Overcharged for gas by Octopus

Keep_pedalling

I would call them, the two occasions I have had to call on billing issues have resulted in the problem being sorted pretty quickly, although my issues were not as complex as this.

dealyboy

Thanks Tom.

From the consumption (4617.6) in your statement extract, I would have expected your latest statement consumption (3512.4) to show 'Energy Used' of around 1,200 kWh or about £100 worth. I'm obviously missing something  .

MWT

tomlondon2024 said:

-As to the 4091 bill, it appears that a mistake was made, as I was charged £104.31 for an alleged 4617.6 units of consumption (having looked through the data, it appears that they jumped from 9193.3 up to 3811 (i.e. they restart the meter at 0000 after it reaches 9999).

If your meter is a 4 digit imperial meter reading in units of 100 cubic feet, then the meter will roll around to 0 after 9999, so first do check the meter to make sure it is an old imperial meter not a new metric meter reading in cubic metres.

After that you just need to get Octopus to remove the estimates and re-bill based on the actual readings, a phone call should do it, but if not then raise a complaint as you have to do that anyway before you could go to the Ombudsman.

 

tomlondon2024

dealyboy said:

tomlondon2024 said:

I would be grateful for any advice on escalating an issue I am having with Octopus. On 20 December 2023 I received a gas bill of £7,214.64, charging me for 3512.4 units of gas during the period 1 October 2023 to 17 December 2023. The charge was based on two estimates: an estimated reading of 5171.4 on 1 October and 8683.7 on 17 December. I live in a mid-terrace house.

I provided an actual reading on 14 October 2023 of 8642 and have been charged the difference between the previous estimate and the meter reading.

It was clear that something had gone wrong and so I reviewed the history of estimates and readings from the Octopus website and compiled the below table. I've highlighted the readings in green.

What appears to have happened is that Octopus started using an estimate on 4 October 2022 (4091) that was obviously wrong and then persisted in using this low estimate even when it was shown to be wrong on 16 May 2023. I have then been charged for the difference between the low estimate(s) and the (much higher) actual readings.

I have raised this issue with Octopus over email. After three exchanges of correspondence, Octopus refuse to acknowledge the error. However, Octopus do not engage with the detail. I am simply asked to resubmit photos of the meter which shows (as is common ground) that the actual meter reading is correct. This misunderstands the nature of the problem, which is the misuse of estimates.

Not only is it clear from my table that something has gone wrong (I have sent the table to Octopus), but there is no way we could have used the quantity of gas we are being charged for (3512.4 units) over this period. I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall with Octopus and don't know how to get them to engage with the detail. Is this an issue that I should refer straight to the Ombudsman?

Grateful for any advice people might have.

Many thanks

Hi Tom (OP) ...
Thank you for the clear presentation of the problem in your post.

I do understand about Octopus not understanding or even recognising a non-standard problem, this seems to be a trait with all suppliers unfortunately.

I have a few questions for added clarity ...
- what is your tariff name (or tariffs) over the period of the table?
- how have you been paying? if fixed DD can you give the payment figures for the period?
- have you had any changes to your meter or supply?
- the actual readings suggest an irregular usage pattern i.e. only 124 units between 31/03/22 and 16/05/23, but 291 between 14/10/23 and 16/01/24, can you explain?
- as has been said ... did you not notice the 04/10/22 estimate? did this not have an impact on the payment at the time?
- how often do you receive statements? do you have them for the period?

Thanks very much for this response. Some of the answers to your questions are contained in my most recent reply, but for convenience:

1. Tariff name: I am on the Flexible Octopus variable tariff

2. Payments: I have been paying by direct debit. From 1 September 2021 (when we moved to the house) until 1 September 2022, I paid £204.06 per month. From 3 October 2022 to 2 October 2023 the monthly amount changed to £137.06 per month. From 1 November to date it has been £153.93 per month.

3. Changes to meter or supply: none.

4. Irregular usage: as mentioned above, we moved to another property during renovation work from July 2022 to April/May 2023 and so boiler and cooker were not used.

5: 4 October 2022 estimate: I didn't notice this at the time, as I did not study the bills. I paid the direct debits on time. Octopus only charged £104 for this (mis-estimated) usage, so it was not flagged at the time. If they had tried to charge me thousands, I would have noticed it then.

6: Statements: online billing. I have access to all bills throughout our ownership of the property, as well as all meter readings and estimates. I did all the meter readings myself.

QrizB

MWT said:

If your meter is a 4 digit imperial meter reading in units of 100 cubic feet, then the meter will roll around to 0 after 9999, so first do check the meter to make sure it is an old imperial meter not a new metric meter reading in cubic metres.

OP is being charged in cubic feet, and the meter readings are four digits not dive, so there's a pretty good chance that it is an ancient Imperial meter.

(I realise I'm just stating the same things as you, bit in different words!)

MWT said:

After that you just need to get Octopus to remove the estimates and re-bill based on the actual readings, a phone call should do it, but if not then raise a complaint as you have to do that anyway before you could go to the Ombudsman.

Front line customer service (even at Octopus) might struggle with this.

If you need to raise a complaint:

https://octopus.energy/unhappy

YBR

Ahh.. The penny has dropped. 

The October 2022 estimate has been billed as if the meter has been "round the clock", from 9193 to (1)4091, so no huge credit. Whereas in reality the 4091 is completely spurious. 

Further estimates over the following year were based on this spurious figure, and the reading provided in May 2023 ignored.

Now to persuade Octopus to review and re-bill, probably back to March 2022, ignoring that spurious series of estimates. Have you photos of any of those meter reads to help the case? Evidence to support low, rather than high, usage in that period you lived elsewhere might also help.

tomlondon2024

MWT said:

tomlondon2024 said:

-As to the 4091 bill, it appears that a mistake was made, as I was charged £104.31 for an alleged 4617.6 units of consumption (having looked through the data, it appears that they jumped from 9193.3 up to 3811 (i.e. they restart the meter at 0000 after it reaches 9999).

If your meter is a 4 digit imperial meter reading in units of 100 cubic feet, then the meter will roll around to 0 after 9999, so first do check the meter to make sure it is an old imperial meter not a new metric meter reading in cubic metres.

After that you just need to get Octopus to remove the estimates and re-bill based on the actual readings, a phone call should do it, but if not then raise a complaint as you have to do that anyway before you could go to the Ombudsman.

 

I believe it is a "4 digit imperial meter" reading in units of 100 cubic feet - as shown below.

It seems to me that the issue is that Octopus have wrongly assumed that the meter re-started at 0000.

The problem is that I keep coming up against 'computer says no' responses - no engagement with the substance.

Mobtr

tomlondon2024 said:

Many thanks for the replies. A bit of background.

- From July 2022 to April 2023 we weren't living in the house as it was being renovated. This is why there are no actual meter readings for this period and I wouldn't expect more than a negligible amount of actual gas would have been used, as can be seen from the difference between the 31 March 2022 and 16 May 2023 readings (124 units).

-As to why I wasn't monitoring the data more closely: I was paying a direct debit to Octopus throughout this period and it was only on 17 December 2023 that I was charged more than £7,000. So it was only very recently that I was put on notice.

- I don't understand the suggestion that this is a blip related to me not providing regular meter readings - if you take the difference between the first and last meter readings on the table, we have used 620 units. I have been charged for 3512.4 units. What am I missing here?

-Stepping back, how could I possibly have used this much gas? We moved here in September 2021. For 10 months we lived in another property during renovations. It is a 4-bedroom house and we use the heating sparingly.

-As to the 4091 bill, it appears that a mistake was made, as I was charged £104.31 for an alleged 4617.6 units of consumption (having looked through the data, it appears that they jumped from 9193.3 up to 3811 (i.e. they restart the meter at 0000 after it reaches 9999).

It looks like they have billed you as if the meter has gone round the clock, however, 4617.6 units does not equate to 1458.9 kWh, more like 147,000 kWh. You need to speak to octopus, hopefully you’ll get someone who’s been there a while & knows what they’re doing. They need to rebill you back to the last correct reading. They can quarantine the estimated reads but will still need to estimate the price change dates but that should give you an accurate bill. 

MWT

tomlondon2024 said:

I believe it is a "4 digit imperial meter" reading in units of 100 cubic feet - as shown below.

It seems to me that the issue is that Octopus have wrongly assumed that the meter re-started at 0000.

The problem is that I keep coming up against 'computer says no' responses - no engagement with the substance.

Thanks for confirming the meter type, it is clearly imperial so that part at least is correct.

Once your meter does go past 9999 it will roll over to 0000 again so that will happen at some point, but the problem is they estimated it already had and then that caused them to disregard the 'wrong' readings you were providing as they were too far apart from the estimates.

If, as QrisB suggested earlier, the front-line staff are not understanding the problem then get a complaint in.

Once you reach someone who can see the issue, it should be a quick fix.

MultiFuelBurner

MWT said:

tomlondon2024 said:

I believe it is a "4 digit imperial meter" reading in units of 100 cubic feet - as shown below.

It seems to me that the issue is that Octopus have wrongly assumed that the meter re-started at 0000.

The problem is that I keep coming up against 'computer says no' responses - no engagement with the substance.

Thanks for confirming the meter type, it is clearly imperial so that part at least is correct.

Once your meter does go past 9999 it will roll over to 0000 again so that will happen at some point, but the problem is they estimated it already had and then that caused them to disregard the 'wrong' readings you were providing as they were too far apart from the estimates.

If, as QrisB suggested earlier, the front-line staff are not understanding the problem then get a complaint in.

Once you reach someone who can see the issue, it should be a quick fix.

There was a recent X (twitter) post by Octopus depicting Greg and his team around a PC trying to work out why someone's billing was so wrong.

If I was the OP I would put a message on that X post and track out to Greg Jackson DM on X.

https://twitter.com/OctopusEnergy/status/1750478787815317886?t=E-q8w5BI2RV4iSdGePRdiA&s=19