I wasn’t sure whether this belongs in property/ DIY or money matters so have posted here.
I tried to read my electricity meter today and couldn’t. It’s a smart meter but an old one that isn’t smart when you change supplier. I only have the meter attached to the wall, not the separate device that came with it.
I have been with current supplier for eight months and have supplied a few readings before.
My last reading was for roughly 12345 I.e. five digits and was two months ago. Today the meter said 0202.124kwh so four digits, decimal point then three digits. 202 seemed wrong, as in I would have had to go all the way to 99999 and keep going to get this reading.
The help section on the website said the reading should be six digits and start with a zero so 202124 was wrong. I did a live chat with someone and sent a photo of the meter. After a lot of consultation with people from another department, he said to enter 000202 and repeat my reading in five days.
I have done this and got a warning on the system to say “this is high, are you sure?”
Has anyone had something like this happen? I’ve googled it and can’t see anything similar. Everything suggests my meter should have five or six digits before the decimal point.
I wonder if the correct reading was 20212 and now I will get a huge bill which will take ages to sort out.
I’ve been reading my meter manually for years and never had a problem with it.
Any advice?
(And which section should this be moved to?)