Long standig dispute with enrgy supplier

BulbOctopus248

This is a long story, I will try to be brief

 

In 2020 I have noticed that I have been giving Bulb, my electricity supplier wrong readings i.e. total instead of night and/or day, that was over a period of about 2 years.

Between 2021 and 2022, Bulb decided to rework my account numerous times, coming up with figures between £45k owed to me and £9k owed to Bulb but, no resolution.

In 2023 I complained to the Ombudsman, decision: apology (received) credit my account with £100.00 (received) rework my account in clear and understandable way and repay the overpayment - has never been completed.

At this point Bulb is acquired by Octopus

Octopus issues a statement after about 8 months since the switch (no other correspondence i.e. bills, statements, despite getting meter readings every month), the statement does not contain any reworkings, just the readings I have provided Bulb since 2018.

I complain to Octopus, after a while I inquiry about progress, I am told that the complaint has been closed but will be reopened. Now (six months later)Octopus is “pretending” that I am complaining about some other supplier and, they are not responsible.

Final detail:  according to Octopus I owe them around £8500 – each time I get a notification of rise in Direct Debit I refuse to increase it until the dispute is resolved. According to my last statement from Bulb Octopus owed me over £19000, until now Octopus agreed not to increase my Direct Debit.

Can anyone advise me how to make Octopus resolve this issue please.

Thank you in advance

QrizB

Start with your meter readings.

Since you've been with Octopus, how much electricity have you used on each of the day and night registers and, based on your tariffs, how much do you think it should have cost?

How much have you paid Octopus over that period?

BulbOctopus248

Hi QrizB

The issue is not about my current usage, it is historical. I did take an incorrect readings from my electricity meeter for a long period of time. Once I realised this it was also difficult to persude my supplier to understand that and to adjust the online base point readings to reflect the accuals.

I gathered all that information on a spreadsheet for them to illustrate that there was a huge difference in usage between what is normal and what is unusual. I did all this with Bulb before they were sold to Octopus and Bulb understood the issue. They were in the middle of working things out when they were sold. 

I took the issue to the Ombudsman because it was taking Bulb such a long time and without any communication. The Ombudsman made his decision at the point of my account going over to Octopus so they then started “reworking” my account, i.e. they just took my readings and came back to square one, what’s more, they also reworked my gas account, which was never wrong.

I ended up owing over £3k, where it should be more like £19 being owed to me. Interestingly, Octopus have not insisted on increasing my Direct Debit, thay let the - £3k balance increase to -£8.5k by now.  

Hope that makes it clearer

QrizB

It doesn't really make it any clearer, no.

Energy bills are simple primary school arithmetic. There shouldn't be any room for dispute unless eg. meters haven't been working correctly.

Do you have a record of Bulb's reworking of your account, including the calculation that led to them supposedly owing you £19k (which is more than most customers would spend in total in a decade)?

Have you followed Octopus's complaints process, and then referred Octopus back to the Ombudsman?

debitcardmayhem

If you say octopus/bulb owe you 19000, then 9000 over a two year period , how much was your direct debit? As @QrizB says it’s not clear.