Hi everyone, Here is a quick summary of my story. I moved to my property in late 2011. My gas and electricity are pre payment meters. After a year I thought it would be more convenient and cheaper to go on to a pay monthly meter so I called EDF to arrange it for me. They said it would be free of charge to change the meters and booked in both meters to be changed the same day. Long story short, the engineer popped up in the morning, had a look at the meter and said he couldn't get this fixed and would escalate the job to another engineer who would come and fix it. I said ok, as long as you change the meter today that's fine with me. He said they will come today to fix it. By the way, the gas engineer showed up, changed the meter and left in a jiffy, no problems. The engineer for the electric meter came and said the meter had been bridged from terminal 1 and 2 and other technical stuff. I said what does that all mean, and he said that I was only paying for the standing charge (Which is false as I have my bills and receipts). He would prepare a report and send it off to the revenue protection team who would then charge me for my unbilled usage AND the call out and labour of the engineer!! I called to let them know that several of EDF engineers visited my flat over the course of the year to read the meter and didnt they notice the problem? Plus I do not use electric alot at home so I wouldnt accept any estimate consumption. Also I didnt tamper with the meter, it could be the tenant before me since its a private property. I am not permanent at this address so why should I have to pay for someone elses dirty work. I also told them that if it werent for me wanting to change to a pay monthly meter, EDF would of never found out about this problem so you should be thanking me rather than trying to judge me. I am ok with paying any unbilled units if I have used them, that I am fine with but I do not accept any of the allegations and charges. I just think its unfair to pay for something which isnt my fault. Can anyone please advise me on what to do as I am stressing myself out. Thank you in advance. Sorry for the long text.

sadly because of a debt the other year I had to have one of these hideous things fitted. Thing is it always and always has taken 28p every 2am despite sse telling me there is no standing charge and the meter telling me the same thing. If I ring sse (did try again today but was told they were only dealing with emergencies fair enough because of the weather I suppose) they tell me its adjusting for the different rates i.e it charges at the lower rate (the rate after xxx k/wh been used) then adjusts itself to the higher rate overnight. Clearly this is rubbish because it takes the same amount regardless of the gas used indeed if any gas is used at all. On the two occasions I have pressed sse about this both times I have been told we'll credit you with £10 when you next top up which never happens - it seems their staff are told to say this to get you off the phone. In addition sometimes when you do top up it takes a small amount for debt when this was long since paid off and shows has zero on the meter, you get more rubbish from sse about debt from aback that you cant see eh??? claptrap. I am sure this is ripping me off big style and been on jsa at the moment cant afford it what can I do about it please?

Hi everyone, My partner and I currently have a back log of approximately £300 with nPower that they are chasing us for. We are on a standard meter and get billed every 3 months by post. My partner is a full time student and I am the major wage earner. In July of this year I was diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Disorder and have been signed off work with a significantly reduced income since then. We want to pay but cannot afford the £300, nPower are next to useless at helping on the phone. Does anyone please have any advice as to how we could approach this matter? Thank you all for your time and help/suggestions you make. Kind regards, timetoshine

I have what I believe to be a faulty or Tampered Electric metre and I really need some advice on how I raise this with Scotiish power. The reason I think it's fault or been tampered with is that since I moved into this new property as it was in Aug 2008, I have only generally used on average 6 units of Electric a day. My Tariff is online is NSC fixed online. I am fairly engery conscious and most of my appliances are A rated and only use energy saving light bulbs. I submitted a reading on Friday 21st Dec 2012 as I wanted a refund on my built up credit, however when I entered the reading which I though was high, it came back to say from 16th Oct to 21st dec 2012 I had used 3837 Units I nearly fell off my chair. Please Please can someone advise me on this ? I have already raised a dispute with Scottish Power but am concerned if I can't prove I didnt use it I will still have to pay the 400 bill

The house I had built in Whyalla South Australia did not have a water meter installed when I took possession. I had to organise an installation with SA Water and they have sent me bill for the meter. who is responsible for this account , myself, or should it have been supplied by the builder when he built the house?

Hello, I'm new to the forum, so not sure if this is the right place but I hope it is. I'm currently in a DMP and am really struggling to pay my bills. When I moved into my rented flat the agent mislead me to believe the water was included. This was eventually put straight after 5 years of being at the property and no water bill EVER being charged (even with the tenants and owners before me). Southern have been very helpful and are only charging us for 3 years (including the current) and we are in a special payment thing where every £1 we pay of they pay off another. Last week I found out that they are going to be putting meter in to all the properties on my street - I'm really concerned that this will increase my water bill - has anyone got an experience with the switch as such? I've already lowered my DMP in my last 2 reviews as my pay is not going up and the cost of living is going up. I am getting really anxcoious about it. Any response is much appreciated. Lilla

Although Eon have lowered p/kwh ,unit rates,they have scrapped the Annual Threshold of 2680 kwh in which customers saw unit rates once this was achieved fall from 8.436p/kwh to 3.67p/kwh inc vat. Under the revised E.on EnergyPlan with prepayment the old 8.436p/kwh is replaced with a sole unit rate of 4.256p/kwh inc vat. However,there is now a daily standing charge of 27.395p per day !

We were paying on and off £40 a month electric and £40 gas, and the meter wasn't read by anybody including me between Jan 2009 and August 2012. During that period we missed some payments and they sent some guy round to talk us about debt, no appointment, we were out and we were charged Gas 2 visits x£40 Electric 2 visits x £40 He didn't look at the meters which were outside to get a reading. It occurred to me that they had taken this action on estimated debt. Finally I phoned in some actual readings and we got a huge refund £890 credit to our electricity account. But we owed the £ 800 on the gas so I asked them to transfer the balance across. They agreed and then a meter reader appeared as if by magic and read the meters. New bills arrived more or less the same as the earlier ones. then they contacted us and said the meter appeared to have slowed down or stopped. They immediately sent out a MASSIVE electricity bill based on guesswork. Later refered to as a "CATCH UP BILL" I objected. They fitted a new meter and after 30 days I phoned in the reading of 180 units. Then they said they had "METERED our useage for the time the meter had stopped, which was some time between 2009 and Aug 2012, they decided it had slowed down for all of that period and we owed them a few £hundred then a ping pong discussion by email ensued, me asking for my credit back and them eventually reducing the amount they claim I owe to £29. But they refuse to admit they are guessing when the meter stopped or slowed and what our useage was, they claim it is METERED but they have multiplied our use in September x 2 years, saying the CATCH UP bill and their charter allows them to do that. I asked for the unsolicited visits to be refunded, they refused saying our contract allowed them to do that. I asked to see the contract, they said it was verbal I asked to hear the contract, they said the tape was wiped. I asked if I could have information how to take this to the Ombudsman, they said they would reffer it to senior management, but would like to exhaust all avenues with me first. Thoughts? Advice?? Similar experiences?? I just think it's wrong that they cut corners by not reading the meter, knew we had a crumby old meter and didn't bother renewing it, and cannot know what our useage has been, I don't like paying for guesstimates!

Hi All, I moved into a flat at the beginning of the year, I called up and registered with Eon and gave them a meter read which is what they needed from me to sign up with them. I am now moving out in the next few weeks so decided to take a meter reading. I tried to put it in on my online account but it wouldn't accept the read saying it's inconsistent with the previous reading. Upon looking into my account I can see they have just been providing me bills from estimates, they never in fact applied my first meter reading when I moved in to our account. So, no my issue is that the actual meter reading is around 5000kwh higher than the last estimated meter read they billed me for in October. Clearly we haven't used this much, and looking through the bills they have sent they are all estimated from a point last year where the meter was read. This would therefore mean that the owed elec would fall to either the landlord or previous tenant, but how do I go about this? I obviously need to give them a final meter read, but it's going to land me with a massive bill, which wasn't my fault. They never applied my meter read in the beginning, I have it written down what it was when we moved in, but I don't want this to wind up being a 3rd party dispute. Any one been in this situation or can help? Thanks

Hi All I need some help/advice on my rights with British Gas Business. I have a small business (Pub) and have ran up a gas bill of £1100 over the last 4 years. I recently (about 4 weeks ago) paid £500 off this bill leaving a total of £640 now owing. However in the meantime British Gas Business applied for a warrant of entry and successfully entered my business while I was not there and removed the gas meter. They now say I have to pay the £640 owing for gas used, £300 to re-install the meter and £1000 bond which will all need paid up front before I can have the gas meter installed again. The £1000 bond will be credited back in 12 months if I keep payments up. Obviously I cannot afford this as my business is almost on its knees but I also desperatly need heating and hot water. My question is 'if I pay my bill (£640) so I owe them nothing, can I just go to another supplier as I am out of contract with British Gas as I've already broke their T&C's. By saying to me I have to pay this bond and installation fee they are assuming I'm staying with them, but I want them out ! Please help. What are my rights ?? Shaft10

Ok I know they cant cut me off in winter if I have children. Can they however forcefully install a meter (via the courts and a lock smith) that I cant afford to use? (effectively cutting me off) Because they wont just instal a normal meter I will have to pay off part of my 4000 pound debt and pay for what I normally use and im on benefits at the moment and in serious financial difficulty/debt and I cant afford to eat let alone pay my bills! The electricity company is E-On they are on the verge of taking the case to court to apply for the rights to force me to install the meter/ to try and disconnect me.

I know the topic of meter access has been covered but my situation is a little unique and I'm at a complete loss. When I first moved in to this apartment I had noticed that just as I was signing the lease and itinerary that meter keys would not be included... I asked then in my confusion, but was blown off as something normal by my (now former) letting agent and everything progressed as such. My first snag happened as I was setting up my power, I was provided with an estimate to which I would pay until I got my initial meter readings and the current ones at the time I was setting up the new account, I phoned the letting agent to request the initial readings and was told back I should have received them when signing over the lease. They told me they would send another copy of these... they never arrived. Since then it's been a mater of constant estimated bills and no response from that letting agent. The management company will only take notice of faults to the communal facilities, stating that all matters relating to individual flats need to be directed to the landlords or letting agents... ...though there was one instance according to my bills that Scottish Power (my supplier) managed to get hold of my meter readings and increased the charge... it wasn't much so I wasn't that phased by it, but there it was. I still wonder how to this day. Anyway, back to the main problem... As of recently the said letting agent quite silently (with massive amounts of suspicious fraudulence) went bankrupt and liquidated, a few months passed, the agent was switched, and the new agent doesn't know anything at all in regards to the property management or it's meter access, I finally got to talk to my landlord for the first time in 2 years of living here, only to find she's rather stressed out from loss of rent, loss of deposits for pretty much all tenets and she also didn't know about property management OR it's meter readings... ...And just in time when all this is happening I get contacted once again by Scottish Power, asking for them and wanting to send someone to take them themselves. Long story short, I now have a letter from Scottish Power almost demanding meter readings since they couldn't get access, and all persons involved with the property at a loss of what to do (and my landlord is a few hours away by car in another city, so it's not really that easy to involve her directly), and the only people that do are out of the question. I honestly don't currently mind the estimates, they don't break the bank, and would be willing to leave it as is... So what are my options? M.

British Gas broke into my house while I was at work, giving my disabled wife a scare in the process. Because I hadn't paid my last bill they fitted a prepayment meter, and told the wife a top-up card with which we can add credit to the meter would come within 3 days. The card never came, so after a week I phoned to tell them. They apologised, sent a man within four hours to add £5 of emergency credit to the meter, and said they were sending out another card. It obviously didn't occur to them that they could have got said man to bring a card with him. The second card never came, and the £5 credit went in two days, so the meter cut the gas off. In the meantime I'd looked up info on the Net and read that I could go to any PayPoint store, get a meter card from them, bring it home, stick it in the meter to initialise it (presumably with a meter identity code, though nobody actually tells you that), take it back to the PayPoint store and have them put some credit on it. When I returned the card to the store they found they couldn't credit it and would get the message "Invalid Card". So they gave me another new card in case the first was faulty, which I took back and initialised, returning to the store for credit. Their PayPoint machine again said "Invalid Card". I phoned BG, told them all about it, and they sent out another bloke to put a walloping great £5 of credit on it. They listened to what I was saying, made me cycle through menus on the meter and read off some spurious code, then proudly announced it wasn't working because this meter doesn't take the usual BG card, but requires a modified version known as an RTI card - available from them (yes, they were sending out yet another new card that would never reach me) or also available from PayPoint "superagents". What a load of old rubbish. I found myself a superagent, got an RTI card off them, quoted an identification number given to me by BG over the last phone chat and based on the code I'd read to them off the meter, and they loaded this code successfully onto my shiny new RTI card. Trouble is that when they then tried to load £20 of credit onto the card, the PayPoint machine choked in horror at the attempt, saying this card was just a load of invalid nonsense. Marvellous. So I phoned BG yet again, gave them the entire spiel, read more numbers off meter menus, waited forever, then was told they had the solution - that this was a special type of meter requiring a different type of card again, this time called a "PCV" card or something similar; unfortunately the man I spoke too was very foreign, and although I made him repeat the "PCV" three times, each time it sounded completely different, so all I know is that it's a combination of three consonants. I think. Anyway, even PayPoint superagents wouldn't have one of these beauties, so the BG man was seeing to it that one would be sent to me first-class so I'd have it in two days. I pointed out to him that it's unlikely I'd receive anything, since the previous two mailings of cards to me never materialised. (The real mystery here is why, when they send someone to my door, it's successful - so they clearly have the right address - but when they send prepayment cars to me in the post, it's as effective as if they didn't send me anything at all). But he was confident I'd get it, and guess what? I didn't. That was five days ago. Still no gas. In fact we've now had no gas at all for 90% of the last four weeks, and tomorrow the weather forecast says will be no warmer than 3 deg. C. My wife is disabled, we have a four-year-old living with us (and two other kids), and our shiny new hi-tech gas meter is little more than a decorative fixture embellishing some dirty old pipes - one that I never asked for and do not want. I should also mention that every time I phone these people I'm on the telephone for about 45 minutes - AT A COST OF 14p PER MINUTE - I am paying through the nose for the crassness and incompetence of a stinking rich utility company that seems not to give one jot about the fact that it has shafted me and my family big-time. If I didn't owe these peasants so much money I would switch pronto to another gas supplier. So that's where we're at: new meter, no gas, no cards I've ever seen will work in it, BG is incapable of working out what's wrong or sending me anything in the post - except bills, which somehow do successfully make it to my house. Funny that. I'm not expecting anyone on this forum to have any useful suggestions for me, but I do want people to understand the depths of uselessness which this fine utility company is plumbing. There is only consolation for me in all this: that all the while the meter is inoperative BG is receiving no money from me and certainly not getting any of the outstanding debt paid. When they choose to take an interest and fix the problem rather than making empty pledges and mouthing confused platitudes, I will consider paying them. Never again, British Gas. Never again. I will be paying the French, the Germans or even the Spanish for my gas in the future. DieselDoctor STOP PRESS: Wow! I've just got off the phone to my wife, who tells me she's been badgering BG all afternoon (at a personal cost of 14p a minute, don't forget), and she's been told that we didn't receive the three meter cards because the despatch system has been rejecting the possibility on our account. But nobody told us that. Funnily enough, she then spoke to another operative, because the first one she was speaking to failed to phone her back, who gives a different version of that story: that since September the twenty-somethingth the card-despatching system has not been working and has been refusing to send anybody cards! Today it's the 25th of October - that's how long we've been cold. So either the previous people I spoke to and who came to my door weren't told this by their employers, or they were deliberately avoiding acknowledging the fact, and lying through their teeth to us every time they said a new card in the post would be the solution. Anyway, they are "sending a new card by manual despatch", and promise it will be with us by Monday (today is Thursday). Don't be so darned stupid, because no, it won't. But despatch systems apart.... the new cards from PayPoint stores haven't been working anyway, and my internet trawl reveals NO mention of any 'new-type' "PCV" or "BBC" or "123" card being in use. So, another damn lie, I suspect.

As a landlord I have just had new tenants move into my property. I informed scottish power that they had moved in, but have just had a phone call to say that as the last tenant has not paid their bill scottish power must now put a pre-payment meter in and if I dont give my consent they will get a warrant to do so. They also said they would stop me using an alternative supplier because of the debt. I still hold the previous tenants deposit, although it is not enough to cover the full debt left behind by the tenant it would cover about half. I have heard of companies accepting a 'settlement figure' - is there a particular department that I could offer this to, or do you have any suggestions as to what I could say that would persuade them to accept the settlement and therefore not put in a meter? I know meters are not always evil, but I also have my property on the market to sell, and I feel a prepayment meter would put off potential buyers. Many thanks for any help in advance - I see there is a scottish power rep on here, I can't PM him as I have only just registered, but if someone else could I'd appreciate it.

Hi all, my daughter recently moved house and has pre payment meters in the house which belong to British Gas. She rang British Gas to ask for them to be removed and replaced with normal meters, she was told that the tarifs on the gas and electric was no different to the tarif of normal meters so was advised to keep the meters. Can anybody confirm that the tarifs are the same or are they higher on pre payment meters.

I moved into my first flat a month ago. When i moved in the supplier was E.on, so i called and registered with them and verified final readings given by the previous tenant by their instructions of how to read the meter In an attempt to save money I run a comparrison on uSwitch and picked out a new plan with EDF. Since moving in i have been taking weekly meter readins to see my average usage and approx spend. I took a reading after work today at 17.30 and noticed the number 2 reading was flashing, indicating that was the rate being used and similarly I checked again just before midnight tonight and rate 1 was flashing. The meter rotates between each figure and the rate used flashes. I looked on my online E.on account and noticed something quite worrying, they state that rate 1 is for daytime and 2 is night time. I called after I took the 17.30 reading and the guy I spoke to confirmed that rate 1 was day time and 2 was night time. I explained that the number 2 rate was flashing indicating that it was currently in use, which would mean that either the meter was reading in reverse or they had made an error. He assured me that he was correct, but he would arrange for someone to come out and look at the meter. Heres a screen shot from my online account On the front of the meter is an edf sticker, as this was the supplier prior to E.on, on their website they state the opposite to e.on This quote is from EDf's website I assumed that the meter rates would be standard between all suppliers. Has anyone had this problem before and been successful in getting a refund? I've paid quite alot more than the bill should be by my calculations with the rates reversed.

I have been with Npower for several years now, I live in a three bedroom ex council terraced house with no gas supply so everything runs on electric. I have 2 meters, a standard rate meter and a low rate meter - this goes through a timeswitch. When I moved into the house, I had been on a prepayment meter for several years and then for a few years paying via direct debit, and I believe if I remember correctly that I had an opening credit balance when I first moved in. Since then the monthly direct debit charge has increased exponentially, unfortunately I dont have old bills to hand but I am currently paying £240 per month for my usage and according to Npower I have a debt of £600+ and rising. I have been negotiating for several years now every 3-6 months as the Npower computer sends me direct debit increases that have at times been over £400 a month - and I have to call and get them manually reduced to the measured usage (with no debt repayment) - and even whilst paying £240 a month my debt is steadily increasing. Several years ago I complained that the meter must be faulty, Npower customer services informed me that they are hardly ever faulty and said I would have to pay to have the meter checked. As I couldnt afford it at the time (with the bills and debt) I never got it done, I sort of buried my head in the sand and just paid the direct debit, of course this affected my normal lifestyle quite dramatically but as the only energy supply I had I couldnt risk disconnection - my child is disabled and I dont think I would hear the end of it if she lost her pc for example. I always thought the usage was crazy as my mortgage is less than that per month (I live in a cheap area!) - but I have had a debt in the past at a previous address that Npower almost disconnected so I just paid up. After the most recent letter telling me my monthly direct debit would be increasing to £378 a month I again negotiated with customer services back down the "normal" monthly amount of £240 - and I demanded a meter test - I explained with my bills what have I got to lose. The most recent Npower advisor I dealt with was very amiable and I think went the extra mile to help me out - but still couldnt see the plain fact the meter was broken - but at least this time there was no talk about repaying the debt - just about controlling it a little. I have been taking my own readings semi regularly for the past three years - but they all seemed to show the same details too. I also got the advisor to send me previous readings - put these in my spreadsheet and tried to interpret the graph - looking for a spike or some thing that marked the change (we had a surge a few years ago - set fire to my shed blew up a lot of my white goods) and I also have a small substation next to my house in a garage block (its an odd thing - has my address on it!). But the readings all matched; I sort of set myself thinking I must be using the power somehow and began rationing it, every white good that was destroyed was replaced with AAA rated appliances - our shower blew up and I never replaced, the heating has been switched off for several years now and we have been living like energy nomads - even using candles in the bathroom. I thought somehow there must be a big hole for electricity under my house and it just kept eating it. And of course Npower advised me that must be the case (not literally) but they didnt think that my usage was odd and blamed it on the current price increases. The meter test happened, initially they couldnt fit a meter but they sent a portable tester - another extra callout so another charge that would be applied if the meter wasn't faulty. But it appears I have been right all along. The technician who performed the test told me he had never seen a meter as faulty, he quoted a 2% tolerance fast/slow was allowed on the meter - but he then explained that at times our meter was running approximately 300-500% quicker than normal, but then dropping down to -20 to -30% slower than normal. So over recent years I have paid in the region of £6-8,000 to Npower (no exact figures to hand!) and I dont think I can determine what has been used or not - can the meter be tested to find out how much has been used - or if the meter is that screwed up what will happen next? I am sort of expecting NPOWER to send me an increased bill - its traditional. Advice please!!!

Hi, I really hope someone can help me with this. I attempted to input my Eon readings last night and to my horror, I noticed that all previous readings have been in-putted the wrong around. The Normal rate appears in the Night rate box & visa versa. Eon have sent their meter readers round several times over the course of the last 5 years and not once has this error been noticed or rectified. I rang Eon to report this (about an hour ago) and was told that I have to ring them back later this afternoon as they are currently experiencing a data issue on their servers and they can't access the information they need to in order to deal with my issue. The man I spoke to did say that the readings have been wrong since 2007 which was when the meter was installed and the bills will be amended and back-dated to 2007. Obviously, I'm worried that I've been underpaying for the last 5 years and will now face a huge bill that I cannot afford. I have read up on the billing code and I think I should be covered under this, which means they'll likely ask for back payments for the last 12 months but my argument is as follows: If I have been underpaying, and it's because they have incorrectly set the meter up/failed to notice any errors until I reported them, why should I have to pay them anything? Eon's method of inputting meter readings in online is hugely flawed. Once the readings are in-putted incorrectly, there's absolutely no way of rectifying it. It automatically sets this as the preferred order which means all subsequent readings in-putted thereafter are incorrect. I would really appreciate some advice on how to take this forward. I am dreading ringing them back in a couple of hours time. I have enough on my hands at the moment without entering into a lengthy battle with Eon. Thank you for reading this and thank you in advance to anyone who responds.

This is complex: I have a house that was vacant for a few years, and then rented out for a few more. A family member handled the letting, as I was over 500 miles away for work purposes. During the vacant and letting periods, it seems that an electricity meter reading was *never* taken. When I resumed control of the house this summer, I submitted a meter reading -- I was told that this was the first reading in 6 years, and the bill of £13,000 would be payable by me. I rechecked the meter the following week, and found that the meter was running backwards! The electricity company came out, confirmed the fault and changed the meter for a new one. They say that adjusting for the meter fault, they estimate that I am liable for a bill of approx £9,000 Here are my issues with this: - Why should I have to pay any bill for the period when a family member had let out the house to tenants? Should the bill not be sent to the tenants (or the other family member who was acting as a landlord?) - I did propose that they allocate the bills more fairly, and they told me that if they did so, then the bill would have to be split evenly over the occupied and vacant periods. Can this be right? It should be obvious to anyone that a vacant house consumes less power than an occupied one. - How can they (or I) know *when* the meter started running backwards, and whether it was running at the same rate for the entire time? Is a meter even capable of giving a consistent/reliable reading when running backwards?

Hi not sure if this is correct forum, so please move if not. In my previous property i had pre-pay gas and electric meters. It was on dual fuel and i seemed to be spending too much on electric. I called british gas and asked them to stay on the phone with my while i check the meter settings. The guy advised me the meter was set up WRONG and it was wrongly charging me 30P a day surcharge. This amounted to £56 total. I phoned to sort this out and ended up speaking to an agent in south africa. She advised me that I would get the £56 back BUT as a "credit" to my new card meter in my new address. This meter is in my friends name but was told thats not a problem. I was told to use the pre-pay card THREE times in the SAME shop and the credit would transfer to this meter giving me back my £56. This didnt happen and took a while as there was enough credit already on the meter. I called back and asked to speak to the same agent. This wasnt possible and the new agent says there was no notes on the system to say she had credited the £56 to the new pre-pay meter. I still have not had my refund. How can i chase this with out being sent round the bushes like last time? Thanks

Hi, Over the last 2 years of being with British Gas on a Pay Monthly Eco 7 meter, I've noticed that the clock has moved forward by 21 minutes. The reason why I notice this time is because the eco 7 times have crept forward by 21 mins. THis ALSO includes the DST changes so has NOTHING to do with that. I called British Gas to ask about this, and asked 'Where did this mysterious 21 minutes come from'. The lady was unable to answer and basically said 'thats impossible, the meters are on a 24 hour rotation'. Anyway, she couldn't grasp the concept that some clocks run fast and on the other hand, some run slow. I've worked it out, and looking at the amount of British Gas customers, accorging to the guardian. If this were to happen to each an every one of their customers (15.7 million of them in Feb 2012) over a 2 year period, british gas would be making: This is based on 1 unit over all the customers at the Kent ME10 area tariffs. 1) Does anyone know what the allowable discrepancy is. 2) Can this be contested or brought to anyone's attention? Thanks Adridude

Hi All, had a letter today from a company called siemens from nottingham saying and i quote "for safety reasons we are required by law to carry out regular inspections of your gas meter" Am i right in thinking that as i own my own house and am responsible arranging my own checks? I have a feeling that there may be a charge involved.... Any thoughts.

I was asked to start a new thread so re-posting. We really need advice about our meter readings and bill and would be really grateful if anyone can tell us what we steps we can take, if any?! We moved from one rented flat last October, to a house. Our old flat had an electricity pre-payment meter so we always knew our consumption. When we moved to a house with garden, we no longer needed our tumble dryer nor an electric heater we had in our babies bedroom. We've been using less appliances and you would think less electricity since moving. We changed supplier after two months in the new house, at the start of December, and had a bit of a shock to have a final bill for two months of £300, but we paid it and thought that it must have been one of those things. A shocking amount but we were in a new house. We had been used to using £40 per week in the winter on a high tariff (this was for 14 hours a day of an electric heater, and a tumble dryer as well as everything we currently use). And typically £15-£20 in the summer months when we still used a tumble dryer, having no garden. Forward to now, and we just had a bill from EDF for the six months to June. £1,075 for 184 days' use, 8568 units. We are floored by this. We have had an Eaga meter since January which tells us what we use and it's not that! By our meters calculation we use 12 - 17 kWh a day. The bill tells us we use 46.5 kWh a day. What do we have running? Well we use one TV which is admittedly turned on for most of every evening, two floor lights in the evening, a few energy saving lights that go on and off, one oven for about 45 mins a day, the rare use of the hob, a microwave for 5 mins a day, 8-12 3kW kettles boils, 4 loads of washing per week, one small filter pump and a fluoro bulb in a fishtank, one small fridge, one small under counter freezer, a laptop and a computer for a few hours in the evening. Two adults, one toddler. Sitting here this evening I've had the washing machine and the oven both on at the same time alongside lights, TV and computer and we were using between 1.2 - 2.1 kWh according to our Eaga meter. Our meter/bill would have us believe in that case, that we are using our washing machine (energy saving Hotpoint!), oven, TV, computers, and several lights all at once for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company EDF have asked us to write down our readings every day for the next five days but we are unsure what that will achieve if our meter is faulty... Right now I am sick with worry as EDF have changed our monthly direct debit to £387 a month to reflect our new energy usage. Huge thanks for any help and advice

I majorly messed up with gas and electric in my student rented house. I'm attending court tomorrow in some desperate plea to set up a repayment plan but I really don't know how likely it is. The problem is that my housing contract says I can't fit prepayment meters or anything. Does anyone know what I can do if the warrant goes ahead and they have to come around and fit one tomorrow?

Am new to the Forum, so hope i have posted in the right place:?: Have a 'key' pre payment meter for my electricity, as i have an 'outstanding' balance with them, and just wondering if anyone knows the day they take the 'debt' off the meter, and if the debt can be taken off the emergency credit? Thanks for any advice