Octopus energy debt not explained

karents

Hi
I used to have a combined gas and electricity supplied by Coop... this got taken over by Octopus some time ago. All the communication about this said I didn't need to do anything and DDs and account etc would transfer.
This didn't happen, and then some time into being supplied by Octopus I was informed my direct debit was not being paid. I set up a new one, only to be informed I owed £2000! This was perhaps two years ago, so I've increased my DD. 
I did query this amount at the time and if this could have been caused by a faulty meter... I have no other explanation. I thought it was my landlord's responsibility to maintain the meter, however now realise it is the energy supplier. All this was during the first lockdown, so I couldn’t get anyone to come and test the meters at the time.
So I can investigate when this huge debt occurred and look for any peaks in usage as well as calculate the total cost due to a period of missed/ not called for, direct debits, I asked them to provide the last two year of bills, but they only provided three months.
They've said they can check the meters but if they aren't faulty then I'll be liable to pay a fee for this.
All I want to do is check when and how this debt came about- it isn’t fully explained by a short period when they failed to collect my DD.
Obviously with energy prices going through the roof, this has become more concerning.
Any advice greatly appreciated!

molerat

What happened to all the bills you received from Co-op and then Octopus ?

Are you sure the transfer of accounts went smoothly with correct readings ?

What readings are given on the bills they have supplied (including any suffix letters after the read such as C, E, A)

Have you been supplying your providers with monthly readings ?

Meters rarely fail, most of these scenarios are usually down to estimated reads and then a correct read brings a big shock.

Aylesbury_Duck

I suspect this is a combination of you not providing regular meter readings and perhaps the DDs you were paying weren't meeting the bills, and the period where the handover took place and you weren't paying anything at all, probably in a period of high usage at new, higher unit prices.

What meter readings did you take for the last two years?

karents

I have done meter readings, but probably not as regularly as I could have done.
You're right, it could well be a combination of gaps between readings, high usage etc... but I will press them for the missing bills so I can be sure and see exactly where it seems to have gone wrong. 

[Deleted User]

karents said:

I have done meter readings, but probably not as regularly as I could have done.
You're right, it could well be a combination of gaps between readings, high usage etc... but I will press them for the missing bills so I can be sure and see exactly where it seems to have gone wrong. 

All your statements should be visible in My Account (your online account). I have been an Octopus customer since March 2018 and looking at My Account there are 4 years of statements that I can refer to if I need to do so.

born_again

Did you not send a meter reading on the change over date like they ask you too?

Did you not notice that no DD's were being paid for energy used? 
When our supplier went bust we were told we would not to do anything at that point. As the new supplier would try to transfer the DD's over. But the old co kept taking them for 3 months, before we were asked to cancel & provide details to new co to set a DD up. (balance was transferred over) 
You also get asked to provide a reading on a certain date, so old co can provide a final bill & new co has a start reading.