Utilita Billing - Query and some advice please

[Wylderose]

On June 25th, 2018, I completed on a house and inherited a Smart meter with Utilita. Took me ages to get my account set up - Payment on bill (online PDF and paper Bill) Smart Energy for both gas and electric.

August 24th, 2018 I received my first bill - one for June with a supposedly actual reading and one for July with an estimated reading. Now my understanding of smart meters is that they take actual reads multiple times a day, so I am guessing that there is something wrong with my meter.

No further bills arrived and I was having to depend on photographing my IH Display in order to figure out how much I owed on a month by month basis. Numerous phone calls and complaints later, I eventually received a bill in January for December and November - again estimated reads for electricity but actual reads for gas.

Needless to say having had really poor customer service and two price hikes in 6 months, I am currently in the process of switching suppliers. Tonight I took photos of my meter readings so I could supply my new supplier with an actual reading.

Low and behold my reading today is lower than my initial reading on my first bill.

June 2018 - Day Rate 5446 and Night Rate 1802
December 2018 Estimated - Day Rate 6332 and Night Rate 2605
Today's reading - Day Rate 6014 and Night Rate 1800

Something is extremely screwy here. I have not received January's bill yet and according to my IHD I owe £60 for January's electric

I am assuming that my readings are correct as I photographed the meter readings. If that is the case then Utilita owe me some money

How do I go about getting this sorted as I don't want Utilita putting any obstacles in my way as my switch is almost complete (due to complete 08/02/19)

[slainte caragh]

something is definately screwy.
Your meter is an eco 7 and the night read is lower that June?

How many people are in the property? I can do a quick calculation to find out if both reads are dodgy, I would contact Utilita and demand someone coming out to look at the bloody thing, just in case you have the same issues with your new provider.

I will have to check but, to my knowledge, smart meters dont work with Eco 7 reads anyway.. not sure on that one but I can have a concrete answer for you by the end of the day. (For this read, all my tame customer service mates are at work)

Give me a few hours and I will have some more info for you

[Wylderose]

Thanks for getting back to me Slainte. There are only my husband and myself in the property.

We have a highly insulated property and have a gas shower, gas CH, gas cooker. Elec is only used overnight by fridge and plug sockets. TV is only on from 7pm to 11pm. Lamps are the only lighting we use, not central room lights. Washing machine and tumble dryer are on in the evenings.

We both work all day so there is no extra usage

I also thought it was a straight smart meter and not economy 7 until I had to give a reading yesterday to my new company.

I very much doubt that their readings have ever been correct because the only "actual" reading and I use that loosely was when I set up my account. The billing was switched from PAYG to Billed usage. Between July and the end of December I received no bills whatsoever and had to rely on photographs of the IHD so don't know how many KwH I actually used.

I assumed that the two phase rate was the standard peak and low period usage that smart meters are based on as I thought Economy 7 had long since been phased out.

Bulb take over my supply on 08/2/19 so I shall take more photos of the metered usage then. I am fully expecting the IHD to become useless when the switch occurs, so until the new smart meters are fitted sometime this year I will have to submit monthly physical readings. But with me leaving Utilita in a few days time, I don't see them being forthcoming about coming out to check the meters - it is hard enough to get them to answer the phone.

[slainte caragh]

Sorry, those few hours took a few more hours then I expected.

Loads of interviews and all that, so it seems that Eco 7 can be used with a smart meter, but you have to ensure it is done correctly and the meter is compatible with Eco 7, so that should be your inital question.

secondly, are you on an eco 7 tariff?

I've asked around and all my mates agree that we have never heard of meter losing.. call Utilita and get them to test the meter!

[Wylderose]

Update:

New supplier has taken over my supply - In house display has stopped working as I expected it would. I took photographs of the meter readings (time and date stamped) and submitted these to my new supplier who has accepted these as proof of my opening readings.

I emailed Utilita with copies of my photographed readings and my recent "estimated" bill and requested a refund.

Customer complaints advisor has now made contact and agreed that they owe me about £139 which will be refunded in the next two weeks.

As to whether or not the meter was correctly set up for Eco7, I don't know. My tariff was just called "smart energy". I did question the complaints advisor as to why my meter had never taken any readings. He tried to tell me that they had now taken correct readings (I reminded him that they came from my photographs and not the meter) and he then said that perhaps there had been a problem with the signal (for 8 months), so perhaps it wasn't set up correctly after all.

Anyway I am now on the waiting list for a Phase II meter from Bulb which I hope should be installed in the next few months. Until then, I will have to read my meters regularly - no great hardship.

Thanks for your advice Slainte - it was much appreciated

[slainte caragh]

You are very very welcome!
Glad to have been of service! Bulb have a very good name, hope that the new meter will be better for you

Sorry it's been a while since I posted, I am an agency support worker and I work really odd hours... but please check out my latest post for some exciting news!