Scottish Power - unreasonable bill dispute - advice needed!

Robin9

27/07 is reading 69146  - your reading as above was 79134

Gerry1

You've misread the meter.  On 27.07.2020 it was reading 69147. 

rp1974

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/your-energy-meter/how-to-read-your-energy-meter/

Gerry1

The CA's advice on dial meters is very poor.  The electricity dial meter's hands could not be in the positions shown: the 'A' dial should be closer to 2 than 1, and the 'C' dial should be halfway between 6 & 7.

The gas dial meter is even worse.  Again, the hands couldn't be in those positions, but the main error is the absence of a 'pitfall' where a hand is right next to a number but its neighbour to the right is next to 8 or 9.

Talldave

These meters are a nightmare (I have one), and the needles are not always in sync. For example, the 7th July reading is actually 69019.9, perhaps it's time to think about a smart meter?

Consumption over last three years is approx 2700, 2000 & 2500kWh. So nothing to worry about. A photo sent to the supplier should fix the problem and result in 10,000kWh being wiped off the bill. By the way, I guess you're paying 18p a unit (hence the £1850 demand for an extra 10,000kWh)? That's robbery, I pay 10.9p.

[Deleted User]

martygraffin68 said:

Robin9 said:

When you say clock/dial  - one of those with dials for 10,000 , 1,000  etc some go clockwise, some anticlockwise ?

Can you give us a photo please ?

Yeah one of those ones, it's probably as old as the flats...1992. Ran the creep test and the disc in the meter went v slowly for 5 mins and then stopped, so I don't think it's logging excessively. 

Attached are meter readings from June, and 2 from July, all dated. I still think our meter could be the problem so I'm willing to get an engineer to check it out.

Thanks again Robin9, much appreciated

Hi,

the problem is that you or someone has misread the meter and supplied wrong readings to SP.

No need to get the meter checked, If you do get meter checked and no fault, then you will be charged for the visit.

Readings from pics,

21/6: 68922

07/7: 69020

27/7: 69147

only 10,000 out.

Talldave

[Deleted User] said:

Readings from pics,

21/6: 68922

07/7: 69020

27/7: 69147

only 10,000 out.

Apologies for being a pedant, but 07/7 is actually 69019 because the 1/10 hasn't rolled past zero.

[Deleted User]

Talldave said:

[Deleted User] said:

Readings from pics,

21/6: 68922

07/7: 69020

27/7: 69147

only 10,000 out.

Apologies for being a pedant, but 07/7 is actually 69019 because the 1/10 hasn't rolled past zero.

Hi,

haha, ok, I just normally disregard the red, unless doing a meter check.

martygraffin68

Thank you for the clarification everybody - it's a relief to know where the issue is coming from and that there's a way to resolve it.

I'm going to email SP and highlight the discrepancies in the meter reads, along with photo evidence, and ask them to amend the bill. Does anyone know the best approach to this sort of email? I'm just going to describe the meter read differences as discrepancies, rather than outright saying that it was my error as that probably won't help, I'm guessing they must get this sort of thing quite a lot...? I'm just hoping they see sense and amend it, I would have thought photos of 5 different meter reads across the relevant period would be pretty watertight evidence in this sort of situation?

Thank you again for all your help everyone, really really appreciate it

Robin9

DIY meter reads are quite common - I've done it myself (twice with the same meter)

Has  SP a meterreads (or similar) email, copy it to customer service.

Keep the email simple and strainghtforward.