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

MattMattMattUK

The reality is that mistakes will be made by the energy suppliers, no system, especially one with humans involved in the loop is infallible. The issue though is that the vast majority of complains are down to the customer not understanding rather than the supplier getting anything wrong. One only has to browse on here to see how many people come on ranting about their energy supplier ripping them off, committing fraud, that everything they do must be illegal etc. before it is established a few posts in that the OP is just unwilling/unable to understand their bill, that is often then followed up by the OP continuing to complain that everyone else is wrong, that we must all work for the energy suppliers etc. The number of complaints has surged over the last year for example, but nearly all of them are people complaining that their energy provider has put their monthly Direct Debit payments up, that their credit goes faster on their prepayment meter or that their bill shows a rate that they do not think that they should pay (either just too high in general because of what they "feel", that they do not understand the EPG discount, that they do not understand the cap is not an actual cap, that the headline rates from the cap are not the actual rates billed etc.).

Real issues do occur, mistakes do happen, but the genuine mistakes by the energy suppliers are dwarfed by the incorrect complaints from consumers. 

fromdusktilldawn

BooJewels said:

I have religiously given meter readings monthly and calculated my own bill for several years now (as a check against what I'm actually billed), so am perfectly comfortable with how to calculate energy use and what it should cost.

But British Gas have seemingly lost the plot recently - since the advent of their new system.  I've not actually had an inaccurate bill, but have had ones that are unfathomable at first glance and take some unravelling.  I have my own gas with them and am also managing an estate property for gas and electricity with them.  The estate property has smart meters that have gone dumb and trying to submit manual reads is proving almost impossible, I perpetually get an "Oops, something went wrong" message - then they have the audacity to send me an email asking to rate my experience of giving said failed meter reading.  The single occasion where I did manage to get one submitted, because it was 41kWh lower than their recent estimate, they have assumed the customer has gone round the clock and their usage on the account shows as 99959kWh for that month.  I  hoping that they'd try billing for £34k, but whilst the bill came through properly (ignoring this intermediate reading), it still shows on the account.

The final account I got for the deceased's account was actually accurate to the bottom line - but I only confirmed this by working it out totally differently myself - the bill itself made no sense whatsoever.  They billed use from October, but with an opening credit that appeared on a January bill and the difference between them was accounted for in the sums, but not actually mentioned anywhere - so the sums, as on the page, didn't work.  All very strange.

With the current energy situation, when people are especially worried about energy costs and monitoring expenditure very closely, you would think that companies would have a responsibility to present such matters to their customers in a manner that they could actually have confidence in being correct and accurate - and be able to understand them.  When they do convoluted workings out, it's no wonder you can never get through on the phone, so many people must be totally bamboozled.  They don't even include the gas calculations on the bills any more!

Octopus seem to manage it really well, as others have cited - it feels like a blot on my copybook if there's 2p difference between my calculation and the bill that arrives a few hours later.

I had a similar experience in winding up bills as estate executor. The property had been empty for months and we agreed that the bills would reflect standing charge only and based on specific readings which they had taken. It took 3 months+ to get a correct bill which necessitated all the bills since January 2022 to be cancelled and reissued. 

I noticed that the totals, on the bills that were issued, were not consistent with the opening and closing values. As a budgeting and debt advisor, I have seen bills from many suppliers but I couldn't understand these ones. When challenged, the advisor told me that it was due to the 'Government support payments' but they weren't on the bill either. In the end, I got a refund close to what I calculated it should be and accepted that. I cant even remember how many calls/hours it took to get sorted but I hope that I never have to deal with them again.

gbhxu

For those of us not on smart meters, I can't understand why a meter reader can't issue you with a bill there and then using equipment similar to a traffic warden?

MattMattMattUK

gbhxu said:

For those of us not on smart meters, I can't understand why a meter reader can't issue you with a bill there and then using equipment similar to a traffic warden?

A traffic warden does not issue you with a bill, they issue with a notice, which you then have options to pay. For energy your previous meter reading is subtracted from your current meter reading to to calculate your usage, which for electricity is then billed, or for gas needs to be converted from cubic meters or feet into kWh whilst accounting for the calorific value. You are then billed for that. 

Also if you realise how infrequently meter readers now come around then that is an awful system, it would be expensive to administer and pointless. Where one submits their meter reading the bill is issued a day or two later, or a meter reader submits the reading and a bill is issued a day or two later. 

ben_glastonbury

I wonder how many people actually check the working out on their bills. I always assumeed that a bill would be fair and accurate. It was only when all my bills were cancelled, and no longer available for download, and the replacement bill was tagged as "not available" for download that I started to investigate. After nearly three months I have managed to get copies of the cancelled bills and these seem to have several errors, although it may just be I do not understand them as there is no explanation, and the companies agent has no idea where the readings come from. They are still unable to give me a copy of the replacement bill that is not ready three months later.
I am shocked that anywhere near 0.5% of customers may have problems with their suppliers, I would expect this to be a much lower percentage for a consumer oriented company.

GunJack

...and another monthly billing cycle, another Shell f**k-up... even after calling them and the "give us readings today and we'll re-bill you to correct everything" they have produced......

A Blank Bill !!!!!! 

!!!!!!, that's another month before they'll attempt to put it right