Unexpected Enormous Electricity Bill - British Gas

MultiFuelBurner

@amyk

The responses from you so far are all very emotional what the people here need to help you are facts.

The meter readings when you moved in, the meter readings when meters were changed a d the meter readings as of today.

Copies of bills to see how much your readings differ from the estimated readings.

Then people can help you.

When you are ready pull all that info together 👍

Mobtr

hardware that functions and delivers clear alerts if function is lacking; 

You did have this, the meters recorded your usage so the hardware was functioning although maybe not as fully as you were led to believe, however there was a clear alert that it wasn’t in the fact that your bills for 18 months showed Estimate rather than Smart or Our Read. 

This is obviously not your first property and you say the other one was similar but there could still be huge differences such as the old one having gch new one being all electric which will impact massively on your bills especially if you have panel heaters. 

What are you wanting as a resolution to this, what do you want British Gas to do? 

EssexHebridean

Just a reminder - we have all been beginners in things before, and help and practical suggestions are far more effective in enabling people to increase their knowledge than hindsight-laden lectures and “what you should have done” comments from people who clearly have many years more expertise in this area than the OP. They will know for the future - and at one stage, YOU also knew none of this stuff! 

JSHarris

Very sadly, @AmyK you have been suckered into believing that your supplier was telling you the absolute truth about your particular smart meter.  Others have emphasised the "never pay an estimated bill" mantra, but it's entirely understandable that many people just take it at face value that their smart meter is working properly, that data is being sent to DCC by it and that their supplier is pulling that data from DCC to determine their bills.

The reality is that at any one time quite a lot of smart meters may not be working properly.  As of March 2023 an estimated 3 million smart meters weren't working as they should, roughly 9% of the total.  It looks very much as if you may be one of those 3 million.  To clarify this, when a smart meter isn't communicating it is still usually working as a dumb meter, so will still record electricity usage.

Others have suggested actions you can take to deal with the accrued debt and spread the payments out (assuming that you really have used the amount of electricity that BG say you have).  The lesson going forward is to take regular manual readings from the meter and cross check those with future bills, so you can be reasonably sure of not getting another nasty surprise in future.  If your meter starts to send data to DCC reliably in future, it's still best not to rely on that and still take regular (say once a month) manual meter readings.  The smart metering system is generally fairly reliable once it's up and running, but it does rely on the mobile phone network, so cannot ever be 100% reliable.

CouldntResist

Per above,  I don't see smart meters change much here, if you are responsible for paying the bill then it is in your interest to check it; at some point the real numbers win out.

I didn't take her an impression that people were offering hindsight-laden lectures, more pointing out that if a bill says it is using estimated readings then it's clearly not accurate whether you are told you have a smart meter sending reading or not. It is not unreasonable to ponder whether the person paying the bill checks for themselves now and again if it is correct.

I'm all for people paying ludicrously low amounts to energy companies if they are on estimated bills and use that money for something more productive (I've done it myself) but I expect the other side of the coin to be that they know what the reality of that situation is.

BikingBud

CouldntResist said:

Per above,  I don't see smart meters change much here, if you are responsible for paying the bill then it is in your interest to check it; at some point the real numbers win out.

I didn't take her an impression that people were offering hindsight-laden lectures, more pointing out that if a bill says it is using estimated readings then it's clearly not accurate whether you are told you have a smart meter sending reading or not. It is not unreasonable to ponder whether the person paying the bill checks for themselves now and again if it is correct.

I'm all for people paying ludicrously low amounts to energy companies if they are on estimated bills and use that money for something more productive (I've done it myself) but I expect the other side of the coin to be that they know what the reality of that situation is.

If its a "free" loan it's no different to stoozing but in the same way you are required to know your ongoing liability and the piper does eventually need paying.

AmyK

Hi Everyone,

I promised that I would return with updates (see below)  in the hope that it might serve to help other people in our situation. 

I posted originally in search of general practical advice, and to connect with anyone who might be in the same boat. 

I appreciate and thank the several commenters who gave up their time to provide helpful and pragmatic information, and I regret that I was not able to follow up quickly for two reasons:

1. I was hesitant about giving out our personal meter readings/other  online while the case was ongoing, and so just hoped to update following a quick resolution (which was not to be). 
2. I was not prepared to further engage with the discussion as a whole because I did not have the capacity or the time to address the volume of presumptive and personal speculation running parallel to this.

Recap: We received a huge, atypical bill back in January, having reduced our direct debit by British Gas' request, to account for a large build up of credit that followed our very high, fixed rate, energy-crisis tariff, and having had our 10 year old smart-meter replaced. 

Update on the case: British Gas have now wiped the entire bill from our account. We have also been promised a written apology and £150 goodwill.

We believe this turnaround was because there had been back-billing applied far beyond the allowable period, and/or that the smart-meter had not been operating to an acceptable standard for the entirety of our tenancy. Neither have been acknowledged to us at any point.

This dispute lasted just under 9 months, and our result was attained via Which? Legal advice, the Energy Ombudsman, and a heavy amount of work on our part. 

Although we believe our months of distress and time spent fighting this exceed the goodwill offer, our success in reversing this bill was what mattered, and as such, we have accepted the decision with much relief. 

Every case is different, and we know we're very lucky that we were able to get the result we had hoped for, but I'm offering a rundown of what happened for any others that might find it useful. 

Condensed overview of the process:

British Gas did not offer any evidence to support the estimated breakdowns on the bill, consistently misled or lied to us, evaded direct questions, falsely promised resolutions which did not occur, and on many occasions failed to provide us with coherent discourse during support sessions. As we found out, they shut down our complaint immediately without processing it.  We received consistent, conflicting statements regarding our previous, smart-meter and its operational status during this billing period. 

British Gas attempted to recoup this bill by increasing our direct debit to hundreds of pounds per month, with very little notice, and no option for negotiation. 

We sought advice from Which? Legal Advice, who were extremely helpful, then went to the Energy Ombudsman and raised a dispute. We spent significant time gathering, cataloguing and notating all our statements, interactions, support sessions and images relevant to the case. 

We requested several remedies, including: 

Transparent evidenced breakdowns of said bill, with independent testing of the original meter, or a re-calculation based on typical usage for this period. 

Compensation for the irresponsible neglect of service and support provision.

Assurances that there would be no further back-billing or relevant charges for this period, post-resolution.

Assurances that there would be no imposition of pre-payment meter or otherwise.

We received an initial response from British Gas which did not meet the majority of our requests. We had to action two Data Access Service Requests with Centrica (British Gas’ parent company) to access further evidence, and we then worked to put together a reinforced argument. 

Last week, we received a decision from the Ombudsman. British Gas did not submit further evidence or answers, but wiped the bill along with said apology/goodwill gesture. 

If you are going through similar yourself: 

You have options. Gather everything you can, Complain first, then go to the Energy Ombudsman. 

An unexpected help came in the form of Chat GPT. Always double check any information it gives you, but it was an incredible resource when researching our rights, service provider responsibilities, and ensuring that our statements were efficient and effective for purpose alongside the evidence we provided. You don't have to give it any personal info for this. 

If you have to pay in the meantime, make very clear that you are ‘Paying under Protest’.

Know that energy providers are required to provide a service which is competent, understandable, operational and transparent. If it is not, they are in Violation of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, specifically the failure to provide services with reasonable care and skill under Section 49, not to mention potential violation of SMICoP and UK government policy regarding their responsibility to your smart meter system. 

Download and keep every single piece of data you can, asap. If it’s in your online energy account, it’s subject to deletion, re-issue or update. By keeping a record of documents issued at the time it can help evidence a timeline of developments.

Screenshot anything relevant that you can’t download.

You are entitled to data a company holds on you, delivered within the month. Submit a Data Access Service Request for anything you think you’ll need through the company as early as possible so you’re not waiting on it later on. 

We also made it very clear that we were not willing to change to a pre-payment meter. Do not be forced into this. 

Please look after yourself, and don't let yourself be pressured into making decisions on the spot. A bill like this can be really traumatic, especially if you're struggling, and you deserve impartial advice and support to make the best decision for you, which is absolutely out there.  

Lastly, and very importantly: 

Please do not allow anybody to make you feel ashamed if you have put your trust in a service provider and had that trust broken. 

Although knowledge and foresight can protect you, it is NOT your responsibility to mitigate for potential breaches of service, or anticipate service failure. 

You have a right to trust your service provider, and it is their responsibility to respect that trust and deliver. You are not accountable for the things you did not suspect, and lack of suspicion is not a flaw. 

Best of luck! 

P.S. Our case-worker did mention that the majority of their cases in recent years relate to British Gas. We will, of course, be switching. 

Reed_Richards

I'm glad to read that your case was resolved, if not entirely to your satisfaction then at least insofar as you had your bill revoked.  But I find it disturbing that you have not actually achieved a clear understanding of what went wrong.

1. Whilst you should be very careful not to divulge personal information, just giving actual or estimated meter readings should be safe.
2. "Presumptive and personal speculation" tends to arise in a vacuum when somebody asks for help but then fails to provide sufficient information for it to be given.

AmyK said:

If you are going through similar yourself: 

You have options. Gather everything you can, Complain first, then go to the Energy Ombudsman. 

An unexpected help came in the form of Chat GPT. Always double check any information it gives you, but it was an incredible resource when researching our rights, service provider responsibilities, and ensuring that our statements were efficient and effective for purpose alongside the evidence we provided. You don't have to give it any personal info for this. 

If you have to pay in the meantime, make very clear that you are ‘Paying under Protest’.

Know that energy providers are required to provide a service which is competent, understandable, operational and transparent. If it is not, they are in Violation of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, specifically the failure to provide services with reasonable care and skill under Section 49, not to mention potential violation of SMICoP and UK government policy regarding their responsibility to your smart meter system. 

I'm intrigued that you managed to get Chat GPT to be so useful.

"Paying under Protest" seems to be a useful phrase that I have not seen quoted here before.

And the section of the Consumer Rights Act that you quote seems to be useful to anyone disputing a bill that is less than transparent.