Spark (now OVO?) Electricity

jimnotjon

A bit of background.

My girlfriend moves into a tiny single bedroom studio flat in October 2018 and we both searched for a cheap electricity company. All the flat has is electric and it's basically a small kitchen/living room and a bedroom just big enough for a double bed to fit. The company we found was Spark. We are both new to signing up for utilities etc and as my girlfriend was living here alone until I found a job and moved in just at the start of January all bills are in her name. The price per KW according to the tariff was 16p and a daily charge of 26p however they are now telling us its 27p per kw!

Unfortunately towards the end of January my gf had to go to hospital for a big operation in which she was in for just over a week. I was at work all day, only home late at night after hospital visits to cook my tea and sleep. This was the case until April as after hospital she stayed with her mother. So essentially for the first quarter of the year we were mainly using night rate.
Due to the stress of my girlfriend being unwell, myself being busy at work and trying to juggle caring for her and keeping my own sanity I forgot to send in meter readings, although we did submit one the day she signed up and moved in. However when my girlfriend moved back in and we submitted the reading they told us we owed something around the region of £950! Granted we were only paying the minimum of £25 per month however we used very little energy during this time.

As it stands now, we owe just over a £1000. Which puzzles me because if we used so much between Feb to April... how come it's only risen a little bit in the next 9 months until now?

We have called them, online chatted with them so many times and honestly they have the worst customer service we have come across. Fob us off on the phone, take 10 mins to reply between each message online. We were asked to fill out a 2 week form detailing what we used each day and the meter readings and we sent it off, with an average use of 10kw a day which includes the night rate. .. they said they can't see anything wrong and told us to pay up. We have been in contact with them this morning as they keep asking us to raise our Direct Debit to £180. Neither of us can afford that, and we can afford to pay £80 a month between us. They won't accept it.

Its causing us both endless stress as my girlfriend is still recovering from her op and radiotherapy and only being back at work part time.

Does anyone have any advice please?

Gerry1

Firstly, you need to understand that energy is measured in kWh not kW; it's important not to muddle things up.

Secondly, you need to do the sums: just subtract the opening meter reading(s) from today's reading(s), multiply the kWh used by the pence per kWh, add the daily standing charges and 5% VAT if not already included. Then subtract the total amount you've paid by direct debit. That's what you now owe them.

If you think the alleged usage is inaccurate, check that the number on the meter is the same as on the bill. Make sure it really is your meter, not that of another flat: switch everything off when it's dark and make sure it's not still clocking up and the red light isn't flashing.

If you have Economy 7, make sure the day and night readings aren't round the wrong way. If you have storage heaters but are on single rate, that's a sure fire way to go bankrupt ! An instantaneous electric shower is also very expensive; better to use an immersion heater on E7 overnight rates. If you have an immersion heater and E7, make sure it only activates overnight and that any second immersion heater (probably marked 'Boost') is left switched off.

Make sure you fully understand your system, how it's switched and your tariff, otherwise you'll get some nasty bill shocks, made even worse if you don't give monthly readings...

If you're paying 27p/kWh that's extortionate and you need to switch PDQ although a genuine debt may complicate matters. Check whether single rate or E7 would be cheaper.

Also check whether you qualify for Warm Home Discount, Cold Weather payments etc.

Streaky_Bacon

Great advice from Gerry1, which you should follow.

If you need help with figuring out what you owe, you should let us have:

1) The opening reads and today reads (along with any other reads you have taken and the date you took them)
2) The names of the tariff(s) you have been on (the name of the tariff should be on the bills and may have changed more than once since you first opened an account with Spark)
3) The total amount you have paid out

Robin9

jimnotjon wrote: »

……………... The price per KW according to the tariff was 16p and a daily charge of 26p however they are now telling us its 27p per kw!...……….

In October 2019 did you/your girlfriend get an email/letter from Spark saying that her one year fix (16p) was coming to an end and the standard tariff (27p) would apply ?

Did your girlfriend look at the bills from Spark - these would have shown that £25 was never going to be enough - were all these bills based on Estimated readings or on the Smart meter,

Now you've been reading your meter get into the habit of reading it at least once a month and do your own sums.

10kwh at 27p is £2.70 a day (depending on the day night split) ie nearly £100 a month - no wonder she owes so much.

pooch

jimnotjon wrote: »

A bit of background.

My girlfriend moves into a tiny single bedroom studio flat in October 2018 and we both searched for a cheap electricity company. All the flat has is electric and it's basically a small kitchen/living room and a bedroom just big enough for a double bed to fit. The company we found was Spark. We are both new to signing up for utilities etc and as my girlfriend was living here alone until I found a job and moved in just at the start of January all bills are in her name. The price per KW according to the tariff was 16p and a daily charge of 26p however they are now telling us its 27p per kw!

Unfortunately towards the end of January my gf had to go to hospital for a big operation in which she was in for just over a week. I was at work all day, only home late at night after hospital visits to cook my tea and sleep. This was the case until April as after hospital she stayed with her mother. So essentially for the first quarter of the year we were mainly using night rate.
Due to the stress of my girlfriend being unwell, myself being busy at work and trying to juggle caring for her and keeping my own sanity I forgot to send in meter readings, although we did submit one the day she signed up and moved in. However when my girlfriend moved back in and we submitted the reading they told us we owed something around the region of £950! Granted we were only paying the minimum of £25 per month however we used very little energy during this time.

As it stands now, we owe just over a £1000. Which puzzles me because if we used so much between Feb to April... how come it's only risen a little bit in the next 9 months until now?

We have called them, online chatted with them so many times and honestly they have the worst customer service we have come across. Fob us off on the phone, take 10 mins to reply between each message online. We were asked to fill out a 2 week form detailing what we used each day and the meter readings and we sent it off, with an average use of 10kw a day which includes the night rate. .. they said they can't see anything wrong and told us to pay up. We have been in contact with them this morning as they keep asking us to raise our Direct Debit to £180. Neither of us can afford that, and we can afford to pay £80 a month between us. They won't accept it.

Its causing us both endless stress as my girlfriend is still recovering from her op and radiotherapy and only being back at work part time.

Does anyone have any advice please?

She moved in in October 2018, and now you say she owes £1000 ?

How much have you actually paid since October 2018?

Spark offer a range of tariffs, and presumably the bill indicates if you could save by switching to an alternative tariff with them - most suppliers do this, but if Spark don't, I'm sure they would have mentioned this to you in those many calls you say you made.

I'm not sure what tariff you are on currently, but 27p/kWh and 16p/day sounds like their default (usually the supplier's most expensive) tariff. Even so, low rate is about 10p if you are on an E7 tariff.

pooch

Streaky_Bacon wrote: »

Great advice from Gerry1, which you should follow. ...

Except of course, you probably won't be allowed to switch if you have received a demand for £1000.

And even if you haven't yet received the demand and so are allowed, and do switch, you will then soon land yourself with a £1000 demand that will need paying, usually within a couple of weeks.

:cool:

Streaky_Bacon

pooch wrote: »

Streaky_Bacon wrote: »

Great advice from Gerry1, which you should follow.

Except of course, you probably won't be allowed to switch if you have received a demand for £1000.

...as Gerry1 points out in his original post.

Gerry1 wrote: »

you need to switch PDQ although a genuine debt may complicate matters.

There is a lot of speculation going on, and we haven't even seen the readings and the tariff information from OP yet.

Streaky_Bacon

pooch wrote: »

I'm not sure what tariff you are on currently, but 27p/kWh and 16p/day sounds like their default (usually the supplier's most expensive) tariff. Even so, low rate is about 10p if you are on an E7 tariff.

This is one thing that needs checking because at the end of the fixed term they should have been put on the relevant cheapest evergreen tariff.

Gerry1

If the OP remains on a 27p/kWh tariff, their problems won't be resolved any time soon ! It's imperative to find something better.

However, switching tariff doesn't necessarily mean switching supplier. It's unclear whether the OP is on E7 but it's quite likely that switching to E7 would be advantageous especially if there are storage heaters.

Similarly, it appears that the OP may well have ended up on a rip-off default tariff, so that needs to be sorted out. It's unlikely that the supplier does not offer any rate lower than that crippling 27p/kWh, but if so it might even make sense to get a loan from the Bank of Mum & Dad or an authorised bank overdraft.

Former Spark Representative

Hi jimnotjon

Sorry for the late reply to this.

Some great advice from forum members here - thanks everyone.

If you email the address given in my profile, we can check over your account, we'd just need you to confirm a few details such as your full name and postal address. Please also confirm your move in readings and your current meter readings.

Kind regards

Jenny
Customer Relations Team