Reporting energy company for attempted fraud/ theft?

Deedoodee

Is that something I can do? 

Old Supplier doesn’t believe that we don’t use gas (boiler turned off for renovation and then it broke). It’s been 5months and each month I submit a reading and then they accept the electricity one and then put in their own estimate for gas. I’ve complained and received £20 ‘good will gesture’. 

It happened again but when I’ve tried to switch. Ie I submitted readings to new and old suppliers on the day I requested a switch. Two days later old supplier sends new supplier new gas estimates for the final meter readings which are much higher than the real ones. Old supplier also changed my online account so I can’t see any of the information. When I called they said it’s because I switched so don’t have that account anymore and will get a final bill based on my last readings. 

They are making up their own values and ignoring the ones I’m giving, even after I told them. Their complaints/ customer service is ridiculous (the last time I called, the advisor didn’t use the HOLD function on his phone and I overheard a whole conversation where he calls me stupid over and over to his colleague) 

can I report this to ofgem? If I had not been checking my new energy account carefully this could have been missed and it is repeat behaviour. 

ariarnia

its important you dont make accusations of fraud or theft when its not very likely to be either. more likly its someone reading something off a computer (computer says no) and mse delete threads and users if theres a risk of them being sued for allegations. 

if you make a complaint (use the word complaint) then 8 weeks later you can escalate it to ofgem ombudsman. if part of your complaint is about the treatment on the call then you should send in an foi request now to ask for the call recordings as they only keep them a few weeks (90 days i think). 

energy suppliers can use estimates if your readings are so strange as to be unbelievable but i think they are supposed to contact you to get an accurate reading and work out what the problem is. evidence can be things like photos of the meter or them sending someone to read the meter. but 5 months with no gas use doesn't seem very odd to me. when we still had an electric shower we could go most of the year not using any gas. 

[Deleted User]

It’s not fraud. It’s not theft.  Billing on estimates is a perfectly acceptable and normal process.

Have you had the final bill from the old supplier yet, and if so, did it contain your actual reading or was in an estimate?

Do you have photos of the meter readings?

And it’s new supplier sends old supplier readings for the change, not the other way around iirc.

[Deleted User]

I agree with the above. In your written complaint refer to this Standard Licence Condition:

Condition 21B. Billing based on 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.

Include a photograph of the meter which shows both the index reading and the meter serial number. Tell them that if their data collector disagrees with the reading, they should send out a meter reader. All readings taken by a meter reader are, for billing purposes, treated as industry-validated readings.

Alnat1

Your old company over-estimating your reading and charging at the old pre-Oct rate would probably be doing you a favour.

The new company can't start charging you for gas used until the real reading catches up with the over-estimate.

t0rt0ise

When switching supplier the opening gas reading you give to the new supplier goes off to an industry validator before being sent to the old supplier, and very, very often it gets changed. It will then be recorded as estimated. It just happened to me too and it's very annoying but it nearly always happens. As long as the closing and opening reads are the same, it doesn't much matter. I did lose a few pence over it this time which made it doubly annoying but nothing I can do. Presuming you're going to use the gas again sometime, it will work out.

Deedoodee

Thanks all. The reading estimates are for after 1st oct so still at the higher rate. The new supplier said that it’s the old supplier who gave it to them. 

This happened every month and the old supplier only asks me for verification once after I phoned to ask what they were doing. Otherwise they just change. Zero steps taken to verify. 

[Deleted User]

If you've got evidence of the readings, you can put in a complaint particularly covering the licence condition that Dolor quoted.  Don't accuse fraud, theft, things like that - be factual and direct.

If they don't/won't resolve your complaint, then you can go to the Ombudsman (not OFGEM, they don't deal with the public).  All the Ombudsman does though is to look at the evidence that each side presents to make their judgement, they won't do any investigating.

Deedoodee

Thanks. The Standard License Condition is really handy (thanks Dolor). I think I’m mostly angry that the old supplier keeps doing this. And clearly in breach of the conditions as no attempt as been made to verify my readings (I have to wait an hour on the phone to speak to them to get them corrected) 

wild666

When I changed from Bulb to Avro my meter reading date was just 4 days before I changed to Avro, Bulb estimated the readings for electric and gas by over 140 kWh for electric and 60kWh for gas. 
I took readings on the final day and submitted them to Bulb by email and in the meter readings part for Avro. I explained that I took the meter readings at 22:45 on the day before the move so the readings should be no more than 1 kWh out for electric and 11.3 kWh out for gas, the numbers after the decimal point were close to adding one unit to the closing reading, Bulb accepted the readings I emailed. 

Inigo_Montoya

ideally you should have sorted this out before changing suppliers  because now its much more of a hassle to sort out

if it were me I would demand that a meter reader visit be booked to come & verify the actual read & that the meter had not been tampered with as that would ensure the correct read is then registered on the system on the day of the visit

In addition you can also immediately take a photo of the meter alongside todays newspaper & email that to both the old & new energy suppliers as evidence to be used in any potential formal complaint

once the correct start read has been registered with the new supplier you will need to go back to the old supplier to get their final read adjusted down so you are not paying twice for the same gas - I can almost guarantee that they wont adjust it down without you complaining

this is a problem similiar to the one I have come across myself due to living at two different locations over time & so my usage is lower than the houses around me (one of the locations has a broken boiler like yours) - due to this low usage the suppliers eventually usually  end up sending a meter reader themselves to check I'm not tampering with the meters