Myself & my mum live in a 2 bedroom flat. Our energy provider is Scottish Power. We had a new meter installed at the beginning of december & in 3 months our energy bill is nearly £1100. Surely this cannot be correct?! There is only two of us, we are rarely in during the day & about 90% of electrical appliances are switched off at the socket. Our hot water heater has been broken for about a year and a half so we don’t even have any hot water so it’s not like the electricity is constantly heating the hot water supply. (We have an electric shower though, just incase you’re wondering) We’re at a loss what to do because surely we can’t be running up that amount of electricity in a 2 bedroom flat!
Has anyone ever had this issue with any other providers, or scottish power? What steps did you take to resolve this. & if you can tell me, if you have approx the same living conditions, how much do you pay per month?
Thankyou
The old and new meter readings are written on a sticker in the cupboard where the meter was.. the old is about 3400 & the new 34500.
I’ve actually just noticed it this morning.
& the meter reading is now about 46,000
may well be a mistake in the actual meter readings. You may have had an imperial meter before and now have a metric meter and the gas/electricity companies take the same reading regardless. Also don’t except an estimated reading, tell them the actual reading yourself. (I don’t know how these companies get away with ‘estimated readings’ could you ever imagine your boss saying ‘you’ve earnedd about x amount this month’?!?!) Is there a chance any one could be splicingelectricityy?
February 9th, 2010 at 9:29 am
WHAT! that must be wrong!
I live in a 3 bedroom house, my gas is £30 a month, my electric £20 a month. So in total £50 a month, so only £150 for 3 months.
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:00 am
that certainly cannot be correct. you have to call in a professional
to check what amount of energy you really use and file a
note of protest ( no phone, no e-mail, but a registered letter )
with your power supply company. they must come and
check their instruments and probably will have to change the
meter. you are entitled to a refund.
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you are a client, not a servant
February 9th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Firstly,Dont pay it.Get in touch with them and ask them to send out an Engineer to check your Meter. You may be Paying for other Tenants in your Flats.
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:54 am
There are myself,husband and 2 kids in a 4 bedroom house. No gas and we pay £75 monthly direct debit to N Power and use just slightly less than that. I knew of someone years ago in a similar situation to yourselves and upon investigation a faulty appliance was literally eating the electric. Even though I can’t believe the amount you’ve been charged is correct, what were you paying before? You need to tell them you are disputing the bill and you want it looking at again.
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February 9th, 2010 at 11:35 am
thats not right at all. check the meter reading to what is on the bill. is the bill estimated?. my guess is the meter is faulty or maybe you have an appliance that is faulty and is burning lots of electricity, this is doubtfull but a possibility. check the reading from your last bill and compare it with the reading on the horror bill. have you had a correct reading for a while because if you have been getting a lot of estimated bills you may have a backlog of units that have not been registered with the company then you will have to pay.
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February 9th, 2010 at 11:47 am
When the meter was installed did you take the reading and then compare it against the bill you received.
The key to this is in the meter readings.
also check this forum : http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/utilities-gas-electricity-water/51746-inaccurate-electricity-meter-powergen.html
Also this site http://www.ofgem.gov.uk
which is the regulatory body for gas and electric.
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February 9th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
may well be a mistake in the actual meter readings. You may have had an imperial meter before and now have a metric meter and the gas/electricity companies take the same reading regardless. Also don’t except an estimated reading, tell them the actual reading yourself. (I don’t know how these companies get away with ‘estimated readings’ could you ever imagine your boss saying ‘you’ve earnedd about x amount this month’?!?!) Is there a chance any one could be splicingelectricityy?
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student that’s been abused by gas/electricity companies.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Definitely a technical fault.
I should contact Scottish Power (I have included the link to the specific answer on faulty meters, below) – and ask that they come and check the meter.
IMPORTANT:
- Make sure you do contact them by post or email as well as telephone, so that you’ll have documentary evidence of your complaint
- Take down the name and ask for a complaint/case reference Number
- Take down the time and date of each call
- Very Important: If you can, try to record telephone conversations.
If they do not respond, or you are dissatisfied with their response, contact Consumer Direct – Post and Energy (used to be called Energywatch, before they merged). lik below.
Good luck and don’t give up!
References :
"I think my meter is faulty, what should I do?"
http://scottishpower.metafaq.com/templates/scottishpower/main/answerPage?_mftvst:answerRef=%24http%3a%2f%2fapi.transversal.com%2fmfapi%2fobjectref%2fEntryStore%2fEntry%2fhttp%3a%2f%2fwww.metafaq.com%2fmfapi%2fMetafaq%2fClients%2fscottishpower%2fModules%2fcustomer_services%2fTopics%2ffaultmeter%3a84704%3a1&_mftvst:moduleID=%24customer_services&_mftvst:topicID=%24&id=UTTN1FK686JBDNB2H6EPS3BT8Q
Consumer Direct – Energy:
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/EnergySupplyandPost/energysupply/
February 9th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
get in touch with them, it sounds as though you have a faulty meter. knowing how much you previously went through a month will give you an idea of what you should be using about now.
Either that or someone else is connected into your supply which has happened to me. The company went through back bills and calculated our normal usage prior to our neighbour stealing ours and we got it back. get in touch with them as soon as possible before it gets out of hand.
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February 9th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
This does seem like an excessive bill to pay for the period of time you say, many have answered here as to what to do in dealing with the power provider, however if your electricity is being stolen or you have an illegal connection tapped into yours then try taking daily readings if at all possible. This will show if there are any peaks and troughs in power use and when they happen, also switch all your power appliances off (but leave power to the meter on) if the dial is spinning then you have a power leakage and someone else is drawing off your electricity.
Good luck
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