British Gas, E.ON, Scottish Power and EDF websites DOWN as customers scramble to submit meter readings before price rise
ANGRY customers from suppliers including E.ON, British Gas and EDF are unable to submit their meter readings before the price cap rises tomorrow as websites crash.
Nearly 350 customers are experiencing problems logging into their E.ON accounts according to Downdetector.
Hundreds of British Gas customers are also reporting issues getting online according to the complaints tracking website, while Scottish Power customers are being hit by website crashes too.
SSE customers are also running into difficulties.
EDF, Octopus, Ovo and Shell customers are complaining of website glitches on social media too.
It comes after customers were warned to submit their meter readings and lower their bills before the energy price cap goes up tomorrow, DOUBLING millions of households' bills.
Shell customer Anne-Marie Stevens, 49, from Suffolk, told The Sun that it took her 40 minutes just to get through to the supplier's website and log her meter reading.
An error message popped up on her screen saying that there was scheduled website maintenance work taking place, which is why the site was down.
"It seems wrong they are scheduling maintenance on the day that lots of people are submitting meter readings," she said.
"It took me 40 minutes - it was really frustrating."
Website crashes
Other furious customers have been complaining about crashes on social media.
One customer tweeted: " looks like you need to get your act together and let everyone submit meter readings, can't do it online and the phone line is dead. Anyone there?"
Another said: " why does your website not work?"
While one customer tweeted: "EON site has crashed try to put meter readings in just impossible."
The money saving expert said: "But surprise surprise, many of the energy firms are struggling to cope with demand even though they had plenty of notice that this was coming and lots of people are in panic."
He previously advised that taking a meter reading today would "draw a line in the sand" between today and usage at the higher price from tomorrow.
But he added today that it wasn't the end of the world and customers shouldn't panic, and a meter reading in the next few days would still be fine.
That's because you are giving an estimate for your energy based on previous usage, which gives you a cost for the upcoming year.
That cost is divided by 12 for your monthly direct debits.
Doing a reading the day before on March 31 means you - and your energy firm - know exactly how much energy you have used under the lower price.
And you then have a clear date from which the higher prices apply.
It means customers will be furious that they can't log their readings to make sure they're saving as much as they can on soaring costs.
The Sun has approached all suppliers for comment.
It comes as British Gas mistakenly sent messages to some customers that suggested they had to install smart meters at their homes.
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Households of collapsed suppliers taken over by the energy giant have claimed they were told installing a smart meter is a condition of their new contract.
But British Gas apologised and said the messages were sent in error.
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