I’ve fucked up and it’s going to cost me thousands- what do I do now?

[SnowQueenie]

A couple of years ago my electricity meter stopped working. Contacted the electricity company who came out and placed a smart meter. I continued paying the bills as they came in monthly, with increases when they requested it. They contacted me to say I needed to do a meter reading, but I have a smart meter so didn’t think anything of it. This month I’ve had a bill that’s more than 10 times my usual monthly bill. I’ve contacted them to ask what’s going on, and they’ve told me that I’ve not had a meter reading since October 2023. They’ve never come to do one, or told me the smart meter wasn’t working, so I didn’t realise. They’re saying they’ve been charging me as having 0 usage for this entire time, despite me paying £50-£60 a month. They’re now saying they’re going to back bill me for the entire time I’ve not been properly charged and that it’s likely to skyrocket my bills because of this. What the hell can I do? I’ve been paying monthly and didn’t realise there was an issue, surely the onus is on them to notice that the meter isn’t working and fix it. Or to come and take a meter reading if they haven’t got one? And how is it costing me £60 a month for 0 usage?

There's a panorama episode on this!!

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0024yyc

Prompted me to check my own meter readings in the app and turns out my smart meter was fine up until September and all of a sudden they've been 'estimating'. Funny that - just when usage goes up the meter is now "broken"

deleted Because no longer relevant

You only owe £170 after their mistake? Christ, take that as a win. It took me a year+ to sort out an issue with SP which cost thousands!! You've unpaid your bills by £170 so this adjustment isn't terrible but very good as you don't owe thousands.

@LondonPapa no, they’ve charged me £500+ for this months ‘estimated’ bill. They haven’t worked out what they think they owe. They’ve just taken the estimation out of the surplus I had in credit and then told me I owe £170 more. The meter isn’t working so they haven’t decided how much I owe yet. But having apparently not paid anything towards the usage for the last year, I’m expecting it to be a lot

If your metre is showing zero, on what basis are they charging you? They can’t possibly know if you’re having a light party whilst watching the TV and doing everyone’s washing, or living modestly. You’re potentially going to end up being mischarged for your useage. I would tell them to get an engineer to fix your metre asap (tomorrow!) and then commit to manually sending meter readings monthly until it’s resolved. Also tell them you want paper bills posted to you whilst in dispute.

I send in meter readings on the same date every single month without fail, and I then log into my account to make sure it's been recorded. I would urge everyone to do this whether they are requested to do so by their supplier or not, always supposing it's possible with yr supplier of course

Strongly advise you go to see citizens advice ,take all letters and documents and bank statements with you.if it turns out you do owe more, citizens advice can mediate for you so you pay a manageable amount monthly til it's sorted out.

Absolutely it's their problem. Go to Ofgem and raise an official complaint. Make sure your complaint is logged.

This happened to me, my smart meter was showing readings and my online account was showing payments. I noticed it kept saying it couldn’t read my gas reading but I was still paying so I rang up. Turned out my meter and the actual outside boxes weren’t talking at all and hadn’t been for nearly a year. I have been overpaying by £100 a month to cover winter (big, old house) so I had lots of credit. They came out and replaced the meter and I had to pay it all as the readings were right but not talking to the smart meter properly. I’m really annoyed they hadn’t told me that the smart meter wasn’t talking for nearly a year and despite me querying this the usage on the box is the correct reading so there was nothing I could do. I keep a very close eye on it now but it’s rubbish losing money you thought you had.

This is their error. It might be worth getting a solicitor to challenge their billing.

My standing charge is 37.65p a day so £11-12 a month depending on the number of days. So if the OP was being charged £60 a month, what was the other £48-odd for?

Don't be daft.

@JustMyView13 Ive told them that and they’ve said someone will come out and change the meter, but can’t tell me when. They’ve said I don’t need to pay anything until it’s fixed though. My meter is reading as 0000 so I can’t check it myself either

This is why they always want to keep you in credit.

My mum was once £500 in credit and they tried to refuse to give her some back. I really had to ask them why they were refusing to give a pensioner her own money. They refunded it to her bank account.

They’re never going to be able to work out what you used… 🫠
Personally, I would be pushing back on ALL charges over the period. On the grounds that you understood the smart metre transmits the data live, they failed to contact you in a timely manner to advise of this fact, they cannot evidence how much fuel you’ve used as they fitted faulty equipment. I’m not saying that’s where you’ll land ultimately, but that would absolutely be my starting point. The ombudsman would have a field day with this if you need to.

I argued with E.On over exactly the same thing when we moved into our brand new home. I got the bill halved!!!! I was so annoyed that the house came with their meters and we believed we had done the right thing by using them on that basis so we didn’t have to think about it!!!!

edited to add, I disputed via the Resolver platform which was really helpful in holding them to account.

I work for a supplier. They will need to rebill you to apportion usage more evenly (although I feel prices are lower now than in Oct 2023) but if they’ve billed you to estimates for more than 12 months they will need to write off some of the additional charges.
despite many people’s understanding of it, energy suppliers absolutely can charge you for usage from more than 12 months ago, we just can’t ask you for a higher payment over what was originally billed or than you paid in direct debits if being re billed more than 12 months later.
just call customer services and say they can’t bill you to a catch up when they’ve billed to estimates for so long.
if no help is forthcoming, open a complaint. They will have 8 weeks to resolve this, or you can escalate to the ombudsman. Billing issues like this are usually quickly resolved so should be no need for that.
also ask they fix the issues with the meter not communicating if possible

I’m with eon. They didn’t review my monthly bills and usage despite me asking. They then decided I owed loads as well as I wasn’t paying enough. They then wrote off £1000 as it was their fault they hadn’t reviewed it under the back pay guidelines.

£60 for 0 usage is likely to be the daily standing charge

Sounds like its their fault

If no reading can be obtained how have they created such a high estimate? Makes no sense. Estimates are generated off the annual usage figures the industry holds for you - if no actual reads have been provided for this long, the expected annual usage won’t be updating.
estimates would carry on being low.

press top button
arrow next to general display press and hold top button
press bottom button to get to tariff matrix
press and hold top button when there
with arrow next to TOU register press and hold top button
TO1 will be your rate 1 reading
TO2 rate 2 (if you have two rate meter) if you’re on a single rate you’ll only have the one reading.

Oh my god Eon!!! 😫 I had terrible experience with them, they could never get their meter to work, even after replacing it several times etc etc etc, this dragged on for years - finally I extricated myself from them, and new company (Octopus) installed a meter that has worked fine from day one

All she's paid is the standing charge, now she needs to pay for the usage

@onedogatoddlerandababy it doesn’t do anything other than this. When I press the buttons it just lights up but stays on 0

I haven't read any of the thread, just your original post. I have had a similar situation, meter broke, it was reported (they didn't believe me), power company was then taken over by another and then covid hit and changing meter's was banned. Fast forward a couple of years and eventually a smart meter was fitted (couple of false starts in between). I received an email requesting a meter reading which I queried given it's a smart meter. no response. They randomly started taking almost £1000 pm direct debit. This went on for @ 5mths after which I complained. Ended up being refunded the majority of the money paid ....... still not convinced the smart meter actually works and trying to take a reading yourself is near on impossible. Currently paying £4-500 pm which seems excessive tbh.