Gas bill spike after leak on other side of town

JohnSwift10

When I download my data from n3rgy I occasionally get a glitch in the amount of gas used but my bill from Eon is always correct


I don't think I used 16777215.00 M3 in half an hour.

There are 10 half hours when I used 16777215.00 M3 in the past 90 days and it always occurs over 2 half hours together.

15/02/2025 14:00	0.278
15/02/2025 14:30	0.071
15/02/2025 15:00	0.149
15/02/2025 15:30	0.204
15/02/2025 16:00	0.044
15/02/2025 16:30	0.156
15/02/2025 17:00	0.237
15/02/2025 17:30	16777215.00
15/02/2025 18:00	16777215.00
15/02/2025 18:30	0
15/02/2025 19:00	0
15/02/2025 19:30	0
15/02/2025 20:00	0
15/02/2025 20:30	0
15/02/2025 21:00	0
15/02/2025 21:30	0
15/02/2025 22:00	0.213

EssexHebridean

QrizB said:

Ashgordon123 said:

I must have a strong case but as I mentioned before, Scottish Power are blaming Wales and West.

Scottish Power can blame the man in the moon if they want to, but the fact remains that your supplier is SP, your contract is with SP and it's SP who have billed you for gas that you haven't used due to some sort of problem with SPs metering and billing system.

This! It makes not the slightest difference whose fault they want to claim it was - they are liable for the issue you have, and as said earlier on, if they then want to take issue with the distributor after that it’s their call, it’s nothing whatsoever to do with you though! 

It is SP who supply you, and who you have a contract with for that supply to be metered in an accurate way. Clearly on this occasion it has not been - even SP seem to be acknowledging that! 

I would make that formal complaint, then if they simply come back and say the same thing again, go straight back and say that in that case, and if that is their final decision, you demand that they issue you an immediate deadlock letter in order that you can escalate the matter to the Energy Ombudsman. 

When you present your complaint to the EO make sure that you do so in a measured way, free of emotion. Include all relevant evidence  - people on here can help you workout what exactly to include if that helps. 

Ildhund

QrizB said:

... it's SP who have billed you for gas that you haven't used due to some sort of problem with SPs metering and billing system.

How about "...have billed you for gas that you haven't (and couldn't possibly have) used due to some sort of problem with SPs metering and billing system.

MWT

JohnSwift10 said:

When I download my data from n3rgy I occasionally get a glitch in the amount of gas used but my bill from Eon is always correct


I don't think I used 16777215.00 M3 in half an hour.

That is the Hex value of the error message for 'unable to read' if I recall correctly, it is the most common error you will see and most suppliers set those values to zero as they do not use HH numbers for billing gas, only the daily register.

Ashgordon123

EssexHebridean said:

QrizB said:

Ashgordon123 said:

I must have a strong case but as I mentioned before, Scottish Power are blaming Wales and West.

Scottish Power can blame the man in the moon if they want to, but the fact remains that your supplier is SP, your contract is with SP and it's SP who have billed you for gas that you haven't used due to some sort of problem with SPs metering and billing system.

This! It makes not the slightest difference whose fault they want to claim it was - they are liable for the issue you have, and as said earlier on, if they then want to take issue with the distributor after that it’s their call, it’s nothing whatsoever to do with you though! 

It is SP who supply you, and who you have a contract with for that supply to be metered in an accurate way. Clearly on this occasion it has not been - even SP seem to be acknowledging that! 

I would make that formal complaint, then if they simply come back and say the same thing again, go straight back and say that in that case, and if that is their final decision, you demand that they issue you an immediate deadlock letter in order that you can escalate the matter to the Energy Ombudsman. 

When you present your complaint to the EO make sure that you do so in a measured way, free of emotion. Include all relevant evidence  - people on here can help you workout what exactly to include if that helps. 

Cheers. I did make the case of “my contract is with you not wales and west “ but they talked me into taking up with wales and west and then they encouraged to lodge a complaint with wales and west. 

You are right though - it’s SP who are charging me not wales and west . 

Thinking about it I also asked SP to take it up with wales and west, they said they couldn’t due to data protection. 

Qyburn

Keep it simple, if you have a day when the total of the half hourly consumption figures doesn’t correspond with the increase in meter readings, then that's clearly a metering fault irrespective of any speculation about the cause.

Ashgordon123

I’ve had a couple of phone conversations with Scottish Power, one with their main centre the other with complaints centre. 

I am genuinely shocked by how devious they are about trying to get round what has obviously happened. Mainly being selective with their use of figures, and throwing them around at speed. 

Presumably they get out of compensating wronged customers by confusing them. 

If it hadn’t thoroughly researched my figures (which took hours) and picked up some advice here, they would have bamboozled me into thinking there was nothing to see here. 

They’ve now gone off to check their figures. Next stop is probably a deadlock letter. 

Ashgordon123

An update.
I got through to Scottish Power’s complaints department after sending an email.
They initially tried to bamboozle and fob me off, but scuttled off when I questioned the figures they were choosing to use. 

Then someone else phoned back yesterday, who accepted I was right. That there was no way that amount of gas could have been used and it must be a metering error. 

I haven’t seen any money yet but it sounds promising that this will get a fair conclusion. 

It is bittersweet as I’ve spent hours and hours of my life plugging away at this when it should have been swiftly resolved. 
Thanks for all your help. 

EssexHebridean

I’m very pleased to hear it. The issue isn’t anyone being devious as such I suspect - it’s someone wrongly reading a situation - and in this case also reaching a wrong conclusion, that it was the gas leak that caused the issue, rather than a more probably coincidental meter fault.

I would suggest that it might not be a bad idea going forwards to take readings weekly, and then check each bill against those readings very carefully. It may never produce the same fault again, but on the other hand… 

Ashgordon123

EssexHebridean said:

I’m very pleased to hear it. The issue isn’t anyone being devious as such I suspect - it’s someone wrongly reading a situation - and in this case also reaching a wrong conclusion, that it was the gas leak that caused the issue, rather than a more probably coincidental meter fault.

I would suggest that it might not be a bad idea going forwards to take readings weekly, and then check each bill against those readings very carefully. It may never produce the same fault again, but on the other hand… 

Their investigator presented a thought through and persuasive argument that the increase was down to a levelling out over a period of time. 

He didn’t know the reading figures for the day in question though and how they compared to other days. he was probably not deliberately hiding this info  but it was bemusing as to why that wouldn’t have been the first check. When I questioned him on this there was literally silence on the other end of the phone. 

I had a few conversations with different people like this before finally being contacted by someone who was exemplary . 

Without a cast iron knowledge of kWh, cubic metres, smart meters, my readings over a period of time, how it all ties in etc I wouldn’t have got the result. This took hours though and I’m sure most people wouldn’t bother.
Anyway, life goes on - with my refund secured I can look forward to treating myself to…..a contribution towards increased gas prices 😀