Double charging / counting on my electricity bill?

pwood45

The more I look at my bills the more confused I become!

For the last period I noticed a massive spike in electricity usage which having done some calculations for the power hungry appliances in my house I'm still not sure how it would have been possible to use that much. I did the meter creep test and all fine.

I started comparing bills and and the meter readings. There's two sets of readings on each bill which I believe are on / off peak. There's a mix of estimated and smart meter readings - why?!. There's a mix of tarrifs even though my tarrif changed 11 July this year- why ?!

However the thing that I'm most conerned about is that there is duplication in the range of readings for on and off peak which the cost calculations are based on, so really want to get your opinions on whether I'm being daft or not!

I've included a screenshot of the last 3 bills.

Looking purely at the units used, when I take the lowest reading on the first bill (on the left) and highest on the third bill (on the right) , the difference between the readings is 9668 - 8271.3 = 1396.7kWh

When I add up all the totals calcuated on the bills, it comes to 2591.7 kWh , a difference of + 1195kWh

Looking closer I noticed the ranges of the readings for on and off peak are overlapping across the bills and on the most recent bill 11 Nov - 11 Dec you can see the top calculation is covering the reading from 8622 to 9732 , while the botton calculation is for the range of 9296 to 9668 which is within the range of the top readings calculations!

Regardless of different rates, is it right that I am being charged twice for the same units?



Thoughts please!



 

debitcardmayhem

Well, I reckon based on actual readings you are have used 1066.6 (9604.4 - 8537.8] +63.6 (last est) so yes you are being seriously overcharged . 
Someone could check my sums its late …..

Keep_pedalling

You seem to be on a dual rate and the readings for the top rate are all estimated readings apart from the last one.

So it looks like they were under estimating your top (higher rate) readings until they got the actual on the 11th Dec.

Seems on odd mix of estimated and smart meter readings. Who is your supplier?

QrizB

Keep_pedalling said:

Seems on odd mix of estimated and smart meter readings. Who is your supplier?

From the name of the tariff -  SO FLEX - I think it's SO Energy.

https://www.so.energy/

Ildhund

The strange unusually high top figure on the latest bill seems to arise from the fact that SO are only retrieving one reading from your meter. The previous two months, this was taken to be - perhaps - the Tier 1 reading. For some reason, they decided to enter it as the Tier 2 reading for the latest bill. The confusion at their end probably arises from the fact that all of the readings in those three months are in the same range, between 8200 and 9700. The smart readings they've actually retrieved are 11/9 8537.8, 11/10 8896.1, 11/11 9296.7 and 11/12 9732.8. The usage has been Oct  358.3 kWh (11.9 kWh/day), Nov 400.6 kWh (12.9 kWh/day) and Dec 436.1 (14.5 kWh/day), which sounds very reasonable. Are these the sort of figures you'd expect?

You will have to check your meter to see whether it's recording on one register or two. If there are two, the meter should also show a 'total import', the sum of both registers. It's possible that there are two registers, but because it's a single-rate tariff, all usage is being recorded on the one register. Then find out which readings are being applied to your account for billing. One possible explanation for the strange billing is that SO have assumed they're only getting one register's reading, so they've 'estimated' the other one simply by assuming that Tier 2 should be recording about 32% of the total. This of course falls apart when they suddenly decide to enter the latest reading as Tier 2. 

It's quite possible that they're charging you for more than you're actually using. Do you not have any records of your actual meter readings? They are what matter. Have a look at earlier bills to see what the readings were, looking specifically for smart ones.  Then compare to today's readings to find out what your usage has actually been.  

Scot_39

What is your metering arrangement ?

Can you give us the meter or meter models - or a photo with serial number(s) redacted ?

You mention you suspect off peak and peak split sections - but these are now being applied as a - or should be - to a single rate tariff - both top and bottom are 25.4p/kWh after Oct 1st cap increase.  

Were you on say economy 7 or other multirate at one stage and requested a switch to single rate - do you have one meter - or an old split two meter for twin circuit (where one meter say only measured NSH or HW immersion style heating etc and only one part now smart ?)

Given there is only one smart meter reading on those statements - we need to know what that corresponds to on actual meter readings  (old day, old night, total etc - ideally both now and at some point in past historically)

I am not familiar with how SO do billing - but it my supplier sent me opaque bills like that - and any repeated bills with estimates - I'd have been on the phone within days to query what is going on.

The following based on the presumption that you really still do or did have an old multirate configured meter or meters.

Looks like one of the 2 registers - if both still active - never being properly updated on their billing system - and in the final bill to 10 Dec - they have suddenly decided to populate the one smart reading on top section of the bill as the live register from the smart meter - and not the bottom section of the bill - as previous two months.  Hence the sudden step and a demand for 1000 kWh plus.

Sometimes on economy 7 the readings can be transposed - sometimes after a meter change, a supplier change or even sometimes just after a tariff change - and so units billed at wrong rates - errors generated entirely at supplier end.

My initial impression is therefore billing is almost certainly wrong.   The problem we don't know yet if its under billing or over billing you - my suspicion is the later.

Basically if they meter was left as dual rate - they could still be receiving both peak and off peak registers and of course the total.

It may have been easier to preserve current format - for your bills to have kept both readings every month on relevant sections - and continued to bill you accurately - but at the flat rate - rather than peak / off peak rates as they would have done before on say economy 7.

If they wanted to change meter - so now only generated one register / reading (it can be done OTA on smart - no visit required) or the billing to use the total readings - and it is a total reading they are now using - then they should perhaps have simplified your bill format so only had one set of readings and charges going forward.

The problem is we don't know - what that one smart reading is on the current monthly statements /  bills - whether its the old day, the old night, or total / now only rate.

And if so - when it went wrong.

From the numbers I'm guessing the meter is now few years old - so not the source of the recent problem.

If its now using only one of two still active split registers in the meter registers - and the meter is still updating both you could potentially be being underbilled.

If it's now meter total - their could have 

a) been a false step in the past - just like the one now created on Dec 10 top section.

b) and if using the total for one half of bill - and they are still as it would appear estimating over and above that total - so adding estimated over and above that total monthly usage on 2 of 3 examples in the top half - on the third now the bottom half - then have almost certainly been overbilling you.

So we need - and you will need - if you can - to try to get information as to how your meter is now operating and gather as much historical billing data as you can - before you reach out to SO to get them to investigate - and fix if required (I suspect it will be) your billing.

1) Paper trail / past bill records

Firstly you need to gather as many historical bills - paper, email or download as many as you can from the online account before challenging / querying with SO. 

[As soon as start tinkering if there is a suspected / found billing fault - you may lose that historic billing from the online account - when bills for the same period are re-issued - some large suppliers do it almost immediately. Bills that you might need as part of complaint / compensation claim.]

[Aside / future reference 

As a rule - if you can (able) to read your own meter - you should never accept estimated bills - unless it's a simple shift e.g. to estimate the cap price change usage - for a meter reading submitted a couple of days either side - updating an estimate for the 1st of month.

Certainly good idea not to let it run over a few months.  If get an estimated bill - or series like you have - good idea to read yourself and phone in / online report reading.

Estimates bills can and do accumulate errors - leading to overpayment or underpayment - and even on annualised DD plans - it feeds eventually into those payment levels.

When was the last time you had an actual reading on the top and bottom section of your monthly statements - prior to the current ?

If you don't have any actual recent historical readings - ideally in the last 12m -

You could use the IHD if have one - which should at least give historic weekly and monthly - at least for the total register - but if like mine - not any peak off peak splits - going back to Jan / last Dec (upto 13 months).

Your only billed single rate - so will at least give idea of true monthly costs - most IHDs will give both kWh and £x.xx costs - record both if can get to it (I have to press a couple of buttons to do so and then cycle through options for daily weekly monthly etc)

If you attach a photo of your IHD - someone here can give you the button sequence

OR if can - you could try to download the data from the actual meter - which should include active meter registers and total - using an app like bright or loop - if you are comfortable / able to do so.

2) Current Meter Operation

You need - if can and able to (some meters are not very accessible - my sister has arthritis - she cannot reach her ceiling or flor mounted meters) - or have a friend / relative / neighbour who can help you - don't put yourself at risk - go to your actual physical meter or meters - and read not only the total register - but if was multirate - both the peak and off peak registers - and repeat again the next day or few days / next week etc when can (or can again get a friend or relative to do so) - to check if both old multirate registers are still actually present - and if still incrementing.

So your looking for say rate1/r1 total use in kWh, rate2/r2 in kWh and total in kWh.

And as above need to try to see which one is the one now appearing on the billing - the one or ones that are more like the 9600 + last weeks usage  (again the IHD if have one like mine gives last n days then last n weeks then last 13 months as a clue to how much it's changed in the interim since last statement.)

Again if your not sure - post meter type or photo / IHD photo etc - and someone will send you a link or instructions - it's often just a simple large button press - and on some models - the display then just cycles through active registers if watch it for a minute or so.

pwood45

Wow amazing to get so much support from you all, thank you so much it is really appreciated !!! 

I will try to collate the info and post back here asap today

None of this is simple is it? It feels like you need a City & Guilds in Energy Bills to understand all this stuff 

pwood45

Is it a bad idea to share photos with my meter MPAN and Serial number on? What could someone use that for? Just asking as redacting from lots of pictures is extra work

QrizB

pwood45 said:

Is it a bad idea to share photos with my meter MPAN and Serial number on? What could someone use that for? Just asking as redacting from lots of pictures is extra work

Pick one or two photos to get us started. If we need more info we'll let you know.

I often find the easiest way to obscure info in pictures is to draw solid rectangles over them.

Netexporter

Or stick some tape over the numbers before photographing.

Gerry1

pwood45 said:

Is it a bad idea to share photos with my meter MPAN and Serial number on? What could someone use that for? Just asking as redacting from lots of pictures is extra work

Although the risk might seem low, the consequences could be serious.

You might think that everyone is now well aware of the scam phone calls claiming to be from Microsoft/BT/Openreach saying there's a virus on your computer, or from MasterCard/Visa/The Bank asking for confirmation of some high value purchases. But they're obviously still profitable, even if only one person in several thousand falls for them.

Personal data can leak: I used a unique alias email for BT but it was soon spammed, probably having been sold by a dodgy agent working at home or in a third world call centre. There's no shortage of scammers and they're getting cleverer all the time, so it's better not to disclose anything on a website that could identify you.  Combined with other information that's easily discovered (such as your supplier and your annual kWh usage) it's easy to let your guard down because you think you know who they are.