Incorrect meter reading between 2 non-trading energy providers - how to fix?

MxElectric

Hello fellow forumites - I am new here and hoping you can help me with how to deal with the below issue:

1. I was a customer of Green Energy until the end of July 2021 (before they went into administration)
2. In the transfer of my account to Symbio Energy (who are now in administration as well, admin communication was sent 30 Sep 21), Green Energy made a mistake with the meter reading (by ignoring numbers i sent, and sending very wrong estimates). So instead of sending a reading of 54,554, the reading that was sent was 48,741
3. Symbio sent me a bill for over 1000 pounds, based incorrect readings in (2) [although i was only a customer of theirs for just over 2 months.]
4. When Symbio went into administration, my account got transferred to E.on next who are now my current provider
5. I spoke to Shell Energy (which is where previous Green customers accounts were sent) but they do not have a copy of my records and as such cannot send corrected meter readings to Symbio. I am stuck with a bill for £1179.03 which is incorrect. Symbio is threatening to send the outstanding amount to credit collection agencies

What have i tried so far:
OFGEM process says to go to current provider with a complaint, so I raised one with E.on who have nothing to do with the issue and as expected, they cannot help
I have contacted (via email and on the phone) Symbio and Shell and they cannot do anything about this either. 

Has this happened to anyone before? Any ideas on how to proceed?

[Deleted User]

Have the two failed suppliers used the same (albeit, incorrect) meter reading to open and close your accounts? If so, then you have underpaid Green Energy and you will end up overpaying Symbio Energy.

FWiW, when you leave a supplier, the old supplier sends nothing to the new supplier as the transfer of supply is managed entirely by the gaining supplier. Did you provide Symbio Energy with a switch reading? This reading is then passed to the gaining supplier's data collector and it is validated against your past usage. Once validated, the switch reading is passed by an industry data flow to open and close your accounts.

Curiousgirl1

Did you get a final bill from Green when you transferred to Symbio? If so was the final reading 48741 and if so, did you get a big refund? 

MxElectric

[Deleted User] said:

Have the two failed suppliers used the same (albeit, incorrect) meter reading to open and close your accounts? If so, then you have underpaid Green Energy and you will end up overpaying Symbio Energy.

FWiW, when you leave a supplier, the old supplier sends nothing to the new supplier as the transfer of supply is managed entirely by the gaining supplier. Did you provide Symbio Energy with a switch reading? This reading is then passed to the gaining supplier's data collector and it is validated against your past usage. Once validated, the switch reading is passed by an industry data flow to open and close your accounts.

Thanks for the response.
I believe they both used the wrong meter readings although i submitted readings when i could which were ignored. I did provide Symbio an opening reading which they ignored (and i have screenshots of my submissions and pictures of the meter when i switched)

MxElectric

Curiousgirl1 said:

Did you get a final bill from Green when you transferred to Symbio? If so was the final reading 48741 and if so, did you get a big refund? 

If i remember correctly, i received a refund of around 350 quid from Green when the transfer happened. So i don't doubt that i owe some money since they did not use my submitted readings but chose to use their very wrong estimates. But the money would be owed to Green (at whatever fixed rate i had) not to Symbio who are charging at an insane variable rate to arrive at the final bill they have sent. 

QrizB

MxElectric said:

Curiousgirl1 said:

Did you get a final bill from Green when you transferred to Symbio? If so was the final reading 48741 and if so, did you get a big refund? 

If i remember correctly, i received a refund of around 350 quid from Green when the transfer happened. So i don't doubt that i owe some money since they did not use my submitted readings but chose to use their very wrong estimates. But the money would be owed to Green (at whatever fixed rate i had) not to Symbio who are charging at an insane variable rate to arrive at the final bill they have sent. 

If Green closed your account on the same number that Symbio opened it at, your simplest option is to pay Symbio.

Symbio won't reduce your bill unless and until there's an agreement with Green that they will increase theirs.

Symbio's variable rate is unlikely to be "insane", although it might be more than Green were charging (you haven't told us either of the rates in question).

The difference is 5813kWh. Even at the current capped rate of 4p/kWh, that's only £232-worth of gas. I suspect the difference in cost to you between paying Green's trates and Symbio's will be under £50 (but, again, you haven't yet told us the relevant tariffs).

And how, exactly, have Symbio calculated that £1000 billl?

MxElectric

QrizB said:

MxElectric said:

Curiousgirl1 said:

Did you get a final bill from Green when you transferred to Symbio? If so was the final reading 48741 and if so, did you get a big refund? 

If i remember correctly, i received a refund of around 350 quid from Green when the transfer happened. So i don't doubt that i owe some money since they did not use my submitted readings but chose to use their very wrong estimates. But the money would be owed to Green (at whatever fixed rate i had) not to Symbio who are charging at an insane variable rate to arrive at the final bill they have sent. 

If Green closed your account on the same number that Symbio opened it at, your simplest option is to pay Symbio.

Symbio won't reduce your bill unless and until there's an agreement with Green that they will increase theirs.

Symbio's variable rate is unlikely to be "insane", although it might be more than Green were charging (you haven't told us either of the rates in question).

The difference is 5813kWh. Even at the current capped rate of 4p/kWh, that's only £232-worth of gas. I suspect the difference in cost to you between paying Green's trates and Symbio's will be under £50 (but, again, you haven't yet told us the relevant tariffs).

And how, exactly, have Symbio calculated that £1000 billl?

I should have been clearer - i live in an all electric place so this is for electricity only. 
The rate used by Symbio for the final bill is 19.436p/kWh - screenshot of the bulk part of the final bill attached. 

There is no one at Green to contact since accounts have been transferred to Shell and they have none of records on hand since I switched to Symbio before they went into administration. This is per the Shell customer service person i spoke to to try to understand the issue. 

wild666

Having photo's of any readings will go a long way to solving the problems especially if the serial numbers of a meter are in the photo. 
When I was asked for photo's of my meters a few yeard ago I made sure everything was in the photo including meter numbers and the kWh used, plus I included the ACT 1 & ACT 2 readings because I was previously on the free electric tariff with the old supplier BG. This way they cannot claim that the readings are false because it would take a genious to input other figures into the window that readings are taken from.

MxElectric

wild666 said:

Having photo's of any readings will go a long way to solving the problems especially if the serial numbers of a meter are in the photo. 
When I was asked for photo's of my meters a few yeard ago I made sure everything was in the photo including meter numbers and the kWh used, plus I included the ACT 1 & ACT 2 readings because I was previously on the free electric tariff with the old supplier BG. This way they cannot claim that the readings are false because it would take a genious to input other figures into the window that readings are taken from.

Thanks - i have meter reading photos with the serial number and screenshots from Green's website where i submitted my readings they ignored. Part of the key issue is that there is no Green Energy to complain to to get it fixed