Back billing - but in credit so Energy Ombudsman found in favour of supplier

Qyburn

If this had been raised as a complaint with Octopus I'm surprised they didn't offer some sort of goodwill gesture. They ought to accept they screwed up.

chezzam_2

Thanks everyone for your comments. I've gone back through our account and can see that when Octopus took the £400 debit they actually left us in a negative position so they increased the direct debit mandate immediately and then increased it again in December 2025.

Since reading your comments about using credit, ofgem also appear to say that none of the above is allowed.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81878347#Comment_81878347

Not quite right, they can leave you in a negative position if that is caused by use during the last 12 months, and the DD is being increased to cover your current use, not historic use…

Have a look back at your billing history and see when you would have first gone negative with the correct original billing…

In general Octopus are good at correctly following the back-billing rules to the letter, so I'd be surprised if they had got this wrong.

chezzam_2

Following the shock bill statement that we received in September 2025, that confirmed the £400 debit was for usage in 2023 we contacted Octopus and they proceeded to produce pages and pages of a "recalculated bill" or "correction" which only changed the situation by approx £5.

To add this debit was purely just part of our September 2025 bill, there was no separate email, no separate message and this was received late at night when there was no-one available to speak to at Octopus. No apology or warning.

In April 2023 they provided us with a bill that showed estimated meter readings and we asked them why did we receive an estimated bill when we had provided meter readings. They apologised and sent us an email to confirm that they had updated our account with the correct meter readings and sent us a new bill at that time (in 2023) which confirmed this meter reading and confirmed our new balance.

It now transpires 2.5 years on after we painstakingly went through every detail, that the following bill period, Octopus started it with an estimated open read (of over 1000 additional units), instead of the confirmed meter reading for the closing period.

chezzam_2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81878354#Comment_81878354

Thank you for your comments, I just realised that I replied with a "new comment" rather than using the "quote" option to reply to your response. 🙄

MWT

If you want to claim that what Octopus have done is still wrong, then start with the current balance at the date that they corrected everything and work backwards from there for 12 months and see what your account balance is at that point.

The balance on your account should not be negative at that point.

MattMattMattUK

Nothing you have posted indicates that Octopus have at any point breached the back billing rules and the Ombudsman agreeing with them is also indicative of that. Whilst I agree it is far from ideal it does appear that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how the back billing guidelines apply, they do not protect you from being billed for energy used more than a year ago, they do not stop the supplier from using existing credit to cover that cost, they only stop them collecting additional funds for energy used more than twelve months ago.

I know it is not what you want to hear, but I really cannot see you have any choice but to accept this.

chezzam_2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81878449#Comment_81878449

Thank you for your comments. So the fact that the £400 debit left us in a minus account position and Octopus had to immediately increase our direct debit is acceptable, is this correct?

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81878460#Comment_81878460

In short, yes.

There is no special protection for changes to cover the preceding 12 months, and of course projections forward from there.

How far negative did your balance go after the recent bill alterations?

chezzam_2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81878480#Comment_81878480

After always agreeing to direct debit mandate increases since switching over to Octopus, the point in Sept 2025 when they took all of our built up credit that we needed to cover winter payments, our account was approx -£50. If we hadn't increased our direct debit in September 2025 and again in December 2025, this figure would currently be a lot higher.