Huge electricity backbill

diesel_doglet

Hi Guys,

I hope someone can advise me. My electric supplier has just sent me a huge back bill. For 10 years they have been inputting my meter as a five digit meter however they have just realised that it is actually a six digit meter and my usage is actually 10 times the amount!

I know I am covered under the 12 months back billing cover but does anyone know how they even work out what the past 12 months energy usage was?

I look forward to your replies and advice.

BR
DD

JohnB47

diesel_doglet wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I hope someone can advise me. My electric supplier has just sent me a huge back bill. For 10 years they have been inputting my meter as a five digit meter however they have just realised that it is actually a six digit meter and my usage is actually 10 times the amount!

I know I am covered under the 12 months back billing cover but does anyone know how they even work out what the past 12 months energy usage was?

I look forward to your replies and advice.

BR


DD

More information needed please. Have you been supplying meter readings? If so, were they accurate? Was your meter read by an actual meter reader during the 10 years (surely the answer must be yes)? What have your bills been saying are the readings?


What is your current meter reading - watch out for a possible tiny decimal point.

diesel_doglet

Hi, The meter has been read several times in the past (last time early 2017) and i have given the odd reading too. It was even read last week and the meter reader even said I would be in credit because they don't use the last digit! I phoned up and mentioned that there was no decimal point in my meter and the last digit was not red or in a box, so they sent another meter reader out who then realised it was a 6 digit meter! Hence they have now sent me a massive bill.

Any advice appreciated.

diesel_doglet

Sorry bills have been saying readings are xxxx but the meter has 6 digits 0xxxxx so they have been treating the meter as 5 digit meter and treating the last digit is tenths of a unit when its actually a unit.

Carrot007

Some thoughts.


1. So you are saying they took the first 5 digits and missed the unit? So you probably owe. Are you a commercial customer?



2. AFAIAA domestic meters do not have 6 digits. Some went out in the North East And Yorkshire areas (maybe others) but were delt with by putting a sticker over the last digit and declaring them a five digit meter. Has this sticker been removed? If so whoever removed it is at fault.


3. It;s hard to say who is at fault and if back billing rules apply. Did you not notice you were paying a ridiculously low ammount?


4. Meter make/model and maybe a pic? Just might help with info.

molerat

I can't see this being a normal domestic meter - the average user being billed £4 per month instead of £40 would hopefully be questioned by the user.

[Deleted User]

20 years as a meter reader means that I have seen a few genuine 6 digit electric domestic meters as opposed to meters which were mistakenly installed over a decade ago which were made by Iskra. These meters had a 6 th digit, last digit was a tenths of a unit , but it did nt make it clear by either a decimal point or in red or clearly separated from the first 5.
Eventually the local DNO came out and stickered over the last digit on the Iskra meters, but not before they made our local press with horrendously stupid bills shocking customers printed out by a stupid computer.
Not all domestic meters have 5 digits..Secure Liberty have eight, with a hard to see decimal point in between the last digit and the tenths of a unit..Lots of mess ups with these meters as usual. We input only the first 7 digits on these very common meters.
I presume the occupier has made sure that the last digit is single kwh s and not tenths..Maybe a sticker on the meter to alert future meter readers would be a good idea.
On our handheld computers it shows how many digits should be inputted so if it was a genuine 6 digit meter it would ask for 6 numbers