Unusually large gas bill !!!!

Talldave

BoxerfanUK wrote: »

The meter is outside on the ground floor in it's own box. It's def' her meter I have checked the serial number on the meter and it matches the number on her EON bill.

I guess I'm just going to have to test and experiment first, as you say by switching the boiler off for 24 hours.

Sorry to be a pedant! You confirm it's the meter that Eon are billing her for, but does it increment when the boiler's on and stop when it's off? Ie: it could be the ground floor flat's meter and they're paying against her meter/consumption?

All that said, I agree that the consumption is excessive, very excessive, and your comment on the E6 meter type might well be relevant. If shutting the boiler off leaves the meter still incrementing you've got the evidence of either a leak, faulty meter or wrong meter. Presumably if there was a leak in the flat you'd smell it? But if there's a leak between the ground and the first floor, who's responsibility is that?

If sounds like you're in the necessary detective mode! Do report back!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

BoxerfanUK wrote: »

Hello all, after some googling I'm seeking some initial opinions.

My daughter bought and moved into a flat at the end of February. Flat is about 15 years old and is a modern duplex, so on two floors (first and second with a ground floor flat below). They have their own front door with stairs on the ground floor, leading up to a hallway, lounge, Kitchen/Diner, more stairs to a small landing with two bedrooms one with en-suite and a separate bathroom and airing cupboard. Gas fired system boiler with 8 rads and megaflo unvented cylinder.

Her energy supplier is EON and they only produce a bill every 3 months. I submitted her readings yesterday and got a bit of a shock when I looked at her bill.

For the period 4/3/19 to 5/6/19 (94 days) she has used 1175 units
of gas which is 13,117 KWH !!!! This equates to an average daily usage of 139.54 KWH PER DAY!

By comparison, I live in a 5 bed detached house about half a mile away and for a similar period 8/3 to 31/5 (85 days) my average daily usage was 40.44 KWH per day, so her bill for a 2 bed flat is approx' 3.5 times higher than a 5 bed detached house!

After some googling it appears there is a fair amount on the internet about faulty electronic gas meters with serial numbers beginning with E6 that keep incrementing upwards even without any gas being used. My daughter swears blind that she hasn't had the heating on for ages and there are only 2 people living in the flat. She has one of these E6 meters.

What does everyone think? Do you think it's feasible that she could have a bill that high or should I report this to EON?

I am going to monitor the readings daily for the next few days.

BoxerfanUK wrote: »

In answer to Robin (from the other thread)

Her gas meter reading (read by me) when she completed on the purchase on 28/2/19 was 9177.

The first bill produced by EON on 19th March shows;
28/02/19: 9177 C to 01/03/19 9178 E
01/03/19: 9178 E to 04/03/19 9182 E
04/03/19: 9182E to 05/06/19 10357 A

I don't have my actual reading for 5/6/19 the nearest I could get to was 31/5/19

BoxerfanUK wrote: »

Actual reading submitted on 28/2 was 09177 and as far as I can see the starting reading is correct. it's the usage as at 5th June that concerns me!

13117 KWH for 94 days usage when by comparison my full years usage 365 days was 15540 for a 5 bed detached house. I know you can't compare like for like exactly but it just seems really high.

Hello BoxerfanUK and, I agree, that's a lot of gas for the type of property and circumstances described.

It's good you're monitoring the usage. As Talldave and molerat say, make sure we're billing your daughter for her usage. If not, we've a specialist team who'll put this right. They'll need to know the serial number from the meter itself, its location, readings and the full Royal Mail postal address.

Can I ask where the reading of 10357 for the 5 June 19 came from? You mention a reading you have for the 31 May 19. Is this in line with the one we've used for 5 June 19? I'm wondering about the validity of the reading we've billed up to. If we have billed to the wrong reading, we'll be happy to rebill correctly once we've an up to date reading.

You mention a concern about the meter being faulty. Once other possible factors have been ruled out, we can arrange for it to be tested. There's a charge for this which is fully refundable should the meter be faulty. We'll go through all the possibilities before arranging a test. Previous tests have shown, only approximately 1 in 200 meter checks come back as faulty and we don't want your daughter to pay unnecessarily.

Once this is sorted, there's an online tool that can be used to create your own bills. Once registered with our website, you can pop in readings and either see the balance that would come about or actually create a bill. It's a great way to keep on top of things especially if you prefer something more frequent than quarterly billing.

Hope this is of interest BoxerfanUK.

Malc

BoxerfanUK

Just by way of an update to this thread. (Btw EON Malc, sorry I've only just seen your reply today, but thanks anyway)

I contacted EON on behalf of my daughter as I am authorized to speak to them on her behalf.

She could not really afford the £108.00 EON wanted to exchange the meter so I paid for it on the basis that if it's faulty I get the money back and if not, then at least that avenue was exhausted. The Gas meter was exchanged on 25th July and the old one sent off for testing.

Approx 2-3 weeks or so ago my daughter received a message from EON to say that as of 1st October they were putting up her monthly bill payment amount from £72.00 per month to £174.00 per month!!! I telephoned EON and spoke to a chap called Ibrahim. I told him that we are not prepared to have the bill amount changed until such time as we know the result of the dispute regarding the meter test. he attempted to give me some complete bull**** and flannel to say that the meter came back as normal!! I then asked him how he knew that as we had not yet heard anything from the gas meter testing company! He then went very quiet. So I wonder WHY EON are taking this unprofessional approach in attempting to mislead their customers with such talk when they are not in posession of the test results!!! Could it be they just want to close off another complaint!

Anyway, today I feel totally vindicated in that my daughter this morning received a letter and report from the gas testing company to say that the "meter was found to be so defective that it could not be examined for conformity with the standards prescribed by the regulations" and that "The meter has had a major operational problem/event, index readings unreliable".

Needless to say I shall be contacting EON in the next few days to discuss the matter but to anyone else with a similar problem, particularly with an E6 serial numbered gas meter, I just say do your research and fight it all the way.

I shudder to think what sort of winter bills my daughter would have had coming to her had we not noticed and challenged this issue.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

BoxerfanUK wrote: »

Just by way of an update to this thread. (Btw EON Malc, sorry I've only just seen your reply today, but thanks anyway)

I contacted EON on behalf of my daughter as I am authorized to speak to them on her behalf.

She could not really afford the £108.00 EON wanted to exchange the meter so I paid for it on the basis that if it's faulty I get the money back and if not, then at least that avenue was exhausted. The Gas meter was exchanged on 25th July and the old one sent off for testing.

Approx 2-3 weeks or so ago my daughter received a message from EON to say that as of 1st October they were putting up her monthly bill payment amount from £72.00 per month to £174.00 per month!!! I telephoned EON and spoke to a chap called Ibrahim. I told him that we are not prepared to have the bill amount changed until such time as we know the result of the dispute regarding the meter test. he attempted to give me some complete bull**** and flannel to say that the meter came back as normal!! I then asked him how he knew that as we had not yet heard anything from the gas meter testing company! He then went very quiet. So I wonder WHY EON are taking this unprofessional approach in attempting to mislead their customers with such talk when they are not in posession of the test results!!! Could it be they just want to close off another complaint!

Anyway, today I feel totally vindicated in that my daughter this morning received a letter and report from the gas testing company to say that the "meter was found to be so defective that it could not be examined for conformity with the standards prescribed by the regulations" and that "The meter has had a major operational problem/event, index readings unreliable".

Needless to say I shall be contacting EON in the next few days to discuss the matter but to anyone else with a similar problem, particularly with an E6 serial numbered gas meter, I just say do your research and fight it all the way.

I shudder to think what sort of winter bills my daughter would have had coming to her had we not noticed and challenged this issue.

Hello BoxerfanUK and many thanks for the update.

It's good the meter testing company has condemned the meter in such a clear way. This helps remove all doubt so we can move to the next stage. A specialist team will be in touch to arrange for the account to be re-billed and the payment you made refunded. They'll tell you more about what happens when they contact you.

I'm sorry the advisor you spoke to failed to fully check the notes on the account and missed the information that would've been there confirming a meter check was underway.

Is there a formal open complaint on the account? If there is, the Resolution Manager looking after it will be in touch too.

Thanks for your patience BoxerfanUK and that of your daughter as well.

Malc

Talldave

Excellent news. And what has her consumption been on the replacement meter in the meantime?

BoxerfanUK

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hello BoxerfanUK and many thanks for the update.

It's good the meter testing company has condemned the meter in such a clear way. This helps remove all doubt so we can move to the next stage. A specialist team will be in touch to arrange for the account to be re-billed and the payment you made refunded. They'll tell you more about what happens when they contact you.

I'm sorry the advisor you spoke to failed to fully check the notes on the account and missed the information that would've been there confirming a meter check was underway.

Is there a formal open complaint on the account? If there is, the Resolution Manager looking after it will be in touch too.

Thanks for your patience BoxerfanUK and that of your daughter as well.

Malc

Thanks for your reply Malc. In terms of a formal complaint, if you are referring to the fact that there is a dispute regarding the bill, then yes, as I was led to believe that a complaint case is opened in these circumstances. In terms of the advisor I mentioned, then no.

Will SGS also have notified EON of the test result? and if so will EON initiated contact or should I?

Can you tell me upon what basis EON will re-assess the usage in order to reach the amount of money to be credited to her account?

BoxerfanUK

Talldave wrote: »

Excellent news. And what has her consumption been on the replacement meter in the meantime?

Hello Talldave, I've been monitoring her readings closely and have them on a spreadsheet, suffice it to say that her usage since the meter change is a fraction of the usage compared to the old meter. She didn't even move into the flat until at least a fortnight after completion of the purchase and submission of the opening reading and they haven't used the C' Heating at all so its an accurate comparitor.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

BoxerfanUK wrote: »

Thanks for your reply Malc. In terms of a formal complaint, if you are referring to the fact that there is a dispute regarding the bill, then yes, as I was led to believe that a complaint case is opened in these circumstances. In terms of the advisor I mentioned, then no.

Will SGS also have notified EON of the test result? and if so will EON initiated contact or should I?

Can you tell me upon what basis EON will re-assess the usage in order to reach the amount of money to be credited to her account?

BoxerfanUK wrote: »

Hello Talldave, I've been monitoring her readings closely and have them on a spreadsheet, suffice it to say that her usage since the meter change is a fraction of the usage compared to the old meter. She didn't even move into the flat until at least a fortnight after completion of the purchase and submission of the opening reading and they haven't used the C' Heating at all so its an accurate comparitor.

Hello BoxerfanUK and it sounds like there's already an open complaint on the account. This is what I would've expected.

SGS will let us know the results of the test.

Usually, with faulty meters, we look at past usage before the meter failed when working out usage. As your daughter hasn't been in the flat very long, I suspect the specialist team dealing with this will use industry averages to estimate her usage. Alternatively, given you've kept readings on a spreadsheet, they may be able to use these. They'll explain more when they're in touch. They'll also ask for an up to date meter reading.

Just to let you know, this team is working through a fairly hefty backlog and might not be in touch too quickly. Hopefully I'm wrong. If you've not heard in the next 7 days, please give them a call for an update.

Sorry this is vague BoxerfanUK.

Malc

BoxerfanUK

Hello Malc thanks for your reply.

I spoke to a dispute resolution manager yesterday and although they hadn't heard from SGS as yet, they asked me for a photo of the letter from SGS which I duly forwarded to them. They then sent it on to the 'back office' team to re-calculate the bill.

This morning a new bill was online but I've called them again this afternoon to dispute their 'guesstimate' of usage as to be honest the ONLY accurate readings that can be relied upon are the readings that I've been monitoring since the new meter was installed on 25th July.

From the date she got the keys on 28/2, to the date she actually moved in around the third week in March, to the date the meter was removed on 25/7, no-one can know what any readings are because no-one knows exactly when the meter developed the fault!

I understand if there may be an 'industry average' that they would use in this case, but at this stage EON have not asked any questions about the size and type of property, or the number of occupants, so I don't see how they can apply an industry standard until they ask those questions!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

BoxerfanUK wrote: »

Hello Malc thanks for your reply.

I spoke to a dispute resolution manager yesterday and although they hadn't heard from SGS as yet, they asked me for a photo of the letter from SGS which I duly forwarded to them. They then sent it on to the 'back office' team to re-calculate the bill.

This morning a new bill was online but I've called them again this afternoon to dispute their 'guesstimate' of usage as to be honest the ONLY accurate readings that can be relied upon are the readings that I've been monitoring since the new meter was installed on 25th July.

From the date she got the keys on 28/2, to the date she actually moved in around the third week in March, to the date the meter was removed on 25/7, no-one can know what any readings are because no-one knows exactly when the meter developed the fault!

I understand if there may be an 'industry average' that they would use in this case, but at this stage EON have not asked any questions about the size and type of property, or the number of occupants, so I don't see how they can apply an industry standard until they ask those questions!

Hello BoxerfanUK and I'd continue talking to the Resolution Manager. Give them your readings including up to date readings and ask for the rebill to be based on these rather than industry averages.

I suspect the recent rebill might've been based on past data we hold for the flat. Guessing here and could be well off track. The Resolution Manager will give you more details.

Thanks for your continuing patience BoxerfanUK.

Malc