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Bills now on 'Billing History' now show different amounts - WHY?

  • 3 May 2023
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I downloaded my Ovo bills for the past twelve months at intervals (not always in the current month).  Now, checking them all, I notice that ‘opening balance’ from a particular month often does not match ‘closing balance’ from the previous month. This occurs in six months out of the twelve. The opening credit balance is sometimes above and sometimes below the previous closing balance, by anything from couple of pounds to about £60.

I have therefore downloaded all twelve bills again from “Billing History” and six of the bills are completely different from those downloaded earlier. The sequence now shows one month’s closing balance and next month’s opening balance perfectly matching each other.

The fuel costs and total charges on each bill under the heading “Summary of charges” are also discrepant between the earlier downloaded bills and those currently on the system

How can it happen that the bills stored in “Billing History” -- supposedly an archive of the customer’s documents that s/he can check at any time -- vary from those downloaded at earlier dates? This destroys all confidence in the reliability of the billing process.

(And what about earlier years, I now wonder? -- off to check!)

 

 

 

 

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Best answer by Firedog 4 May 2023, 12:55

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Jeffus
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Hi @Allergate

Welcome to the forum, i am just a customer like you. 

Here is a bit of information as a starter. 

As no one on the forum can access your account, it is difficult to comment on the specific differences you are seeing.

Perhaps consider voting for the idea and adding a few more comments to it based on what you are specifically seeing and what version control features you would like to see. 

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Dear Jeffus,

Thanks! I’ve looked at that material -- very useful, and I agree that a version reference would be of some help, at least in tracing the process.

IMO, if Ovo counts these changes as ‘corrections’, that should be clearly shown by making an adjustment on the next bill, and not by retrospectively -- and silently -- changing an already posted document. For example, there will be people such as house-sharers who divide up the sum to be paid; or landlords who keep the bills in their own name and then charge the tenants the actual amount: such people will never be sure that they are working from the right figures.

I also don’t see anything in the covering email from Ovo that accompanies the monthly bill saying ‘btw, this attached bill may be adjusted without notification if we decide it was wrong’!

Allergate

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Here are some examples of the discrepancies between versions:

Email on 28 Dec 2022: “Your closing balance 21 December 2022 £593.55 in credit”
I downloaded the bill on 26 January 2023: £573.86 credit (= c. £20 down)
Today from Billing History: £573.86 credit

“Your closing balance 21 January 2023 £375.46 in credit”
Downloaded on 28 March:  still £375.46 in credit
Today BH: £369.97 (= c. £5 down)

“Your closing balance 21 February 2023 £242.80 in credit”
Downloaded on 28 March: still £242.80  in credit
Today BH: £196.49 in credit (= c. £46 down)

“Your closing balance 21 March 2023 £135.64 in credit”
Downloaded on 28 March: still £135.64 in credit
Today BH: £70.35 in credit (= £65 down)

So the adjustments aren’t trivial.

Sometimes they have made the adjustment within about a month (the December example); sometimes it’s taking them some unknown length of time but well over two months (January). Do they think we all check online every few days?

Let’s at least work towards greater transparency by getting version references with a date stated for every revision; plus an email notification every time a so-called bill is revised.

 

Firedog
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Gosh! I had a nice email from a Billing agent to tell me he had had to make an adjustment to my account. We’re almost on track now, but my discrepancy (dating from February) was £2.61 at most. Just for fun, I sent him this, showing extracts from four PDFs I’ve downloaded since the error first became apparent:
  

 

The readings are still wrong, BTW, but that’s another story!

 

PS Of course, because the closing balance has changed each time, all of the subsequent bills have also changed, so I have four for February, three for March and two for April, which has of course yet to be finalized, so that might change again. Each PDF is dated, which helps with determining the latest version.

 

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
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Hi Firedog!

Interesting! Can you please clarify what you mean about the PDFs being dated? The bills that come as email attachments show the same date as the email as their ‘date generated’. Then when I download a bill from Billing History it shows the day on which I downloaded it as the ‘date generated’ -- I don’t see any indication of when Ovo put up the new version.

(Indeed, my bills don’t look anything at all like yours: I assume this is partly because I don’t have a smart meter.)

A friend has suggested that Ovo recalculates bills (I’m not sure how far back) every time I submit a meter reading, and that this explains the discrepancies. As I’m often away, I tend only to manage a reading every couple of months and not always at the requested date. (So It’s All My Own Fault, right? Hah!)

TVM!

Jeffus
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Hi Firedog!

Interesting! Can you please clarify what you mean about the PDFs being dated? The bills that come as email attachments show the same date as the email as their ‘date generated’. Then when I download a bill from Billing History it shows the day on which I downloaded it as the ‘date generated’ -- I don’t see any indication of when Ovo put up the new version.

(Indeed, my bills don’t look anything at all like yours: I assume this is partly because I don’t have a smart meter.)

A friend has suggested that Ovo recalculates bills (I’m not sure how far back) every time I submit a meter reading, and that this explains the discrepancies. As I’m often away, I tend only to manage a reading every couple of months and not always at the requested date. (So It’s All My Own Fault, right? Hah!)

TVM!

That is my understanding. The date on the bill is the date the bill was generated. This was discussed on the Idea

You may find you have less of these  issues if you get a smart meter (assuming you can get one), certainly you will have more choice of tariff, including fixed tariff,  Power Move etc. Obviously up to you until the government mandate them. 

Firedog
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Can you please clarify what you mean about the PDFs being dated? …  it shows the day on which I downloaded it as the ‘date generated’ -- II don’t see any indication of when Ovo put up the new version.

  

@Allergate No, that’s what I meant. In normal circumstances, the figures in the bill attached to the monthly email won’t ever change even though a PDF downloaded later will have a new ‘date generated’. 

There must be a good reason why yours seem to exhibit alarming changes. I suspect that they arise from the recalculation of previous estimates used in the absence of meter readings. And a recalculation of a previous month’s figures will percolate to all following months, because their opening balances will all change, too.

 

A friend has suggested that Ovo recalculates bills (I’m not sure how far back) every time I submit a meter reading, and that this explains the discrepancies.

 

Well, if meter readings are as sporadic as yours, estimates are bound to be way off however carefully they’re calculated. Significant discrepancies might arise at tariff changes, when someone will have to guess how much energy to charge at the old rate and how much at the new one.* The current billing system is designed to work best with smart meter readings; mine are half-hourly, but it’s only the daily reading at midnight that’s used to calculate bills. A monthly reading would give accurate results over a couple of months, depending on what estimates have to be made to cover the period between the latest reading and the billing date. Quarterly figures should be reasonably accurate.

The best way to avoid the agony you’re facing is to get a smart meter.

 

 

* I just got my quarterly water bill, based on estimates at both ends and with a tariff change a month ago. I was charged for 50% of the estimated usage at the old rate and 50% at the new one, even though there were twice as many days before the price hike as after. That is an underhand practice, in my opinion, but probably a widespread one.

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
T
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Hi,

I hope someone can help me understand.

I pay my bill every month when it comes, normally I can roughly estimate how much I’m using. This month seems very off.

Initially when I submitted my meter reading on 23rd May it stated the bill was £104.12 and I was in credit by £13.99.

Then to my surprise I checked the next day and the bill went up to £105.03 no big deal only around £1 difference.

But I checked again this evening to see £185.73???

surely that’s not correct and I have two consumption charges for both gas and electric. With the gas looking like I’ve been charged twice for the same thing, same units.

Can anyone help me with this or is it better to give them a call?

Thanks

BPLightlog
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Hi @Tforteefs and welcome to this customer forum. What you are looking at on those screenshots is not your bill but what they call live billing. OVO use a ‘continuous’ billing system that updates daily .. you can see an extra days standing charge also on your image. 
What you need to watch for is here https://account.ovoenergy.com/ where you can see previous bills and the current billing period, prior to a bill being prepared. It’s important to look at the actual bill as the gas cv value can only be calculated after the period - figures are produced by National Grid. Your billing information you are looking at is double listing but might just be caught between updates. If that part persists after the bill is produced, then it’s worth contacting them direct. 

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal

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