HUGE problem with OVO Energy need urgent advice

Aviscious

Hi I will try and explain best I can.

During covid and up until March 2022 I was working from home and using considerably more energy than normal, this led to OVO way over estimating my electricity use this year by 7768 units and putting my account in debt for £1,761.40 so I contacted them about this on October 17th via WhatsApp.

They had estimated my reading on 14th Oct 2022 at 10558 my actual reading is 02790 overcharging my account by 7768 units.

They then requested photographs of the meter because of the huge gap in estimated and actual reading which I provided via WhatsApp

I was then told it would take a few days to rectify.

Nothing happened so again I chase after them...

27th October 2022 I contacted Ovo Energy again via WhatsApp and had to explain everything again and again I was asked for photos of the meter which again I provided several weeks worth (been taking photos of meter once per week for a few months now)

Reply from OVO: (Thanks I'll raise the dispute for you now. A read dispute is an industry process. It involves your last supplier and us (as your new supplier) communicating to make sure we open and close your accounts with the correct readings. We’ll have the opening read corrected within 6 weeks. This is the time it takes to make sure you are billed correctly.)

Please understand I have lived here since 2015 and have been with Ovo Energy for several of those years so not sure why they mention my last supplier anyway moving on.

17th November 2022 I receive an email regarding my account so I log in and check it online and low and behold my estimated meter readings and bills have all been adjusted for the last 12 months to way below the actual readings I had provided and they are demanding I increase my direct debit from £150 per month to £546 per month, saying if I don't do it myself they will do it for me and only give 10 days working notice...

I cannot afford anywhere near £546 per month and I feel robbed and cheated because for months they way overestimated my meter readings which put me £1,761.40 in debt, but now I am way underestimated and still £1.325.36 in debt.

I am totally at a loss has to how they can simply go in and adjust all my previous bills in there favour removing all the overestimated meter readings and replacing them with underestimated ones.

What can I do about this, how can estimated and already billed for units totally vanish from my account and be replaced by new ones which are now overly underestimated.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated this whole thing has been causing me sleepless nights one moment I thought everything was ok and I had overpaid now it seems they will be billing me for thousands 

Please feel free to ask any questions I will do my best to answer them

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Can you share more of your meter readings here?

What is the Estimated Annual Consumption shown on your most recent bill?

Do you have gas with OVO as well as enectricity?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

were you supplying regular monthly readings when working from home?

Have you actual readings today and roughly this time last year?

ariarnia

i'm also a little confused. if they had over estimated your use and put you in £1700 of debt and now are underestimating your use how are you still in debt?

if you have been paying into your energy account then that money wont be lost and will be put against your usage (you won't have been robbed) and an underestimate would more likely mean you were (maybe wrongly) in credit. 

as others have asked can you give us an idea of your actual meter readings since ovo started to use estemates (was this in march 2022 or were they basing bills on estemates before that) and what you have actually paid in when.  

Aviscious

I did not supply monthly readings for the 18 months or so of working from home.

Here are almost 5 months of both electricity and gas readings I only started recording them when they started asking for photographs of the meter. 

I have been paying £150 direct debit for a few years and always paid top ups whenever my credit balance got low, and when I stopped working from home I paid a lump some of over £2000 to clear the account to zero.

Not long after that they started over estimating my bill even though I contacted them several times and tried to give readings online which were never accepted, they just kept asking for two photos of the meter at least 2 weeks apart I have given them 10 or more photos from the readings listed below.

But since I questioned my account being way overestimated and account in debt they have now edited all bills that are online and now my account is way underestimated but still in debt.

I have contacted them again today about it and I am just at my wits end, I just do not know what to do about it, how can they send me my bill and then several months later change the bill and put me in debt and demand a direct debit increase from £150 to £546

Electricity meter readings from 24th June 2022 -  11th November 2022 (I have photo's for all readings)

11th Nov 2022    03241

04th Nov 2022    03119

28th Oct 2022     03017

21st Oct 2022     02899

14th Oct 2022     02790

07th Oct 2022     02680

30th Sep 2022    02552

23rd Sep 2022    02422

16th Sep 2022    02267

09th Sep 2022    02123

02nd Sep 2022   01956

26th Aug 2022    01794

19th Aug 2022    01650

12th Aug 2022    01498

05th Aug 2022    01345

29th Jul 2022      01214

22nd Jul 2022     01102

15th Jul 2022      00953

08th Jul 2022      00813

01st Jul 2022      00699

24th Jun 2022     00587

- - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - -- - -

Gas meter readings from 24th June 2022 -  11th November 2022 (I have photo's for all readings)

11th Nov 2022 10525

04th Nov 2022 10521

28th Oct 2022 10518

21st Oct 2022 10515 

14th Oct 2022 10512

07th Oct 2022 10508 

30th Sep 2022 10506

23rd Sep 2022 10503

16th Sep 2022 10500 

09th Sep 2022 10497

02nd Sep 2022 10494 

26th Aug 2022 10491 

19th Aug 2022 10489 

12th Aug 2022 10485 

05th Aug 2022 10483 

29th Jul 2022 10479 

22nd Jul 2022 10476

15th Jul 2022 10474 

08th Jul 2022  10471 

01st Jul 2022 10468 

24th Jun 2022 10465

Obviously just like everyone else I am cutting costs on everything but also please understand if I owe them money I will of course pay it but surely they cannot demand a direct debit increase of almost 4x.

[Deleted User]

If it's underestimating and you are still in debt, then you have been paying way too little for way to long.  And when the estimates become actual readings, the debt will only get bigger.  Seems like this is a problem you have already had before.

How do you think they should get you to clear this debt?  You can either give them a lump sum (as you have done before) or have a higher direct debit to pay it off over some months.

Aviscious

You are not seeing the issue, they overestimated bills for months meter readings up to 10558 which put me in debt of £1,761.40 

Now they are estimating my reading at 93210 but the actual readings I have given over the past few months range between 00587 24th June and 11th Nov 03241.

How can they just change my bills like this and wipe off what they have already billed but leave the balance untouched.

I have attached two screenshots of bills first one is when they were overestimating my bill (before they totally changed it) and the second one is from now they are underestimating.

[Deleted User]

They haven’t wiped off what you have already paid.  They have recalculated what you owe. This is completely normal.

Aviscious

Look at the meter readings on those two screenshots....

How can they do that.

I must be missing something but when you get a bill and they have charged for units used on said bill how can they drop the readings and not change what I owe, and also use readings out of thin air not the ones I have supplied them with this past 5 months.

Clearly I am asking the wrong questions in the wrong place, I was hoping for some help and support but seems sitting in the dark is now my only option.

t0rt0ise

They are still using estimated readings which will never give a correct bill. You need to raise a formal complaint. They need to go back to when an actual reading was last recorded, take an actual reading now and recalculate the whole bill. Write to them.

On-the-coast

You’ve attached a picture of a bill that contains 2 pairs of estimated readings for 1 month of use back in the summer. 

It bears no relevance to what you actually need to pay. 

Have you actually submitted your actual readings? Or just complained on WhatsApp. 

As has been said above, submit actual readings and treat any bills as speculative until they contain actual readings. 

Remember that whatever source of fuel you use for heating will require much higher use in winter months.