Massive overcharge by Octopus Energy

HurlyBurly

I was with Shell Energy which was bought up by Octopus Energy, At the start of April I was given a bill that was in line with what my energy use was according to my smart meter, but today I received my bill for April, yet again in line with my use, but ontop of that there's another segment in this month's that says that for March I was using almost £433 of electricity!  This is way way WAY beyond what I could have possibly used, and why the hell wasn't it on last month's bill?  There has to be some sort of mistake, surely!

What should I do about this?

Reed_Richards

Could it be a catch-up of something that Shell failed to bill you for?

Stubod

..talk to your supplier??

Robin9

Is this gas or electric ?

Please have a close look at your actual bills and look at the readings and for the letters with them A C E S  or our read/your read. What are they ?

Do you keep your own records ?

HurlyBurly

This lump was purely for electricity, there's no such lump for gas.  There's nothing on the bill to indicate what the hell this is for, it just says:
"Electricity 2nd March 2024 - 31st March 2024 - £433.21

Electricity 1st April 2024 - 1st May 2024 - £84.86"

despite the bill for March being £86.75 for electricity.

The useage graph shows no indication of where this £433 would have come from, the usage is very stable and similar to April's.

I've sent an email to Octopus asking for an explaination.

MattMattMattUK

HurlyBurly said:

This lump was purely for electricity, there's no such lump for gas.  There's nothing on the bill to indicate what the hell this is for, it just says:
"Electricity 2nd March 2024 - 31st March 2024 - £433.21

Electricity 1st April 2024 - 1st May 2024 - £84.86"

despite the bill for March being £86.75 for electricity.

The useage graph shows no indication of where this £433 would have come from, the usage is very stable and similar to April's.

I've sent an email to Octopus asking for an explaination.

That is the summary on page one, look on page two (and potentially three for dual fuel) for the full breakdown, including meter reads.

Scot_39

HurlyBurly said:

This lump was purely for electricity, there's no such lump for gas.  There's nothing on the bill to indicate what the hell this is for, it just says:
"Electricity 2nd March 2024 - 31st March 2024 - £433.21

Electricity 1st April 2024 - 1st May 2024 - £84.86"

despite the bill for March being £86.75 for electricity.

The useage graph shows no indication of where this £433 would have come from, the usage is very stable and similar to April's.

I've sent an email to Octopus asking for an explaination.

Look at your actual billing calculation, not just the summary email if Octopus do them the way SP do them they are useless for checking bills correct.

Lump sums normally appear after a period of estimated bills.  Even if meters were smart with Shell - the switch to Octopus might have disrupted reporting.  If not smart, are you reporting readings at the required frequency - possibly now  more regular requirement - e.g. monthly not 3 monthly  - to Octopus ?

But given the size - there could be an issue with Shell handover - possibly real possibly mistake.  So check last bills under Shell and all recent under Octopus to make sure actual readings are consistent - and align with meter now.

Even on internal moves , mistakes are made.  Brother in law lost over £1000 credit on first bill on move to new BG accounting system and they had wrong meter numbers.

The credit came back, took a formal complaint - despite 2 sets of photos - to sort metering.

And check the actual meter serial numbers on both companies bills also match.

Chrysalis

You need to look past the charge and look at the units measured, and if it says estimated or not.

Then compare to your current meter reading and previous bills you have paid.  Make sure to check also if those previous bills were estimated.

dunstonh

HurlyBurly said:

This lump was purely for electricity, there's no such lump for gas.  There's nothing on the bill to indicate what the hell this is for, it just says:
"Electricity 2nd March 2024 - 31st March 2024 - £433.21

Electricity 1st April 2024 - 1st May 2024 - £84.86"

despite the bill for March being £86.75 for electricity.

The useage graph shows no indication of where this £433 would have come from, the usage is very stable and similar to April's.

I've sent an email to Octopus asking for an explaination.

Forget the monetary amount for the moment.   Focus on the unit count and meter readings.
1) are the meter readings used in this bill actual readings or estimates?
2) are your previous meter readings used actual readings or estimates?

There can be multiple reasons for this
a) you have had estimate readings previously and an actual meter reading this time has brought you up-to-date
b) you have had actual readings previously and an estimate is being used this time.  If its on a new system, they may not have the data to do a personalised estimate and it could be more of a guess.

Billing is straightforward.  You pay for what you use but it you rely on estimates rather than actual you get these occasional bumps.

donguru

HurlyBurly said:

I was with Shell Energy which was bought up by Octopus Energy, At the start of April I was given a bill that was in line with what my energy use was according to my smart meter, but today I received my bill for April, yet again in line with my use, but ontop of that there's another segment in this month's that says that for March I was using almost £433 of electricity!  This is way way WAY beyond what I could have possibly used, and why the hell wasn't it on last month's bill?  There has to be some sort of mistake, surely!

What should I do about this?

I’ve got the same problem just been taken over by Octopus from Shell now got a ridiculous electric reading which they flagged theirselves as being significantly higher, seems a bit of a coincidence I’ve never had any trouble before. The previous months all basically the same amount, nothings changed in the house I await their input after just being asked to send photo of present reading. I’m not on a smart meter is it a ruse to get me on one I wonder!

MeteredOut

donguru said:

HurlyBurly said:

I was with Shell Energy which was bought up by Octopus Energy, At the start of April I was given a bill that was in line with what my energy use was according to my smart meter, but today I received my bill for April, yet again in line with my use, but ontop of that there's another segment in this month's that says that for March I was using almost £433 of electricity!  This is way way WAY beyond what I could have possibly used, and why the hell wasn't it on last month's bill?  There has to be some sort of mistake, surely!

What should I do about this?

I’ve got the same problem just been taken over by Octopus from Shell now got a ridiculous electric reading which they flagged theirselves as being significantly higher, seems a bit of a coincidence I’ve never had any trouble before. The previous months all basically the same amount, nothings changed in the house I await their input after just being asked to send photo of present reading. I’m not on a smart meter is it a ruse to get me on one I wonder!

Are you seriously suggesting that Octopus deliberately provided an erroneous reading, then pointed that issue out to you, costing their customer service team time, all in the hope that it would somehow convince you to get a smart meter.

I suggest there is a much more likely reason - a simple error by either someone, or the system used to migrate customers from Shell to Octopus.

PS. You really should look into getting a smart meter, especially if you have solar, battery or an EV, or if you can load-shift your electrical usage. I'm paying under 15p/kWh on average.