Scottish Power Charged me £3205 for Gas

SteveDC

I was a dual fuel customer with Scottish power up until the end of March where I decided to switch to a better deal with EDF. However, this is only the start of the story.. Back in February while still a Scottish Power customer I had a smart meter installed by them and I then transitioned to EDF at the end of March.

Having switched suppliers many times without problems, this time was not smooth at all. I woke up a few weeks ago with a message from my bank saying I was heavily overdrawn and to my absolute horror, Scottish Power had taken £3205.45 via direct debit for my final gas quarter. I live in a semi detached house, myself, my wife and 2 children. Our average gas usage is around £40 per month even during the coldest winter months so imagine how horrified I was?

I contacted Scottish Power and also my bank to get a refund via the direct debit guarantee and thankfully got the money back but Scottish Power still say I owe this money! I checked my gas meter and the reading as of two weeks ago was 311 kWh and Scottish power are stating that I used 1984.95 KWh daily! Yes.. DAILY.

The problem is that they are just not listening to me. I have asked for an engineer to visit and check the meter but they just say because I am no longer a customer they cant do this. I have had a barr put on the account while it is investigated and raised a case with resolver. Since then the bill has risen to over £3500 with charges for late payment. This is driving me insane and I am extremely worried about where this is going.

If anyone can help with any advice I would be very grateful.

mac.d

Up to February when a smart meter was installed were you submitting regular meter readings, or was your 'average' £40 just what the DD was set at?

Do you have any bills showing meter readings and if so are they actual readings or estimates.

You need to send them a message clearly marked as a complaint, as that will give them a set period to respond and try to resolve it before you can then take it to the ombudsman for further help. That way the bill really should be frozen and not incur any further charges.

SteveDC

Thanks mac.d, I admit I was not very good at providing meter readings regularly and a lot of them were estimated. This was the reason I went for a smart meter to be honest. I didnt get any bills through the post, it was all done online. When I check my account online there are no records of meter readings unfortunately just my average usage.

D_M_E

Smart meter installed and you say the reading is 311Kwh?

Is this taken directly from the meter or is it off the in home display?

If from the IHD, is it the actual Kwh reading and SP have taken it as cubic meters and converted it to Kwh by multiplying by about 11.2 to reach your ginormous bill?

You need to supply them the actual meter reading in cubic meters - press button 9 and the first reading shown should be the required one, but this depends on the type of smart meter and also the supplier.

SteveDC

D_M_E wrote: »

Smart meter installed and you say the reading is 311Kwh?

Is this taken directly from the meter or is it off the in home display?

If from the IHD, is it the actual Kwh reading and SP have taken it as cubic meters and converted it to Kwh by multiplying by about 11.2 to reach your ginormous bill?

You need to supply them the actual meter reading in cubic meters - press button 9 and the first reading shown should be the required one, but this depends on the type of smart meter and also the supplier.

Thanks for the advice.. Yes, this is what I read from the actual meter and not the IHD meter. I tried to find a manual online for my gas meter but no luck so far. It looks quite complicated to be honest. I want an engineer to come out and read it but they are not willing to do this sadly.

Bertles

Hey! On your final bill, does the gas meter serial number match the one that is on your new smart meter?

SteveDC

Bertles wrote: »

Hey! On your final bill, does the gas meter serial number match the one that is on your new smart meter?

Hmmm.. will go and check

SteveDC

Bertles wrote: »

Hey! On your final bill, does the gas meter serial number match the one that is on your new smart meter?

Thanks for pointing this out. I have just looked at my last bill and the gas meter serial number is the old meter up until February and there are actual meter readings supplied for the year to that point with the old meter. The final part of the bill has the serial number of the new meter with just an estimate and NOT an actual meter reading. Their estimated read for that period is a ridiculous 9358 = 104471.03 kWh. The previous quarter with the old meter was 144 = 4537.9 kWh

Bertles

At least the meter has been updated, that would've been a much bigger problem

When you said the read from the old meter was 144, do you mean the read had clocked over? I.e. got to 9999 and then started again from 0?

SteveDC

Bertles wrote: »

At least the meter has been updated, that would've been a much bigger problem

When you said the read from the old meter was 144, do you mean the read had clocked over? I.e. got to 9999 and then started again from 0?

No, its how much was used for the respective quarters.

Robin9

SteveDC wrote: »

........................I checked my gas meter and the reading as of two weeks ago was 311 kWh ...........................

The display on a gas meter is in m3 not kwh. A display of 311 is approx 3483 kwh.

If however it is still set up as a ft3 meter that 311 becomes apprx 10263 kwh

Check your bill and the meter details - the serial number should be the same and the bill should describe the meter as m3 - does it ?