ovo £1000 balance adjustment.

mrgonzo

Hello all.

In june/july this year, like many we were forcibly switched from SSE to OVO. at SSE we were in several hundreds of credit on the switch to ovo that seemed to have halfed. ovo said that was due to the final bill being paid. fast forward to today i've gone to check our usage given the cold weather and found that they adjusted my balance after that call and added a balance adjustment of £1000! why would they do that and what do i need to know to dispute this? being ona  fixed tarrif the bills never changed so I had no reason to check anything was out of the ordinary. can I challange this at all?

I'd be greatful for the help, as it seems like an unreasonable adujustment.

thank you.

tim_p

mrgonzo said:

being ona  fixed tarrif the bills never changed so I had no reason to check anything was out of the ordinary. can I challange this at all?

Sadly, being on a fixed tariff means nothing of the sort. It simply means your rates are fixed, so price per kWh and standing charges remain the same for the term of the “fix”. If you use less you will pay less, use more and you will pay more. It very much is in your interest to check your usage and how that affects what you pay. 

mrgonzo

but what about going from 300+ credit to 1000 debit in july? im not arguing about standing charges im asking about an erroneous charge. i m not challening the fix im challening the incorrect billing.

mrgonzo

edit: to clairfy im not disputing the FIXED rate im disputing the random £1000 debit

mrgonzo

Im really no expert but this seems like the problem:

Gas in detail 27th Jun - 26th Jul 2023

Detailed charges

Energy use -9110.199 kWh at 9.71p -£884.60

Standing charge 30 days at 26.21p a day £7.86

Cost of gas -£876.74

Meter readings

Opening read on 27th June  You gave 7660.000

Closing read as of 26th July 6870.010

Metered volume -789.990

Total units -9110.199 kWh

Im on a smart meter btw.

jbuchanangb

That certainly does look like a problem with the opening reading on 27 June. Can you find a previous bill will actual meter readings on it. What should the reading have been on 27 June? Perhaps it should have been 6760. 

mrgonzo

Luckily i did save the SSE bills as i no longer have access to them via their app/portal. Thank you for the suggestion, i usually keep on top of this to avoid this type of scenario guess i let it slip, lesson learned.

The gas you've used - actual

Reading last time - 

6844

Reading this time - 

6857

Total used -
13 units.

QrizB

mrgonzo said:

Energy use -9110.199 kWh at 9.71p -£884.60

A negative charge is a credit. Looks like they messed up your transfer reading, then credited you with almost £900 to correct it.

What was the immediately preceding bill? Was that for £900 too much?

Jonboy_1984

On the day they move you from SSE to OVO they ignore actual readings and use an estimated set of readings** (regardless of normal or smart meters) and migrate the balance from this estimate into OVO’s account and call it a balance adjustment.

They then add the estimated meter reading as the opening readings and correct it with the next reading they get (smart or manual) on the OVO account only. 

They then, weeks/months later, go back to SSE with the corrected readings and amend the final SSE bill to make sure your actual usage is around the right unit rates for the time period and add another balance adjustment.

At this point your account should be all square both financially and readings wise.

(In my case they have then added a further credit balance adjustment related to SSE a year later but cannot explain what it is for/how it was calculated….so i am having to pay the amount used and ignore the account balance to avoid a bill shock later…)


**I have been through it twice, and the first time they ignored a manual reading a few days before and underestimated the quarter by 30%, the second ignored the smart meter and was 60% over for the month.