Why do Energy Cos Seem Unable To Produce Accurate Bills Consistently??

GunJack

Possibly me just having a rant, but from personal experience and many threads on this board it seems that pretty much every energy retailer that's left in business can't do this on a consistent basis...surely their systems should be robust enough for this not to happen? Any ideas anyone??

[Deleted User]

Switch to Octopus. For those with a smart meter, it bills once per month. For those with an analogue meter, it will bill each time a meter reading its entered on the website.

Seriously, you shouldn't infer from the posts on this website that there is a widespread billing problem.  Yes things do go wrong as is the case with every business in the land.

bagand96

There may be an element of "outcome bias".  This forum is a place where people come for support with their energy supplier problems so it will always make the picture look skewed.  Nobody comes on a web forum to post "everything's fine with my energy supply account"

Not excusing the suppliers, but with 28 million properties with an energy supply nationally even the numbers of issues seen on this forum and other social media make for a very small percentage.

In terms of systems I expect a lot of suppliers are using ancient IT that has been patched and patched over the years to cope with changes to the market and is creaking at the seams.  Not a problem unique to energy supply though.

GunJack

[Deleted User] said:

Switch to Octopus. For those with a smart meter, it bills once per month. For those with an analogue meter, it will bill each time a meter reading its entered on the website.

Seriously, you shouldn't infer from the posts on this website that there is a widespread billing problem.  Yes things do go wrong as is the case with every business in the land.

I must admit I've been thinking about moving to Octopus, they seem to have the fewest billing complaints. I wouldn't want to do it until the current lot (Shell) have corrected their side first...thankfully I've got several year's-worth of readings/cost calculations all spreadsheeted-out to put them right    It's just disappointing that I can have it all there and accurate but the supplier can't!!

marlot

Most of them run old technology billing systems.  They would have been fine in their day, but are now inflexible.

Octopus invested in a new system https://octopusenergy.group/kraken-technologies 

The_Green_Hornet

For balance, I've been with many different energy suppliers over the years and I have never experienced an inaccurate bill.

Robin9

The only inaccurate bills I've had have been of my own making - mis-reading the meter !

Mstty

I will add my vote that no energy company has produce an immaculate bill but then again we take control of our account providing start middle and end readings before smart meters and monitoring even with smart meters.

It could be said it is people that do not take an interest in their energy usage and account that are the issue here?

daveyjp

Robin9 said:

The only inaccurate bills I've had have been of my own making - mis-reading the meter !

In almost 40 years my only incorrect bill was due to a meter reader transposing our reading with a neighbour and that was at least 25 years ago.

Give a reading, get a bill has worked fine since.

comeandgo

I think the majority of the problems reported here are actually user error, people not understanding bills or the need to read the meter.

born_again

GunJack said:

Possibly me just having a rant, but from personal experience and many threads on this board it seems that pretty much every energy retailer that's left in business can't do this on a consistent basis...surely their systems should be robust enough for this not to happen? Any ideas anyone??

Simple answer. Read meters each month. Provide reading.
Jobs a good one.

Of course if people can not be bothered to provide a reading & do not have/want smart meters. Then how do you expect to get a accurate reading? Given every user/household in unique?

So this is one area that smart meters are for the win. 👍