Elderly Parents getting Ripped Off

Gerry1

You said the meter reader called 6 or 7 months ago.  That reading will be correct.

xlnc99

MWT said:

xlnc99 said:

Funny you should mention this. I have just spoken to mum and she has told me she had been putting all incorrect readings until one day someone came around to check the meter readings and he told her the correct way to do this as she asked him. She cannot remember when the guy came around, i asked it was it possible he came in dec/jan and she said YES it could be, but could not confirm if it was the right date.

It looks like this is defo the issue.

Then call the supplier and tell them that and point to the totally unrealistic January usage figure and tell them that the difference was caused by the previous use of the incorrect register on the meter, not by actual consumption and ask them to correct it.

If that gets this fixed then it is all good.

If they want to argue about it then we'll have to go back to the first time she submitted a reading from that meter, hopefully those bills are also available, but don't go there unless you have to.

Yes that is what i will do. But my question is when i phone them what will be my argument. Will it be 

1 - Just for that large bill in Jan for 600 Plus pounds
2 - Everything prior to Jan as all the meter readings should be incorrect if i am not mistaken?

xlnc99

Gerry1 said:

You said the meter reader called 6 or 7 months ago.  That reading will be correct.

Well my mum didnt specify that, but i am making this assumption due to the fact of the large bill and everyone stating that prior to Jan it was incorrect and after Jan it was fine. I asked my mum she said she honestly cant remember when he came but its possibble it was 6 or 7 months ago

GunJack

xlnc99 said:

MWT said:

xlnc99 said:

Funny you should mention this. I have just spoken to mum and she has told me she had been putting all incorrect readings until one day someone came around to check the meter readings and he told her the correct way to do this as she asked him. She cannot remember when the guy came around, i asked it was it possible he came in dec/jan and she said YES it could be, but could not confirm if it was the right date.

It looks like this is defo the issue.

Then call the supplier and tell them that and point to the totally unrealistic January usage figure and tell them that the difference was caused by the previous use of the incorrect register on the meter, not by actual consumption and ask them to correct it.

If that gets this fixed then it is all good.

If they want to argue about it then we'll have to go back to the first time she submitted a reading from that meter, hopefully those bills are also available, but don't go there unless you have to.

Yes that is what i will do. But my question is when i phone them what will be my argument. Will it be 

1 - Just for that large bill in Jan for 600 Plus pounds
2 - Everything prior to Jan as all the meter readings should be incorrect if i am not mistaken?

I still don't think you understand...... you need to explain to them that, up to Jan the readings were being taken from the wrong register, and therefore since using the correct register (after being shown how by a meter-reader) all the readings have been 37xx units out. In terms of the billing, it means only the Jan bill (in ££ terms) should be out. It really only means the Jan bill is wrong because of this, by 37xx units. Check back, all bills since have been around 400kWh-ish, as were they before Jan...

Talldave

xlnc99 said:

i understand what to write on the email and but my question is does that mean all readings before JAN are all incorrect? How do i actually no apart from the big swing in JAN what other months are incorrect? I mean this is now 2 and half years since. So that means all 2 and half years are wrong?

If your mum had been randomly oscillating between the Using register and Imp reg, her readings would have been rejected when she tried to enter a reading that implied the meter had been going backwards. 

As far as we can tell, probably from the day the meter was installed, the Using register was being used instead of the Imp register. It didnt matter that the Using register was 37xx kWh behind the Imp register because each month the reading was about 400kWh up on the previous month and reflected your parent's usage.

Along came the meter reader and said oh no you read this one here - the Imp register. Next reading showed consumption of around 4100 kWh, the 37xx difference between the two registers plus the actual 400 kWh (or whatever it actually was) used. From then on, mum's using the Imp register, which goes up by their 400 kWhr consumption. 

If they plot your parent's consumption over 3 years, it'll stick out a mile that something was amiss for 1 month. The above explanation attempts to describe how it came about. But to be clear SP have done nothing wrong, they charged for the electricity your mum's readings implied she had used. But we think that 37xx of that consumption didn't actually happen because your mum changed between two synchronised,  but offset, meter registers.

xlnc99

Thanks Guys - I will get this on to SP tomorrow. Im still confused to prior JAN's readings. I know what to say from but my concern is that my mum has been paying ridiculous amount every month between 215-315 per month for God knows how long. I know they havent taken everything and added some credit but for 2/3 years after paying 300 quid per month only 500 credit? That doesnt make sense to me.

The fact that in 2019 when my mum started her new term with SP, SP said she was -500 which i cannot believe if my mum was paying so much monthly. I am sure there are mistakes from the previous years but their bills are not showing online so i have to manually ask SP for these bills. I will post them up on here when i get it, and would appreciate some feedback on those bills too, to see if there were any wrong doings on them.

rjmachin

Hi xlnc99, does the account show any bills older than July 2019?
I see that the July 2019 bill has a balance carried forward of £475 debt, so just wondering about the months prior to this.  Although, some months after this, it seems the Direct Debit payment was two late, so show a larger debit, but two payments show the following month.
In Feb 2020, the meter reading had a massive jump from 39032 to 43214.
If previous bills are still available, can you see any where the meter reading drops significantly?
From comments here, it seems the 43214 reading is the correct one, so just wondering if there was a point in time where the wrong reading (39xxx) started to be given and if your parents had a few free months of electric at that point?

MothballsWallet

Hasbeen said:

xlnc99 said:

On a separate note - which we will i am sure get to later, how on earth is my parents credit only £170 pound when they been paying through the roof for the DD. I calculate at least 1k and this is without factoring in the high charges they got throughout the year for which i believe were in correct. 

Okay just check yourself that immersion is definitely off? People sometimes forget?

Again this comes back to what readings have been used? Can you please post the current readings for both gas / electric and also what readings your parents have being giving or receiving? As far back as you can, estimated, actual etc? From their account?

I'm sorry for being late to the party, I've only just started reading this thread today, but I've switched off our immersion heater at the consumer unit breaker and it'll stay off except in an emergency (and even then we can use our kettle to get hot water for what we need).

(Why is this forum software so awful at handling standard keyboard shortcuts for editing?)

Robin9

Just trying to put things in perspective. This meter was installed in 2014/5 so presumably there has been one or more suppliers before SP for which the wrong register may have been read. In that case the "correct" register from Jan 2020 and the jump of 3000/4000 units could have been spread over 6 years in which case the cost £500 or so as a catch up doesn't look too bad.

I remain intrigued why both Jan and Feb 2020 jumped up.

PS I've been the various bills and none of them show a meter reader read (A) - all are C or E. So what/who was involved 6/7 months ago I don't know.

Talldave

A meter reader.

My guess is that the meter was previously used in E7 mode at a different address, hence the difference between the Using Now & Imp registers.

There can't ever have been a time when the Imp register was being used in its current non-E7 mode and a switch to the Using register occurred because no supplier would accept readings going 3783 units backwards. There is no catch up, if it's a switch to the wrong register.