Historic bills keep changing and random huge Balance Adjustment has appeared with no explanation

It comes across as  incompetence rather than a mistake. If I can work out a bill with simple arithmetic a multi billion pound company should be able to do it. Unbelievable with their massive windfall they cannot employ people to do this and to man their phones and chat.

You don’t have to believe in any overarching conspiracy to think that Ovo have shocking customer service, an opaque migration charging system and no means of challenging migration charges.  This is not due to a single ‘conspiracy’, but it is the result of a series of corporate decisions by Ovo.

Even accounting for the bias of unhappy people commenting, there are definitely large numbers of people who have been presented with unexplained charges from Ovo following migration from SSE.  This is backed up by articles in the national press, and an investigation opened by Ofgem: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ofgem-opens-compliance-engagement-respect-ovos-complaints-handling-process

Hey @ianstewart1309,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

Unfortunately, we don’t have access to your account here on the Forum. 

Typically, ‘balance adjustments’ are due to a bad transfer read when a customer moves from their old provider or not taking any final payment into account. If there is a discrepancy over the final reading, and opening reading used. This will go through a read dispute process and the readings will be amended. This then means that the final bill from the old provider will be adjusted and the balance transferred across will change, hence the ‘balance adjustment’. 

You may need to look at challenging the transfer readings unless you know these were not affected. 

• Meter Reading Disputes - What are they?

If this is not the case, and you have raised a complaint but are not happy with the resolution provided you can escalate your complaint. Find out more about the full procedure on the website here. 

Hope this helps. 

Currently my correspondence with ovo is like Jekyll and Hyde. On the one hand I am getting threatening letters and emails  about court action and  breaking into my house to fit pay as you go meters.

On the other hand the guy dealing with my complaint is apologising for sounding like a broken record and for getting nowhere with the complaint.

Both these things are happening at the same time.

It's flat earth stuff!

Thanks Emmanuelle, 

I appreciate it is not individual employees at OVO at fault, just corporate greed which has created this situation which is affecting many people. I hate to think how some vulnerable people are dealing with it.

I left a note with forum support so we shall see how that goes. Forgot to mention I got a £10 late payment charge added to my outrageous bill. I was informed of this in my latest nasty letter.

I actually burst out laughing when I opened it.

Cheers Ian

What did the Ombudsman say @danshoebridge ?

I've had some remarkable progress. Got a new bill. If you remember is started off at £1400 went down to £1200 and ended up recently at £800. None of these were paid because they were way off the mark. Now had a new bill  here it is

I'm hoping ovo have got their act together but they still don't fill me with confidence as my online account is now showing I owe a different amount, maybe just a mistype and the £165.18 is the correct amount???

I hope this is an end to the massive random adjustments. I have had no explanation for the new bill but it seems someone has got out a pen and bit of paper and made a simple calculation.

Hopefully get a reply about my complaint shortly.

@Jeffers. No smart meter and just electricity. I have been away from the house mostly so very little electricity has been used. The first amount for £85 was my last from SSE and an estimate which was a bit high. The £165.18 is based on my readings with the last few weeks based on estimates. I have given readings whenever asked and will probably change to smart meter once this is sorted and probably a change of supplier. These 2 screenshot are from just a few days ago. Until then the bills were all over the place despite ovo having the correct meter readings. The bill is very long and over 4 months because I have refused to pay it since then but now it looks pretty close to what it should be.

It would be good to get a proper explanation for the ridiculous bills despite having meter readings supplied whenever requested, and also an official apology for the grief caused. As I said I have  complaint running and maybe these will be forthcoming.

Someone in their wisdom decided to ban me, no doubt as I wasn’t the most pleasant towards Ovo due to 5 months of stress, but it’s finally sorted out this morning and I am back in credit.

Same person will no doubt ban me again but thanks for your concern and I am just so glad it seems to be sorted out, and hoping it remains so, and no further adjustments made to my existing accounts now. 

I only made an account as it appeared someone sent me a PM, but I can’t find it anyway, plus I wanted to reply to Jeffus as he/she was kind enough to enquire how I was getting on. Hopefully, I will have no need to complain further anyway if my account is finally sorted out.

If I was a bit shirty previously, it was down to 5 months of constant stress with the state my account was in.

I recently had Ovo trouble. Was migrated from SSE in Feb 2023 which didn't go smoothly. Took months to sort.

Just before Christmas I had an email from Ovo explaining I'd been migrated from er Ovo to Ovo complete with welcoming letter and a £300 plus (account adjustment) charge to accompany it...at Christmas! I was fuming. I stopped my direct debit to keep control on things. Had to get really difficult to get it sorted. It has now been sorted but trust has been shattered. 

First the Post Office scandel and now Ovo. These organisations work for us, the customer,  but to often it feels like the other way round.

IT problems seem to be the issue in both cases. These companies MUST  get it sorted asap.

OVO messed my bill now I am minus 800 pounds. Now my bill just goes up every month just want to get away. However I can't as they offered me a deal for 12 months at a great price then this happens.