Bill-payers have struggled with website crashes or long queues while trying to submit meter readings before the energy price cap goes up at midnight.
Gas and electricity bills will jump to an average of £2,500 a year for typical households when they’re moved onto the Energy Price Guarantee on Saturday.
Friday has been dubbed ‘Meter Reading Day’ by campaigners including MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis in a bid to ensure people don’t overpay.
While there’s no penalty for submitting readings after October 1, those who leave it too late will have to rely on suppliers to estimate how much of their usage since their previous reading took place before and after that date.
Most major suppliers are believed to have implemented queue systems on their websites after many were overloaded in the run-up to April’s price cap hike.
Despite being in an almost identical situation on Friday, several appeared to experience server crashes throughout the day – wasting people’s queueing efforts.
Social media users shared screenshots of error messages said to have popped up while trying to log into their accounts with Shell Energy and SSE.
Complaining directly to SSE, Jonathan Torbitt wrote: ‘Hey what’s with your utter lack of customer service? Spent 56 minutes on hold in a supposed 20 minute phone queue to not get an answer, then 20 mins in a web queue to get this error after I try to tell you again I have moved house.’
Customers with Scottish Power claimed to have faced queues of over an hour, and that the company’s phone lines were so busy that no more callers could be taken on hold.
@ScottishPower Just tried to log on to your website to submit meter readings.
More than 1 hour wait time.
Did you not make enough money last year to cope with this kind of thing? pic.twitter.com/yT9Y15FOAv
— ð´ó §ó ¢ó ³ó £ó ´ó ¿Lynesideð´ó §ó ¢ó ³ó £ó ´ó ¿ (@Lyneside) September 30, 2022
Sharing a screenshot of a 14-minute queue on Shell’s website, Marc Thomas added: ‘Trying to submit an energy meter reading so I don’t have to sell my kidneys on the black market next month.
‘It’s almost like this energy company doesn’t really want me to submit a reading?’
Customers of some companies said they experienced website crashes as early as Monday despite trying to beat the rush with several days to spare.
Most suppliers have accounted for April’s chaos by implementing an amnesty period during which people can submit backdated readings late.
They vary widely in length, from 5 days for E.ON, 7 days for EDF, 14 days for British Gas and 30 days for Shell.
Those who have managed to submit their readings haven’t been met with the most cheery news, though.
One man said: ‘Energy supplier have estimated, taking all Govt schemes into account, that I’ll have to spend 17.7% more over the next 12 months (as of 1st Oct), based on my prev 12 month usage. They’ve still increased my monthly bill by 86.3%.’
Customers with smart meters or prepay arrangements don’t need to submit any extra readings but have been encouraged to take photos of their meters in case of any issues down the line.
Most people on fixed-rate tariffs are likely to see their bills drop, although some 85% of households are on variable tarriffs which will be hiked as the price per unit of gas and electricity goes up after midnight.
The Energy Price Guarantee is a taxpayer-funded two-year limit on bills which will effectively reduce the average increase in charges from 80% to 29%.
Households will face energy prices roughly twice as high as last winter, although they would likely have been four times higher without the guarantee.
It is a temporary replacement of Ofgem’s price cap, which didn’t cost the Treasury money but was seen as too weak to protect households who faced potentially life-threatening winters.
The regulator allowed the price cap to vary in line with wholesale prices, allowing suppliers to make enough revenue to avoid collapsing while avoiding the need for government subsidies.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the new guarantee ‘is not sustainable in the long-term’ as it could cost over £100 billion in the next year alone, with each extra £1 spent on energy costing taxpayers another 75p.
The think-tank’s chief, Paul Johnson, said the government has ‘bought us, and itself, some breathing space’ but ‘needs to be immediately working out its exit strategy’ and ‘come up with something better for next winter’.
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