Electric meter discrepancies

[1406E]

Just wondered if anyone else has experience a meter reading discrepancy.

Have been with British Gas and several other electricity providers prior to this for many years. Always told we don't have a smart meter so need to press 9 on our meter and manually provide the readings shown when required. Worked for many years without issue. Currently readings are in the 34000 bracket.

At the beginning of the month we changed to octopus energy, provided the same elecric readings to both old and new provider.

Decided last night to put current meter reading to Octopus so I could see how their app worked. It generated a bill for £1400 electricity in the two week period.

When I looked further into it I could see my start meter reading was 29000 and not the 34000 I had submitted. Thought was a typo so contacted Octopus and they rectified it to something more in keeping to what I was expecting.

They explained that they remotely obtain my readings so I don't need to do anything.

Spoke to British Gas to chase my final electricity bill as had received my gas. They informed me that they could not issue it yet as there was a discrepancy with the figures.

Problem which has occurred is that both providers are using different figures from the meter. Octopus is getting one remotely from the meter and British Gas require from a different display on the meter and there is a noticeable difference.

I have been back and forth to both suppliers, both insistent that the figures from the different parts of the display are correct for them but my closing balance with BG doesn't .match the opening one from Octopus. Nobody is backing down, just keep telling me to speak to the other provider as the problem must lie with them.

I am at my wits end and concerned that at some point someone is going to give me a large unexpected bill

Has anyone else experienced anything similar.

(Posting this on my partner's account because I'm an energy nerd and she has a mumsnet account)

So the reading on your bill should match the reading on the meter. It sounds like octopus may have switched somebody else instead of yourself

If you go to page 2 of your octopus bill "your charges in detail", does the Supply Number (big S next to it) exactly match the same box from your BG bill?

If it does, does the Meter serial (Energy charges for meter ...) exactly match your BG bill AND the physical serial stamped onto the actual physical meter?

If any of these are different - Octopus have done a erroneous transfer (ET) and if you let them know they should be able to sort it out.

Thank you so much for responding. I feel I have got further in the short time it took you to provide advice than hours of back and forward phone calls I have been doing all day.

I have checked the serial number on both bills and the actual meter and all match.

If I press 9 on my meter I get a reading currently starting 34000. This is the reading I have supplied to BG and all previous providers without problem and they tell me its the correct way to do it.

If I press 6 twice I get another display with readings starting 29000. This matches the figures Octopus say they are obtaining remotely. They tell me this is the right way to do it.

I have provided BG with the final figure starting 34000. This also fits with all other readings I have given them whilst their customer and also when they send a meter man round to read it.

Octopus have told them the meter readings startd 29000.

Both using same meter for readings, but different figures.

Ok- all the MPAN details matching is a good start!

The bad news is this means you're probably going to have to sort it out with BG rather than octopus so you'll be wasting hours of your life until it's sorted out- sorry. BG customer service is famously terrible.

It's a bit strange to have multiple registers on the same meter if it's not a day/night meter- I'm not sure what they would both be measuring. Is there a make/model on the front of the meter ? (apologies if the meter is awkward to access!) I must confess that I will be reduced to finding and reading the manual for the meter rather than jumping to an answer - this is a new one for me

We've just moved my Dad to octopus from edf. He has a traditional meter.

I read the gas and electric, put it into octopus application and they did the rest..they gave the reading to edf. I checked the final bill was correct and the same reading but we never had to tell edf what it was, or even that he was leaving.

These smart meters really arent smart are they?

Its a Secure Liberty 100.
It's a challenge, all to save a few pennies which I have now prob spent on phone calls.
Thank you for your help anyway. At least we can confirm they are all working from the same meter albeit different parts of it. I'll get back to BG in the morning.

Look at this

It says 6 for electric and 9 for gas. Is that where the problem lies?

https://octopus.energy/blog/how-to-read-your-meter/#securesmets1meter

Thanks for posting the meter make - it's definitely a smart meter, albeit an old one.

If you press 6 on the keypad- does that match the BG reading or the octopus reading?

Do you have a day / night tariff or a standard, flat tariff?

What about 9- which reading does that match?

The manual I'm reading says that 6 is the import energy register(s), and 9 is the total including export- do you have solar panels?

I don't think the Liberty 100 has the ability to display readings from gas meters- you'd need to refer to the IHD for that

Sorry I missed that you had already provided the details of which supplier matches which reading

I think octopus are correct- they should be billing from number 6, the import register

It looks like BG have been mistakenly billing from the total register - which is all the energy coming in to your meter PLUS all the energy going out again - but you don't need to pay for that, so they're over charging you

If you can speak to a metering expert at BG you might be able to get them to understand- but I've got no idea how you would get in touch with them.

An ideal outcome for you would be for BG to take the actual reading (from 6) as the closing read and calculate estimated consumption backwards from it- which could/might result in a refund of the difference back to you

My issue is a bit different from yours, also just switched from British Gas to Octopus as British Gas was refusing to acknowledge that they installed new smart meters last year.

We gave the readings on switch day as 1800, this was recorded on both accounts. They then said an independent organisation verifies the readings and they are agreed between suppliers. After this process they said the handover reading was 560000!!
I too contacted Octopus first, sending screenshots of my British Gas account showing monthly readings for the last year going from 0 to 1800 plus photos of the meter reading on various dates (I take photos each month and did more frequently around the switch).
They explained the 560000 figure was independently verified and why it should be accurate despite being obviously wrong! But then said they would dispute it, asked for current photos of the meter, by this time Octopus had replaced it with another new one so I just sent earlier ones again. They must have accepted this as they added the 1800 start reading back and BG have just sent the final bill based on that.

If you've been billed by BG for up to 34000 but Octopus want to start at 29000, it sounds like BG need to credit you 5000 units, which you then need to pay Octopus for.

Or you need to get Octopus to agree to start at 34000 instead.

There must be people at the companies who talk to each other about meter reading discrepancies on switching, so I'd send a message with the above in to both of them and ask them to sort it out between themselves and let you know when they've come to an agreement and you'll pay what you owe to BG as soon as you've had written assurances from Octopus that they will only bill you from the point at which you paid BG up to.

If they don't do this within 8 weeks, go to OFGEM. If BG start threatening you with debt collectors, keep repeating 'I will pay my bill when I'm sent one that is correct and the bill you have sent me is wrong' like I did when we moved into our current house and NPower tried to bill us about £200 for a few days of G&E before switching away from them. In the end I think we owed them about £15.