A stressful day

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Trying to sort out why I’m paying such a ridiculous direct debit amount for electricity (£302/$384 a month) for a small flat.Usually my daughter tries to sort things for me. She’s more level headed than me but still gets a bit exasperated by the energy company’s worse than useless customer service team. I was so annoyed that I let it spill out on Twitter. They asked me to message them privately- which I did.

According to them everything is above board i.e I’m using a humongous amount of electricity per week/month. A quick check on yearly costs for various things using electricity that I use shows that to be a bare faced lie. Last time my daughter tried to sort it she was told, after being put on hold for ages while the customer service rep talked to a colleague, that only £450 was owed not the £1000+ being listed on the bills. Latest bill it had shot up from £450 debit to £780 debit!

Daughter asked ages ago for things to be checked as there’s obviously something untoward going on- dodgy smart meter?!(daughter’s reckoning). They ignored her… The power has gone off in this flat, in the near year I’ve been living here, far more times than all other properties combined that I’ve previously lived in over the last 30+ years. The other week I had the washing machine on , started to microwave some porridge and the power cut off. Expletive deleted ridiculous. Luckily I now know how to get the power back on, but that’s not the point.

Something definitely isn't right. Your bill should not be that high. That does not make any sense. As far as the power cutting off with the washer and the microwave, that is not unusual. Microwaves pull a lot of power. My microwave and refrigerator happen to be on the same circuit. If I use my microwave at the same time that my fridge is ramping up, the fuse will blow. It seems like your washing machine and microwave are also on the same circuit. You just have to time it so that they are not pulling power at the same time.

Thanks for your reply. I've been using a microwave for a good number of years,and have never had that happen before.

Will the electric company come do an energy audit?That sounds ridiculously high for a small area.If you’ve used the microwave and washer at the same time before and it didn’t throw the breaker, then I’d be wondering about the wiring or the appliances.
I used to have that happen with running the AC unit and the stove.I switched to a lower watt AC and it doesn’t happen anymore.

Insist old tyep meter to be re-installed. They are still made. Old type can't have tariff altered by the electric company. Tariff is being altered externally (Via electric companies headquarters) to hike up the price. Is fraud. Many complaints.