No meter readings for two years

nick_griff187

Hi,
I'm looking for some guidance as I really don't know what else I can do. Three years ago I had a smart meter put in by eon, all working great. And like other suppliers there was no confusions with final bills etc. I moved over to EDF fixed tarif through the energy club & the smart meter stopped working. We just thought it took a couple of weeks. It was then half way through our contract we realised that edf was going of estimates. I checked the main meters for readings & the screens were blank. I tried all buttons & nothing would happen. I decided to ring EDF to state that I couldn't retrieve any meter readings & due the Pandemic they said they are only sending out engineers for emergency. She said that once all sorted they can correct the readings. Three months later I moved over to Shell energy & I'm still in same dilemma but even worst I can speak to anyone over the phone. I'm on hold for hours on end. I decided to go to online chat & everytime they told me that they are establishing connection & have had meter but just waiting on the electricity meter. Two months later I had a final bill off EDF for £630 for electric, which was clearly incorrect. They informed me after a phone call that Shell have given an incorrect reading & will cancel the bill & wait for them to correct it. This morning, roughly two months on I have had another final bill from EDF showing the same amount £630 for electric. I have gone on to my shell bills & it shows that they only have estimates, and we are £210 in debit. Which is never the case with past suppliers?? I have been on phone nearly 2hours to shell & still can't get through. I'm really at boiling point at moment, I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do? And I don't even know how it all works? How will EDF have the correct readings? Frustrating is an understatement!!

Any help & guidance will be appreciated

Verdigris

What make and model of meter is it? It will have gone dumb because it is SMETS1 compliant and won't be interoperable between suppliers until firmware updates have been distributed. It could be faulty but some smart meters don't show thee reading as default, so you need to know which button(s) to press.

Robin9

First of all there is nothing much you can do at the moment - calm down.  There's no point in hanging onto the phone for hours. 

When was the last bill you had from Edf that used ACTUAL readings and were you in credit ?
When did you swop to Shell ?  As your meters were blank what readings did you give them?

Carrot007

So you failed to be above to provide meter readings and the nswitched supplier again. The mind boggles.

Go work out how to provide meter readings as it is very very unlikely that it has broken (certianly not both gas and electric - electric should be on the read all the time, gas will go dim to preserve battery life and there and many different options to press to get it, mine is one press of the button, other suppliers opted for a more complex requirement) and try to sort it out. Your new supplier will not be happy at paying you back the money the old supplier owes you due to your failure to provide reads and your old supplier will not be happy at later providing of reads you could have at the time which will increase their chance of government fines for not meeting targets where you were just as responsible for them for providing a read.

Consider giving your new supplier fake reads than catch up over a year if you are indeed owed money. You might owe money.

[Deleted User]

I agree that switching suppliers with a ‘broken’ meter - analogue or smart - rarely plays out well. Any switch will have to based on estimated opening/closing readings.  The closing reading is always provided to the old supplier which is then used to close the account. If EDF disagrees with the closing reading that they have been given, then they should raise an Agreed Readings Dispute. In normal circumstances, where meter readings are available, it is often worth taking a moment out to check the old tariff versus the new: that is, if the new tariff is more expensive than the old tariff then it is often better to overpay and say nothing. Clearly, without meter readings, this is a lot trickier.

As stated, smart meters don’t just fail because of a change of supplier. The meters have the ability to store readings for 13 months. It might be useful if you told us what were the smart meter models that E.oN installed.

niktheguru

How did you think changing your suppliers from EDF to shell was a good idea when you didn't have any meter readings?? This was always going to turn out to be a mess. What is the make and model of your smart meter? You need to get an upto date reading ASAP. I understand it has been difficult to get people to your house or get hold of people during the pandemic and that can be frustrating, but you have created problems for yourself switching.
The only way you can mitigate this is to get a reading somehow ASAP, hopefully it will be much lower than the "estimate" you are on at the moment, and somehow you'll have to come to an agreement with EDF and shell of what the approx usage was averaged out through the year based on the two last accurate readings you have.
Its likely EDF has a correct opening reading (the one given from eon from your smart meter) but then they had no other accurate readings after that and only went on estimations depending on size of property etc. YOU will need to provide an accurate reading for EDF to work out roughly how much you used during the time. Your smets1 smart meter would have gone dumb with the transfer (unless eon use same meters as edf) so they can't automatically read the meter. 

Robin9

I'm usually the one to say ignore the IHD and read the meter   -  in this case perhaps the IHD can still display meter reads.

pallyman

How as the op got  a opening read for shell  as they would require one.

nick_griff187

Thanks for all your replies

Just to point out I'm hopeless at these energy suppliers so I wasn't aware there would be issues as I was reassured it would be sorted. Even shell insisted they will connect. Anyway, I've spoken to shell finally. The meter is the correct one but seems to be faulty, it will be changed on the 10th of February. They are unsure that they can obtain a reading before it's set to zero. If not then they will have to go off estimates but I can dispute the reading's? Surely that previous contracts with other suppliers show that £630 is no where near correct 

Robin9

Can you give us some dates an  what ACTUAL readings you do have please ?   Include the Smart period with EOn  -with kWh's not £'s.

Ectophile

Robin9 said:

Can you give us some dates an  what ACTUAL readings you do have please ?   Include the Smart period with EOn  -with kWh's not £'s.

How is the OP supposed to do that if neither of the meters shows anything on the display?