Ovo £1019 in debt help ☹️

miss_spendaholic

I had my smart meter fitted in May 2017 pay my direct debit of £90 for gas and electricity every month.(this was lowered by Ovo as I was always in credit) Never thought anything else about it and never received any correspondence from them until last week when I got 2 emails as it’s been so long since I’ve looked at my gas/electricity I couldn’t log in to my account then this week I’ve received another email to say that my direct debit will increase my payment to £220. I’ve phoned and they have told me that there was a problem with the smart meter being signed off and they haven’t had any access to my energy details but I am now £1019 in debt. I tried to reason with them they can give me no explaination of how my energy has risen £54 per month on average and made it out that I should be grateful that £200 of this will be written off as they can’t bill me energy bills from over 12 months old. Help what do I do...

dogshome

It seems that your 'Smart' meter ain't so smart and has not been sending it's readings to your supplier - Ovo?


Without readings, the supplier can only ESTIMATE your consumption and the billing.
Look at the meter - It will have a ticket on it, or close by in the meter cupboard showing the installation date and the reading, take a note of this and deduct it from what the meter reads now - The result is your entire consumption over a 21 month period -REPORT THIS TO Ovo? BY EMAIL


A D/debit of £90 a month seems reasonable, but it all depends on the house and people living in it - However it seems you were getting Gas bills, so total these and see how much money from your £90 DD was left over for the Electric.


£200 written off ? - Some very dodgy figures

This is based on the "Back-billing" rules whereby a supplier who fails to bill, cannot charge for energy supplied before 12 months prior to the day they do issue a bill
It gets complex with D/Debits - If they fail to bill a DD customer, they can charge for 12 month old supplies up to the value of the DD's paid, but can't charge for energy beyond that money.


So - They reckon that the value of the power used from May 2017 to Feb 18 ,(appx 9 months ) that they have had to write off, is £200 + the value of your D/Ds.


Yet they are now saying that in the last 12 months you have run up a debit bill of £1,019, despite the fact that your monthly D/D's are still being paid - So how come your first 9 months cost £200 plus your Direct Debits, but the next 12 months cost £1,019 less your Direct Debits

Robin9

Your meters will have been reading 00000 when setup in May 2017 - what are they now ?

Were the meters installed by OVO ?

miss_spendaholic

Thank you for your replies dogshome that’s a good point. I will email them asking them for the correct figures as all I’ve had from them is a telephone calls and some dubious figures that They can’t even explain?? Robin9 I will have a long tonight and see if there is a sticker or note attached thank you.

G_M

Smart meters.


Biggest waste of money in years.