A man from Scunthorpe has confronted his energy supplier after being charged £40,000 for one day's worth of electricity.
It's no secret that the energy prices have gone up recently, but 46-year-old Paul Davies immediately knew something wasn't right when his smart meter returned a reading of £40,051.13 for one day's usage.
Even with the rising energy price cap it would take a lot of dedication and even more electricity to rack up that kind of bill in 24 hours, so after receiving a letter saying his monthly direct debit would be increasing to £400 a month, Paul wasted no time in confronting his supplier, EDF Energy.
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The Scunthorpe resident knew the readings were false as he monitors his meter and electric usage, but when he phoned the supplier he was allegedly told the meter is 'never wrong' and that the reading must be correct.
"EDF were looking at putting my direct debit up to £400 a month because of these faulty readings. I can see what I'm using myself by looking at the app so I knew something was wrong," Paul told GrimsbyLive.
Paul claimed the issue had been 'going on for a few months', during which time he had repeatedly reset his smart meter to 'try and fix the issue'. In spite of his efforts, the meter 'kept coming up with the £40,000 figure', Paul claimed.
"Their attitude on the phone was a massive problem. They kept telling me the amount was right and that I must've used that much. At one point they told me a smart meter is never wrong.
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"How the hell does one person use £40,000 worth of electric in one day? It was as if my meter was paying for the whole street. It was only because I kept talking to them that I got the problem sorted, otherwise it may have persisted," Paul said.
The frustrated customer argued with the company and EDF ultimately consented that a software issue had caused the problem. Still, the smart meter continued to display the same reading, so Paul decided to turn it off, put it in a cupboard and 'rely on [his] own meter readings to keep on top of all [his] bills'.
When he turned it on to check it at a later date, the readings claimed he had spent £25,000 on electric and £960 on gas in one day.
The 46-year-old pointed out that while he was able to keep on top of the meter readings, not all customers may be so wary.
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"It's been a nightmare with them and if I didn't notice things could have been much worse," he said. "Somebody who is a bit older or maybe buries their head in the sand when a bill comes through could have had a heart attack, or worse, killed themselves. Everything is going up these days, but this is not what you need."
LADbible has reached out to EDF for comment.
Emily Brown