Insane Electricity Bill- Please help :)

[MilgramsLittleHelper]

Hi all,

My parents have had a pay meter for their electricity. For a long time this meter was swallowing money, so much so that my parents called the electricity company and were told that the meter was functioning correctly. They had the meter for about six years and always believed that the meter was set to "Economy Seven". A week ago they had the meter removed and was told that the meter was not in fact set to "Economy Seven" , but a higher tariff (hence the much higher bills). Is there any way my parents could perhaps reclaim some of the costs? They are pensioners so any extra would help them along.

Any help would be fantastic!

do they have night storage heaters?

My initial thought was no but actually if your parents had queried their high bill if have thought the elec company were duty bound to inform them of different tariffs. They must be regulated by someone - might be worth a phone call? There must be best practice guidelines against this?

with economy 7, nighttime electricity is very cheap, but the daytime charge is higher than with a standard meter

if they do have night storage heaters then they will have been overcharged for those, if they're on a standard meter, & someone has messed up; but if they don't, the rate for their general daytime use will actually have been lower

if their 'belief' was given in writing by the supplier, they can complain and get a refund.

if not - they can still complain but as ponders points out, they have some electricity cheaper than they though so they will probably be out of luck.

the electricity companies will not change your tariff unless you ask, and like everyone else are happy to sell you something expensive.

I have just for £350 back from SSE for the same problem.

I was on 2 rates not realising that this is for people with storage heaters, I don't have any storage heaters.

When I queried this the company came and changed the meter and calculated how much I had overpaid.

It was done with very little hassle.

Not quite the same but when we were renting with expensive night storage my bill was enormous! It turned out theatre reader had been transposing the figures. The elec company eventually figured it out but it took a while and a lot of phone call