British Gas Smart Meter - not working

Clarali1953

Has anyone else had issue with British Gas Smart meter (electricity) not sending correct readings? I've been struggling with British Gas for nearly nine months now to get them to give me an accurate account of my usage. In April 23 I received a statement saying that in one month I used 6, 660Kwh of Electricity, then when I complained an insulting letter indicating that I didn't know that the prices of electricity had risen and that my tumble dryer could be the cause? After a couple of months and physically writing to them they agreed that the GEN 1 Smart Meter was faulty and they recalculated my account to what I accepted as a normal statement for us. The next statement was in line with our normal usage but then the Dec 23 statement said I owed £12,000 !! Since then they have recalculated my usage and issued a statement that says I now owe £1400 and at the same time they have reduced my direct debit from £185 per month to £24.00 ?? 
I'm remined of the recent TV programme of the sub-postmasters when they tried to get answers and help, there is no-one willing to listen. Has anyone any other ideas for me to try?

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

On your electricity bill, are the meter readings designated as Actual/Smart or are they Estimates?

Can you read your meter yourself? Are the readings you take from the meter consistent with the ones BG have used to bill you?

Mark_d

Have you go through the BG complaints procedure?  Next step is the Energy Ombudsman.  My energy consumption, with two persons in a 2 bedroom flat, is £199 per month.  I'd expect you consumption to be roughly in line with that so if you're currently paying a direct debit of £24, I'd be setting aside some money as a big bill is likely coming your way.

Clarali1953

Thanks for your comments. I've gone to BG complaints service and thought I had it resolved in August . I was asked to manually submit readings which I have but this just seems to generate these ridiculous statements. Thankfully the direct debit comes out of the account we put the 'bill' money in so it's still there waiting! I'm responding to the latest statement and sending a physical copy to CEO Chris O'Shea. Next step will be the Ombudsman but I've to wait eight weeks although I'd have thought that since this is the second time of complaining I'd have already qualified!

EssexHebridean

Mark_d said:

Have you go through the BG complaints procedure?  Next step is the Energy Ombudsman.  My energy consumption, with two persons in a 2 bedroom flat, is £199 per month.  I'd expect you consumption to be roughly in line with that so if you're currently paying a direct debit of £24, I'd be setting aside some money as a big bill is likely coming your way.

We really don't know enough about the OP to be able to make any kind of assessment of what their use might be, and comparing with your own use isn't very helpful to be honest. To me, your costs seem very high indeed - there are two of us as well, but in a three bedroomed house...I'm currently paying £100 a month. Of course that doesn't take into account that we have built up credit on our account, we are quite well insulated, we use an open fire for some of our heating needs...

I do agree that the OP needs to be working out what their costs should be and either requesting that the DD is corrected to the right amount, or at the least setting aside what they know they should be paying to pay across to he supplier when the situation is resolved. It looks like they are already doing that anyway. 

Ectophile

If you always get a wrong bill after submitting a reading, are you sure your readings are correct?  Failing to spot a decimal point on a meter display could make a huge difference.