A MARRIED senior citizen couple from St Martins have slammed an energy provider for failing to rectify a gas bill mistake earlier with their meter that left them with a whopping £4,000 bill.

Val and Martyn Barker, of The Hollies, were sent the bill – 1,000 per cent up from their last three years – for April to July after a problem was discovered with their gas meter.

However, the company had maintained that their pair must pay the bill of £4,000 for three-month period or take their case to the Energy Ombudsman to mediate, leaving Val distressed at the lack of help they have received.

However, following intervention from he Advertizer, the energy company has now rectified the error.

She said: "Our average usage of gas for the past three years for the period April to July was 450 units.

"For the same period this year Bulb decided that it was 4567 units, an increase of 1,000 per cent.

"Bulb have refused to re-assess the figures – this is all before the predicted price cap rise.

"We are two senior citizens living on our pensions and worried to death about such an enormous bill."

She added: "It's just me and my husband Martyn here – nobody else and we've tried to cut back on everything we can and we're trying our best.

We've got a gas boiler but that hasn't been on all summer other than for hot water for a shower.

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"It was a shock – straight away I thought, how could that be? I didn't tell Martyn for three days because he'd go spare.

"It came through online and I thought that it must be wrong, so I immediately went out to check the meter in and immediately I could see it wasn't working.

"I told Bulb that it was giving a mis-reading so I contacted Bulb to say it wasn't working, they agreed and sent someone out.

"Once we got the meter changed, I thought the bill would be rectified but Bulb took it on 'final standing' and said we still owed them and that if we wanted to go to the Ombudsman then we can."

Val blamed the company's lack of flexibility around problem solving.

She added: "They have youngsters working for them who have to say what's on their screens but no one could look at it and say 'this doesn't make sense'.

"They don't analyse it themselves but computers have no logic, only put out what is programmed into them and that is the figure that we owe."

However, a spokesman for Bulb said the company accepted complete responsibility for the error.

They said: "We haven't handled this well and we're sorry.

"Mr and Mrs Barker's gas meter had lost connection to the smart network.

"In July, we successfully connected the meter and started receiving readings from it. However, the readings that came through were incorrect, producing an unusually high bill.

"We replaced the smart meter earlier this month, and have now removed the incorrect meter readings from the account.

"Mr and Mrs Barker's account is now £597.03 in credit, which includes £50 compensation to say sorry for the service they've received."