with the calculations but i seem to get it at roundabout i used 5,000 m3 units,, 55,000kwh usage from march last year,,,,im totally bamboozled by this figure ,,,,,,it seems to have gone tits up from July to Sept where and from i used 23860 kwh and from Oct to Dec where 37414kwh was used Jan to March is now sitting at 10665 kwh,,,so as you can see im dismayed at the usage i called both Bg and NP yesterday and NP have told me to contact BG who have now opened up a backroom case (dont know what this is ) and have put dd bck to what it was in the meantime,
im thinking that theres something seriously wrong with my meter which is a libra 310p as it keeps switching off ,and i have to reset it this is now happening every other week,,,i cant believe that that much gas could be used i live in a 2 bed semi with good loft insulation walls are cavity insulated too,theres two adults me n mrs work shifts and my daughter ,,,gas is only for heating and water,,,,any help or advice would be most helpful

Two bits of advice........& don't take either the wrong way.
Start your own thread with you problem.
Use paragraphs.
HTH

carlosuk

Hi Guys,


Just thought I'd update you all on this as I've just had a call from British Gas to say that they have "resolved" my issue and wanted to close down the job as they have rebilled me and credited my account with £870.06, I said that I had worked out that the refund should be significantly more than this and the lady said that I've been undercharged for gas the whole time but as it was their error they have removed the final reading when the meter was changed over!


I asked how they have come to this conclusion and basically she said that the meter has been getting read wrong the whole time and it should be the first 4 [black] digits that should be getting read not the last 4, I said that I disagree as when I first joined them the first digit was zero and then at some point it rolled over so the first digit was 1 and the last four went back to zero which I continued to read starting from zero again ignoring the 1, which if I had an imperial meter which obviously only has the 4 digits which they also had me setup for then this was correct, but she disagreed and said that they were right.


So I asked her to email me all the details so I can have a look at it myself as I don't agree, which I'm now waiting for but I expect the details to be vague as is my experience with them when asking for things to be put into writing!


So can you guys just confirm that I am right in what I am saying and I'm not going mad before I push this matter?


Thanks.