We had a meter replaced at the last house and it is surprising how long the old meters to be refurbished sit on the shelf. The first we found out was when we started to get bills backdated for three years showing usage and payments we had made. These bills kept arriving in batches until they worked up to the most current bill. When I phoned them up it turned out somebody had read the meter wrong at the change over and it was only after someone had taken it off the shelf they noticed a discrepancy in the numbers, I could not believe it had sat there for three years before someone noticed there was something wrong. When the final bill came through it was not a refund we owed them! I was amazed that they could reclaim monies owed so far back but apparently when the energy companies were privatised the act gave them unlimited ability to back date bills and seek monies owed. I did make my displeasure known at suddenly out of the blue I had an unbudgeted bill come through when it was their mistake whilst we had continued to make payments in good faith, the best I managed to wrangle out of them was a discount!

Richard