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Stuck in 6 month meter reading dispute between 2 providers

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I’m gonna try and make this easy to read but I’m so over all of it forgive me if I’ve missed anything.

I switched energy provider last July from Green network energy to igloo.

My monthly dd with GNE was £120 pcm for a 4 bed house with 1 adult, 2 children but I was useless at submitting meter readings. The house had a new underfloor heating system that I wasn’t very competent at using

Igloo set my monthly dd at £115pcm

I submitted final readings and got an outstanding invoice from GNE for £1200

I immediately challenged this and they assured me they wouldn’t take the money until they had looked into it. I asked about options for payment plans etc as £1200 was not affordable for me in one payment 

They took the £1200 by dd in august

I complained, they admitted fault but said they could only refund half.

I reclaimed the full amount through the dd guarantee scheme 

Meanwhile GNE and igloo are both blaming each other for the final readings not being right and assure me they are sorting it out.

Feeling really worried that I have some kind of gas fault, I pay for boiler service and investigative work on my heating and pay to change some fittings (it had only been fitted 18 months earlier and like I said I was bad at meter readings)

My official complaint to GNE was lodged on 3rd September and I was told that getting both companies to agree on final reads could take 6 weeks

Nothing happens. I keep writing. I’m offered £50 and £30 compensation respectively which I refuse as I have no visibility of an outcome

In November I’m told there is a fault with my electricity meter (I have been submitting monthly to igloo). And they will send an engineer (big backlog due to covid and lockdown etc)

Mid December engineer arrives, he says I should replace my faulty two read meter with a new one read meter. I speak to two people at igloo to check this is the right advice in amongst ongoing dispute they say yes.

In January (after more writing to both companies) they assure me they will have an outcome shortly, can I please provide latest readings

Provide readings with explanation about change of meter. She replies to tell me second reading is missing, I explain again. This was about 10 days ago.

I still have an outstanding invoice looming, no idea if my monthly dd payments are suitable and have been unable to switch energy providers as I can only assume that adding another party into this nightmare would cause me more grief.

What shall I do? I’ve spent so much time and energy on this and I’m getting no resolve 😩




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Comments

  • Gerry1
    Gerry1 Posts: 10,848 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Welcome to the forum.
    You need to give a LOT more info because it's very difficult to understand what's going on.
    What powers the underfloor system?
    Did the property have Economy 7, perhaps with storage heaters?  If so, you won't need E7 any more if you're using gas for heating, but that doesn't need a meter change, many suppliers will happily bill the two registers at single rate.
    The final closing and opening reads aren't really much of an issue unless they are not the same or are massively adrift.
    Don't think in monthly DD amounts, always think in kWh and annual costs derived from actual meter readings.
    Have you now been giving monthly readings?  Rely on the meters on the wall, and make sure the gas reading is in m3 or (hundreds) of ft3, NEVER kWh because the energy company automatically does the conversion from volume to kWh.
    It's quite easy to calculate the bills, just give us all the actual meter readings together with the kWh rates and daily charges (inc VAT) and someone will do the sums for you.  Check your bank statements to see how much you've paid and you'll see how much you owe.
  • molerat
    molerat Posts: 34,524 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Like Gerry1 I am a bit confused
    You took a meter read on switch ?
    Did both suppliers use that read at changeover or did they use a different read ? 
    Did both suppliers use the same reading, whether yours or a different one, for their closing and opening reads ?
  • Thank you for responding, I really appreciate it.
    It’s gas underfloor heating and seems to be working efficiently . No economy 7

    i have images of meter readings when I switched last July and images of meters now if that helps.

    I also have monthly bills I can share. is that helpful?



  • Oh I guess property could have had economy 7 pre renovation but I don’t know, it had been empty for years 

    the top reading on the electricity meter has been the same since that closing read in July which I’m told was the fault 
  • I’m struggling to upload bills from my mobile, might have to do it from laptop in the morning 
  • Oh I can share images of bills 
  • Gerry1
    Gerry1 Posts: 10,848 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 27 January 2021 at 12:18AM
    Do you have two electricity meters, i.e. the black one (which was probably Economy 7) AND the white one?  Does the disc move on the black meter?
    Remember to redact the person info on the bills, including the meter numbers and the S number.
  • No the black one was replaced by the white one in December, as advised by igloo.
  • I think this has everything on it? 
  • molerat
    molerat Posts: 34,524 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 27 January 2021 at 1:08AM
    You can't really argue with the gas, that is a catchup bill which is 95% down to you as you had not been supplying meter reads regularly. Both suppliers used the same read for closing and opening.
    The electric is arguable as if the meter is not switching then the low would not increment and all the use would be on normal.  Unfortunately now the meter has gone and will have been scrapped you cannot prove it but could argue that the meter was not incrementing because it was not switching so that (small) part of the bill should not stand.  The problem here is that your bill is only going to be reduced by £57 as the remainder cannot really be argued.  But how much have you paid previously on estimates for that non incrementing register ? Yes they have used a higher normal read than actual but that was likely supplied by the industry body and Igloo have also used that read so the difference is minimal.  Whether you want to argue the low read with Igloo is down to you but as the meter has gone that not incrementing problem has gone away.
    The main moral of the story is to submit regular monthly accurate reads to your supplier.
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