Getting desperate for help now. Ovo have last month billed me almost £3000 for a 3 month period back in 2020. I have a separate final bill received back in 2020 which shows as paid, in fact it actually shows a credit balance.
They are now persistently threatening me and chasing for the £3000 which I clearly don’t owe them.
I have phoned multiple times, I have emailed them as per their complaints procedure (on 18 July) I have also whatsap’d them.
I’ve had no response to my email; when I phone they say it will be sorted; in whats app they give up.
How on earth do I get the complaints team or frankly anyone at Ovo to actually address this issue please?
Thank you for any advice..
Best answer by BPLightlog
Updated on 10/02/25 by Ben_OVO
What is a back-bill?
We send a back-bill, or ‘catch-up’ bill, when we haven’t charged correctly for energy use. This can be through inaccurate bills or not being billed at all. Back-bills can be for any amount, and may be a result of:
Technical or human error on the member's account which has meant that a statement hasn’t been received within the regular timescale
A customer has provided a reading that is higher than previous estimated readings used on their statements.
Mismatch between the data OVO holds and the actual setup of the meter for example crossed meters, or if a customer had a meter exchange which wasn’t updated before the switched to us
What is a Back-bill Write Off?
Where we've issued a back-bill for usage over 12 months old, not covered by payments made at the time and the reason for the delay in this billing is not the customer's fault, we'll apply a write-off. This back-bill write-off will be a credit applied to the account to cover the difference between the updated usage and the payments made at the time.
The main situations where we'll write off usage prior to 12 months ago are:
We haven't billed the customer
We've billed an account but not for all usage at the property i.e. only one fuel was billed
We've billed the customer inaccurately due to a technical or administrative error
See below for Ofgem’s official recommendations on back-billing from BPLightlog.
Firstly I have to note that the back billing principle can be a tricky one to interpret. It isn't simply a case of being "can't bill for more than 12 month ago" that many people think it is. Depending on circumstances sometimes a company is allowed to validly bill for more than 12 months ago.
Let's see if we can work out what is going on here, and importantly just who these letters are from. Sorry for so many questions to start with, but the answers will help us to help you:
PS. Please don't post any personal details, account numbers, addresses etc. you don't want those to be visible to everyone.
So you left OVO 2-years ago, is that right or was it later and they backbilled? When you were with OVO were you Pay As You Go, Pay Monthly (Direct Debit), or Pay on Demand?
Two years later, I receive a letter with a final bill and back billing write off for £54.
Did that Final Billing have a zero balance, or did it still show an amount due after the back billing write off had been applied?
Then another letter stating we owed £34.45 - I searched the forum and the numbers on the letter were being discussed as a potential scam as they don’t align with the phone number advised in this forum.
You say that the phone number on the letter doesn't look right, so you are correct to be careful and not call them. Could you tell us what that number was, so someone can check if it's genuine or not? There are some contact numbers that are for special teams directly, so those are not widely published.
Was this 'dodgy number' just on the demand for £34.45? Was that demand letter from OVO or from someone else 'acting on behalf of OVO'?
You then say that you tried calling support but it was closed - was that on the 'dodgy looking' phone number, or an the generally available support number,
For now - Don't worry about Debt Collection Agencies at this stage, and if they do get involved then I have very effective advice on how to deal with them in different circumstances.
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