Incorrect energy billing adjustment

JG26012012

Hi all,

After logging onto my OVO energy account this morning I noticed that somehow I've gone from being roughly £200 in credit to £190 in debit. This must've happened over the course of the weekend as, sadly enough, I check my account near on daily.

To give some background info, I moved into my property and tied myself into a 2 year fixed plan in July 2021, fitted with a smart meter and paying a monthly direct debit of £78, actual monthly usage cost ranges between £30 - £50. This led to the credit mentioned above. However, whilst looking on my billing history OVO have added balance adjustments to a previous billing month (Dec - Jan) that definitely was not there last week meaning I'm now in debit.

There's been no indication as to why and OVO customer service are playing dumb to these phantom adjustments. I apologise in advance if I'm missing something obvious as this is my first property but any advice would be appreciated!  

pochase

Welcome to the forum.

What type of property do you have and what are you use to heat it?

£30 to £50 for electricity and heating would be extremely low and not very realistic.

Was your smart meter submitting data or was it offline and readings were estimated? What do your bills say?

When you say your checking daily your account, what exactly do you do. Do you check an IHD or do you keep a spreadsheet with daily usage?

Can you just post your opening meter reading and a current read, as well a details for your rates so we can have a closer look?

[Deleted User]

The obvious question 'is your smart meter working; that is, has Ovo been using smart meter readings for billing? They are usually annotated on a statement with an 'S'.

Your smart meters hold import data for 13 months, so if Ovo hasn't been able to automatically pull data from your meter then it is possible that they have carried out a manual data pull which has updated any estimated readings that have been used to bill you.

In sum, look closely at your bills. As you are on a fixed tariff then it is a pretty simple exercise to work out your energy charges less all money paid which equals your credit/debit balance.

Robin9

Also read your meter yourself today and see how many units you have used since July 21

JG26012012

pochase said:

Welcome to the forum.

What type of property do you have and what are you use to heat it?

£30 to £50 for electricity and heating would be extremely low and not very realistic.

Was your smart meter submitting data or was it offline and readings were estimated? What do your bills say?

When you say your checking daily your account, what exactly do you do. Do you check an IHD or do you keep a spreadsheet with daily usage?

Can you just post your opening meter reading and a current read, as well a details for your rates so we can have a closer look?

Thanks all for your comments so far.

Myself and my partner live in a terraced house with gas central heating.

When we moved in (July 21) we originally signed the 2yr plan with SSE before they merged with OVO and we automatically transferred across to them. Hopefully the details below provide enough detail into this conundrum;

Electric
Unit rate - 18.82p per kwh 
Standing charge - 24.11p a day

Gas
Unit rate - 3.43p 
Standing charge - 26.59p a day

Meter readings
Joined SSE July 21 - 23106kwh (E) - 5481m3 (G)
OVO transfer Dec 21 - 23553kwh (E) - 5613m3(G)
Today's reading - 24188kwh (E) - 5879m3 (G)

Direct debit - £78 per month

A concern is that my bill dated Dec 21 - Jan 22 has been amended over the weekend which now includes around £400 of balance adjustment charges. I can guarantee this was not within that bill last week but I'm unsure if this is common practice for energy companies.

To confirm, I believe my smart meter has been submitting data correctly during this period as my daily usage is one thing I check on my OVO account.  

pochase

From your readings (assuming you have m3 gas meter) you have used

Electricity £203.63  (1082KWh)
Gas          £152.90 (4457KWh)
SC            £158.18 (standing charges assumed to start on 1st of July)
-----------------------------------
Total cost  £514.71

That is slightly more than the £30 to £50 per months, but still very low.

Direct debit from July to April 2022 is 10 month = £780, so you should have a credit of over £250.

What does you bill say after the adjustments they made?

JG26012012

pochase said:

From your readings (assuming you have m3 gas meter) you have used

Electricity £203.63  (1082KWh)
Gas          £152.90 (4457KWh)
SC            £158.18 (standing charges assumed to start on 1st of July)
-----------------------------------
Total cost  £514.71

That is slightly more than the £30 to £50 per months, but still very low.

Direct debit from July to April 2022 is 10 month = £780, so you should have a credit of over £250.

What does you bill say after the adjustments they made?

I joined SSE on 28th July and I do have an m3 gas meter.

Today's live balance currently stands at - £187.24 in debit having been nearly £200 in credit last week. With those extra balance adjustment charges of nearly £400 being added to my Dec - Jan bill across the weekend.

Confused and a bit flummoxed pretty much sums it up.     

pochase

That reduces the standing charge and you total billing amount should be £502.02.

The £200 makes sense as you will not have paid a DD in July 2021, so your DD (without May 2022) add up to £702, so credit almost exactly £200.

What type of adjustments have they made? Can you just write  them down? I believe you are not yet able to post a screenshot.

I cannot think of any valid adjustments here.

JG26012012

pochase said:

That reduces the standing charge and you total billing amount should be £502.02.

The £200 makes sense as you will not have paid a DD in July 2021, so your DD (without May 2022) add up to £702, so credit almost exactly £200.

What type of adjustments have they made? Can you just write  them down? I believe you are not yet able to post a screenshot.

I cannot think of any valid adjustments here.

Unfortunately I cannot post a screenshot but the following adjustments are now included within my Dec - Jan bill;

Balance adjustments - £78.26
Balance adjustments - £156.52
Balance adjustments - £78.26
Balance adjustments - £78.26

There's absolutely no explanation what these charges are for and the best OVO customer service can offer is to send me my billing history, which I already have access to. 

TheMilkmansDad

I may have missed this, but all those readings appear to be estimates. Have any bills been generated using meter readings you've submitted?

Edit - ignore me, I read the E as estimate as oppose Electric. I hate Mondays  assume all those reads are the actualls?

Mstty

As you mentioned SSE I did a quick Google and found this

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/switching-suppliers-and-moving-home-144/why-have-i-seen-a-balance-adjustment-on-my-bill-since-my-account-was-moved-from-sse-to-ovo-10065