Incorrect bills

Dippygoose

I am with octopus and for the last 4 months they have been billing me incorrectly and only charging me for electric electricity not the gas.

on every occasion I contact them to get the bill corrected which they did. They have now sent me a surprise bill because those four corrections were wrong and they were using estimated billing to make the corrections.

what can I do? I feel it a little unfair that they got the bill wrong even though I’ve been contacting them month to charge me correctly.

debitcardmayhem

Do you submit readings from your meters?

Dippygoose

debitcardmayhem said:

Do you submit readings from your meters?

no I have a smart meter that’s where the problem was they say they couldn’t get readings from the smart meter. Didn’t tell me and just did estimated billing.

Even though I’ve been contacting them for the last four months.

victor2

Dippygoose said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Do you submit readings from your meters?

no I have a smart meter that’s where the problem was they say they couldn’t get readings from the smart meter. Didn’t tell me and just did estimated billing.

Even though I’ve been contacting them for the last four months.

Do they now have an actual reading? If so, they will finally be billing you for what you have used. 

Going forward submit gas meter readings monthly yourself. You could raise a formal complaint with them, going over the communications you've had with them and maybe you'll get a small "goodwill" gesture. Do everything by email so you have a record of what has been said.

Dippygoose

victor2 said:

Dippygoose said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Do you submit readings from your meters?

no I have a smart meter that’s where the problem was they say they couldn’t get readings from the smart meter. Didn’t tell me and just did estimated billing.

Even though I’ve been contacting them for the last four months.

Do they now have an actual reading? If so, they will finally be billing you for what you have used. 

Going forward submit gas meter readings monthly yourself. You could raise a formal complaint with them, going over the communications you've had with them and maybe you'll get a small "goodwill" gesture. Do everything by email so you have a record of what has been said.

They want me to submit meter readings on the 30th which I will do.
that’s a good idea to ask for a goodwill gesture they have put it to their complaints department but it’s unfair to send me a corrected bill for a bill they were supposed to have corrected Even though I’ve been contacting them every month for four months because the bill wasn’t correct.

My argument is as I’ve been contacting them they’ve had every opportunity to tell me the smart meter wasn’t working.

I hate estimated billing I don’t know how energy and water companies get away with it can you imagine if they did estimated billing in Tesco’s?

victor2

Dippygoose said:

victor2 said:

Dippygoose said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Do you submit readings from your meters?

no I have a smart meter that’s where the problem was they say they couldn’t get readings from the smart meter. Didn’t tell me and just did estimated billing.

Even though I’ve been contacting them for the last four months.

Do they now have an actual reading? If so, they will finally be billing you for what you have used. 

Going forward submit gas meter readings monthly yourself. You could raise a formal complaint with them, going over the communications you've had with them and maybe you'll get a small "goodwill" gesture. Do everything by email so you have a record of what has been said.

They want me to submit meter readings on the 30th which I will do.
that’s a good idea to ask for a goodwill gesture they have put it to their complaints department but it’s unfair to send me a corrected bill for a bill they were supposed to have corrected Even though I’ve been contacting them every month for four months because the bill wasn’t correct.

My argument is as I’ve been contacting them they’ve had every opportunity to tell me the smart meter wasn’t working.

I hate estimated billing I don’t know how energy and water companies get away with it can you imagine if they did estimated billing in Tesco’s?

I'm surprised they didn't ask you for a reading when you contacted them previously. Did they get an actual reading when they produced the "surprise" bill?

Don't ask them for a goodwill gesture, but they might offer one for the inconvenience. It doesn't sound like you'll be out of pocket, just not accurately billed thus far, presumably with low estimates. 

Dippygoose

victor2 said:

Dippygoose said:

victor2 said:

Dippygoose said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Do you submit readings from your meters?

no I have a smart meter that’s where the problem was they say they couldn’t get readings from the smart meter. Didn’t tell me and just did estimated billing.

Even though I’ve been contacting them for the last four months.

Do they now have an actual reading? If so, they will finally be billing you for what you have used. 

Going forward submit gas meter readings monthly yourself. You could raise a formal complaint with them, going over the communications you've had with them and maybe you'll get a small "goodwill" gesture. Do everything by email so you have a record of what has been said.

They want me to submit meter readings on the 30th which I will do.
that’s a good idea to ask for a goodwill gesture they have put it to their complaints department but it’s unfair to send me a corrected bill for a bill they were supposed to have corrected Even though I’ve been contacting them every month for four months because the bill wasn’t correct.

My argument is as I’ve been contacting them they’ve had every opportunity to tell me the smart meter wasn’t working.

I hate estimated billing I don’t know how energy and water companies get away with it can you imagine if they did estimated billing in Tesco’s?

I'm surprised they didn't ask you for a reading when you contacted them previously. Did they get an actual reading when they produced the "surprise" bill?

Don't ask them for a goodwill gesture, but they might offer one for the inconvenience. It doesn't sound like you'll be out of pocket, just not accurately billed thus far, presumably with low estimates. 

They never asked me for readings because I have a smart meter I never presume to ask every time I complained that the bill was too little they just seemed to just Logged in and corrected it.

It might be worth my while providing them with meter readings as well as my smart meter Although that does defeat the point of a smart meter.

although it does seem unfair to me I ring them up to get a bill corrected and then they go. The corrected bill is incorrect. Here is a new corrected bill and how do I know the new corrected bill is correct ?

Dippygoose

I’ve just found out they cannot charge me this under the back billing principal if they’ve corrected a bill but got it wrong they can’t correct it again. It’s tough luck on their part.

Alnat1

You haven't had an incorrect bill, you've had an estimated bill. Octopus are obviously having problems getting the meter readings from the gas meter so have estimated your use.

Now you have supplied them with the actual reading they have adjusted the bill and reissued it.

It's absolutely nothing to do with back billing, you do need to pay for what you have used.

Scot_39

Dippygoose said:

victor2 said:

Dippygoose said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Do you submit readings from your meters?

no I have a smart meter that’s where the problem was they say they couldn’t get readings from the smart meter. Didn’t tell me and just did estimated billing.

Even though I’ve been contacting them for the last four months.

Do they now have an actual reading? If so, they will finally be billing you for what you have used. 

Going forward submit gas meter readings monthly yourself. You could raise a formal complaint with them, going over the communications you've had with them and maybe you'll get a small "goodwill" gesture. Do everything by email so you have a record of what has been said.

They want me to submit meter readings on the 30th which I will do.
that’s a good idea to ask for a goodwill gesture they have put it to their complaints department but it’s unfair to send me a corrected bill for a bill they were supposed to have corrected Even though I’ve been contacting them every month for four months because the bill wasn’t correct.

My argument is as I’ve been contacting them they’ve had every opportunity to tell me the smart meter wasn’t working.

I hate estimated billing I don’t know how energy and water companies get away with it can you imagine if they did estimated billing in Tesco’s?

The statements will have likely been telling you  - as most suppliers indicate whether smart, measured or estimated against readings on every bill / statement.

It is entirely reasonable for a supplier to expect you to pick up on the fact if that information is there (i havent sen an Octopus sratement or their on line portal - but I presume they would indicate missing readings clearly enough).

But again you may find you were contractually liable to submit monthly even in this scenario - which is not at all uncommon - non communicating smart meter.

It's standard in my suppliers T&Cs since moved to monthly maybe even Octopus Kraken based billing  - to provide a monthly actual reading by whatever method - manual or smart.

And as only 4m - back billing rules wouldn't apply - any catch up for unbilled units within last 12 m is allowed.

And their license conditions are to make reasonable efforts to get a measurement once every 12 months.  They aren't going to knock down your door if you fail to submit as and when requested or potentially just where contractually obliged.

But you should have IMO been told regularly - so 4m ago to start submitting monthly until meter communication resolved. 
And a very small goodwill gesture might be warranted for that omission.

RelievedSheff

You may think that the billing is unfair, but you have used that energy and you do need to pay for it.