E.on correcting account balance due to wrong charges

DJG6991

As per a previous post in the depths, I discovered e.on had me down as using Ft3 instead of m3 for my energy usage, meaning all of my gas bills were being calculated 2.83x higher than they should have been. 

E.on have now acknowledged this however, despite constantly being told it’s being chased and will be sorted in 1 week, 2 weeks etc. it’s now over a month later, no change and have been told to expect a minimum of 5 weeks before I hear back or see a change. 

Not only will this mean I will pay next month's bills at the incorrect amount, but will this impact how far back they can correct?

for reference, this will have been incorrect from the time I moved in (November 2020) to now. 

Bit of a rant/plea for any help or info on this topic. 

facade

There are 35.3 cubic feet in a cubic metre!

If they have been billing you as cubic feet when the readings are cubic metres, then your bill has been 35 times too low, where does the 2.83 times too high come from?

EDIT: my bad, they are billing as if the reading is in units of 100ft3, which will be 2.83 times larger than 1m3.

QrizB

Here's your previous thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6346132/e-on-taking-my-m3-readings-as-ft3-higher-bills

DJG6991 said:

Not only will this mean I will pay next month's bills at the incorrect amount, but will this impact how far back they can correct? For reference, this will have been incorrect from the time I moved in (November 2020) to now.

If you've been wrongly billed, you can go back at least six years (you could take them to court over it for six years, and energy companies have been reported on the forum to make corrections in consumers' favour further back than that) so a few weeks delay now isn't going to make much odds.

Do you pay each bill exactly or are you on a fixed monthly DD scheme? Have you specifically asked to have your DD reduced, and if so what did they say?

victor2

facade said:

There are 35.3 cubic feet in a cubic metre!

If they have been billing you as cubic feet when the readings are cubic metres, then your bill has been 35 times too low, where does the 2.83 times too high come from?

Imperial meters read hundreds of cubic feet, so one unit is about 32 kWh, where one cubic meter is about 11kWh.

DJG6991

facade said:

There are 35.3 cubic feet in a cubic metre!

If they have been billing you as cubic feet when the readings are cubic metres, then your bill has been 35 times too low, where does the 2.83 times too high come from?

EDIT: my bad, they are billing as if the reading is in units of 100ft3, which will be 2.83 times larger than 1m3.

Apologies, wasn’t too clear!

the conversion they use to convert cubic feet to cubic meters is multiplying by 2.83, therefore every bill is 2.83x higher than expected once converted due to cost per kWh

DJG6991

QrizB said:

Here's your previous thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6346132/e-on-taking-my-m3-readings-as-ft3-higher-bills

DJG6991 said:

Not only will this mean I will pay next month's bills at the incorrect amount, but will this impact how far back they can correct? For reference, this will have been incorrect from the time I moved in (November 2020) to now.

If you've been wrongly billed, you can go back at least six years (you could take them to court over it for six years, and energy companies have been reported on the forum to make corrections in consumers' favour further back than that) so a few weeks delay now isn't going to make much odds.

Do you pay each bill exactly or are you on a fixed monthly DD scheme? Have you specifically asked to have your DD reduced, and if so what did they say?

Sorry, rushing through the original post. 

I pay a fixed DD however, each month they have been trying to increase my direct debit by around 300%. 

After stating to them them that they cannot get an accurate picture of my usage to be able to estimate my DD they finally agreed to keep it on the original payment.

I pay monthly DD and my account would be charged from the balance every 3 months however, since moving to E.on next they charge the account every month now. 

I’m glad to hear that it won’t be limited on the length of time they can go back and correct, I can’t believe I didn’t notice it sooner!

[Deleted User]

DJG6991 said:

QrizB said:

Here's your previous thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6346132/e-on-taking-my-m3-readings-as-ft3-higher-bills

DJG6991 said:

Not only will this mean I will pay next month's bills at the incorrect amount, but will this impact how far back they can correct? For reference, this will have been incorrect from the time I moved in (November 2020) to now.

If you've been wrongly billed, you can go back at least six years (you could take them to court over it for six years, and energy companies have been reported on the forum to make corrections in consumers' favour further back than that) so a few weeks delay now isn't going to make much odds.

Do you pay each bill exactly or are you on a fixed monthly DD scheme? Have you specifically asked to have your DD reduced, and if so what did they say?

Sorry, rushing through the original post. 

I pay a fixed DD however, each month they have been trying to increase my direct debit by around 300%. 

After stating to them them that they cannot get an accurate picture of my usage to be able to estimate my DD they finally agreed to keep it on the original payment.

I pay monthly DD and my account would be charged from the balance every 3 months however, since moving to E.on next they charge the account every month now. 

I’m glad to hear that it won’t be limited on the length of time they can go back and correct, I can’t believe I didn’t notice it sooner!

It should be possible, and simple, to calculate your annual usage. All you need are two actual meter readings about 12 months apart. All YOU have to do then is apply the correct volume to kWh formula using, say, 39 as an average CV. This isn’t rocket science.

DJG6991

[Deleted User] said:

DJG6991 said:

QrizB said:

Here's your previous thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6346132/e-on-taking-my-m3-readings-as-ft3-higher-bills

DJG6991 said:

Not only will this mean I will pay next month's bills at the incorrect amount, but will this impact how far back they can correct? For reference, this will have been incorrect from the time I moved in (November 2020) to now.

If you've been wrongly billed, you can go back at least six years (you could take them to court over it for six years, and energy companies have been reported on the forum to make corrections in consumers' favour further back than that) so a few weeks delay now isn't going to make much odds.

Do you pay each bill exactly or are you on a fixed monthly DD scheme? Have you specifically asked to have your DD reduced, and if so what did they say?

Sorry, rushing through the original post. 

I pay a fixed DD however, each month they have been trying to increase my direct debit by around 300%. 

After stating to them them that they cannot get an accurate picture of my usage to be able to estimate my DD they finally agreed to keep it on the original payment.

I pay monthly DD and my account would be charged from the balance every 3 months however, since moving to E.on next they charge the account every month now. 

I’m glad to hear that it won’t be limited on the length of time they can go back and correct, I can’t believe I didn’t notice it sooner!

It should be possible, and simple, to calculate your annual usage. All you need are two actual meter readings about 12 months apart. All YOU have to do then is apply the correct volume to kWh formula using, say, 39 as an average CV. This isn’t rocket science.

I never claimed it to be rocket science, I am well aware of the conversion rate for getting KWh, I just also wasn’t aware of the variations of units they use depending on the meter and due to my somewhat low monthly cost of energy, had no cause to assume it was incorrect. 

Obviously with the rice in energy cost it has somewhat ballooned and was noticed during what is usually a low usage month for me being a higher bill.

but thanks for telling me what I have to do.