British Gas said my meter was faulty but now say it wasn't!!!

Gh3ndy

Hi,
I've had issues for years that electric with British Gas was extremely high.
After they sent out an engineer how said my meter was faulty (as to his paperwork). But they have now came back with the calculations saying that they are within the range and it is not faulty! 
I have a 4 bed detached.
As to my direct debit payments from in 5 years I made payments of £15k, my new smart meter says in one month I used £94. Which would equate to £5640 for 5 years.
They now are sending the final letter saying that we are deadlocked and I have to take it to the ombudsman.

Has anyone got any advice for me please.
Thanks

MWT

Best advice I can give is stop using monetary amounts and use meter readings and kWh billed when you make your complaint.

Robin9

Gh3ndy said:

....................
As to my direct debit payments from in 5 years I made payments of £15k, my new smart meter says in one month I used £94. Which would equate to £5640 for 5 years................

You cannot extrapolate what is a Spring month when your heating will have been, if not off, very much reduced. A winter month may well have been double or triple that.
Is this an all-electric house (no gas) and what is the heating ?

As @MWT give us actual meter reads please

MsSupertech

Good Luck - I wonder if you might actually be in a similar situation to us..?
Having just changed suppliers, we're currently in a dispute with BG over a final bill because they've calculated our bill based on the readings being 'Gas Units' when our digital meter display quite clearly says that it's measuring KwH.  This means they believe this fairly frugal 2-bed terrace has consumed over 225,000 units in the last 18 months - costing over £6000!  In reality, any human 'sanity check' would recognise that around 20,000 Kwh @ around £600 is in line with both our previous usage and expectations.  They seem unable to understand there is NO dispute about our actual numerical reading for the meter but that their entire calculation has been made based on the wrong UNITS. 
I too would welcome suggestions....

MWT

MsSupertech said:

Good Luck - I wonder if you might actually be in a similar situation to us..?
Having just changed suppliers, we're currently in a dispute with BG over a final bill because they've calculated our bill based on the readings being 'Gas Units' when our digital meter display quite clearly says that it's measuring KwH.  This means they believe this fairly frugal 2-bed terrace has consumed over 225,000 units in the last 18 months - costing over £6000!  In reality, any human 'sanity check' would recognise that around 20,000 Kwh @ around £600 is in line with both our previous usage and expectations.  They seem unable to understand there is NO dispute about our actual numerical reading for the meter but that their entire calculation has been made based on the wrong UNITS. 
I too would welcome suggestions....

With respect, if you have been giving BG the kWh figures from your 'In-Home Device' then you are the architects of your own misfortune.

Gas meter readings should always be supplied in either cubic metres or in units of 100 cubic feet, never in kWh...

The display of kWh is only an estimated conversion for your own convenience and never used for billing...

MsSupertech

MWT said:

MsSupertech said:

Good Luck - I wonder if you might actually be in a similar situation to us..?
Having just changed suppliers, we're currently in a dispute with BG over a final bill because they've calculated our bill based on the readings being 'Gas Units' when our digital meter display quite clearly says that it's measuring KwH.  This means they believe this fairly frugal 2-bed terrace has consumed over 225,000 units in the last 18 months - costing over £6000!  In reality, any human 'sanity check' would recognise that around 20,000 Kwh @ around £600 is in line with both our previous usage and expectations.  They seem unable to understand there is NO dispute about our actual numerical reading for the meter but that their entire calculation has been made based on the wrong UNITS. 
I too would welcome suggestions....

With respect, if you have been giving BG the kWh figures from your 'In-Home Device' then you are the architects of your own misfortune.

Gas meter readings should always be supplied in either cubic metres or in units of 100 cubic feet, never in kWh...

The display of kWh is only an estimated conversion for your own convenience and never used for billing...

I'm afraid not. Our IDH went 'Dumb' some time ago, following an earlier switch.  We no longer use it. Our latest Meter defaults to KwH so that's what we've been feeding back to them. I've no idea if we can read it any other way... 

MWT

MsSupertech said:

MWT said:

MsSupertech said:

Good Luck - I wonder if you might actually be in a similar situation to us..?
Having just changed suppliers, we're currently in a dispute with BG over a final bill because they've calculated our bill based on the readings being 'Gas Units' when our digital meter display quite clearly says that it's measuring KwH.  This means they believe this fairly frugal 2-bed terrace has consumed over 225,000 units in the last 18 months - costing over £6000!  In reality, any human 'sanity check' would recognise that around 20,000 Kwh @ around £600 is in line with both our previous usage and expectations.  They seem unable to understand there is NO dispute about our actual numerical reading for the meter but that their entire calculation has been made based on the wrong UNITS. 
I too would welcome suggestions....

With respect, if you have been giving BG the kWh figures from your 'In-Home Device' then you are the architects of your own misfortune.

Gas meter readings should always be supplied in either cubic metres or in units of 100 cubic feet, never in kWh...

The display of kWh is only an estimated conversion for your own convenience and never used for billing...

I'm afraid not. Our IDH went 'Dumb' some time ago, following an earlier switch.  We no longer use it. Our latest Meter defaults to KwH so that's what we've been feeding back to them. I've no idea if we can read it any other way... 

Yes, you can, the kWh display is only one of the possible readings, and the wrong one to be sending in.

This really should be in your own thread, not this one, but if you want to start a new thread and post details of the meter make and model we can help you get to the correct reading...

MsSupertech

MWT said:

MsSupertech said:

MWT said:

MsSupertech said:

Good Luck - I wonder if you might actually be in a similar situation to us..?
Having just changed suppliers, we're currently in a dispute with BG over a final bill because they've calculated our bill based on the readings being 'Gas Units' when our digital meter display quite clearly says that it's measuring KwH.  This means they believe this fairly frugal 2-bed terrace has consumed over 225,000 units in the last 18 months - costing over £6000!  In reality, any human 'sanity check' would recognise that around 20,000 Kwh @ around £600 is in line with both our previous usage and expectations.  They seem unable to understand there is NO dispute about our actual numerical reading for the meter but that their entire calculation has been made based on the wrong UNITS. 
I too would welcome suggestions....

With respect, if you have been giving BG the kWh figures from your 'In-Home Device' then you are the architects of your own misfortune.

Gas meter readings should always be supplied in either cubic metres or in units of 100 cubic feet, never in kWh...

The display of kWh is only an estimated conversion for your own convenience and never used for billing...

I'm afraid not. Our IDH went 'Dumb' some time ago, following an earlier switch.  We no longer use it. Our latest Meter defaults to KwH so that's what we've been feeding back to them. I've no idea if we can read it any other way... 

Yes, you can, the kWh display is only one of the possible readings, and the wrong one to be sending in.

This really should be in your own thread, not this one, but if you want to start a new thread and post details of the meter make and model we can help you get to the correct reading...

With the greatest respect - how is a customer supposed to guess there is more than one way of reading the meter? We simply followed the instructions we had been issued... 
I'll begin a fresh thread though, if we can't get any sense from our latest conversation with BG - cheers!

Gh3ndy

Robin9 said:

Gh3ndy said:

....................
As to my direct debit payments from in 5 years I made payments of £15k, my new smart meter says in one month I used £94. Which would equate to £5640 for 5 years................

You cannot extrapolate what is a Spring month when your heating will have been, if not off, very much reduced. A winter month may well have been double or triple that.
Is this an all-electric house (no gas) and what is the heating ?

As @MWT give us actual meter reads please

This was only for electric. 

Heating is gas

[Deleted User]

Gh3ndy said:

Hi,
I've had issues for years that electric with British Gas was extremely high.
After they sent out an engineer how said my meter was faulty (as to his paperwork). But they have now came back with the calculations saying that they are within the range and it is not faulty! 
I have a 4 bed detached.
As to my direct debit payments from in 5 years I made payments of £15k, my new smart meter says in one month I used £94. Which would equate to £5640 for 5 years.
They now are sending the final letter saying that we are deadlocked and I have to take it to the ombudsman.

Has anyone got any advice for me please.
Thanks

Has BG at anytime fitted a check meter? Did you ask them to do so? Are you really suggesting that you have been paying £3000 a year for electricity for the past 5 years when the typical annual consumption for electricity in a dual fuel home is 4300kWhs (High). Your problem now is that the meter that you now believe was faulty has probably been recycled so it cannot be checked.

Even at £94 a month, you are using a lot less electricity than you were using previously but a lot more than most. What are your high usage devices?

As far as escalating your complaint is concerned if I were you, I would sit on my hands. I would raise a Subject Access Report with BG requiring them to disclose what checks were carried out on your old meter and what was actually said in the engineer's report. The SAR may well reveal if the meter was checked properly. I would also like to know what parameters were used to determine that your old meter was not faulty.

If you decide to go to The Energy Ombudsman you need to bear in mind that they do not investigate. They only look at the evidence that you and the supplier provide; hence, the need for the SAR information outlined above.

While you are waiting for BG to respond, I suggest that you try and find out what might be using so much electricity. In most cases, this is down to old freezers that never turn off; continually running pumps, hot tubs etc.