Smart Gas Meter replaced, all account credit taken

Daddyfixit

Hi,
Our fixed Tariff came up for renewal and whilst I was looking at the offer our provider (So energy) was suggesting, I noticed that for the last year our smart gas meter had been sending the same reading. The IHD has always been intermittent so didn't take much notice that the gas reading wasn't showing and we generally always had credit on our account as we always paid the same DD amount throughout the seasons. The landing page for the provider also said they were receiving readings.
I rang customer service and they agreed there was an issue and quickly arranged a replacement meter as ours had a completely blank display. The new meter was fitted promptly and I thought we were good. 

Today I checked online and looked at the readings and find there is now a mix of estimates and manual readings for the last year where before there was one reading 2103 and usage was 0 for each month. The provider has now taken all the credit we had plus more. We were £980 in credit and are now £270 in debit.

Wondered if anybody else has experienced this? If they based the debit from our account just on estimates, then why are there now manual readings showing in the history, I've never sent a manual reading. We only use gas heating and hot water, so usage is low during summer months.

Thanks

DE_612183

Give them a ring - I assume they have estimated the readings ( although they may not show as estimates on your account ) - or they have been able to extract the actual data from the meter - even though the display does not show the data.

Find out which it is then you can decide whether to dispute or not.