One of Britain's biggest energy suppliers, EON, has blamed financial expert and money saving expert Martin Lewis for "bringing down Britain" and causing "unprecedented demand" on energy supplier websites. Multiple energy company websites have been experiencing issues today, as thousands of people rush to submit meter readings ahead of the price-cap increase tomorrow — for the latest on the websites experiencing problems, follow our live coverage here.
Almost every energy supplier is struggling to keep up with demand as people across the UK are rushing to submit their meter readings. Today, March 31 2022, has been unofficially dubbed 'National Meter Reading Day' by some.
Hundreds of people have taken to social media to complain about the difficulties they've had submitting their meter readings - while Martin Lewis called upon the government regulator for electricity and gas suppliers, Ofgem, to investigate the issue. Mr Lewis' tweets about the problems customers have experienced on energy sites today drew the attention of staff at Eon, who soon blamed Mr Lewis for "bringing down" Britain and causing the issues.
In a since deleted tweet - which was noticed and screengrabbed by WalesOnline reporters and members of the public - a spokesperson for E. ON wrote on Twitter: "Unfortunately the website and phone lines of every supplier are being hammered today. Martin [Martin Lewis] has once again created unprecedented demand bringing down Britain."
The statement was issued in response to a member of the public who had contacted them to report issues visiting the Eon website. It's not yet known why the tweet has been taken down.
The tweet came less than 24 hours after another social media post by staff at Eon urged customers to send in their meter readings by April 1. The post on Eon's official Facebook page read: "It’s a good idea to aim to send us your meter readings before 1 April if you’re a customer on our standard variable tariff (like Next Flex)."
"If you can get a meter reading to us on or closely before 31 March, then this means your bill will be accurate for your winter usage, with current prices, before they increase on 1 April. If you aren’t able to send a meter reading before 1 April, your bill will be based on your estimated usage instead of your actual."
An Eon 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. 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.”
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