Octopus charging me a bill from 2 years ago

happy1414

hi, I am leaving Octopus as I'm moving house. I have been an Octopus customer for 2 years. I did have loads of issues with Octopus reading my smart meter in 2023 and I thought this was resolved when they sent me a bill for £900 at the start of the year, which I paid.

I have not really been at the property much this year and have built up a sizable credit, but I get the feeling Octopus want to keep as much of this as possible and not credit me.

When I told them I was leaving, they sent me bill with 'missing readings' I should have paid over the year. I found that part of this bill was an estimate and they had previously billed me for the same date.

They have now sent me meter readings from 2022 which they are deducing from the balance.

Can anyone advise if they have been charged a bill from 2 years ago? Is this normal practice?

thanks 

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Have you sent them recent meter reading(s)? If not, do it now.

Phones4Chris

Do the readings on the bill(s) precisely match your own readings both for when you started with Octopus and currently?
For exactly what period did the £900 bill cover and what dates were the meter readings on it?

happy1414

Gerry1 said:

Welcome to the forum.

Have you sent them recent meter reading(s)? If not, do it now.

Yes, sent my meter readings when I left the property

happy1414

Phones4Chris said:

Do the readings on the bill(s) precisely match your own readings both for when you started with Octopus and currently?
For exactly what period did the £900 bill cover and what dates were the meter readings on it?

Both meter readings match now, but you have a good point I will have the original meter readings when I moved in and can check against those. Will post the outcome here

happy1414

Just thought I would update everyone.

I have been through the 32 bills that I have received over the last 27 months.

Octopus have never really got my bill right. They tried to resolve this in July '23 but only generated half the missing bills.

What is really annoying is that my leaving has trigger them to 'resolve' missing billing. This would never have been resolved otherwise. In response they sent me 3 bills all over 12 months and one being over 24 months. Clearly against ofgem catch up bill policy

ofgem.gov.uk/what-do-if-you-get-back-bill

Their customer service is very polite and sends you emails that they will help you. Then I got a final bill and afterwards they contacted me to say they were still investigating, but clearly I'm being misinformed.

I have asked for the £300 back for the 'catch up' billing. Will post another update when I have one.

MWT

happy1414 said:

What is really annoying is that my leaving has trigger them to 'resolve' missing billing. This would never have been resolved otherwise. In response they sent me 3 bills all over 12 months and one being over 24 months. Clearly against ofgem catch up bill policy

ofgem.gov.uk/what-do-if-you-get-back-bill

The back billing rules do not apply when they are just using up the DD payments you have made, it only applies when they are asking you for extra payments for use more than 12 months ago...

happy1414

MWT said:

happy1414 said:

What is really annoying is that my leaving has trigger them to 'resolve' missing billing. This would never have been resolved otherwise. In response they sent me 3 bills all over 12 months and one being over 24 months. Clearly against ofgem catch up bill policy

ofgem.gov.uk/what-do-if-you-get-back-bill

The back billing rules do not apply when they are just using up the DD payments you have made, it only applies when they are asking you for extra payments for use more than 12 months ago...

Just to confirm I raised this case with the ombudsman and I was awarded

1. Letter of apology from Octopus
2. Refund of £300 bills from over 12 months previously
3. £200 compensation 

The rules are very clear. Octopus were not billing me on a monthly basis because of a problem generating the bill from my digital meter. All the while, Octopus were collecting my monthly direct debit and my account got into £1000 credit. They had 2 1/2 years to resolve this and never did.

Only when I was leaving  Octopus did they use the daily download info associated with my meter to bill me. This was over 12 months old and there was still incomplete data. Their argument was that they were using the credit in my account to pay for this usage. THIS IS NOT ALLOWED. Once 12 months have passed, they should NOT have charged me.

Bendo

In that case it seems to Ombudsman got it wrong. The rules around back billing are clear (if you ignore Martin Lewis) and that scenario is perfectly acceptable.

Well done on getting a positive outcome though,  although others in the same situation should not expect the same.

MWT

happy1414 said:

MWT said:

happy1414 said:

What is really annoying is that my leaving has trigger them to 'resolve' missing billing. This would never have been resolved otherwise. In response they sent me 3 bills all over 12 months and one being over 24 months. Clearly against ofgem catch up bill policy

ofgem.gov.uk/what-do-if-you-get-back-bill

The back billing rules do not apply when they are just using up the DD payments you have made, it only applies when they are asking you for extra payments for use more than 12 months ago...

Just to confirm I raised this case with the ombudsman and I was awarded

1. Letter of apology from Octopus
2. Refund of £300 bills from over 12 months previously
3. £200 compensation 

Not the first time the Ombudsman has made a mistake, but it is good news for you at least.