How can I find out a past meter reading held by the metering agency?

clivep

My electricity supply was switched from Iresa to Enstroga on 27/7/2018. I need to find out the reading that the independent electricity metering company holds for this switch date.

A brief history...

I had been with Iresa for electricity and SSE for gas. Switches to Enstroga dual fuel went through dated 27/7/2018. Meter readings were given to Enstroga.

Final bill from SSE used inflated estimated reading for gas rather than that given to Enstroga.

Iresa ceased trading & Octopus took over handling of Iresa accounts. Octopus took 3 months to produce final electricy bill and refund me the outstanding credit. They said delay was caused by Enstroga failing to provide the meter reading through official flows. They would not use the reading I gave them (i.e. the one supplied to Enstroga) but in the end used an inflated estimate.

I emailed Enstroga to advise them of this figure that Octopus used for the final Iresa bill to ensure that they were using this as an amended start read but received no reply.

I left Enstroga in July 2019. I had not received any Enstroga bill during the year with them. When I received their final bill in August I noticed they had used the electricity reading I gave them for the start read rather than the one on the final Iresa bill. Hence, I am being asked to pay twice for a number of electricity units. (Enstroga billed the gas using a start read of the SSE final estimate so no problem with this).

Enstroga have since sent numerous emails threatening legal action to recover the outstanding incorrect balance and ignored my many emails requesting a correct final bill. I finally got a response saying that they submitted my electricity reading for 27/7/2018 to the metering agency on 8/8/2018 and I need to contact Octopus to get this corrected.

Octopus say they did things correctly and "Unfortunately all of the billing issues are now well over a year old so we are unable to go over the account again for you".

I cannot find out who the independent electricity metering company are or how to contact them. I need to find out what figure they hold for the 27/7/2018 switch date so that I can tell whether it's Enstroga or Octopus that are lying to me and which of them I should complain to the Ombudsman about.

Gerry1

It seems that the validation is done by an independent company appointed by your new supplier, so Enstroga should be able to tell you the name.  A free Subject Access Request may help.

Swipe

This is why everyone needs to download all their bills keep their own records in a spreadsheet

clivep

Swipe said:

This is why everyone needs to download all their bills keep their own records in a spreadsheet

Indeed. I always download copies of all my utility bills. The problem is that the final read on the Iresa bill done by Octopus is higher than the opening read on the Enstroga one. Having copies of the bills doesn't help getting them fixed.

DawnCrush

clivep said:

Swipe said:

This is why everyone needs to download all their bills keep their own records in a spreadsheet

Indeed. I always download copies of all my utility bills. The problem is that the final read on the Iresa bill done by Octopus is higher than the opening read on the Enstroga one. Having copies of the bills doesn't help getting them fixed.

Iresa went belly up in July 2018. It is now February 2020.

I recognise final billing in regards to a supplier ceasing to trade can take longer than the maximum 6 weeks a final normally takes, but 18+ months? No

I'm not sure when you switched to Enstroga, but have you followed their complaint procedure? They were entirely responsible for managing your switch to them, including your start reading matching the final read used by your previous supplier.
As you say you have got copies of the bills, then you can give them all the evidence they may require if they attempt to dispute your complaint.

Edit: According to Octopus they had completed final billing and refunds for 97% of the almost 100,000 ex-Iresa customers affected by end September 2018. That included those who, for example, left Iresa before they collapsed, but had not yet had a final bill.
The last indication from Octopus back in September 2018 was that the final 3% would be completed by the end of the first week of October 2018.

brewerdave

DawnCrush said:

clivep said:

Swipe said:

This is why everyone needs to download all their bills keep their own records in a spreadsheet

Indeed. I always download copies of all my utility bills. The problem is that the final read on the Iresa bill done by Octopus is higher than the opening read on the Enstroga one. Having copies of the bills doesn't help getting them fixed.

Iresa went belly up in July 2018. It is now February 2020.

I recognise final billing in regards to a supplier ceasing to trade can take longer than the maximum 6 weeks a final normally takes, but 18+ months? No

Edit: According to Octopus they had completed final billing and refunds for 97% of the almost 100,000 ex-Iresa customers affected by end September 2018. That included those who, for example, left Iresa before they collapsed, but had not yet had a final bill.
The last indication from Octopus back in September 2018 was that the final 3% would be completed by the end of the first week of October 2018.

1.13 months after I moved away from Together Energy (the SOLR for One Select) my final bill is still not sorted. There are customers who left Together Energy in 2018 who still haven't had their final bills and credits due.
2.  I was an Iresa customer moved to Octopus - my final bill from Octopus wasn't presented until Feb 2019.