wrong billing

[mummam]

Noticed in May that we have been billed the wrong way round,the night reading was put as day reading and the day reading as night reading so it seemed we used our electricity through the night and barely anything through the day, hence an extra bill for over £200.

We argue that it's meter readers fault as hand held meter keyed in incorrectly.

We have also been on wrong tariff for 14 years, been on economy 7 which is for night storage heaters when we have radiators.

We had our meter changed last September and since then the bills had been incorrect due to agents having hand held meters keyed in wrongly which supplier has admitted.

They have offered to put correct tariff back to last Sept when meter was changed and to half the bill remaining but we feel we should not have a bill to pay as they have agreed their agent had hand held metres keyed in wrongly.

We are on money management programme and do not have the money to pay this half bill which is not our fault.

Anyone else had this prob????

Does anyone know of the rights of the supplier or the rights of the consumer???

Also they have put bill to Energy Collection Services.

Edited August 21, 2009 by mummam
felt i had not explained enough

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Is your supplier a member of the energy ombudsman scheme, if so then I would make a complaint to them

[Clare_L]

With regards to the wrong tariff, you are lucky that they will amend back to September. They wont know how you heat your proerty unless you tell them. Some people have gas heating but still use their E7 at night ie washing, tumble dryer, dishwasher etc. With regards to the readings being transposed, that should be backdated right to the very first time the meter was misread!

[mummam]

It has been transposed to the 1st misreading!

My argument is that it's theirs and agents faults that held meter readers were wrong and that they should not be allowed to put people into debt when they are struggling already ie £100+ more going out than coming in each month so where do we get money to pay even half the bill?

Why should we pay a debt that supplier put us in???

[Clare_L]

You shouldnt, they have to bill you correctly ie readings correct way round. Have they said why they wont amend your bill?

[mummam]

I mustn't be making myself clear!!!

They have transposed the bill to last Sept and it came to £210, then they took the tariff we should be on back to Sept too that brought bill to £130 and they said for goodwill they would halve that leaving us £65 to pay but we have not got £65, heard of blood out of a stone?

The debt is not our fault they should write off the other £65.

The agent had the meters keyed in wrongly and they've admitted that, god knows what kind of bill we'd face if I hadn't noticed this in a year or so!!!

How many other people is this happening to or are they all just letting supplier/agent get away with this by paying the debt the supplier/agent has put them in?

[Clare_L]

The E7 tariff you were on they will do little about, as I have already explained, just make sure you are not on that tariff now. The transposed read MUST be backdated right back to the first day they started to bill you incorrectly. They then need to reverse all the readings from the first day and cancel every bill they have sent you between then and now.

 

The agent may not have been reading them wrong, it could be the supplier had them on their system the wrong way round.

[shining Light]

"The agent may not have been reading them wrong, it could be the supplier had them on their system the wrong way round."

 

This is quite possible. Meter readers today generally use a hand held computer on which the figures are recorded. If the figures are outside certain parameters the hand held will not accept the reading and the reader would need to enter the correct reading. So, unless your "day" and "night" readings are very similar (which I doubt) it is unlikely they could be recorded incorrectly.

[mattlamb]

I would add that meter readers are not told the previous readings either on their machine and often the Day and Nights are not marked on the machine so it can be impossible to know which way round to put the readings on the machine.

Even if the meter-reader has input the readings correctly, this does not guarantee the supplier actually using the readings unfortunately. I have often had people compaining that I or a colleague come to read the meter and then the supplier doesn't use the readings (estimating them instead). This seems to happen to the same customers time after time, most people are not affected by it.

 

However, it soulnd to me like the supplier have done all they can to sort out the problem once they realised the problem existed. You do have to pay something you know Mummam, if you use the electric. Just because the supplier has made a mistake, you can't expect them to charge you absolutely nothing. That is what you are asking for as far as I can make out, although ithe post does not lay the situation out very clearly.

[mattlamb]

According to the original post, the error was in the poster's favour. The OP does not have electric heating, yet the supplier was billing most of the units used on the night rate, ie: the cheap price. On reflection, the OP may have a point as the suopplier are trying to bill some of the units used now once they have realised the mistake after they have already billing the OP (albeit the wrong way round). If it was the supplier's (or their agents) fault (which it undoubtably was) then they should be cutting their losses, shouldn;t they?

I'm sorry mummam for jumping the gun in the previous post. You told the supplier that the bills were wrong even when the m,istake was in your favour. You shouldn't be penalised for your honesty.

[mattlamb]

Mummam, are you still on E7 tariff. If you are, I think you should ask to go on the supplier's single rate tarifff as it does not appear you are using enough electric in the night time to make the E7 tariff pay. I think from your earlier posts, you may have already arranged thius but I'm not quite sure.

[Clare_L]

You are right there Mattlamb, the supplier assumed the op was using most of their electric at night, hence getting the lowest rate possible. If it was billed correctly the bill would have been far higher, I misread the original post. Then can only assume the op has the issue with regard to their tariff which the supplier should have now amended to single rate tariff, but the supplier does not have to backdate that tariff.

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

as I stated earlier in post#2 you should consider complaining to the Energy Ombudsman.

[Clare_L]

as I stated earlier in post#2 you should consider complaining to the Energy Ombudsman.

 

 

complaining about what? Being undercharged as that is the case if they are being charged as though they use most of their electricity on the night rate?

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Go ahead with a complaint about your energy companies incompetence, here is a link to their site Energy Ombudsman Service : Home