Massive unexpected electricity bill

[barneymcgroo]

Anyone ever had one of these? I'm with e.on next, apparently. (Was with e.on, they've moved me over). I gave a meter reading in December 2020, they then reduced my direct debit by £20ish per month. Gave more readings in May and June, and between May and June I apparently used over 7000kwh. I'm pretty certain I didn't, and I've just got a bill through for £1200. Every other month I have data for it's something like 300kwh, so I'm at a loss to explain that.
Worth contesting? Is that even possible? Anyone else ever had one of these?

It doesn't sound right does it. Turn off everything electric in your house and then go and see if the meter is still running.

Sorry to state the obvious but were the meter readings you gave right? I always think it would be very easy to get one digit wrong and mess things up horribly. How do they look against what the meter's reading now?

Yes I would query it. We had one once for about £15,000. Luckily because it was so extraordinary when DH rang up and went - does this seem likely to you? - eventually someone went - urm no , and we didn’t have to pay. I can’t remember the reason they gave for it in the end but it did make me wonder how often they are wrong but you don’t know because they are in the right ball park.

you need to contact the company. Even if you do owe it, they will help you put a payment plan in place

can you tell us your meter readings please?

Hope that works. Pretty sure they're all correct. They aren't showing any older ones, but there should be another couple of years worth. I've asked, but they're not being very forthcoming.

It's absolutely worth contesting. If there's a fault, you don't want a reoccurrence.

Don’t worry op, these things always get resolved in the end. It’s interesting that the usage increases at a time you’d expect it to reduce. Have you purchased something over the summer (air con unit etc) that’s particularly power hungry? Is there any chance your supply is connected with someone else’s and could be potentially getting billed for theirs (this happens more than it should). I’d get an email address for someone there who deals with resolution (so you have it in writing) attach your graph as you have here and ask for an explanation for the huge increase. Good luck!

Underfloor heating that’s new?

Lot of usage on that chart in June... did you get a Spa pool?

Energy companies are notorious from r being shit like this, definitely speak to them and get names, make notes. I once got a bill for £2k emailed at 11 at night, long story short they did umpteen calculations and finally (after I threatened to get the Guardian on them) said I owed £250 so I said fine and paid it and demanded they remove me entirely from their database because I never wanted to hear from them ever again

A month later I got a cheque in the post for £250! Banked it.

I a had a bill for £20k from EON for gas once. It was due to a faulty meter. It took me months and months to contest it. Eventually I apologised to whoever it was I was speaking to in advance and then completely lost my shit on the phone and finished up crying. They sorted it pretty quickly after that. Contest it and don't be polite about it or a pushover.

I've recently paid a £500 bill from EON. They couldn't explain why my £70 per month DD wasn't enough and out the DD up to £143 a month. I've paid the £500 and am in the process of swapping to British Gas.

*put the DD

Ooooh! RESULT!

I've been in contact with them over the last week or so - sent them the graph this evening and they've just reset my bill, and I'm now in credit.

Thank you all for helpful suggestions - no, no spa, swimming pool, underfloor heating or mission to Mars. Will keep an eye on it now...

Did you have estimates readings prior to the June one rather than bills based on actual readings? That would make more sense than a sudden one-off massive hike!

@freshFortunes

I a had a bill for £20k from EON for gas once. It was due to a faulty meter. It took me months and months to contest it. Eventually I apologised to whoever it was I was speaking to in advance and then completely lost my shit on the phone and finished up crying. They sorted it pretty quickly after that. Contest it and don't be polite about it or a pushover.

Wow. Bet that made your heart plummet...

X post glad its sorted OP!

I was charged £500 by Eon last month up from £150 with no warning. They changed my direct debit to that. I sent in a new meter reading and was able to put my direct debit amount back down. I think I must have had a digit wrong in my previous meter reading because my new one is a lower number than my old one.

We did, years ago. No change in the household, but massive increase in the bill.. I had to raise a stink but finally persuaded the power company to fit a test meter.

It turned out our electricity meter was defective, one of a batch of thousands from the same manufacturer all with the same fault.

We’re currently contesting a bill with E-on next. Apparently we’ve had a £500 bill for 18 months that they haven’t bothered to tell us about until now, and now they want to double our direct debit! Looks like we were using double in 2020 compared with this year, and compared with 2019. In same house with no changes, same family size, same appliances etc. It just doesn’t make sense, and the guy I spoke up couldn’t explain it either. Waiting to hear back from them, were supposed to contact us within 24 hours but been waiting over a week!

Can I ask exactly how yours was resolved OP? Did they find a fault?

E.on have just done this to me,I'm in credit!!!

Oops I'm with edf(will take my sleep deprived self to bed now)

@Colinthedog

We’re currently contesting a bill with E-on next. Apparently we’ve had a £500 bill for 18 months that they haven’t bothered to tell us about until now, and now they want to double our direct debit! Looks like we were using double in 2020 compared with this year, and compared with 2019. In same house with no changes, same family size, same appliances etc. It just doesn’t make sense, and the guy I spoke up couldn’t explain it either. Waiting to hear back from them, were supposed to contact us within 24 hours but been waiting over a week!

Can I ask exactly how yours was resolved OP? Did they find a fault?

I was in touch with them over Twitter DM, as I couldn't find any other way to contact them (nobody answering phones). I just showed them my actual meter readings (ignored estimates), explained it all with the graph as above. Queried whether the meter could be faulty, and they came back to me last night saying they'd cancelled the bill. No actual explanation, and they had me run a test period which showed normal usage.