Scottish power multiplied my meter reading by a factor of ten!!!

BUTTSY

Have had a problem with my meter since about February. Been on the phone, chat lines and emails to see if someone can come and look at it. The problem is that when I press the green button to illuminate the display reading, all I get is an illuminated blank display. When the display sleeps there are some numbers eg 0727.325kwh. Cutting a long story short I was asked to submit an image of one of the readings of 1298.167. But because my meter in all the time it had been installed had accumulated about 8000kwh. In their infinite wisdom someone decided to omit the decimal point and they entered 12981kwh on my account....whether it was forgery or an error who knows£  Plunging me from £223 in credit to -£650 in debt. I was on the verge of putting in a complaint anyway, but strangely someone in their department did it for me.
I have got a complaint advisor who has told me things like it's normal to omit the decimal point....what a joke. Some of the things she has told me are dubious to say the least. She says she will arrange for a technician to come round and look at it. But after experiencing Scottish powers complaints procedure, I don't hold much hope. I have been in contact with citizens advice and they say they have some link with their internal systems and will pass it on. But I have to go through 8 weeks of hell before I can go to the ombudsman. The problem is I am leaving this house soon and if I leave Scottish power, do they cancel my complaint?

Robin9

BUTTSY said:

Have had a problem with my meter since about February. Been on the phone, chat lines and emails to see if someone can come and look at it. The problem is that when I press the green button to illuminate the display reading, all I get is an illuminated blank display. When the display sleeps there are some numbers eg 0727.325kwh. Cutting a long story short I was asked to submit an image of one of the readings of 1298.167. But because my meter in all the time it had been installed had accumulated about 8000kwh. In their infinite wisdom someone decided to omit the decimal point and they entered 12981kwh on my account....whether it was forgery or an error who knows£  Plunging me from £223 in credit to -£650 in debt. I was on the verge of putting in a complaint anyway, but strangely someone in their department did it for me.
I have got a complaint advisor who has told me things like it's normal to omit the decimal point....what a joke. Some of the things she has told me are dubious to say the least. She says she will arrange for a technician to come round and look at it. But after experiencing Scottish powers complaints procedure, I don't hold much hope. I have been in contact with citizens advice and they say they have some link with their internal systems and will pass it on. But I have to go through 8 weeks of hell before I can go to the ombudsman. The problem is I am leaving this house soon and if I leave Scottish power, do they cancel my complaint?

No joke -  never inc decimal points.

\your reading was 01298 m3

The supplier's system should have rejected that and it sounds like it did (eventually)  and that is what prompted the review.

Has SP now given you a new bill ?

[Deleted User]

I am sorry but your post isn’t making much sense. Are you talking about a gas or an electricity meter? If the display is blank, where are the readings coming from that you are disputing? 

FWiW, whether it is an electricity or gas meter, all numbers to the right of the decimal point are ignored if you are reading the meter. If it is a gas meter, then you should ignore any readings annotated kWh. Gas meters record the gas used by volume in cubic feet or cubic metres. The supplier converts the volume used to kWh for billing purposes.

[Deleted User]

Don’t blame the supplier because you told them the wrong number.  Forgery? No. 

You never give meter readings including the decimals, they tell you that everywhere and it’s why they were red on older meters.

You told them seven numbers, they used the first five because that’s how long readings should be.

They’ve now noticed that you told them the wrong number and are trying to sort it out, and you’re trying to take them to the ombudsman?

Send them a photo of a proper reading and it will all get sorted out.

ariarnia

i think people are being unfair to the op here. they say there is a problem with their meter not displaying the reading properly. they were asked to send a photo of the reading that was showing (the wrong number) and that the company took the full number ignoring the decimal from the picture. now the company are sending someone to look at the meter 

[Deleted User]

ariarnia said:

i think people are being unfair to the op here. they say there is a problem with their meter not displaying the reading properly. they were asked to send a photo of the reading that was showing (the wrong number) and that the company took the full number ignoring the decimal from the picture. now the company are sending someone to look at the meter 

The OP is particularly unclear about what (if any) readings were provided and by whom. They mention this request for an unusually accurate reading to be photographed ( which would normally be triggered by the customer providing a reading that didn’t make sense) but then say that 8000kWh had been used - no idea where that random number has come from.  At no point does the OP actually say that they sent a photo.

It very much sounds like the OP has submitted an incorrect reading that the supplier has requested a photograph to clarify and then, when no photograph could be provided, inferred what the number could have been.

QrizB

BUTTSY said:

Cutting a long story short I was asked to submit an image of one of the readings of 1298.167. But because my meter in all the time it had been installed had accumulated about 8000kwh.

Is your meter a Landis + Gyr E470 model? Like this one?

Does it have the mysterious "three decimal places" error, like the one in the photo does?

Similar threads:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6307132/faulty-electricity-meter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6302428/massive-electric-usage

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6300482/electricity-smart-meter-upgrade

[Deleted User]

Another one caught by that? Could be a good shout.

You would hope that someone submitting a reading from your photo (as an example) would say 00273.

BUTTSY

QrizB said:

BUTTSY said:

Cutting a long story short I was asked to submit an image of one of the readings of 1298.167. But because my meter in all the time it had been installed had accumulated about 8000kwh.

Is your meter a Landis + Gyr E470 model? Like this one?

Does it have the mysterious "three decimal places" error, like the one in the photo does?

Similar threads:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6307132/faulty-electricity-meter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6302428/massive-electric-usage

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6300482/electricity-smart-meter-upgrade

Yes, thats the exact same electric meter and yes the three decimal places. But I get that kind of format when the meter is idle. When you press the green button to obatin your 'illuminated' readings to submit to the website. They should be in the format of lets say 006824.1 . The website says not to enter anything after the decimal point, so obviously the number entered would be 006824. But all I get is a blank illuminated screen. The number in the display above is what you get when the illuminated screen dims to normal. I foolishly did try and enter a reading like the one in your photo. Yes it flagged an error and I submitted several photo's of the readings and of the illuminated blank display. I even talked to a couple of their operatives. One said they do sometimes reset themselves and another said that it could be reset their end and I just enter the readings. Think I was getting desperate by then and believed them.
Even the meter man who came out to read the meter in the summer said it was corrupted and would report it so. But nothing happened. Yes I have been a bit lapse in submitting readings. But they have always tallied when my meter was read by the meter reader. No matter what, you can't just multiply a reading by the factor of ten taken from a photo surely?
At the end of the day I should have a meter that all you have to do is press the button and it displays an illuminated reading I can submit to the website in the format required and not squint at some unkown number.
All I want is someone to listen and come out and inspect the meter. I am told it's my right. It seems that Scottish Power are reluctant to perhaps replace the meter because of costs. But I am selling the house soon and I really don't want the new owners going through the frustration I have experienced.

[Deleted User]

They won’t be reluctant because of cost, it’ll either be because there isn’t any new meters in stock, or more likely because changing your meter wouldn’t count towards their smart meter targets.

I also don’t think that they’ve decided to multiply it by ten like you keep suggesting. They’ve just typed in the first five numbers from left to right like they have always done and not noticed the 3 decimal point problem.

EssexHebridean

Deleted_User said:

Don’t blame the supplier because you told them the wrong number.  Forgery? No. 

You never give meter readings including the decimals, they tell you that everywhere and it’s why they were red on older meters.

You told them seven numbers, they used the first five because that’s how long readings should be.

They’ve now noticed that you told them the wrong number and are trying to sort it out, and you’re trying to take them to the ombudsman?

Send them a photo of a proper reading and it will all get sorted out.

Like the photo they sent previously, that seemingly started the whole issue, you mean? 

BUTTSY said:

<snip> Cutting a long story short I was asked to submit an image of one of the readings of 1298.167. But because my meter in all the time it had been installed had accumulated about 8000kwh. In their infinite wisdom someone decided to omit the decimal point and they entered 12981kwh on my account....<snip>

It generally helps to read the post before being - at best - sarcastic and impatient, and at worst, rude.  Even if the OP HAD in fact "told them" the wrong reading, this is a relatively new (in post terms, at least) forum member - and there were friendly, more helpful ways that you could have put it. Surely at a time when many people are worrying about increasing costs, and energy prices, the very last thing we want to do is to behave towards them in a way that might put them off asking for support in the future? 

@BUTTSY as a starting point are you able to get a good clear photo of the current reading on the screen - if your phone/camera has a "date stamp" option then you could use that to help with the timeline. I'd be inclined if you can do that to send a contact email to SP marked as a formal complaint, with that photo attached if the system allows for it explaining in short sentences what has happened and when. I think it does sound like genuine human error - but now for whatever reason nobody is picking up on what has happened - hopefully a concise summary as part of a complaint might just trigger that realisation at their end.