Meter reading and bill does not seem right - please help

BristolJack

Hi,

I am looking for some help and advice. At the end of the Summer (and before the massive energy price hike) all of a sudden a direct debit was taken by EON of £650. I thought at the time that as I was coming to the end of my contract, that this was to make up the balance due to all of the previous bills being estimates. During the last year my meter had not been read and despite requesting a visit and a smart meter, nobody ever came with visits cancelled due to Covid.

I thought that would be that until the next month (October 2021) £850 was taken.

I contacted their Customer Service team to say that there must be a mistake and eventually after a long time I spoke to a Customer Service representative who told me that I should contact my bank to do an indemnity request. My bank stopped the payments and I heard nothing.

Today I have received an email that EON had resolved my complaint and say I owe them over £1500 and unless I respond they will contact a debt recovery team.

I was sent a summary of uses and charges.

Bearing in mind that no meter reading was ever taken and I was put on a tariff based on me telling them that I live in a 3-4 bedroom terraced house. I was shocked to see what they say that the usage is, especially when I have checked the average family usage.

Meter Reading 22/9/20 08392

Meter Reading 18/9/21 19952

11560 kwh @ 16.451p per kwh £1901.74

Standing Charge 361 days @ 5.80p per day £20.95

GAS CHARGES 22/9/20 TO 18/9/21

Meter Reading 22/9/20 02438

Meter Reading 18/9/21 04068

18056 kwh @ 2.769p per kwh £499.97

Standing Charge 361 days @ 5.80p per day £20.95

TOTAL GAS AND ELECTRICITY CHARGE £2443.61

VAT £122.18

TOTAL £2565.79

Although I thought that we might use a bit in the evenings and weekends. I have been out at work most days, my kids were out and my wife only worked from home for some of the time. Heating is usually off half the year and we try to turn power off as often as possible.

I am trying to access my previous supplier British Gas for readings as possibly the initial readings that EON got were wrong. I am still to get the readings but by checking the bank I can see that the cost was almost half of what EON are claiming. We would have used more or less the same energy as the previous year. Every 3 months or so British Gas asked for readings explained how to get them and were Ok with everything. I only then went to EON as my fixed rate ended and the EON rate was supposed to be better when using the MoneySaving Energy site.

I am aware that going forwards we have to get used to crazy prices but the prices up to October this year surely can't be right.

Please advise what to do next as I do not want to (and cannot) pay such a huge amount.

molerat

A bill is a simple matter of the difference between 2 readings.

Do you not keep copies of previous bills ?

Have you no records of meter reads ?

Gas is high but quite possible

Electric is very high for a gas heated property.

Have you taken meter reads recently ?

It is no good comparing what a previous supplier was charging as if you are not supplying regular reads they could have been guessing as well, their final bill could have based on a low estimate.

Until you can get the switch reading from your previous supplier you are not going to get anywhere.

You need to get into the habit of supplying monthly reads and keeping records, it is straightforward to store PDF bills, you then have something to counter a spurious bill.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Electric

Meter Reading 22/9/20 08392

Meter Reading 18/9/21 19952

Gas

Meter Reading 22/9/20 02438

Meter Reading 18/9/21 04068

What are you meter readings now?

Robin9

@BristolJack    Let's see if we can help you to help yourself.
When you swopped from BG to Eon  I hope  you (a) gave Eon a meter read  a (b) an estimate of your consumption of both electricity and gas.   What were they -  the meter reads will be on your Eon account.

On the Sept 2020 and Sept 2020 statements what letter follows the meter reads A, C  or E   (actual, consumer, estimated).  

As above what are the meter reads today ? Take care in reading them -  many meters can be difficult to read -  watch out for decimal points and anything highlighted in red.


Meter readers were a very rare profession  before COVID and since are almost non existant - the system relies on you reading the meter otherwise  the supplier is only guessing.   There is no substitute for actual reads -  get into the habit of reading your meter at least monthly.

Was you Eon contract a 12 month fix that came to an end in September 2021 ?   What action did you take when Eon contacted you the previous month ?   Nothing  or did you take out a new fix. ?
 

BristolJack

Hi,

Thanks for the input.
I have been on a smart meter for the last 3 years or so that was provided by OVO and I was told that this was not compatible with British Gas and EON. I have never been able to understand how to take readings from it and have spent about an hour on the phone with OVO (who I am back with now) to show me what buttons to press on my gas meter and what figures to read (outside the house with a blank screen until I pressed button 9. I have now got readings and spoken to another member of their team. They think that my current readings are about OK and historical readings are possibly wrong for electricity.

Current Gas shows as 4292 and Electric as 23016
OVO have said to contact again in 2 weeks to see how these figures are changing and have reset my smart reader. 

When I mentioned my previous billing amount and what EON are asking for, they think that 2 things may have happened: 1. The end readings from British Gas were wrong and also that EON are chasing costs based on gas and electric costs now and not 1 year ago when they should have been as I was on a fixed tariff.

I have not been able to access my EON account in months as no matter how many times I change my password.
with the website always showing problems. I have finally got on and downloaded a year's worth of statements with the 1st few months as estimates and then the next statements do not state estimate on them.

This is what I have found

Electricity readings
Period Meter no. Previous Present Rate kilowatt hours
22 Sep 20 to 6 Jan 21 18P0102588 0008392 E 0013153 A Normal 4761
6 Jan 21 to 7 Jan 21 18P0102588 13153 A 13153 A Normal 0
7 Jan 21 to 27 Jan 21 18P0102588 13153 A 13674 A Normal 521

The 8392 being what British Gas have put as an estimated leaving no. and 13153 as what EON have down
4761 is what they say I have used based on this estimate from 22/9/20 to 6/1/21 

Gas readings
Period Meter no. Previous Present Units used kilowatt hours
19 Nov 20 to 20 Feb 21 G4P01111121800 02662 E 03397 E 735 m³ 8122
•735 units x 1.02264 (conversion factor) x 38.9 (calorific value) ÷ 3.6 (to get kilowatt hours) = 8122 kWh•
You can find the calculation we use at eonenergy.com/gascalculation - all gas suppliers use this calculation.
How much energy you have used
Previous electricity charges
Previous charges from bill on 19 Nov 2020 for 22 Sep 2020 to 19 Nov 2020 £115.56 CR
Revised electricity charges
Fix 1 Year Exclusive August 2020 ends 21 Sep 2021
Usage charges £783.2

I have then looked at the next 3 months which seem to be accurate readings:-
Electricity readings
Period Meter no. Previous Present Rate kilowatt hours
27 Jan 21 to 27 Feb 21 18P0102588 13674 A 14469 A Normal 795
27 Feb 21 to 27 Mar 21 18P0102588 14469 A 15115 A Normal 646
27 Mar 21 to 11 Apr 21 18P0102588 15115 A 16000 C Normal 885


I cannot access my old British Gas account and I have been in a phone queue for an hour.
I have had no paper bills for at least 2 years and until today I have never been shown how to check the meters.
If I can get onto British Gas website and get previous statements I can hopefully get these previous readings. 

In lots of calls to the British Gas centre they still cannot get me into my old account to get readings and are telling me to wait a week with no guarantee they can get the figures.  

Robin9

The BG readings will not help - they would have been estimated.

If we consider the accurate info we know - todays readings 04292 and 23016; on install 3 years ago they would have been 0.000 and 0.000

If we assume gas at 3p / kWh 4292 x 11.2 = approx £1500 . Add VAT and s/c say £1800 ie £300 a year

Ditto electric at 15p say £4000 say £1300 a year. YOUR ELECTRIC IS VERY HIGH   (I guess Electric Showers !)

How much in DD have you paid BG and Eon over those 3 years ? 


I had the same meters Liberty Secure and I had to use Google to find out how to read them.

youngbenja

can i get meter readings beyond the 3 years scottish power are giving me

BristolJack

Hi,

I have got hold of someone at EON to discuss the bills with. Even they are saying that the bills are inaccurate and by comparing the 'actual' smart meter readings from about Jan/Feb onwards to the estimate prior to this they also think the end reading given to them by British Gas was at least 1000kw out for electricity and gas may also be wrong. Unfortunately they are saying that until British Gas can come back with more realistic figures they can't change the figures. 

By the look of it we have used a lot more then average last year but not nearly as much as charged.
I am now stuck in a dispute with both EON and British Gas.   

Robin9

youngbenja said:

can i get meter readings beyond the 3 years scottish power are giving me

Can you start your own thread please?  and add some detail

MWT

Were you ever on an Economy 7 tariff with the smart meter?

There can be some problems when moving between providers and tariff types if the wrong register is used for the final bill on E7 vs the one used to start a single rate tariff at the new provider...

Staffordian11

A quick question to those assisting as much as to the OP.

Surely if the closing readings used by BG to produce their account for the OP were significantly lower than the actual readings, it would not greatly affect things.

All it would mean is that the OP would owe less to Eon but owe (roughly) this same amount to BG instead.