John was of pensionable age and in receipt of state pension. He had spent time in hospital due to health problems affecting his lungs and kidneys.

He was concerned over the cost of his electricity bills as the monthly payments were very high. His supplier also stated a balance was owed despite him meeting the monthly payments. He had provided meter readings for the supplier to investigate however, no further progress had been made.

After the EHU investigated it was found the day and night readings on his two-rate meter had been billed the wrong way round following a meter exchange some time ago.  This had caused an increase in payments because the night usage had been billed on the higher day rate when it should have been billed on the lower night rate. More energy was used during the night due to storage heating in the property.

When the billing was corrected John was left with a large credit balance which was refunded. His monthly payments were reduced and an apology and goodwill gesture were also provided.