Octopus Energy Arrears. Possible broken meter - are we responsible?

AmyMacca

Hi Forum, 
Please can someone offer some advice about the arrears and issues we are having with Octopus Energy, and let me know if anyone has had a success story with Octopus Energy. 
The history:
We transferred our household energy bills from Avro (went bust) to Octopus in Sep 2021. We carried over a £2000 credit. 
We are now apparently in debt to the tune of -£9000. 
We regularly pay our energy bills via direct debit. And meter readings have been submitted. 
If a very basic nutshell, using our carry forward credit, what we have paid every month, and what Octopus say we owe them, it would seem we have used £15,000 in energy over approx 3 years. 
Our meter has registered the same Night time reading since we moved to Octopus, and has not changed. Octopus have been informed and know about this issue. 
We are a family of four in an average sized 3 bedroom house, with most of us at work/school during the week. 
As an example of some horrific charges on our account:

For the period July 2022 to Sep 2022 our electricity bill was £493.59.

12 months later, for the period July 2023 to Sep 2023 our electricity bill was £2866.34!!!

I am very aware, and comfortable with the fact that energy prices have increased. That is not my complaint. Everyone is in the same boat. 

My issue is that:

I want to know if this is a reasonable charge for 3 months?! (I believe not, but I'm no expert).

Is the fact that our meter readings for night time haven't changed in years, significant, and could be contributing to the horrific bills?

How can I take this forward with Octopus, is there any legislation, or case law etc, I can use to get them to examine our bills and meter and recalculate our debt? 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. This is a long story, and I have tried to be succinct! 

Keep_pedalling

What sort of heating are you using?

AmyMacca

Keep_pedalling said:

What sort of heating are you using?

Gas Central Heating, boiler installed 2019 (I believe). 

BarelySentientAI

AmyMacca said:

My issue is that:

I want to know if this is a reasonable charge for 3 months?! (I believe not, but I'm no expert).

Is the fact that our meter readings for night time haven't changed in years, significant, and could be contributing to the horrific bills?

How can I take this forward with Octopus, is there any legislation, or case law etc, I can use to get them to examine our bills and meter and recalculate our debt? 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. This is a long story, and I have tried to be succinct! 

Whether it is "a reasonable charge" or not is pretty irrelevant.  We need to work out if it is the correct charge.

Simple things to start with:

Does the meter serial number on your bill match the number on your actual meter?
Do the readings on the bills match the readings you have submitted from your meter?  Are they marked as A (Actual), C (Customer), S (Smart), E (Estimate)...?
Has your tariff changed?
Are the unit prices what you think you should be paying?
Does the maths work - if you multiply the units used by the price, do you get the same result?

Until you know what it should be, you won't know how to take it forward.

Reed_Richards

Are the charges you are concerned out for electricity and gas?

Keep_pedalling

AmyMacca said:

Keep_pedalling said:

What sort of heating are you using?

Gas Central Heating, boiler installed 2019 (I believe). 

So you should not be on any time of day tariff, and therefore not surprising that the night rate has not moved.

AmyMacca

Reed_Richards said:

Are the charges you are concerned out for electricity and gas?

Just electricity really. I think! It's the fact that the night time meter readings haven't changed in years. We are concerned that we are being charged a premium rate for night time consumption. 

tim_p

If the readings haven’t changed then there is no consumption. 

AmyMacca

tim_p said:

If the readings haven’t changed then there is no consumption. 

Thank you. It's only the Night readings that haven't changed. Day rates are clicking round as normal. 

MattMattMattUK

AmyMacca said:

tim_p said:

If the readings haven’t changed then there is no consumption. 

Thank you. It's only the Night readings that haven't changed. Day rates are clicking round as normal. 

How much energy are you using in kWh for both gas and electricity? That should be on your bills. Do you have the opening reads from when you moved Octopus and the current reads on your meters? My first guess would be an immersion heater left on. 

Spoonie_Turtle

Check your Avro bills to see which rate was being charged day and which was night.  Now check your Octopus bills to see.

But I don't really think them being switched would be the problem here, because if they were then you'd be being charged less for the daytime rate; it's usually when people have high nighttime usage charged at the day rate that things go squiffy.


I wonder if it's possible they're thinking one of the meters had gone round the clock past 00000 again and there's a huge catch-up charge?

If you can post a breakdown of the readings and charges on here maybe someone can help pinpoint where anything's gone wrong.