The most outrageous energy bills revealed: One customer was sent TWO claims for £8,000… another feared losing his home. Now SALLY SORTS IT reveals how you can fight back

In April 2024, EDF Energy said I owed them £8,000 for my petrol alone. He promised to correct the mistake, but another £8,000 note arrived. In August, an adviser agreed that something was wrong. I sent details of the unit but seven weeks later I was told I owed £7,000. EDF has also not credited the payments I have made throughout this time.

FC, Newcastle-under-Lyme, staff.

Energy bills are already tough enough for households as we head into winter and 10 million pensioners are being denied winter fuel allowance. But what makes it worse is the pain countless customers go through to make sure their invoices are correct.

I receive dozens of emails and letters from readers struggling to correct mistakes made on their energy bills, and this week I decided to lay out a snapshot of what I see.

Let’s first look at the case of FC. He attempted to help EDF by diligently collecting details of the gas and electricity units he had used over the two years since moving into his new home and calculated that the total (for both gas and electricity) should have been closer to £5,953 .

During the period he also paid the company £6,282 for both. He thought that EDF owed him money and not the other way around.

I urged EDF to step up its complaint. A few days later he established what had caused the inflated bill of £8,000, then £7,000. Last April, he belatedly got his meter properly “commissioned” – that is, assigned to EDF with his address and name when he moved in – but his mistake was taking the readings as if they started from scratch, ignoring the owner’s usage previous with another provider.

EDF has corrected the initial reading, re-billed your account, processed a refund and credited £100 as a gesture of goodwill. A spokesperson says: “We regret our mistake and that it was not resolved sooner.”

Elsewhere, KC, from Dorking in Surrey, was also involved in a battle with EDF. In September he was told his electricity bill had a credit of £5,154. It is the customer’s right to have a credit refunded upon request.

When investigating this, customer service attributed the delay in issuing the money to the size of the sum involved. She was later told the refund was being processed, but it still didn’t arrive.

When I intervened, EDF sent an email explaining that they were not due a refund after all. It turned out that his meter was broken and the readings did not reflect his actual usage, causing the phantom credit. EDF then tried to persuade her to install a smart meter, the type that automatically sends readings to the supplier, but she refused because she feared they would be unreliable.

I asked EDF if they would allow it to have a standard model. Suppliers are reluctant to replace these “legacy” meters when they stop working, as they are under pressure from the government to roll out smart meters to most customers by the end of 2025.

But in KC’s case he said he would make an exception.

£13,000 lawsuit for mistaken identity

Meanwhile, in London, reader KV explained how he had moved into a rented two-bedroom apartment in April 2023 after separating from his wife. He lives alone, but his two children often stay over. Since then, his annual electricity bill at Eon Next has been around £780. But in October 2024, to his horror, British Gas Lite sent him a £13,000 bill.

He assumed it was a mistake or fraud, but was unable to convince British Gas Lite through its chatbot or emails, despite providing evidence that he was not a customer, and continued to be pursued for the debt. At KV’s request, his landlord disclosed his lease to the supplier, who revealed that the account in question was in the name of a food company. However, British Gas Lite still held our reader responsible. She feared that would mean losing her home and risking access to her children.

When I asked British Gas to get to the bottom of this, it only took a few days to discover the error. Two properties are listed with the same address as yours in the Land Registry, apparently because your landlord split the property in two but never updated the registry.

KV received a bill that should have gone to the other tenant: a company. British Gas Lite only offers rates to businesses, so this should have pointed out the problem for British Gas. The company said it would follow up on the matter with the owner and apologized to KV for not addressing it sooner.

In Blackburn, Lancashire, Eon Next was chasing a vulnerable customer for £600. AM wrote to me about her 42-year-old disabled son who, until February 2022, was a tenant in an assisted living property, like a nursing home but where people have their own unit or apartment and pay their own bills.

When the lease ended and he moved in with his family, AM notified all utilities at that time and paid his final bills. Despite this, a claim was subsequently raised for £600 to cover February to October 2022, the period between her son’s departure and the final closure of the property as a supported living operation.

As the last named tenant, her son had been pursued over the bill a year ago, but after his mother’s intervention, the debt collectors accepted that he was not responsible. However, a year later, the bill resurfaced and Eon once again pursued his son. Eon did not respond to their communications or their evidence, sent by registered delivery. She told me that the stress was making her sick.

I asked Eon to look into this and he confirmed that the account had been incorrectly opened in his son’s name after his tenancy ended. This, he said, was because the management of the accommodation he left informed Eon that the property’s lease would end in October 2022, which is correct for the entire property, but not for AM’s son’s lease.

Eon has now deleted the invoice and offered £100 as an apology for the upset caused. AM was very relieved, but is still furious that Eon is such a mumpsimus (someone who stubbornly stands his ground despite being wrong).

Unfortunately, mumps is widespread in the energy sector and beyond, and I’m sure I’ll face more of it in 2025.

Boots says it is aware of the scam. Advises customers not to click on any links and to delete the email.

First, forward the email to report@phishing.gov.uk to report it.

Straight to the point

I have not been able to connect for 12 days and it’s hard to talk to a human on my TalkTalk provider. It blames another telecommunications provider for the outage, but that company says it’s TalkTalk’s problem. I’m going around in circles.

BJ, Bournemouth, Hants.

TalkTalk apologizes and says the connection has been restored. He has been granted £88 credit and half-price broadband for six months.

My husband died 12 years ago and in January last year I received a letter from a pension company stating that I might be entitled to his pension for work in the 1980s. I sent the documents but have not yet heard from the company, which It has since been acquired by another pension company. Why is it taking so long?

SO, Wigan, Lancs.

The company apologizes for the delay and has already received payment of £2,000.

I bought Uggs on eBay in two sizes with a view to returning one. They were sent from Ireland but the sender address is in China. One pair has been confirmed to be fake. eBay told me to return them before they could look at my case but I can’t as it will cost me £50 and I don’t have all the details of the seller.

RG, via email.

eBay apologizes and says you can request a return under their “item not as described” policy.

• Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY or email sally@dailymail.co.uk; Include the phone number, address, and a note addressed to the offending organization giving you permission to speak with Sally. Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot be responsible for them. The Daily Mail cannot accept any legal responsibility for the answers given.