Smart Meter is not so smart, Supplier Estimated ZERO usage for 2 years

Chrissalter

So straight off the bat, yes maybe i should have paid more attention to the bills, but i was "sold" the smart meter on the basis that i could "sit back and relax" so that's exactly what i did

3 Years ago we had smart meters installed, some time after the install it appears that the gas meter stopped communicating and hasn't for around 2 and a half years (we had no idea about this)

The shoddy little display that they give you never really showed any usage on gas and when querying it over a live chat they said "they sometimes don't" but assured me that everything looked ok

Fast forward to this week and with everything that's going on i decided to have a look at my most recent bill and see exactly how much we use a year, up to press i've never really bothered looking at them, they tell us what to pay, we pay it, it's usually the same amount, why would i bother to scrutinse bills that i've never really understood anyway?

But i really should have done! EDF have been estimating our gas usage for the past 2 and a bit years, and estimating it at ZERO, we've been a customer for over 10 years so they know what we use, why would they estimate ZERO???

After a long call to EDF they said the meter is showing as "active" but not submitting any readings, i asked why no action was taken and how they could estimate zero usage but they couldn't answer

I've no issue with paying what we owe, but with the variable rate increase we're already going to be an extra £1,000-£1,500 out pf pocket annually without having to back-pay the last 2 years worth of gas usage!

I read their FAQ's on communication issues ant it states "Our systems notify us if something is wrong" and "We'll be in touch if they need anything from you" but not a single email, message, call or notification of any type,

In my mind i believe that they should have done at least one of the following:

• Asked for a reading
• Sent somebody to take a reading
• Had the meter repaired

But nothing, they did absolutley nothing, and on top of that estimated my readings at zero (which is what i'm nost annoyed about)

Where do i go from here?

Robin9

\First read your gas meter and do some simple calculations to work out what the charges should be and then work out how much you have paid. Then you can work out if how much you owe (or are in credit).  Give that reading to your supplier and get a new bill.

Curiousgirl1

I agree that you should have been contacted for a reading - check your online account to see if you have if you are paperless it should be in your messages. Regarding meter readers, unfortunately due to the pandemic I believe a lot of companies stopped reading meters & put appointments on hold. 

However, you also need to take part responsibility for this. I can’t believe you didn’t check a bill for nearly 3 years. All your bills will have said your readings were estimated & to contact them with a reading. They would also have shown you were being billed for zero gas and surely you must have realised your bills were really cheap if you weren’t paying for gas or did you think ‘this is great, I’m not getting billed for any gas’  EDF have about 5 million accounts to keep a check on, you have 1. 

You need to give EDF a gas reading & ask them to rebill your account back to the last reading. That will spread the usage out over the full time so you’re not being billed for it all at today’s prices. 

You can try to argue for billing code, but might not apply if you haven’t helped yourself so to speak. They should also be able to set up a payment plan for the balance 

icsys

As you are probably aware, you cannot be back-billed more than one year.
I would look at your historical usage if you can, and try to work out how much gas you typically use.
You should only be charged for up to your last 12 months' energy use if you haven’t had an accurate bill in over a year. 

Ectophile

Bear in mind the back billing rules

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-energy-back-billing-rules

EDF should not be billing you for any usage over one year ago.

Curiousgirl1

Back billing rules are not mandatory just because a bill is wrong 

MWT

Curiousgirl1 said:

Back billing rules are not mandatory just because a bill is wrong 

The rules are part of the supply licence though, and the supplier is obliged to bill accurately at least once every 12 months.

In this case it would depend on the messaging asking for a meter reading, if they have been asking and the customer has been ignoring them then EDF would have a good case for claiming the customer had behaved unreasonably.

If they have not been asking then I think they are stuck with back-billing for 12 months only.

Curiousgirl1

MWT said:

Curiousgirl1 said:

Back billing rules are not mandatory just because a bill is wrong 

The rules are part of the supply licence though, and the supplier is obliged to bill accurately at least once every 12 months.

In this case it would depend on the messaging asking for a meter reading, if they have been asking and the customer has been ignoring them then EDF would have a good case for claiming the customer had behaved unreasonably.

If they have not been asking then I think they are stuck with back-billing for 12 months only.

I know 😀.

Gerry1

MWT said:

Curiousgirl1 said:

Back billing rules are not mandatory just because a bill is wrong 

The rules are part of the supply licence though, and the supplier is obliged to bill accurately at least once every 12 months.

In this case it would depend on the messaging asking for a meter reading, if they have been asking and the customer has been ignoring them then EDF would have a good case for claiming the customer had behaved unreasonably.

Not convinced that simple failure by the customer to provide meter readings would count as unreasonable behaviour.

Ofgem gives examples of "blocking meter readings at your property on more than one occasion" and "stealing gas or electricity" which suggests that the bar is set far higher and requires deliberate hostile action by the consumer, not mere omission.

In any case, many consumers would be unable to take meter readings because of mobility or visual limitations.  And as the OP mentions, these wonderful smart meters are supposed to make meter readings unnecessary so the consumer can reasonably expect them to do the job.

MWT

Gerry1 said:

MWT said:

Curiousgirl1 said:

Back billing rules are not mandatory just because a bill is wrong 

The rules are part of the supply licence though, and the supplier is obliged to bill accurately at least once every 12 months.

In this case it would depend on the messaging asking for a meter reading, if they have been asking and the customer has been ignoring them then EDF would have a good case for claiming the customer had behaved unreasonably.

Not convinced that simple failure by the customer to provide meter readings would count as unreasonable behaviour.

Ofgem gives examples of "blocking meter readings at your property on more than one occasion" and "stealing gas or electricity" which suggests that the bar is set far higher and requires deliberate hostile action by the consumer, not mere omission.

In the end it will be down to the Ombudsman to decide, but if the OP has been ignoring their bills completely for over 2 years and not responding to messages on the bills, I wouldn't bet that they are going to get the benefit of the back-billing rules, we'll have to wait and see...

sebtomato

Looks like the supplier is at fault, but you are at fault to, from not noticing for several years that you were not charged for something and that all readings were estimates rather than actuals. Surely, you are receiving bills or statements.