Elderly Parents getting Ripped Off

MWT

I wonder if there is a card or sticker on the meter that might give a date when it was installed there and the opening meter reading?

That, together with the older bills if they are available would confirm that the wrong register had been used from the start.

Although as Talldave says, it is hard to imagine how it could have ever been otherwise as a switch the other way would have left them paying nothing for several months and readings that the energy company would have rejected for each one of those months...

Gerry1

I draw three conclusions from this sorry saga.  Please correct me if I've misunderstood anything.

• The industry's smart meter fiasco didn't do the OP's parents any favours.  No doubt they once had an electricity meter that was virtually impossible to misread, but now they have a horrendously complicated one that's gone dumb so they still have to take readings.  However, the instructions (e.g. the meaning and relevance of EXP KVARH and USING NOW) are not available, and even anoraks don't understand it fully.  Hardly surprising that the OP's parents gave wrong readings that caused everyone so much confusion.
  
• The correct electricity readings are now being given, and no further remedial action is necessary.  The readings now being given correctly reflect the usage since the meter was installed.  It's all come out in the wash.
  
• The OP isn't doing their parents any favours.  They were advised 10 days ago to switch to a gas tariff that would have made a genuine saving of about £290 per year (depending on their region).  It wasn't even from a dodgy company with umpteen ASA and CAP rulings against it, nor would the switch have triggered an exit fee because the existing fixed deal is about to expire.  Predictably, the offer has now been withdrawn and it seems that the OP choose to let it slip through their fingers.  Horses, water... 

Talldave

Gerry1 said:

I draw three conclusions from this sorry saga.  Please correct me if I've misunderstood anything.

• The correct electricity readings are now being given, and no further remedial action is necessary.  The readings now being given correctly reflect the usage since the meter was installed.  It's all come out in the wash.
  

Possibly half true.  The correct meter readings are now being given.  But because the wrong meter readings were being given (we suspect) for 2-3 years, the OP's parents have been charged for 3783kWh of electricity that never flowed through the meter into their home.

MWT said:

I wonder if there is a card or sticker on the meter that might give a date when it was installed there and the opening meter reading?

That, together with the older bills if they are available would confirm that the wrong register had been used from the start.

Although as Talldave says, it is hard to imagine how it could have ever been otherwise as a switch the other way would have left them paying nothing for several months and readings that the energy company would have rejected for each one of those months...

For our hypothesis to be true, it does mean that when installed (not new) the wrong register was used from then onwards up to January this year.

I've resisted mentioning it before now, but the independent industry body that screws up meter readings could only have been hoodwinked into thinking all is OK if this is the case.  Do they track individual meter serial numbers to check that they start afresh in their new homes with the same reading they left their previous home at?  I doubt it?

This is another example of why it's a no brainer to keep old bills for a very long time (I've got pdf files going back 11 years).

xlnc99

rjmachin said:

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?

The account does not show any older bills online. Only the past year, so i would need to ask SP for them on the phone. I have posted the last 12 months bill on this thread which are visible to everyone. As for your last comment - honestly i have no idea what that even means as i am a complete novice and struggle even on this thread when people talk about this topic.

xlnc99

Gerry1 said:

I draw three conclusions from this sorry saga.  Please correct me if I've misunderstood anything.

• The industry's smart meter fiasco didn't do the OP's parents any favours.  No doubt they once had an electricity meter that was virtually impossible to misread, but now they have a horrendously complicated one that's gone dumb so they still have to take readings.  However, the instructions (e.g. the meaning and relevance of EXP KVARH and USING NOW) are not available, and even anoraks don't understand it fully.  Hardly surprising that the OP's parents gave wrong readings that caused everyone so much confusion.
  
• The correct electricity readings are now being given, and no further remedial action is necessary.  The readings now being given correctly reflect the usage since the meter was installed.  It's all come out in the wash.
  
• The OP isn't doing their parents any favours.  They were advised 10 days ago to switch to a gas tariff that would have made a genuine saving of about £290 per year (depending on their region).  It wasn't even from a dodgy company with umpteen ASA and CAP rulings against it, nor would the switch have triggered an exit fee because the existing fixed deal is about to expire.  Predictably, the offer has now been withdrawn and it seems that the OP choose to let it slip through their fingers.  Horses, water... 

No idea about the first 2 - i will leave it to the experts to decide. On the third point, i am gutted the i have not made the switch yet but again the issue is i have no idea what im doing so its hard for me to make a switch when i dont know what im switching or anything about it. Plus due to this huge bill i am trying to claim - i still dont no whether to switch or wait to sort this out

MWT

Can't really agree with you this time Gerry.

#1 - it is not 'horrendously complicated' they only need to press one button to get the correct reading, they were just pressing the wrong button and since discovering that it has been easy to give the right reading.

#2 - There is further action needed as it is far from likely that the change to the correct register has caused the billing to be 'correct' as that would mean at some point in the past they were submitting readings which were a few thousand units backwards and being accepted by the energy company so no billing for several months which seems very unlikely.

#3 Switching before fixing the meter reading problem will likely make it impossible to ever resolve. It shouldn't take much to get it fixed, but it needs to be done first, then switch. The amount to be saved by switching now vs a week or two later doesn't come c,ose to matching what they will be throwing away by not getting the meter problem resolved.

xlnc99

Just to confirm - i will be calling or e-mailing SP tonight.

As per advice on here i will be stating that the wrong meter readings were given until Jan 2020. Everything prior was incorrect. This explains the huge jump in Jan which the bill is wrong and i would like that to be refunded, and all other incorrect bills prior to Jan 2020 to be looked at aagain and if possibble refund where the bills are incorrect. I would also like a coopy of all the bills for the last 2-3 years

Does this sound about right?

Also - am i doing this for just the electric or both gas aswell? I presume that my mum was giving the wrong readings for both

MWT

Another reason why it would be good to look at the bills around the time of the meter change is I wonder if that is where the earlier debt came from?

If the meter was previously used elsewhere for a little while as might be suggested by the small amount on the E7 night register from when it was installed elsewhere, I wonder if it was assumed to have started at zero when it was installed but in fact it wasn't which would explain how they managed to get started from the initial reading on the wrong register without anyone noticing, and probably had an incorrect high consumption month putting then in debt when their first reading included usage elsewhere, which explains why their payments were high due to the debt recovery that wasn't in fact real consumption at all...

Talldave

xlnc99 said:

Also - am i doing this for just the electric or both gas aswell? I presume that my mum was giving the wrong readings for both

I don't think we've seen any reason to think there's anything wrong with the gas situation.  The gas meter is simpler, so hopefully less change of anything having gone wrong.  So just electricity.

The only action for gas was to switch to a cheaper provider such as Ebico, Zog or So.

Gerry1

MWT said:

Can't really agree with you this time Gerry.

#1 - it is not 'horrendously complicated' they only need to press one button to get the correct reading, they were just pressing the wrong button and since discovering that it has been easy to give the right reading.

#3 Switching before fixing the meter reading problem will likely make it impossible to ever resolve. It shouldn't take much to get it fixed, but it needs to be done first, then switch. The amount to be saved by switching now vs a week or two later doesn't come close to matching what they will be throwing away by not getting the meter problem resolved.

> #1 - it is not 'horrendously complicated'

Would you care to explain all the terms in the meter cycle (EXP KVARH and USING NOW etc etc) in words which the OP, the OP's parents (and Gerry1) can understand?  Plain English it ain't !

> #3 Switching before fixing the meter reading problem will likely make it impossible to ever resolve.

Why would switching the GAS to a far cheaper supplier make resolving the ELECTRICITY reading impossible to ever resolve?