Huge British gas bill

tony3619

Hello, 

So I am assuming that this is an error from British gas but I had a bill from September - October for £1540 pounds. 

On the bill it has "last read from previous billing system" that lists my meter reading going from 2526 to 4501. 

I have checked my smart meter and my physical gas box and both say 2526. 

I noticed they had changed app and am hoping it's an error from them switching over. I'm not sure where they are getting this 4501 meter reading from though? 

I can't call anyone until Monday so how do I approach this? 

EssexHebridean

Do you have access to your account via their  app - that might shed some light on whether anything has been corrected since the bill? 

tony3619

EssexHebridean said:

Do you have access to your account via their  app - that might shed some light on whether anything has been corrected since the bill? 

This is the bill and the meter reading I took just now 

Netexporter

Looks like a "fat finger" error, where the 2 has been transposed to 4.

tony3619

Netexporter said:

Looks like a "fat finger" error, where the 2 has been transposed to 4.

Should this be easily corrected? Are this bills made manually or am I taking "fat finger" too literally?😂

Netexporter

As it was transposed from the old system it may have had to be done manually, so human error would be the most likely cause, if that was the case.

tony3619

Netexporter said:

As it was transposed from the old system it may have had to be done manually, so human error would be the most likely cause, if that was the case.

Hopefully so....as I can't see any other reason for such a jump. I have always had a smart meter and the meter is clearly not this high. 

Netexporter

If you send a date stamped photo of the meter, with both the display and the meter serial number showing, that should clear the matter up most quickly. Although quick is a relative term when dealing with BG.

tony3619

Netexporter said:

If you send a date stamped photo of the meter, with both the display and the meter serial number showing, that should clear the matter up most quickly. Although quick is a relative term when dealing with BG.

Assuming my smart meter data is correct would they not just be able to pull the correct meter readings over Their system and auto correct it?

Qyburn

Can you submit a new reading? Wondering if that would create a credit. In fact if they have valid smart meter reading on 8th October, and that's lower that the "old" reading, should thst be a credit anyway. The don't seem to have a date for that "old" reading.

I had something a bit similar when I went from Neo to Octopus, there was a stupid high start reading, and it took a few manual reads before it settled down.

tony3619

Qyburn said:

Can you submit a new reading? Wondering if that would create a credit. In fact if they have valid smart meter reading on 8th October, and that's lower that the "old" reading, should thst be a credit anyway. The don't seem to have a date for that "old" reading.

I had something a bit similar when I went from Neo to Octopus, there was a stupid high start reading, and it took a few manual reads before it settled down.

The old reading is very strange as the property is a newish build, Ive the only one who has lived here and never had an issue.

 My electric bill also lists that same "old reading" but on that bill it's pretty much identical to the smart meter reading.