Octopus Energy Billing Issue

Lorna_Wallace

Having finally been fully transferred from AVRO to Octopus I have just received my first bill - £1,400 for electricity in 5 months! Complete nonsense and based on completely fictitious meter readings used by AVRO. I've emailed them twice but still not even an acknowledgement. Not sure what recourse I have if they refuse to sort this problem out. I'm very stressed by all this.

MWT

Are they using the closing reading on your final Avro bill as the opening reading for their first bill?

QrizB

Lorna_Wallace said:

Having finally been fully transferred from AVRO to Octopus I have just received my first bill - £1,400 for electricity in 5 months! Complete nonsense and based on completely fictitious meter readings used by AVRO. I've emailed them twice but still not even an acknowledgement. Not sure what recourse I have if they refuse to sort this problem out. I'm very stressed by all this.

Csan you tell us what these meter reading are, and how you think they're wrong?

keithgawler

Lorna_Wallace said:

Having finally been fully transferred from AVRO to Octopus I have just received my first bill - £1,400 for electricity in 5 months! Complete nonsense and based on completely fictitious meter readings used by AVRO. I've emailed them twice but still not even an acknowledgement. Not sure what recourse I have if they refuse to sort this problem out. I'm very stressed by all this.

I see from your profile that you were with EDF before Avro and appeared unable to provide meter reads at the point of switch to Avro. As another poster suggests, if you can provide more info and whatever meter reads you have from old bills then the cumulative expertise on here may be able to help you validate your bill just received.

Lorna_Wallace

I provided both Avro and Octopus with the closing meter reading from EDF. I also provided all subsequent meter readings to Octopus.

My final electrity meeting with EDF was 6850 on the 23.9.21.

The AVRO Electricity meter reading starts at 1 on the 24.9.21 and reads 26.8 on the 26.9.21. My actual meter reading was 6859 on the 26.9.21.

Octopus have just provided an electricity bill that has meter reading starting at 26.8 on the 25.9.21 and a  reading of 355.1 on the 1.10.21. All of these are estimated readings. From the 26.12.21 they are using my readings and/or Smart meter readings, starting at 7227 on the 26.12.21 and finishing at 7526 on the 28.2.22.

Because Octopus have used a starting reading of 26.8 to a final reading of7526 they are estimating that I have used 7171 kWh which at 19.16p/kWh comes to £1,374 (plus standing charge & VAT) when, in fact, I've used 669 units which at 19.16p/kWh should be £129.80 (plus standing charge and VAT).

The overbilling by AVRO is not the issue but the significant overbilling by Octopus is!

I have kept records of my correspondence with AVRO and with Octopus so know that both were given accurate meter readings. I also have kept records of all my EDF bills (and probably previous suppliers too) so have a complete record of historical meter readings and electricity usage plus I take my own meter readings throughout and enter onto a spreadsheet!

Octopus have finally replied to my emails and I've been advised that it will take 2 weeks for them to respond formally to my query so we will see.

Really I was interested in hearing whether anyone else was having similar issues especially as I am finding this all very stressful!

masonic

The closing meter reading from Avro needs to be disputed, as it is a consumption figure rather than a reading. If you have a photo of the reading on the 26th, then that will help. There's a big difference between a reading of 26.8 and 6859, so I can't understand how it could have been validated.

bagand96

Lorna_Wallace said:

The overbilling by AVRO is not the issue but the significant overbilling by Octopus is!

The problem is Avro... who appear to have started billing you as if your meter read 0 on the day you switched to them.

This is obviously incorrect as they should have started billing you from your EDF closing reading of 6850.

This has been compounded by the fact they went bust and have used a closing reading of 26.8, which Octopus have used as an opening read. Now Octopus have some real data you're seeing a huge "catch up" bill even though it's nonsense. 

To give Octopus their due this will have been automated and the problem started with Avro. The industry does have process in place to pick up such wild reading errors but maybe you slipped through the net because of Avro's administration. 

Octopus customer service are usually very good. Drop them an email explaining your meter reads as you have here and they should be able to reissue your bill. 

masonic

In the interests of managing expectations, disputing a change of supplier reading can take a couple of months and involves an industry communication with the other supplier's data collector. Only once the corrected reading has been accepted and validated can the billing be corrected.

Lorna_Wallace

So, here I am, 10 weeks on and still no resolution. In fact things have now taken a turn for the worse as Octopus is now saying that they want to increase my Direct Debit because I owe them so much money due to the original INCORRECT bill! I have now emailed the CEO. This is serious mis-billing at a a time when none of us can afford it. Looks like the Ombudsman is my next port of call if emailing the CEO doesn't resolve the issue!

Gerry1

Thanks for coming back to us, far too many newbies don't bother.

FMS0

I have had the same problem with Octopus bills and customer service. In the end I raised it to the Ombudsman who upheld our complaint.