A man was told "the meter is never wrong" after being charged £40,000 a day for electric.
But the exorbitant amount was the result of a fault with his smart meter after all and now he's had to turn it off and shut it in a cupboard to avoid any further false readings.
Paul Davies, 46, of Scunthorpe, spotted the mistake and confronted supplier EDF after receiving a letter telling him they would be upping his direct debit to £400 a month because of the readings, GrimsbyLive reports.
Paul knew the eye-popping readings were false as he diligently monitors his meter and electric usage.
He decided to phone his supplier who told him that the meter is "never wrong" and that the amount shown must be correct.
But after arguing his case with them, the company declared it was a software issue that had caused the problem. Sadly, the smart meter did not alter and Paul has now turned it off and shut it in a cupboard to stop anymore faulty readings.
He said: "EDF were looking at putting my direct debit up to £400 a month because of these faulty readings. I can see what I'm using myself by looking at the app so I knew something was wrong.
"This has been going on for a few months, but in that period I reset it countless times to try and fix the issue, but it kept coming up with the £40,000 figure. As a result, I've just thrown it in the cupboard and I rely on my own meter readings to keep on top of all my bills."
Paul said he rang EDF to speak about the matter, but claims the attitude of the staff made the situation even worse. He said: "Their attitude on the phone was a massive problem. They kept telling me the amount was right and that I must've used that much. At one point they told me a smart meter is never wrong.
"How the hell does one person use £40,000 worth of electric in one day? It was as if my meter was paying for the whole street. It was only because I kept talking to them that I got the problem sorted, otherwise it may have persisted."
Whilst speaking to Grimsby Live, Paul turned on his smart meter to see if the problem was still happening. He said: "I've just got the readings up and it says I've spent £25,000 on electric today and £960 on gas."
While Paul was able to keep abridge of what was happening as he keeps on top of his bills, he said someone who doesn't may have ended up in a much worse situation.
He explained: "It's been a nightmare with them and if I didn't notice things could have been much worse. Somebody who is a bit older or maybe buries their head in the sand when a bill comes through could have had a heart attack, or worse, killed themselves. Everything is going up these days, but this is not what you need."
Grimsby Live has contacted EDF for comment but is yet to receive a response.
