Energy company E.On has apologised for its "ill-considered" tweet which blamed Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis for the industry-wide website crashes that are occurring ahead of the energy price cap increase tomorrow. The tweet said: "Martin has once again created unprecedented demand bringing down Britain."
An E.ON spokesperson said: “This was an ill-considered and off the cuff remark made by one of our Energy Specialists and in no way reflects our position. We have an excellent working relationship with Martin Lewis and his team, and we apologise for any offence caused.
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"We ourselves have spent the past few weeks advising customers to submit accurate meter readings ahead of April 1. 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.”
It comes as people all across the country rush to submit meter readings before Friday's price jump. Experts urged householders to submit meter readings for gas and electricity to their suppliers on Thursday to show how much energy they used ahead of the price cap increase.
It isn't the first time the energy firm have accused Martin Lewis of 'bringing down Britain' either. In a previous Tweet, replying to social media user @brucedaisly, they replied: "Hi Bruce, Martin has once again created unprecedented demand bringing down Britain.
"But don't worry, we can take your readings here and get them recorded for you. Just contact us by private message and we'll sort it for you."
Others came forward to defend Martin Lewis online, with @mikejjennings tweeting: "I was going to go on and do a meter reading today but it's looking like that'll be pretty difficult. And @eon_next blaming Martin Lewis for the fact that their website isn't able to cope with demand? State of it".
Twitter user @DanJ_89 shared a screenshot of a Facebook post showing E.On asking customers to send their meter readings by 31 March. He added: "But harsh to blame this on @MartinSLewis when you were encouraging the same, no?"
Meanwhile @samvfood tweeted: "This is appalling blame shifting from @eon_next towards @MartinSLewis, who's definitely not the one 'bringing down Britain'. Also, how can he have created unprecedented demand ONCE AGAIN? It's either unprecedented or not. Embarrassing stuff. #CostOfLivingCrisis #MeterReadingDay".
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