Elderly Parents getting Ripped Off

xlnc99

Robin9 said:

Definitely  - look at separate gas and electric.

Don't delay the switch - while you are arguing with SP you parents are loosing money

The bottom line is what they estimate the bill to be.  The savings are misleading as they assume you will stay with the present supplier and be paying their standard tariff for at least part of the next year.

OK - i will look to do the switch. I am a bit scared that by doing the switch it may cause a problem getting the refund with Scottish Power. If i am a customer with them, they are more likely to be forthcoming?

When i am looking for switch - what is the bottom line? How do i know i am saving money per KWH or wateva it is. What exactly should i be looking for  - as the only thing it says it 'savings' which you told me to ignore

xlnc99

MWT said:

xlnc99 said:

@Talldave - Thanks for confirming this. The two questions i have to ask is how much is in error? The winter months you can see from the bill have high electricity - so how much is the exact amount i can claim back for my parents and for what months? Also - how do i claim this back? What do i say to scottish power exactly?

First watch the video I posted here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77404936/#Comment_77404936

This shows the right and the wrong way to read that meter.

Up until January the wrong meter reading was being sent and it should be your contention when you call them that it has always been submitted that way. The reading being used up to January was the 'USING NOW' number.

From January the correct register was used which is the 'IMP KWH' reading.

This caused the usage to jump by 3,783kWh, the cost of this is what you will be asking them to refund..

Thanks  - i will watch the video.
So to confirm - are you saying the meter was being read wrong up until JAN? That means all readings prior to JAN were incorrect? What am i going to be claiming for a refund then - Jan or everything before JAN? Also bear in mind that my parents were with SP for the last 2/3 years - are all those readings wrong aswell?

Talldave

Thanks to @MWT for the clarification - I got hijacked for a trip to the park, but it rained!

I think we have to assume that when they started with SP, the wrong register "Using" obtained by pressing B was used as the opening reading. To put things right they really need to go back to that opening bill and add 3783 to every subsequent meter reading.  SP will surely realise that your parents couldn't have use 4100 units in a month (the 3783 jump plus their usual 400 ish). All of that would leave the current reading  as the correct Imp register and a credit for 3783 units on the account. 

GunJack

...and stop thinking in terms of asking for a refund of £xxx, you need to get the readings corrected, which will correct the consumption, which will eventually lead to a refund of £yyy....in the energy world, it's kWh that's king

xlnc99

@Talldave - thanks for this. So when you mean go back to the opening bill do you mean for this year? or do you mean since they started with SP which was 2/3 years ago. Are we saying that the bill has been wrong since the first bill (2/3 years ago) - since JAN and only since Jan 2020 onwards after the big spike, the bill has been correct?

I am thinking of writing a complaint to SP via email now and would appreciate on any help on what to write, how to phrase etc.
The reason i am choosing email over phone is because 1 - there is a paper trail. 2- i am more comfortable over e-mail then phone as they cant spring a question on me on the spot on e-mail so i can have time to prepare an answer as quite frankly i am still confused to what is going on

xlnc99

GunJack said:

...and stop thinking in terms of asking for a refund of £xxx, you need to get the readings corrected, which will correct the consumption, which will eventually lead to a refund of £yyy....in the energy world, it's kWh that's king

But if i leave SP then it will not correct the consumption will it as i will go to a new provider?

Gerry1

Send a correct meter reading right now.  If it's accepted by SP then the bill will be corrected automatically (and by the opening reading when you switch).  If it's disputed by the mysterious third party, then the sooner you start the sooner it will be resolved.

Robin9

xlnc99 said:

I am thinking of writing a complaint to SP via email now and would appreciate on any help on what to write, how to phrase etc.
The reason i am choosing email over phone is because 1 - there is a paper trail. 2- i am more comfortable over e-mail then phone as they cant spring a question on me on the spot on e-mail so i can have time to prepare an answer as quite frankly i am still confused to what is going on

Just what do you think SP has done wrong ?  I too am very confused as to what has gone on - what reading has been used, etc but you need to move on. 

As Gerry has said just send SP that meter reading !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talldave

SP already have the correct reading, the problem was the preceding 2.5 years of incorrect readings.

@Gunjack was correct, you need to fix the meter reading error and everything else will cascade into place and you'll get credit for the 3783 units.

In terms of opening bill, I mean when they first started with SP.  Assuming that everything was ticking over at their usual 400 kWh per month until this January when it all went wrong.  It's going to be a problem for them to understand what's happened but you'll have to do your best to explain that the "Using" register was being used by mistake since there was a misunderstanding over which button to use.  What goes in your favour is that the 3873 difference between the two registers accounts of the apparent leap in consumption in January.  

The best solution might be that they allow you to go back to using the "Using" register for now until they can change the meter and start afresh.  Hopefully, they will appreciate that an elderly couple would be hard pushed to use over 4000kWh in a month.

SP haven't actually done anything wrong, it's a customer problem with misreading the meter, presumably since the day it was installed, through to January of this year.  All they did was bill for the readings provided.

@Robin9, reading through all 21 pages will reveal what appears to have gone on.

xlnc99

@Gerry1 @Robin9

It has been discovered through the thread if i am not mistaken that the wrong readings were taken up until Jan 2020. From Jan 2020 onwards the correct readings were given up to the current date. Therefore we have been giving the correct readings for the last few months and as of yet it has not corrected itself, so surely it would have corrected itself by now? Or am i looking at this wrong?

So if i switch can now then my dispute with SP will take longer? or will it not?

I do not no what SP have done wrong or i am just going through the advice on this thread in which there seems to be the consensus that a mistake has been made. As for moving on - I am not sure what you mean by that? If this was your family and there was an extra charge or charges of +500 pound i am sure you would be fighting tooth and nail for this. I and my family are by no means wealthy and canot afford to write of a loss of this amount