Mum of two receives whopping £27,000 energy bill after smart meter error
An alarmed Leicestershire mum received a whopping £27,000 energy bill after an incorrect reading on her smart meter.
Paula Coplin, 42, was shocked to see she had been charged a huge amount by Bulb energy.
From the New Parks area in the county, Paula had been able to build up a total of £1,000 in credit and was surprised to discover the massive bill waiting for her.
When she tried to get her well-earned money back but was told she still owed £27,404.81.
Paula, who has two children aged 17 and 10, ended up in a back and forth between herself and Bulb, bought by Octopus energy in October last year.
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(BPM MEDIA)Paula said to Leicestershire Live: "I was trying to claim back my £1,000 in credit I had with the company - getting in touch via calling and using online chat to try and get an answer. They told me they couldn't for two reasons - one was the fact that they had estimated my gas meter since the pandemic because it had broken, and the second reason was that I owed them more than £26,000.
"This was the first I'd heard of it as it wasn't loading up on my end, so the customer service staff sent me a copy of the bill to my email for me to look over, and I was stunned to see they had suggested I had used £27,000 in energy since my last bill.
Paula was forced to make an official complaint to Bulb, and it took them around two weeks to confirm with Paula that they had indeed made a mistake.
The incident occurred when Bulb remotely connected to Paula's smart meter in September 2022, before the takeover from Octopus.
Bulb incorrectly estimated Paula had used 100,000kWh worth of electricity, around the same as a small business.
The deputy headteacher added her "energy bill would be more than what I'd pay over ten years."
She had now switched over to Octopus energy, who have assured he this will not happen again.
"I found this out in October, on the run up to Christmas, so it caused a lot of problems with our plans. Until they corrected it I was told I had to pay it, and I was told I couldn't get a payment break while I tried to sort out the error. But I did anyway, so I could actually afford Christmas.
"Even when I got my money back, they only paid me back around £800 of the money as they used some of it to pay the corrected bill. But I've raised the whole situation with the energy ombudsman who will be looking into it."
An Octopus Energy spokesperson said: "The incorrect electricity billing happened when Bulb remotely connected Ms Coplin’s electricity meter to the smart network in September 2022 following a period where they hadn’t received readings from her electricity meter for several months. Bulb did this so they could get regular readings from Ms Coplin’s meter and keep her bills up-to-date.
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"Unfortunately, a system error occurred in which it looked like Paula had used a lot more energy than she actually had (~100,000kWh worth) and this resulted in a large incorrect bill on her account for just over £27,000. This error was quickly rectified and the incorrect estimated readings were removed by Bulb."
The company added the incident had been "all sorted back in November 2022."
As for the meter, the spokesperson added that it has not been changed or replaced as it is still managed by British Gas. Octopus says they hope to have the meter transferred over in the next two weeks.
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