British Gas Final Bill

RelievedSheff

We have recently moved house to a property that was supplied by British Gas (BG). Immediately upon moving in we took photos of the meter readings, submitted them to BG and then started the switch to Outfox Energy (OFE)

It appeared that everything was going to plan with the switch to OFE taking place 7 days after we moved in.

Yesterday I received the final bill from BG. The gas bill was fine and the meter readings tallied up so I have paid that bill but the electric bill readings were 10800 units out and recorded as "actual" readings

Not only this but the bill was dated 30 days ago and was only received by post yesterday with a payment due date of 6th May so today!

I have immediately raised a complaint with BG and through their webchat have managed to submit evidence of the correct meter readings on the dates we moved in and switched supplier. They have agreed to issue and amended bill which I await receipt of.

My question I suppose is how can this happen with functioning smart meters? Surely they are supposed to stop this kind of billing error?

BG did not really have a satisfactory explanation and blamed it on a system error but were very quick to accept the corrected readings.

TroubledTarts

Don't forget one moment think any electricity company knows what they are doing with billing and smart meters is the first step.

Good you have the actually meter readings and proof so this should be relatively painless for you but imagine if you didn't.

Reed_Richards

Is it possible that the meter is recording on more than one register so two readings were required rather than one? I think that could happen if the meter was installed for Economy 7 then changed to a single tariff. But others will know more about this than I do.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81990545#Comment_81990545

Exactly, it is not safe to assume that the reading the existing supplier is billing on is the Total Import reading for example, so I'd always check to see if there is anything recorded on the individual registers…

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81990545#Comment_81990545

It's a 7 year old house with gas heating and a single rate electric meter.

Reed_Richards

I used to live in a house that was heated by oil and then by gas but it had an Economy 7 electricity meter, so dual tariff. I never found out why.