Yahoo Finance 'Why is Extra Energy charging me based on the energy consumption of the previous homeowner?'
I am seeking clarity as to why Extra Energy ignores customer meter readings and uses estimates instead. I had provided meter readings using its online system roughly on a quarterly basis during my one-year contract for it to supply our gas and electricity.
About the time the contract was due to end we were going to Australia and New Zealand for five weeks. Against my better judgment, I decided to renew with Extra Energy, believing it would save any hassle over final reads and change of supplier while we were away.
Towards the end of the contract I had actually given meter readings two months running. Ignoring these, I was billed by Extra Energy several months later based on an estimated reading. This was lower than the actual figure I had provided.
Keith Harrison, Hants
You expected the charges to have been worked out according to the information you had given at the time and costed according to when the usage took place.
The difference benefited Extra Energy because the new tariff was higher than the old one that would have applied had the readings been factored in when they should have been. It was £86 to your detriment.
When you queried this you were told the bill was correct and then that Extra Energy can only use meter readings five days either side of the billing window.
Having worked in the gas industry yourself for 40 years, you are concerned that Extra Energy ignores customer readings in this way and instead uses estimates based on historic property information, creating incorrect bills.
You naturally find it very aggravating having usage shunted forward for billing purposes to more expensive tariffs.
My involvement led to Extra Energy telling me it had made a mistake. It then provided an invoice properly reflecting the readings you had given. It paid £100 compensation and you have donated this to charity.
Finally, an apology letter arrived acknowledging that it had been basing bills on previous consumption for the property.
You bought the house from an estate and the person who had lived there before had died six months prior to your buying it. This means less energy will have been used than if someone had been living there.
