Switching: Being charged for same units of energy twice

Aa1242

Have recently switched both gas and electric from EON to Octopus. I provided opening readings to Octopus as they requested and they opened my account with those readings. I've just received my final electricity statement from EON (still waiting for the gas one) and they've used a lower final reading (it says estimated reading on the final bill, although surely they should be using the opening reading from Octopus?) than the one Octopus have used for my opening reading with them meaning I'm paying for some units of energy both to EON and Octopus. It isn't much (a few quid), however if this is happening to everyone that leaves EON then a few quid from each customer all adds up. I don't know whether to contact EON or Octopus about this? I can't contact EON for the foreseeable future anyway as they're only taking emergency calls. 

Gerry1

https://help.so.energy/support/solutions/articles/7000046241

https://help.so.energy/support/solutions/articles/7000046447

brewerdave

Your opening read with the new supplier is sent via a third party verification loop to the old supplier. This reading can be altered either up or down ,if it isn't seen to be inline with expectations, based on historic data. 
Even if it isn't altered ,the losing supplier can raise an objection which will result in an agreed reading being used by both which may be considerably different from the reading you gave. 
My own experiences lately ,suggest that this verification step is being dragged out which results in final bills taking a long time to be issued. I suspect that EON will issue you with an amended final bill at some future date showing a credit for the double charged units.

Aa1242

Cheers for the replies. I understand that sometimes with the final/opening reading it may not be agreed exactly what is was on the day of switch (so you may pay your old supplier a bit more or less) and you can't dispute this unless there is a large difference.

However, the final reading from the old supplier should be the same as the final reading from the new supplier (so that you aren't charged for the same units twice).

I suspect I'll need to wait till things get back to normal and give EON a call.

Aa1242

In the post above I meant to say:
However, the final reading from the old supplier should be the same as the opening reading from the new supplier (so that you aren't charged for the same units twice).

MWT

Aa1242 said:

I've just received my final electricity statement from EON (still waiting for the gas one) and they've used a lower final reading (it says estimated reading on the final bill, although surely they should be using the opening reading from Octopus?) than the one Octopus have used for my opening reading with them meaning I'm paying for some units of energy both to EON and Octopus.

If the closing reading from EON is lower than the opening reading from Octopus that would mean that you are not paying anyone for the gap in between those numbers?

In any event, if the EON reading is still shown as an estimate it is not actually a final bill yet so I'd suggest you chase EON to properly close the account and no harm in giving them the same reading as you gave Octopus at the same time.

Obviously they should be getting the reading from the 3rd party company in the middle but sometimes it doesn't seem to work right...

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good afternoon Aa1242,

Some excellent advice here, thank you very much.
We're asking that only customers in an emergency situation or with a threat to their supply contact us at the moment. We're working so hard to keep customers on supply and support the most vulnerable customers. Thank you for your understanding.

With a change of supplier, it's the responsibility of the new supplier to let the old supplier have the meter readings they intend to start their account from. The old supplier uses the same readings to close their account and issue a final bill. This makes sure the same energy is only charged once. These readings go through a third party who checks they're in line with past usage for the property. Sometimes a change is made and both suppliers need to use the same readings to prevent a duplication of charges.

This change can be challenged through an industry wide procedure known as an Agreed Reads Dispute (ARD). Here, the two suppliers re-agree the opening/closing readings and re-submit them.

The difference needs to be above set thresholds before an ARD can be used. These are 250 units for electricity and 45/125 units for a 4 dial imperial/5 dial metric gas meter.

I suspect the difference in your case fell below these thresholds so an ARD couldn't be used. 

Please do speak to us when things have calmed down, please all stay safe.

Helena

Aa1242

MWT said:

Aa1242 said:

I've just received my final electricity statement from EON (still waiting for the gas one) and they've used a lower final reading (it says estimated reading on the final bill, although surely they should be using the opening reading from Octopus?) than the one Octopus have used for my opening reading with them meaning I'm paying for some units of energy both to EON and Octopus.

If the closing reading from EON is lower than the opening reading from Octopus that would mean that you are not paying anyone for the gap in between those numbers?

In any event, if the EON reading is still shown as an estimate it is not actually a final bill yet so I'd suggest you chase EON to properly close the account and no harm in giving them the same reading as you gave Octopus at the same time.

Obviously they should be getting the reading from the 3rd party company in the middle but sometimes it doesn't seem to work right...

Sorry, think I made a mistake when creating the post. What I meant to say was the final reading from EON is higher than the opening reading from Octopus therefore there are some units of energy I am paying both suppliers for.

Aa1242

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena said:
 The old supplier uses the same readings to close their account and issue a final bill. This makes sure the same energy is only charged once. These readings go through a third party who checks they're in line with past usage for the property. Sometimes a change is made and both suppliers need to use the same readings to prevent a duplication of charges.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. In this case EON have used an estimated reading to produce the final bill. This estimated reading is higher than the opening reading used by my new supplier (Octopus). When does the third part check happen? Should this have been done before EON produced the final bill? If so I'd have expected the discrepancy to have been picked up.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena said:

This change can be challenged through an industry wide procedure known as an Agreed Reads Dispute (ARD). Here, the two suppliers re-agree the opening/closing readings and re-submit them.

The difference needs to be above set thresholds before an ARD can be used. These are 250 units for electricity and 45/125 units for a 4 dial imperial/5 dial metric gas meter.

I suspect the difference in your case fell below these thresholds so an ARD couldn't be used. 

My understanding of the ARD was that it's for situations where the old and new provider can't agree (e.g. new says opening reading is 2000 units, old says final reading is 1500). Surely the final reading and opening reading should be the same? If EON want to use the higher final reading then that's fine, but Octopus should also be using that as an opening reading I'd have thought.

fred246

I switched on many occassions and this was the norm. Every single time I switched I got this situation. If you argue you will always get the money back. If you don't say anything you won't. I got so fed up of it that I stopped switching for a while. The vast majority of people don't check up so they just lose the money. The last bill I got from British Gas was something like, "Balance on account £250. We will take £350 by direct debit next week". I phoned them up. "Can you explain it?" "Er no, we will take £250 next week. Sorry. Mistake". .It's unbelievable. The last time I mentioned it on the forum I was told how stupid I was. I had a feeling that a representantive of the industry was on the forum trying to discredit me. Billing is often totally crooked but you need to be good at maths to spot it.

Aa1242

fred246 said:

I switched on many occassions and this was the norm. Every single time I switched I got this situation. If you argue you will always get the money back. If you don't say anything you won't. I got so fed up of it that I stopped switching for a while. The vast majority of people don't check up so they just lose the money. The last bill I got from British Gas was something like, "Balance on account £250. We will take £350 by direct debit next week". I phoned them up. "Can you explain it?" "Er no, we will take £250 next week. Sorry. Mistake". .It's unbelievable. The last time I mentioned it on the forum I was told how stupid I was. I had a feeling that a representantive of the industry was on the forum trying to discredit me. Billing is often totally crooked but you need to be good at maths to spot it.

It's not much money, but I begrudge paying 2 suppliers for the same units of energy, so I'll chase this up with the old and new supplier when things get back to normal.

If both suppliers had used the same figure then I'd be fine with that - even if the figure was different to what I provided - as I'd only be paying 1 supplier for each unit of energy.
I've got smart meters so I'm surprised that EON used an estimated figure on my final reading.