EON Smart meter not giving any readings - how do we know how much gas was used?

foogirl

We had a smart meter installed last July and it hasn't sent meter readings to EON since October.  I tried various fixes to see what was happening but in November I eventually contacted EON to review it.  As I was unable to get through to them on the phone, I used the DM option they recommend on their website.  Thus followed a 3 month back and forth with them, having to start again each time, sending the same information, trying all their "fixes" until I eventually in February told them to send an engineer.  First engineer didn't turn up.  Another month passes, second engineer didn't turn up and finally yesterday the engineer turns up, puts a new meter in but couldn't get it all to work so has disappeared and EON have informed me it is 6 more weeks until they can get an engineer to me.

They hadn't been billing me for gas since October then in February they have put in two "estimated" readings which total over £700.  I pay monthly Direct Debit so I don't have to find that money in an hurry but it has put me almost in to debit with them.  We did everything we could to get the situation resolved but they have taken so much of my time and energy (no pun intended) to sort this out and it's still not done.

My question is: Given the old meter was knackered, and we now have a new meter, they will be unable to verify what the reading was on the meter they took away.  What are my consumer rights to ensure the gas they have charged me for is accurate, and if there is no way to do that using meter data, do we have to pay them anything at all?

MattMattMattUK

foogirl said:

We had a smart meter installed last July and it hasn't sent meter readings to EON since October.  I tried various fixes to see what was happening but in November I eventually contacted EON to review it.  As I was unable to get through to them on the phone, I used the DM option they recommend on their website.  Thus followed a 3 month back and forth with them, having to start again each time, sending the same information, trying all their "fixes" until I eventually in February told them to send an engineer.  First engineer didn't turn up.  Another month passes, second engineer didn't turn up and finally yesterday the engineer turns up, puts a new meter in but couldn't get it all to work so has disappeared and EON have informed me it is 6 more weeks until they can get an engineer to me.

They hadn't been billing me for gas since October then in February they have put in two "estimated" readings which total over £700.  I pay monthly Direct Debit so I don't have to find that money in an hurry but it has put me almost in to debit with them.  We did everything we could to get the situation resolved but they have taken so much of my time and energy (no pun intended) to sort this out and it's still not done.

My question is: Given the old meter was knackered, and we now have a new meter, they will be unable to verify what the reading was on the meter they took away. 

They may or may not be able to verify usage, it depends on how exactly the meter failed.

foogirl said:

What are my consumer rights to ensure the gas they have charged me for is accurate, and if there is no way to do that using meter data, do we have to pay them anything at all?

They are entitled to estimate and you are required to pay that amount. You can dispute an unreasonable estimate, but in general they are fair, they would likely take a previous winter's usage less say 20-30% if you claimed you cut back, but you do not your usage for free. 

foogirl

MattMattMattUK said:

They may or may not be able to verify usage, it depends on how exactly the meter failed.

They are entitled to estimate and you are required to pay that amount. You can dispute an unreasonable estimate, but in general they are fair, they would likely take a previous winter's usage less say 20-30% if you claimed you cut back, but you do not your usage for free. 

According to the engineer, he could get nothing off the old meter.

The estimate does seem unreasonable, the usage is nothing like what we had last winter.

MattMattMattUK

foogirl said:

MattMattMattUK said:

They may or may not be able to verify usage, it depends on how exactly the meter failed.

They are entitled to estimate and you are required to pay that amount. You can dispute an unreasonable estimate, but in general they are fair, they would likely take a previous winter's usage less say 20-30% if you claimed you cut back, but you do not your usage for free. 

According to the engineer, he could get nothing off the old meter.

He might not be able to, but they are generally analysed after that as well.

foogirl said:

The estimate does seem unreasonable, the usage is nothing like what we had last winter.

An estimate is not unreasonable, what would be unreasonable is allowing you a winter's usage for free. If you have adjusted your usage you can explain that to them and they can potentially adjust the estimate to take that into account, buy you will not get free energy. 

foogirl

The email from them this morning said "the meter was faulty with a blank reading" I'm not looking for free energy, I'm asking what my consumer rights are. An estimate of £700 when we didn't pay that much last winter, when prices were cheaper seems unreasonable.

pochase

I think you got it wrong. Last year the prices were cheaper, so using the same amount of gas this year will be 2 to 3 times more expensive, more if your were on a fixed tariff.

You need to comapre KWh, what are they billing you in KWh, and what did you use last year in the same time period.