Incorrect Electricity Meter Readings

confusedaccountant

I recently had my electricity meter switched to a smart meter and the engineer mixed up the peak & off peak readings and I was charged £425 instead of £149.  I believe I should have a refund of £276.  However Octopus only refunded me £149 because they said I had previous credits on my account.  These credits relate to when they have overestimated the electricity readings and have refunded me when I have submitted a lower reading.  I do not understand why these credits would reduce the amount of my refund.  I would be grateful if someone could explain this to me.  All credit to them Octopus have refunded the difference but still say my calculations are wrong.  I would just like to understand why.  Can anyone help?

DE_612183

so they over charged you £276 - did you pay the £276?

What was the balance and readings on the statement before the meter change and the afterwards.

You need to look at all statements not just the one individual one - there may be unbilled usage that has then caught up when the meters were changed.

We'd need to see redacted statements to work it out.

confusedaccountant

So this is the incorrect bill to 16 May when the meter was changed.  The peak reading should have been 30280 and the off peak 31804.  I pay by direct debit each month.  Do you need any more info?

MWT

confusedaccountant said:

So this is the incorrect bill to 16 May when the meter was changed.  The peak reading should have been 30280 and the off peak 31804.  I pay by direct debit each month.  Do you need any more info?

Also need to see the balance history from the most recent balance that you agree with up to the current balance. 

confusedaccountant

After the meter change they started from zero.

confusedaccountant

This is the March one I agree with.

confusedaccountant

This is their correction which I don’t understand 

confusedaccountant

These are the balance movements in between the above.  I’m not querying the readings on the new meter.

MWT

confusedaccountant said:

I believe I should have a refund of £276.  However Octopus only refunded me £149 because they said I had previous credits on my account.  These credits relate to when they have overestimated the electricity readings and have refunded me when I have submitted a lower reading.  I do not understand why these credits would reduce the amount of my refund. 

Were those actual refunds to your bank account?

If so then it makes some sense as the back-billing rules do allow them to reverse any refunds before correcting the billing and using any account balance to meet the corrected billing at that time, but it is a length process to try and work out if they have actually got it all correct...

The scale and scope of what they have done might best be handled by talking to an energy expert at the CAB perhaps?

confusedaccountant

Thanks for looking at it.  No they weren’t refunded to my bank account just on the account with them.  They have now credited me what I think.  Just didn’t understand their logic of why they thought I was wrong. 

 They said they had removed all the estimated readings from my account.  So wondering if they have just used actual readings and the tariffs have changed resulting in me being charged more. 🤷‍♀️

Scot_39

Firstly if you simply swap the readings on the 15th May billing - your not looking at £149 - but £180.11

So would become

(30280-29877) @ 26.27 =£105.86

(31804-31470) @ 10.93  = £33.83

£29.16 SC 

VAT 

= £180.11  

- did you perhaps forget the £29.16+VAT for SC - as that brings the total down to c£149.49?

So the error in the balance - would be £425-180 = c£245 not £276.

For some strange reason - Octopus here seem to be casting doubt on all your previous bills back to 2020 - and recalculating them all.

Ive seen this happen in the past - without any actual interim readings - but its clear youve been submitting them - looking at some of the cancelled negatives in past say Jun 23 - Jul  22 etc, but by the irregular billing intervals this year too (so jan 10th/24th 2025, Mar 27 2025).  Were these actual dates for your past meter reads ?

Each used measurement should to my mind - maybe its too late - have created a solid reference point for the account balance - and so arguably no need to correct back before that date - and IF your 27th March was actual user readings too - than again - only the 49 days should have been in question.

Your looking at one bill - the £425.62 - the last on the old meter - and the fact there is a negative charge on their is an obvious problem - either you have had (or Octopus think you have) the registers wrong way around or as you say the meter fitter did.

The £425 (and so the potential true £149 - £180 ??) - caused by the conflict - is actually the top of the reversed charges list - so actually no longer exists on the revised balance on 4th July with all the adjustments done on 3rd July.

But for whatever reason they have gone back to 2020 - and calculated a shift of total reversed charges and total new charges - for 4.5 years - that has led to your account going from owing them (-) £114.86 to being £34.12 in credit.  If I understand their balance sign convention

When did you join Octopus ?

So overall you have gained if I understand their sign convention £148.98 from their back dating the calculations all the way to 2020.  And I believe that was what they refunded you - rather than your £276 - my £245

In fact I have a nagging worry - but could be completely wrong - that they may in fact have recalculated the last 4.5 years swapping the registers to align with the meter readers take on the order of them.

I'd love to see for instance the workings for £606.42 for the Nov 2024 - May 2025 - and see if that aligns with a register swap as well - to discount that nagging concern.

As again as above - perhaps simplistically in my mind - the error to the May 15th register readings - by the meter reader - would then only change the updated balance across that period - so as you say going back the to the 27th adding back the 425 and replacing with subtracting your £149 / my £180 to get the revised balance.

Without seeing the workings like for the £606 estimated bill now being applied from 26th Nov 24 to 15th May 2025 at the bottom of their new charges list (and offseting the top 4 by date - see below - on the reversed charges list) - it is difficult to know what those numbers are based on - you would have to have the actual readings they have used for each one of those bills - and then compare to some of your past actuals.

Do you have any detailed calcs from Octopus - or a record of the old bills and readings that may have been in use at those billing stages.  Particularly 25th Nov 2024.

As without readings at each point - its difficult to understand why they are doing this. 

So you would have to go back and align the new estimates - vs the old reversed charges and the readings they were based on (or estimates - and the dates - well sometimes aligh with cap changes other times not)

So for instance comparing the revised charges and the credits - your "erroneuous" £425 bill is actually rolled in with the previous 3 on the reversed credit list (185,82 and 213 - so total c£906) and replaced by one single estimated charge of £606.42  from Nov 2024 - to May 2025 - a difference of £300.35 in your favour for that period - if Ive done the maths right.  

And that roughly meaning they would have moved net c1860 kWh more from peak to offpeak rates than the other directon - at the c16.1p inv VAT difference on your May detailed bill rates (26.27-10.93+5% vat).

Do you have any detailed calcs from Octopus for these revised estimated charges - or a record of the old bills and readings that may have been in use at those billing stages.

In fact given a balance of £34 on the revised Jul 4th estimate - usage to 15th May and their blog which says their annualised DD plan standard is now to aim for 5 weeks credit at the end of Apr - for annualised DD plans - I am a little surprised they refunded anything.

As I say -  like you I don't fully understand why - if they had good actaul readings on a regular basis from yourself they should have gone back that far.  (I am half sort of guessing your own meter submissons may be reason for irregular now reversed bills to 10th Jan, 24th Jan, 27 Mar 2025 etc as well - can you confirm actual submited readings for these dates from old meter)

The only way to be sure if the revised balance calc is to refer everything back to actual readings and rates - and you only give bills for most of that historic period - not actual readings.