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I’ve done a terrible thing… what to do now

235 replies

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:09

Hi,

about 9 months ago I was really struggling financially. My dad had just died and I was in a very bad place.

I knew that I hadn’t been paying enough for my electricity and I was being badgered for a meter reading. Stupidly I submitted a lower reading. I’m ashamed of this and know it’s illegal.

im now in a better position and want to sort this. Do I just enter the actual reading now? I’m also considering just calling them up and being totally honest about what I did.

what should I do? Please don’t judge me - I know how bad this is

OP posts:
ThatsNotMyTeen · 14/09/2024 11:01

Ifoughthefight · 14/09/2024 09:42

well, if they are that interested in their money, they will have a way to catch up with you, don't worry about that. But people here are not right. You should be worried that you used lies and cheated. That is how this whole society operates???? That cheating, lies and immorality is ok?

On a scale of 1 - 10, how much better did typing that rubbish make you feel about yourself for sticking the boot into a frightened, grieving woman?

oakleaffy · 14/09/2024 11:04

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

I don't understand why you are worried?

Is putting in. a ''low'' reading actually illegal?

I thought you were going to say you'd somehow bypassed your meter.

Many years ago when electric companies used to sent out paper bills, I wasn't;'t sent a bill for a whole year.

When the bill came, it was about £700 in today's money.

I couldn't pay it- they fitted a ''key'' meter and the debt was taken off that every week.

Paetina · 14/09/2024 11:05

With PP - don't worry.

If they ask, just say you were grieving when you submitted the last reading and were making all sorts of mistakes at the time. We all behave differently in grief- forgive yourself.

Completelyneutralname · 14/09/2024 11:07

The police have waaay too much to be dealing with than a late utility payment. If anyone asks you were grieving and must have written down the wrong numbers. Someone I know has avoided paying lots of utility bills and somehow never gets caught. (Entitled Arsehole) So don’t sweat it. Honestly. They won’t even notice most likely.

IVFmumoftwo · 14/09/2024 11:11

Don't worry about it. Just put the reading in and see what happens.

Bigpawfour · 14/09/2024 11:12

Op sorry you feel so anxious. It’s a non issue - I did it inadvertently and when it told me I was wrong checked and re informed my mistake - my meter is a bit hard to see and I just kept misreading it. No one cared and why would they. Their profits are a bigger thing for us all to get cross about!

eggplant16 · 14/09/2024 11:19

Pretend it was an error. Loads of people must do this.

Take it easy.

Sinisterdexter · 14/09/2024 11:19

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

They won’t report you to the police.
Our tenant left owing EON £4k which they kindly sold the debt to a dodgy company who think I’m going to be intimidated into paying.

godmum56 · 14/09/2024 11:24

I have done this too, misread an 8 for a 5. I just sent another reading and paid what i owed.

cartagenagina · 14/09/2024 11:24

I used to work for major energy company.

Just enter the correct reading and pay it. It’s incredibly unlikely anyone will contact you, and if they do you just say you must have read it wrong before.

Zero chance of police involvement.

reesewithoutaspoon · 14/09/2024 11:26

Just submit new reading. If they ask why there is a huge increase (they won't) just feign ignorance and say you must have misread.
The worst thing that can happen is they estimate your next bill and assume your usage is now higher, which can be resolved by giving meter readings. So this is a non-issue.

Jeezitneverends · 14/09/2024 11:33

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

Absolutely zero, just do it

Dartwarbler · 14/09/2024 11:34

Overthebow · 14/09/2024 09:11

Submit the new meter reading and pay it. If they question it just say you made a mistake when entering the last meter reading and you’ve just noticed so have submitted the correct one now.

This. For goodness sake, it is not the end of the world to feel bad about . People enter errors all the time. The system may ping up a message to say are you sure, but just click yes. Did that to me once when I put it a very low electric reading when first moved in. Didn’t understand as a single person my usage was low.
no one is individually checking your readings. The system does this and pings put exception notices for customers whose bills and direct debit need changing.

Galliano · 14/09/2024 11:34

TemuSpecialBuy · 14/09/2024 10:47

Please don’t worry about this.
as others said enter the correct reading

or if you are worried you can do it progressively

eg
Last submitted read 1000 real read 2000
sep submitted read 1400 real read 2100
oct submitted read 1800 real read 2200
nov submitted read 2300 real read 2300

Definitely don't do this when one incorrect submission is distressing you. Just submit an up to date reading and put it behind you.

NoWayRose · 14/09/2024 11:37

Jeez Louise love, thought you were about to confess to stealing leccy from your neighbour via cable or something. You’ll be absolutely fine - the next bill might be slightly higher than usual.

SevernWonders · 14/09/2024 11:44

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

Absolutely none.

They will possibly think you made a mistake when you did the wrong reading, or they might think you had a faulty meter, so they might send someone round to read the meter. Genuine mistakes happen all the time - tbh when my Dad died I was so blown apart with grief I couldn't make simple decisions such as whether I wanted a cuppa or not, so if I had had to give a reading at the time it would highly likely have been wrong.

What you have done, it really isn't the worst thing in the world.

Be kind to yourself

Dartwarbler · 14/09/2024 11:50

Ifoughthefight · 14/09/2024 09:42

well, if they are that interested in their money, they will have a way to catch up with you, don't worry about that. But people here are not right. You should be worried that you used lies and cheated. That is how this whole society operates???? That cheating, lies and immorality is ok?

Are you particularly naive or just being a clickbait cf?

you do know energy companies do this to most customers routinely and no one questions it. A large proportion of people have a large credit on their bill, I think poepple are more aware now, but many are not. The energy companies literally sit on a few hundred idea is that this credit is during summer to cover increase use in winter so it evens out to the average payment used for direct debit. Except is doesn’t. Companies randomly increase direct debits on basis of one higher than usual reading, and people don’t question it.

do the companies fall over themselves trying to pay that back? Nope.
do they pay customer interest on it? Nope. Now do the maths at an internet rate of 3-4% they’re making. Conservatively they’re making interest on their customers money to run of thousands of pounds

ive been with companies gone into liquidation. Twice. It took months to sort out balance on bills. In first case we owed them, administrationnwerent exactly falling over themselves to settle. We hassled the, for 5 months to settle with them. Second time was in summer and company had £300 of my credit. It took 5 months for that to be paid back to me, at my cost of interest it could have earnt me , they never apologised for all the hassle involved in chasing it for months

the OP, Is not defrauding the company out of money , they will get the money. A bit late. Bills used to be paid quarterly, they’re now paid monthly on an average amount, so companies benefit from this in a lot of ways they didn’t used to. The companies have, ironically, already paid the wholesaler for the fuel months before. No one is going to out of pocket. Yes, it needs to be corrected, but this truely is not the issue

it doesn’t stop the CEO of these companies making huge bonuses form our money for essential supplies does it? If you want to rabbit on about society and morality you should go after them!

or maybe you ARE the CEO of an energy company? 🤷🏼‍♀️🙄

gillefc82 · 14/09/2024 11:52

@Odetojoy I worked for British Gas for 17 years, a chunk of which was in their Regulatory Compliance Department, so I could probably still quote sections of the Supply Licence Conditions and billing codes by heart! 😂

Unless they suspect that you have tampered with your meter and are extracting electricity or gas from it illegally (as in the meter is not correctly registering your consumption) there will be no involvement from the police at all. And in those circumstances, police are usually only called to attend as tampered meters can be a real danger and these cases offen turn out to be related to wider criminality, e.g. a cannabis farm.

Just enter the correct, latest read and the bill will correct itself to reflect the right amount of consumption. There’s a chance that your bill might flag as an exception if your consumption looks abnormal, but if you do get a query if the read is right, just confirm it is, previous read was entered incorrectly (oops, sorry) and you’d like to make a one-off payment to bring your account back on track.

Make sure to provide the right reading before the new price cap comes in as prices are likely to increase and you’re better off being billed for usage on the lower tariff!

Honestly, in the current climate Energy companies have too many other things to worry about. There won’t be any consequences from this.

3within3 · 14/09/2024 11:55

Oh bless you, honestly it’s not anything to fret about, especially as you’re about to pay it anyway. If an incorrect reading was deemed significant enough for companies to get police involved (it definitely isn’t btw!) then there’s no way they’d all be trusting the general public to do it! They’d be doing it themselves or automating it. Just pay the new amount and forget all about it xx

BashfulClam · 14/09/2024 11:56

Nothing will
hspoen (apart from a bill) it’s not looked at by a human it’s all computerised. Reading goes in, bill is generated, you pay, ✔️

YourFluentCrab · 14/09/2024 12:09

I've entered the wrong meter reading before, just meant next bill was higher. (Meters up high, i misread).Nothing will happen, it'll be fine.

TheBossOfMe · 14/09/2024 12:12

Just enter the new reading, don't say anything about it, pay the balance owed and if they ever query it (which they won't) just say you must have accidentally entered the wrong number last time. It's no big deal at all.

Allybob88 · 14/09/2024 12:13

Just tell them that since the last reading and this reading you bought a hot tub, that explains the sudden jump in readings 😂

notacooldad · 14/09/2024 12:16

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?
Don't be daft, just submit and pay up! Honestly no drama.

Silvers11 · 14/09/2024 12:33

Odetojoy · 14/09/2024 09:13

What’s the risk of them reporting me to the police?

None. They might not even ask. If they do, just tell them you have been reading the meter wrong for a while and now someone has told you how you should be reading it.