Eon Next billed for 5x the electricity on meter reading

NervyBuyer

At the beginning of March Eon Next sent me a bill for electricity for 27 days in December claiming my usage was 5 times what it actually was, even though their own readings show the true amount. I tried querying this firstly via the email address the bill was sent from (which said 'reply if you have any queries'), stating their own readings from the bill and my online account, and attaching photos of the indoor readout to back these up. The only response I got was another copy of December's energy bill, which covers gas only as they didn't bill me for electricity at the time. Then I tried the complaints email address from which I have had silence since the initial acknowledgement of receipt.

This is clearly some sort of administrative mistake - background is below. Any tips on how to take this further?

I had both meters replaced at Eon's request as my electricity meter had reached the end of its legal life. The engineer had a lot of trouble with the electricity meter, it took several hours and a lot of phone calls but apparently was fine in the end. A few days later I checked the meters themselves (not the indoor readout which appeared to be working fine) and found the electricity one was blank. I contacted Eon who said this was normal and it could take 3 weeks to start communicating. Sure enough, a little over 3 weeks later the first reading appeared in my online account. However there was no electricity change at all on my subsequent bill for that month. As I am in credit and pay by direct debit I ignored it thinking it would all come out in the wash in the first full month of billing with the new meter. There was also no electricity billed the following month, but readings were ticking up as expected in my account. I forgot about it as I was on holiday. 

At the end of the 3rd month (Feb) I finally received a backdated bill for the electricity since the smart meter installation. The Jan and Feb charges were normal, matching my typical usage and readings from all sources. The December charge was for 75kWh when only 15kWh were recorded by the meter reading in my account dated end of Dec, and by the indoor readout. The problem seems to stem from the start reading they are using at the point of meter change. The gas account shows the reading starting at 0, and all is fine with that account. The electricity shows a 'data collector reading' of 99923. This doesn't vaguely match even the last reading on the previous meter. The old meters were read on the morning of the change, submitted and billed accurately right up to the date of the smart meter starting.

On a practical note, my electricity usage is very predictable (and low as I am a single person household, out a lot and have no internet or TV at home). I was also away for Christmas for 12 days over the period in question, so I am confident there would have been no unusual spike in actual usage (no crazy Christmas light displays either!).

Note that this isn't a problem of 'bills going up after smart meter installation' - my usage according to the actual readings is the same as before, and the 2nd and 3rd months after the switch over have been billed accurately.

Thanks for reading!

EssexHebridean

You should have been left with either a card or a sticker confirming the final reading from the old meter and the start reading on the new one - do you have that, and what were those readings?

Further question - the screen on the meter isn't still blank is it? You are aware that there may be a sequence of buttons to press to "wake it up"? (Although this is less common on electric meters, I think?)

NervyBuyer

No card or sticker confirming readings, just my own photos of the old and new meters and the indoor readout. As I say, the old meter reading was taken and submitted on the morning of the switchover and billed correctly up to and including that date.

The meter itself isn't blank now. I was wrong about 'a few days' above now I've looked at the photos - it was actually just the day after installation it was blank. The day after that it was not blank and I took a photo of the reading saying 00000kWh (000005 kWh for gas), which I took to mean it wasn't actually showing anything valid since clearly I had used electricity by then (lights, fridge). 

The electricity reading immediately before the switch was 955.

NervyBuyer

I should have also said that the daily data for December (since the smart meter was installed) is all recorded (correctly) in the app on a graph. All sources of data (theirs and mine) are consistent except kWh on the actual bill.

I'm just after the right way to escalate with Eon.

QrizB

Data collector readings are from the Mysterious Third Party.

You should be able to challenge the reading via Ron's complaints process.

housebuyer143

Are they charging you for imperial or metric?
If you get a new meter it will be in metric but if your last one was imperial and they don't update the system then they can do the calculation right. The readings would be correct but the charge significantly higher. I'm not sure if that's the case here. 

QrizB

housebuyer143 said:

Are they charging you for imperial or metric?

Now I'm intrigued.

A kilowatt-hour is neither Imperial nor metric. An Imperial electricity meter would presumably measure in (thousands of) BTUs, while a metric one would measure in (millions of) Joules? 

housebuyer143 said:

If you get a new meter it will be in metric but if your last one was imperial and they don't update the system then they can do the calculation right. The readings would be correct but the charge significantly higher. I'm not sure if that's the case here. 

Fortunately, 1 kBTU is about 1.06 MJ, so exchanging an Imperial meter for a metric one wouldn't make a huge difference to the bill.

It will however confuse all those people who expect an electricity meter to measure kilowatt-hours, as 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ = 3.82 kBTU.

housebuyer143

QrizB said:

housebuyer143 said:

Are they charging you for imperial or metric?

Now I'm intrigued.

A kilowatt-hour is neither Imperial nor metric. An Imperial electricity meter would presumably measure in (thousands of) BTUs, while a metric one would measure in (millions of) Joules? 

housebuyer143 said:

If you get a new meter it will be in metric but if your last one was imperial and they don't update the system then they can do the calculation right. The readings would be correct but the charge significantly higher. I'm not sure if that's the case here. 

Fortunately, 1 kBTU is about 1.06 MJ, so exchanging an Imperial meter for a metric one wouldn't make a huge difference to the bill.

It will however confuse all those people who expect an electricity meter to measure kilowatt-hours, as 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ = 3.82 kBTU.

Im thinking about gas actually! Sorry! That one does get screwed up when you change from imperial to metric because they multiply the reading by 2.83 and charge accordingly.

NervyBuyer

All Eon's readings are correct (indoor readout, reading history in online account, daily readings in app), showing 15kWh used, but for some reason there's a random 75kWh on the bill instead (right under the correct meter reading!).

It's how to escalate the problem I'm stuck at, I have exhausted the email complaints process with the only result being a duplicate copy of a bill for December with no electricity charge on it. 

SwanJon

NervyBuyer said:

The electricity shows a 'data collector reading' of 99923.

NervyBuyer said:

The day after that it was not blank and I took a photo of the reading saying 00000kWh

NervyBuyer said:

All Eon's readings are correct 

Feels like it's the opening read on on the new meter you need to challenge - that's where the 'extra' 75 (77?) kWh are coming from - from 99923 to (1)00000.
It's why the meter engineer should have left the card with the old & new reads on.
If the electricity part of the bill has been withdrawn they may be amending it before rebilling from the right start read.

NervyBuyer

SwanJon said:

NervyBuyer said:

The electricity shows a 'data collector reading' of 99923.

NervyBuyer said:

The day after that it was not blank and I took a photo of the reading saying 00000kWh

NervyBuyer said:

All Eon's readings are correct 

Feels like it's the opening read on on the new meter you need to challenge - that's where the 'extra' 75 (77?) kWh are coming from - from 99923 to (1)00000.
It's why the meter engineer should have left the card with the old & new reads on.
If the electricity part of the bill has been withdrawn they may be amending it before rebilling from the right start read.

It hasn't been withdrawn, it was never billed (just the DDs collected as normal). Dec and Jan bills had gas charges only. End of Feb an electricity bill was sent for all 3 months. The excess charge was paid out of my credit.