Must energy companies use customer meter readings on cap change date?

Ultrasonic

wild666 said:

[Deleted User] said:

How Chrysalis said:

I am not encouraging it, I just understand it, people do what they got to do to feed their family.

Instead I am advising people to switch to variable direct debit, a legal way they will save some money.

How exactly do people save money by being on a variable direct debit? 

Being on a variable DD means that you only pay for the electric and gas used if you send in monthly readings. Some people are trying to find ways of using less.

I've cut my electric usage down from 184 to 194 kWh to between 116 and 126 kWh per month  and gas from 130 to 160 kWh down to between 60 kWh in winter and as low as 11 kWh or less in  summer. It was all done by turning off appliances not in use and lowering the temperatures on the boiler.    

Everyone ultimately pays less if they use less energy. Payment for exactly what was used just reduces the time that some money may be in an energy company's bank account rather than your own. I do understand the logic of the latter but for the majority I fear that we need energy companies to be guiding households re. how much to budget for energy by means of annually distributed DD payments. Yes it's technically possible for people to estimate for themselves how much they'd need to save up to cover higher winter payments but I think discussions here make it pretty obvious that most simply wouldn't do so accurately, if at all.

prowla

I think I'll be submitting a reading on Thursday (31st)!

jvjack

Dolor said:

Staffordian11 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Staffordian11 said:

Thanks for the replies. Whichever company I was using, I always supplied monthly readings, but having been transferred from Utility Point to EDF, they have not wanted a single reading since last September and seem to positively discourage them; only now asking for one by 31 March, so they have no idea of my usage pattern.

I shall see what happens and hope all is straightforward.

You can easily submit a meter reading online with EDF, I cannot see how they "positivly discourage" them? Before my smart meter went smart (an issue with the original BG installation meant it more than two years to commission onto the network) I used to submit monthly readings to EDF and they always billed accordingly. 

By "positively discourage" I mean they specifically say don't submit one until we request one. And they only seem to bill twice yearly, so intermediate readings seem rather pointless.

I shall submit one by 31 March, and then perhaps monthly thereafter and see if so doing generates a bill or statement.

Rather than speculate on what a supplier should or shouldn’t do, this is what it says in Standard Licence Conditions re customer meter readings:

21B.1 If a Customer provides a meter reading to the licensee that the licensee considers reasonably accurate, or if the Electricity Meter is read by the licensee, the licensee must take all reasonable steps to reflect the meter reading in the next Bill or statement of account sent to the Customer.

21B.2 If the licensee considers that a meter reading provided by a Customer is not reasonably accurate, the licensee must take all reasonable steps to contact the Customer to obtain a new meter reading from him.

Staffordian11 I got same messaqge about not submitting new readings till thay ask for them. So i'll send one toaday and March 31st. Dolars info is good.
I too got moved to EDF from Utility Point. I liked Utility Points monthly graphs costs etc.

jimjames

Staffordian11 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Staffordian11 said:

Thanks for the replies. Whichever company I was using, I always supplied monthly readings, but having been transferred from Utility Point to EDF, they have not wanted a single reading since last September and seem to positively discourage them; only now asking for one by 31 March, so they have no idea of my usage pattern.

I shall see what happens and hope all is straightforward.

You can easily submit a meter reading online with EDF, I cannot see how they "positivly discourage" them? Before my smart meter went smart (an issue with the original BG installation meant it more than two years to commission onto the network) I used to submit monthly readings to EDF and they always billed accordingly. 

By "positively discourage" I mean they specifically say don't submit one until we request one. And they only seem to bill twice yearly, so intermediate readings seem rather pointless.
I shall submit one by 31 March, and then perhaps monthly thereafter and see if so doing generates a bill or statement.

I'm not sure the discourage is true at all. There is a facility on their website to submit readings which I've done quite a few times since I was transferred to them when supplier went bust. Not been billed but the readings are there and also give evidence of use pattern if needed so not pointless.

BTW there isn't anyone who's job it is to ignore customer readings and use estimates instead. If a reading is out of line it might be flagged by computer to verify but all suppliers should use customer readings if provided.

Staffordian11

jimjames said:

Staffordian11 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Staffordian11 said:

Thanks for the replies. Whichever company I was using, I always supplied monthly readings, but having been transferred from Utility Point to EDF, they have not wanted a single reading since last September and seem to positively discourage them; only now asking for one by 31 March, so they have no idea of my usage pattern.

I shall see what happens and hope all is straightforward.

You can easily submit a meter reading online with EDF, I cannot see how they "positivly discourage" them? Before my smart meter went smart (an issue with the original BG installation meant it more than two years to commission onto the network) I used to submit monthly readings to EDF and they always billed accordingly. 

By "positively discourage" I mean they specifically say don't submit one until we request one. And they only seem to bill twice yearly, so intermediate readings seem rather pointless.
I shall submit one by 31 March, and then perhaps monthly thereafter and see if so doing generates a bill or statement.

I'm not sure the discourage is true at all. There is a facility on their website to submit readings which I've done quite a few times since I was transferred to them when supplier went bust. Not been billed but the readings are there and also give evidence of use pattern if needed so not pointless.

BTW there isn't anyone who's job it is to ignore customer readings and use estimates instead. If a reading is out of line it might be flagged by computer to verify but all suppliers should use customer readings if provided.

Thanks, I'll submit monthly readings in future.

Re your second paragraph; I was being a little tongue in cheek with my statement, but the point remains that my usage has always been consistent since moving to our current property (I monitor monthly, including comparing each month with the comparable month in previous years and whilst the readings vary, especially in the winter being so weather dependent, they follow a pretty predictable pattern) and we had at least one gas reading over-ridden by a figure either produced by the suppliers system or given to them by a third party checking service. Either way, we were neither informed nor given a plausible explanation when I queried it, which was rather galling, despite it not actually costing either us nor the supplier anything in the long run.

wild666

when people submit readings they should send them on the 1st April, I send readings monthly and they always use the previous day as the reading, so sending them on the 1/4/22 will see the reading date as 31/3/22, at least that's what my Octopus readings say when I get the bill.

MattMattMattUK

wild666 said:

[Deleted User] said:

How Chrysalis said:

I am not encouraging it, I just understand it, people do what they got to do to feed their family.

Instead I am advising people to switch to variable direct debit, a legal way they will save some money.

How exactly do people save money by being on a variable direct debit? 

Being on a variable DD means that you only pay for the electric and gas used if you send in monthly readings. Some people are trying to find ways of using less.

I've cut my electric usage down from 184 to 194 kWh to between 116 and 126 kWh per month  and gas from 130 to 160 kWh down to between 60 kWh in winter and as low as 11 kWh or less in  summer. It was all done by turning off appliances not in use and lowering the temperatures on the boiler.    

None of that saving is due to being on a variable direct debit, it is due to changes in behaviour, which are entirely independent of a variable direct debit.