estimated bills with Shell and E-on despite smart meter

pt1981

I switched to Shell at the end of February. Today I received an email that my DD payments are going to increase from £30 to £96 despite the reduced use of utilities recently. I looked into it and it turns out this is based on estimated meter readings despite the fact that I have a smart meter and Shell emailed me during the switch that the meter will continue to be smart and the home unit is showing I'm with Shell now indeed. I tried to enter the actual reading manually but the website doesn't accept it because they are very different from what they expect. I started looking into it further and this is what I've managed to find out from the Shell bills as well as those from E-on previously:

- the smart meter was installed in September 2020 and all E-on bills for electricity after that were based on estimates. The gas bills were based on the smart meter readings. It looks like the estimates were higher than the actual use, so I was overcharged.

- similarly, the Shell bills were based on estimated readings for electric and actual readings for gas, but the electric estimate is kind of out of this world, hence my investigation.

- the estimated reading figures seem to be consistent with the reading from the old meter rather than the new meter, so it's something let's say around 17000 instead of 00460, which makes me think that A) E-on never used the smart meter readings for electric, and the passed an estimated figure to Shell

I got in touch with both of them and the online consultants from Shell are investigating while the lady from E-on said it's all up to the current provider to rectify it. There are three things I want to achieve:

- have E-on bills reviewed and based on actual readings and a hopefully a refund
- have the Shell bills reviewed and the direct debit based on actual use and not their estimates
- Shell start using the smart meter readings from now onwards

I have photos of the meters from 17 March, which is more or less where the switch was finalised.

How do I go about this? Is it really Shell's responsibility to sort it out as the E-on lady suggested or shall I make two individual complaints to both companies? Anyone been in a similar situation?

[Deleted User]

The gaining supplier manages all aspects of a switch. Both suppliers have to use the same reading to open and close your accounts. If the opening reading is greater than that on your smart meter, you will only pay the daily standing charge until the meter index passes the opening reading. If the industry validated reading is greater than 250kWhs from the actual meter reading then the suppliers may open an Agreed Readings Dispute.

That said, overpaying your old supplier may actually save you money. For example, you overpay the old supplier for 1000kWhs and your new tariff unit price is 13p/kWh compared to 12p/kWh on your old tariff. Your overpayment will have saved you 1000 x (13 -12) or £10.

niktheguru

I hope you do get this sorted, its going to be a complicated road.
It staggers me how you could have switched without checking any of your previous bills with your current supplier first. Had eon provided your final bill? How has it taken 3 months after switching to notice your bills were estimated!! A painful lesson learned!

Robin9

What are your meter reads today 

Gerry1

Unless you live in a broom cupboard, £360 per year would never have been sufficient to pay all the gas and electricity bills.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi pt1981, sorry to hear this has happened.

On your final bill from us does it show your old meter serial number or the new one? The newer one will likely begin 19L or 20L (the first two numbers often indicate the year of manufacture).

If the serial number is correct and it's just the meter reading that's wrong then the Change of Supplier reading can be changed either by us or your new supplier. It's often best to raise the dispute with the supplier you've left, as having it in place will stop any debt collection activity for the incorrect outstanding balance.

If the serial number hasn't been updated then we'll need to pass the details over to our back office team to get this resolved. We'll need the exchange information which will be on a little tag attached to your meter. 

If your new supplier have the wrong serial number as well they'll also need to update their records accordingly.

I know we've referred you to the new supplier but as I say it's likely we can help with this so I'd recommend getting back in touch. If you use Facebook then send us a message to our official page (blue tick E.ON) as the advisors that work online are very experienced and should know exactly what to do.

Thanks, Matt