Several E.ON Next customers have reportedly discovered their gas and electricity meters have gone ‘blank’ today ahead of April’s energy price rise.
Martin Lewis has been urging members of the public to take photographs of their pre-payment meters by Thursday, March 31, and to submit the readings to their suppliers.
The Money Saving expert explained that this would allow customers to prove exactly how much energy they have used before the higher prices come into force.
But members of the public, including disabled Glasgow pensioner Charles Kellie, have reported being unable to get their latest figures this morning with the website also ‘crashing’.
The 78-year-old said: “We’ve all been told to take our meter readings before the 1st of April so I went to do it. But the electricity meter is completely blank.
“I can’t see anything on it. I had a smart meter sitting in the drawer and when I plugged it in, it seemed to be working.
“But the next day it went blank. I thought it was broken so I called them up to replace it.
“But they said it didn’t matter because they had my readings.
“It’s me that’s paying the bills so I should be able to see how much gas and electricity I’ve been using. Over the last month, I’ve been cutting things down to try to save money.
“Why have they made it blank? Are they just going to up the ante and make it look like I’m using more than I am?”
Other members of the public took to Twitter to report their issues with the energy provider over the last few days including being unable to login to the website.
Jim Campbell wrote: “I just went to check my meters. I’m 85, my wife is 83. Both meters are in cupboard under stairs.
“I cannot get down so my wife tried to read and both our meters appeared to be blank. The portable smart display in kitchen has been on same numbers??”
Rosey Storey wrote: “I’ve emailed you twice in the last four days to say our gas meter display is blank so I can’t take a reading but I’ve had no response.”
Harini Iyengar added: “Please tell me what happens next? @eon_next fitted smart gas & electricity meters 5/11/21 & have been billing me >£100/month for gas based on alleged smart readings.
“When I go to read the meters today, I see the gas meter is completely blank & not working!”
Sue Watchman tweeted: “I have a smart meter with you and I went to take meter readings today and all my meters are blank? Is this right? A bit worrying as we’re all meant to be reading meters today??”
Paul Murphy posted: “Pretty shabby behaviour not to be letting people submit meter readings on the final day before the price rises.
“Any chance of an update on when the site will be working, as it clearly isn’t just a few isolated cases.”
And Twitter user Llinos wrote: “Your website appears to have gone down @eonenergyuk, presumably as everyone's scrambling to submit meter readings.
“Will you accept a photograph as proof if we can't log in?”
An E.ON spokesperson said: “We are seeing unprecedented volumes of customer traffic to our website and app.
“While we work to resolve this, we can confirm to our customers that any meter readings they take today can be updated to their account online in the coming days. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.
“Smart meter customers do not need to do anything as their readings will automatically be shared with us.”
