High estimated bills - ongoing issue - OVO not helping

Hi,

I have raised with the Ombudsman since April, they, too, take months to move the case forward.

After replying to other posts related to this issue, in order to highlight how broad and ongoing problem this is, OVO removed all of them, except for this one.

An OVO agent explained to me that this was not “in the spirit of the forum”!

So OVO is unable to generate a correct bill in almost 6 months, but they have enough resources to control what is being said in the forum within minutes?

That tells even more how horrible they are, they just care to manage their image and don’t care about their clients at all!

I am truly desperate at this point, it seems that there is absolutely nothing to do to make the daily harassment from them stop!!

Hey @vanagnost 

Our Forum Support team should have reached out to you, and will be looking into the matter for you and will get back to you soon.

I’m sorry again that this is still ongoing, hopefully they’ll be able to help you with this.

It’s also possible your other comments were deleted because the forum moderators considered them to be threadjacking. That sort of thing jams up the recently active feed and floods the notifications for other users, especially the forum volunteers like myself. We rely on those feeds to know where we’re needed so it’s not ideal for us when the main feed suddenly explodes.

You can appeal that action of course, if you feel it was unjustified. The best way to do so is by sending an email to forum@ovoenergy.com to explain why you feel the posts shouldn’t have been deleted and why they should be restored. If the moderators agree, they can restore all of your deleted posts in a few clicks.

The Forum Support team are really good at what they do however. Please keep an eye on https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview to see if there’s anything there. If there is, you can respond to that thread and they’ll see what they can do.

So the latest update is this:

The ombudsman has decided very clearly that OVO needs to fix their bill.

OVO is not fixing their bill.

OVO continuous to harass me DAILY and in a HORRIBLE MANNER to pay the bill they are obliged to fix, but won’t fix.

They are now threatening to assign me to debt collectors.

OVO’s customer care have indeed gotten in touch, either per suggestion of @Abby_OVO  or as a response to my dozens of emails.

HOWEVER  they can’t stop the harassment, nor push for the billing to be corrected.

All customer support did was to tell me to call their line, and ask to be connected to their ombudsman team.

And you know how this goes with OVO: you call, wait for hours to talk to customer support, wait for hours to be connected to their ombudsman team, and then the line gets dropped.

WTF pretending to have a functional customer support and the people in this chat, when it’s impossible to action anything??

Why don’t you take any actions via email??

Seriously, OVO, you are the worst!! Stop harassing me!! Fix your bill!!

Hey @vanagnost,

Really sorry to hear your issues are on-going,

Our Support Team can ask our Collections Team to put a hold on the account, meaning we don’t chase for any arrears until the issue is resolved. Another option, if not done already, is to put a billing suspension on the account.

If your case if with the Ombudsman, escalated complaints should be able to remedy these issues for you. 

Hope this helps. 

I am paying way above what I think my bills should be!  I pay as I go in the app because my finances are unpredictable and my last bill is way above what it was this time last year (doubled!).  I send meter readings monthly so the bills should be accurate.  I have just attempted to set up a DD but it states my amount would be £180 monthly!  I live alone in a one bedroom flat!  

You say that you are sending meter readings monthly so presumably you are not smart metered, is that just electricity?
Do you have an online account as well as th app?

Although you are sending in monthly readings check your last bill to see if it was (partly) estimated which could explain why it was high.

As for the DD amounts, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin:

I also live on my own in a 1 bed flat and for dual fuel I’m paying a DD of £150 a month.
Athough OVO do reckon that it should be quite a bit higher I phoned them and got it pegged at £150 some time ago.

In December I took a fixed tariff, and calculated that it should now be £113.60 a month for my anual usage, plus an extra £21 a month for 12 months to pay off a debit (built up because when I was with SSE they were not charging enough, which I knew), so £135 a month would cover it.
OVO’s computer calculated at the time that it should be much higher. (Almost £200 a month).

I believe that a few of us have worked out why OVO sometimes think/calculate that the DD should be higher, it’s been a bit of an ongoing discussion over the past few months and we are still looking at it in the background. I currently also have the forum support team involved looking at my particular case as well.

As part of my own investigating I’ve found that manual meter readings can have a part to play in it and that if you send in more frequent manual readings then the amount that the computer calculates for a DD will gradually come down, but it does take time to get it down to where it should be.
(And I’ve found this month that it can suddenly jump back up again, which is what the forum support team are currently looking at - trying to see/find why it did that).
Because smart meters send in frequent readings then the issue doesn’t appear to affect customers with smart meters, or at least most people with smart meters don’t notice it the same.

Hi @Emma English 

Welcome to the Forum.

One of our volunteers has left some really helpful advice here for you already so I hope that can be of use to you. I just wanted to pop on with a few other things that could be helpful for you.

The main thing, like Nukecad has mentioned is that the more meter readings we get, the better we can predict and calculate between readings and it’s why a smart meter can be so beneficial.

• Smart Meters - What makes them so smart?

• How to book a smart meter appointment on your online account or OVO app Tutorial

Can I ask, when in the month are you sending the meter reading over to us? This could also be contributing to the estimate on the bill being further out of line than expected; 

When’s the best date to submit a reading for my monthly summary?

The best date to submit your reading is on or just before the date shown on your bill - the email or text reminder you receive may suggest you enter this the day before to make sure it’s received on time. If you do enter the reading slightly early we’ll only estimate your usage between the date you entered the reading and the date the statement was generated, so it should be fairly accurate.

I hope some of this has been helpful for you, let us know if you’ve got any other questions, and we’ll do our best to help.🙂

I was advised a year ago to send readings in the 18th of the month so that’s what I’ve done every single month.  I’ve since found out that this date was too early so I believe part of my bills have been estimated.  I’d love to know how my bill was £62 for aug - sept last year but that’s gone up to £154 for jwn - feb this year!  I know it counters in me having electric storage heaters on in the winter months but how can it almost treble??  

Hi @Emma English,

As we’re unable to access your account here it would be hard for us to pinpoint exactly why your bill is so high. We do usually expect an increase in bills during the winter time, due to increased usage during the colder seasons. I can see you’ve mentioned that part of your bill may have been estimated, this could also be a reason.

Your bill should show you the exact kilowatt hours/kWh of electricity that you’ve been charged for based on your meter readings. You’d be able to compare this to your August - September usage to see if there’s a difference between the amount of energy used. It may be also worth comparing your unit rates and standing charges as this would also have an impact on how much you pay.

This link may be useful if you’re trying to read and understand your bill - https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/monthly-bills-statements

The link below may also be useful -

• OVO Energy Live billing platform and monthly summaries - What do I need to know? F.A.Q.

Hope this helps. Please let us know if there’s any other questions we may be able to answer for you.

Thank you but that doesn’t really help.  I’ve already acknowledged that I would expect an increase in the winter due to having heating g in, I do only actually use 2 of my storage heaters so wouldn’t expect my bill to nearly treble!  Also, looking at the exact KWH usage wouldn’t help because if my over all bill has increased hugely then surely the KWH will have increased hugely?  

I think the point is @Emma English , your price per kWh might have changed (check your tariff on your plan) or your usage at some point might have been estimated and so checking each part of the bill would help to understand. 
With storage heaters over winter, they can significantly increase your bill .. especially these days

Hi @Emma English,

If your kWh has increased then this would show that you’re using more energy than you were in August/September which would explain why you’re being charged more. Your unit rates and standing charges would also impact the cost of your bills if they’ve changed since August. I’m afraid without more information, I’d only be able to guess what is causing your bill to increase.

It may be best to contact the Customer Support Team, who’d have access to your account and would be able to go through this in detail with you.