Faulty Meter resulted in overcharging

Antony07

In January our Energy Costs rose from £115 to £237. We complained and said something must be wrong but all the figures appeared correct. Our electricity usage seemed to be so high. We phoned our energy company and said could we have a smart meter as we thought the electric meter must be faulty. They claimed we had to wait until they were in our area. We have just had one installed and it is now evident that we were overcharged and the meter was at fault, based on the new readings. The energy supplier has said that our daily average usage between 6 June 2018 to 18 October 2018 was 3.73 units. Our new electricity meter shows the daily average usage between 19 October 2018 to 30 November 2018 as 2.85 units.they will adjust our last bill from June to October based on the new daily cost but cannot do prior as we have only just complained. Is this correct? Has anyone else had similar issues?

welshmoneylover

Antony07 wrote: »

In January our Energy Costs rose from £115 to £237. We complained and said something must be wrong but all the figures appeared correct. Our electricity usage seemed to be so high. We phoned our energy company and said could we have a smart meter as we thought the electric meter must be faulty. They claimed we had to wait until they were in our area. We have just had one installed and it is now evident that we were overcharged and the meter was at fault, based on the new readings. The energy supplier has said that our daily average usage between 6 June 2018 to 18 October 2018 was 3.73 units. Our new electricity meter shows the daily average usage between 19 October 2018 to 30 November 2018 as 2.85 units.they will adjust our last bill from June to October based on the new daily cost but cannot do prior as we have only just complained. Is this correct? Has anyone else had similar issues?

The weather is different for those dates so the meter was probably correct, if it’s an older meter it may have been running slow.
Anyway, the old meter would have needed to be tested in situ but as it’s probably been destroyed you haven’t got a cats chance of getting any adjustments to your account.

brianposter

Antony07 wrote: »

they will adjust our last bill from June to October based on the new daily cost but cannot do prior as we have only just complained. Is this correct?

That is not an argument that would go down well in court, but you would need to put a lot more detail into your reasoning and it would be particularly appropriate if you could demonstrate when the meter began to fail.

Grey_Critic

Contact OFGEM - I am at present acting for someone on case with the Ombudsman - sounds like a case they might look into.

wavelets

Grey_Critic wrote: »

Contact OFGEM - I am at present acting for someone on case with the Ombudsman - sounds like a case they might look into.

:huh:

Ofgem and the Ombudsman service are two separate organisations.

Ofgem does not deal with individual consumer complaints.

The ombudsman service will consider consumer complaints - but only if they have first been given the supplier a chance to resolve matters by following their complaint procedure.

System

Grey_Critic wrote: »

Contact OFGEM - I am at present acting for someone on case with the Ombudsman - sounds like a case they might look into.

The Ombudsman will only take on a case when the consumer has followed the supplier’s complaints procedure.

D_M_E

Followed the supplier's complaint proceedure..........................and waited 8 weeks for resolution of the complaint to the complainant's satisfaction.

Cardew

Antony07 wrote: »

In January our Energy Costs rose from £115 to £237. We complained and said something must be wrong but all the figures appeared correct. Our electricity usage seemed to be so high. We phoned our energy company and said could we have a smart meter as we thought the electric meter must be faulty. They claimed we had to wait until they were in our area. We have just had one installed and it is now evident that we were overcharged and the meter was at fault, based on the new readings. The energy supplier has said that our daily average usage between 6 June 2018 to 18 October 2018 was 3.73 units. Our new electricity meter shows the daily average usage between 19 October 2018 to 30 November 2018 as 2.85 units.they will adjust our last bill from June to October based on the new daily cost but cannot do prior as we have only just complained. Is this correct? Has anyone else had similar issues?

Your claim appears to be that the difference in daily consumption between the old and new meter was less than 1kWh(actually 0.88kWh)


That cost is around 12pence. So even if your claim was accepted, that would be about £44 a year - so where does the increase from £115 to £237 fit?

[Deleted User]

Daily consumption seems extremely low at daily 3.73 and 2.85 . I can t get half way of that. 1300 kwh a year old meter, 1040 kwh a year with new meter ! Are your daily figures correct ? Am I missing something ?
I don`t think I would be making an ombudsman claim on those low figures..Your new smart meter may be duff and its really treble that.Electric smart meters get baffled by solar panels, that is why so far they don t fit one
Do you have solar panels and used to run an old Sangamo Weston electric meter running backwards ?

Antony07

The difference they confirmed was recorded in units. The difference from £115 to £237 was the change in our monthly bill. If we are paying £237 per month based on a daily average consumption of 3.73 units then surely with it reducing to 2.84 the cost would reduce by nearly a quarter?
Obviously this cost includes our gas but the gas bill is minimal and we do not see any issues with this. Your electricity bill shouldn’t just shoot up for no reason.

notbritishgas

Antony07 wrote: »

The difference they confirmed was recorded in units. The difference from £115 to £237 was the change in our monthly bill. If we are paying £237 per month based on a daily average consumption of 3.73 units then surely with it reducing to 2.84 the cost would reduce by nearly a quarter?
Obviously this cost includes our gas but the gas bill is minimal and we do not see any issues with this. Your electricity bill shouldn’t just shoot up for no reason.

3.73 kWh electric per day will not contribute much to a monthly bill of £237. Using a figure of 14p per kWh it is more like £15.
So your minimal gas usage is huge.
And yes reducing the usage to 2.84 kWh will reduce the cost by roughly a quarter, in this case about £3 a month.