Energy firms have singled out MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis and his pleas to consumers to submit meter readings as they faced anger over their websites crashing.
On Twitter, E.On took aim at Lewis for “bringing down Britain” after he was among experts who encouraged consumers this week to take their meter readings before the higher price cap comes into force on Friday.
In a tweet that has since been deleted, E.On said: “Unfortunately the website and phone lines of every supplier are being hammered today. Martin has once again created unprecedented demand bringing down Britain.”
E.On later apologised for the tweet.
In a statement, the energy giant 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.”
Lewis downplayed E.On’s comment, later posting on Twitter: “On the Eon tweet – I think it was someone trying to be funny – who forgot that you can’t do a wry smile in twitter.
“Rather than anyone actually suggesting I’m “breaking Britain’ I’m always forgiving of human error (as I make ’em myself). So let’s move on. Nowt to see here ‘gov”
Octopus Energy also mentioned Lewis as it explained to customers what was behind its website struggling to process meter readings.
In a statement, the firm said: “It looks like every large energy provider’s website is down this morning… this is usually due to dramatically increased web visits.
“Martin Lewis’s advice for customers to submit meter readings on the same day as #MeterReadingDay has driven incredible traffic – we’ve added additional capacity this morning to bolster our servers and are fairly stable.”
