British Gas £700+ overcharge

[Deleted User]

I admit that there is a possibility that your meter had an issue late last year. How you prove it is going to be a challenge. Normally, the process is that the supplier fits a checking meter alongside your existing meter. If no meter fault is found, you will be charged for the test.

QrizB

joben_jones said:

QrizB said:

So your meter is not sending smart readings, and hasn't done so since September 2022? You are submitting manual meter readings? And your latest manual meter reading is 06840?

Are you sure you are reading the correct register on your meter?

Can you post a photo of your meter?

Yes, we've been submitting manual readings for about a year. I don't know why, they've just been emailing us every now and then since we were moved over to the new account system, asking us for a reading. 
We've had a busy year so have just been doing that when we get asked, haven't had much time to think about it beyond this.
This is our meter:

Ah, the Secure Liberty 100, with its peculiar human-machine interface.

Have you been living in the house since the meter was fitted?

When you read the meter, are you pressing "6" or "9"? Which reading do you provide to BG, the "Imp kWh" from button 9 or "Imp R01 / Imp R02" from button 6?

Even though your current tariff is single-rate, it's possible that it's been used for a dual-rate tariff at sometime in the past and you should be using a reading from button 6, not from button 9.

joben_jones said:

• They say we used 2202kWh in 6 weeks in winter 2022.
• This is a huge amount of energy for a domestic household, equivalent to running the oven 24/7 for 6 weeks. And enormously more than a longer, comparable time period the previous year.

But from your opening post, the "actual" reading of 5615.2 on 16/11/22 isn't really an actual reading; you didn't supply it, and BG didn't send a meter reader to read it. It's a system-generated figure.

The two reliable readings you have are the smart reading of 3054 on 22/09/2022, and your actual reading of 6324 on 01/04/23. That's 3270kWh in 191 days, an average load of ~17kWh per day.

[Deleted User]

But from your opening post, the "actual" reading of 5615.2 on 16/11/22 isn't really an actual reading; you didn't supply it, and BG didn't send a meter reader to read it. It's a system-generated figure.

Based on the actual meter reading provided by the OP the day after?

In theory, BG’s data collector should be able to check if a total reading has been entered rather than, say, R1.

QrizB

Dolor said:

But from your opening post, the "actual" reading of 5615.2 on 16/11/22 isn't really an actual reading; you didn't supply it, and BG didn't send a meter reader to read it. It's a system-generated figure.

Based on the actual meter reading provided by the OP the day after?

That's the point I'm making, the OP didn't submit any meter readings until 01/04/23. From what the OP says, There is no genuine meter reading from 22/09 until 01/04.

joben_jones

QrizB said:

Ah, the Secure Liberty 100, with its peculiar human-machine interface.

Have you been living in the house since the meter was fitted?

When you read the meter, are you pressing "6" or "9"? Which reading do you provide to BG, the "Imp kWh" from button 9 or "Imp R01 / Imp R02" from button 6?

Even though your current tariff is single-rate, it's possible that it's been used for a dual-rate tariff at sometime in the past and you should be using a reading from button 6, not from button 9.

This is the only meter we've had, has been here since we moved in.

We press 9 and read the Imp kWh figure to give the readings. This is what we did when we were with People's Energy before being transferred to BG.

-

For what it's worth, when we first moved in the provider was Utilita, and we had a prepayment card. There was an issue at the time, our landlords topped the meter up a tenner before we moved in, nobody was in the house for a week before we moved in, but the credit had run out by the time we moved in.

Then, there was a week or so of us topping up the meter, and it being drained within a few days. Eventually this was sorted out by Utilita (can't remember how) and we got a refund for the incorrect charges.

We then moved to People's Energy and paid by DD. No issues during this time.

QrizB said:

But from your opening post, the "actual" reading of 5615.2 on 16/11/22 isn't really an actual reading; you didn't supply it, and BG didn't send a meter reader to read it. It's a system-generated figure.

The two reliable readings you have are the smart reading of 3054 on 22/09/2022, and your actual reading of 6324 on 01/04/23. That's 3270kWh in 191 days, an average load of ~17kWh per day.

Yes I think you're correct.

We were emailed by BG on 16th Nov '21 saying we'd been transferred to the new account system, then the next/first time they requested a meter reading from us was 11th Feb '22

That we didn't actually provide a reading until April doesn't help much, but as I said, it had been a very busy year.

So, the reading of 5615 on Nov 15th was an estimate, which I'm sure is incorrect. This is the last entry on the old account system.

The reading of 5615.2 on Nov 16th, although listed as 'Actual' on the statement, is also an estimate. We weren't asked for a meter reading at this time. This is the first entry on the new account system, so I'm guess they just took the last reading from the old account and decided it was correct, regardless of it being an estimate or an actual reading.

[Deleted User]

QrizB said:

Dolor said:

But from your opening post, the "actual" reading of 5615.2 on 16/11/22 isn't really an actual reading; you didn't supply it, and BG didn't send a meter reader to read it. It's a system-generated figure.

Based on the actual meter reading provided by the OP the day after?

That's the point I'm making, the OP didn't submit any meter readings until 01/04/23. From what the OP says, There is no genuine meter reading from 22/09 until 01/04.

There is an actual meter reading for the 16/11/22. This must have come from a meter reader or from the OP.

markin

Don't Estimated reading become Actual all the time on this forum? I thought it was a common problem.

What is the reading from button 6 ?

QrizB

[Deleted User] said:

QrizB said:

Dolor said:

But from your opening post, the "actual" reading of 5615.2 on 16/11/22 isn't really an actual reading; you didn't supply it, and BG didn't send a meter reader to read it. It's a system-generated figure.

Based on the actual meter reading provided by the OP the day after?

That's the point I'm making, the OP didn't submit any meter readings until 01/04/23. From what the OP says, There is no genuine meter reading from 22/09 until 01/04.

There is an actual meter reading for the 16/11/22. This must have come from a meter reader or from the OP.

No, there is not. The OP's post before yours confirms that it is just a carry-forward from the previous billing system. BG are showing it as "actual" but it isn't.

markin said:

What is the reading from button 6 ?

Yes, OP, what can you glean from pressing button 6?

joben_jones

QrizB said:

Dolor said:

There is an actual meter reading for the 16/11/22. This must have come from a meter reader or from the OP.

No, there is not. The OP's post before yours confirms that it is just a carry-forward from the previous billing system. BG are showing it as "actual" but it isn't.

I don't know for sure that this isn't, but I highly assume it's not. Partly due to QurizB's post above suggesting it isn't, partly due to the fact in our email trail we only have the one from 16th Nov informing us we were changing account system, and the next asking for a meter reading on Feb 11th.

QrizB said:

markin said:

What is the reading from button 6 ?

Yes, OP, what can you glean from pressing button 6?

Button 6 says;

• TARRIF
• ACT RATE
• IMP R01
• STCHG/DAY
• 058-280p
• +IMP R01 +
• 0004484.4
• 029-950p
• IMP R02
• 0002392.6
• 000-000p
• IMP R03
• 0000000.0
• etc.

markin

So 10kwh a day, And very close to the 3,700kWh year.

Is it possibly BG were reading R01 rather than the total?