A MUM-OF-TWO was left shocked when her energy bill was nearly £43k for one day’s use.
Emily Brown checked her smart meter on Saturday – the day the new price cap came in – to find she had used £42,670 worth of electricity.
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The 32-year-old said she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when she saw the eye-watering amount next to her 40p gas reading.
She said: “I laughed and thought ‘I hope that’s a mistake’. But I assumed it was triggered by the price changes that happened on that day.”
Emily, who lives in a three-bedroom semi with her husband and children, claimed the monitoring device has always had issues after it wouldn’t sync properly when it was installed in April last year.
The Nottingham mum has her electricity and gas supplied through Octopus Energy and says she has emailed them “hundreds” of times about the problems she was having with it.
“We had the meter installed in April 2021 [and] there have been problems from the start,” Emily added
“I sent hundreds of emails back and forth between Octopus and myself as well as a number of phone calls. Finally we believed we had the meter sorted.
“However with the price increases this year I had turned the meter round as the cost totting up stressed me out.”
But over the weekend, Emily’s daughter knocked the meter which alerted her to the huge figure.
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“I looked again and again, I chuckled to myself when I read ‘weekly budget exceeded’,” she added.
“The kids asked what I was laughing at, so I told them that we had supposedly used all this electricity overnight.
“I tried to put it into context for them, which was the price of a really nice car.
“I knew it would be a glitch but thought it would just be mine with all our previous issues.”
How to complain about you energy supplier
According to the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), energy suppliers and network operators must have a complaints process clearly laid out to its customers.
You then should be able to complain via email, letter, or over the phone.
Ofgem advises to keep a record of any complaints lodged.
Citizens Advice also has a template complaints letter you can use if needed.
And if you don’t hear back from your supplier, you can complain through Citizens Advice who will help you with your case.
If you think your bill is too high for the amount of energy you use, you can contact your supplier and ask them for a breakdown of your usage.
It is advised you send a meter reading to your supplier every month so your bills are not an estimate – however if you do receive a bill which states ‘estimate’ you don’t have to pay, according to Citizens Advice.
