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Historical bills changing without explanation.

  • 14 August 2023
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M
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Can anyone explain to me why OVO, rather than applying adjustments to the current billing period, quietly make adjustments to historical bills (and hence every following bill) without so much as offering a single word of explanation?

For example, my bill for the period 14th Mar - 13th Apr 2023 has, to my certain knowledge, now changed at least three times since being issued. I have four different copies downloaded on the 22nd April, 11th May, 7th August and today and they all show different charges and closing balances. OVO have never communicated to inform me that previously issued bills were incorrect

At some point in the last week, despite there being no new credit transactions my account, I have suddenly gained more than £50 worth of credit that wasn't there before and I then noticed that the charges and closing balances on every single bill back to February (as far back as I have checked) have been changed in the last week and that the credit is an accumulation of these unexplained changes to previous bills.

Bills are a formal communication. It is quite simply illegal to change them without communicating with the customer to withdraw the previous bill and inform them that a new one has been issued. If, for example the adjustments had resulted increased debit balances, the failure to communicate the change to the customer would result in an unenforceable debt. 

With SSE, for example, if they changed a historical bill, they informed the customer and you could see both the original and amended version of the bill in the billing history – with OVO there just seems to be a deliberate attempt to gaslight the customer by silently making the changes in the hope that the customer doesn't notice and, like most customers, hasn't bothered to download copies of their bills, and assumes that they themselves have made a mistake.

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Best answer by BPLightlog 14 August 2023, 13:35

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Blastoise186
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There’s been some corrections recently to fix a few things - you should have had an email about it.

To query this further, please contact support via https://ovoenergy.com/help . Forum volunteers like myself cannot access the account - and doing so isn’t something this forum can offer.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Firedog
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Can anyone explain to me why OVO, rather than applying adjustments to the current billing period, quietly make adjustments to historical bills (and hence every following bill) without so much as offering a single word of explanation?

 

No, because this shouldn’t happen. I suspect you’re seeing the results of a recent discovery that a few OVO customers had been over- or undercharged in recent months because of a mistake in applying the price cap. You should have received, or will shortly receive, an email explaining what happened if this is the case. When this sort of thing happens (and it’s by no means common), there will usually be a consolation prize, which might explain the unexpected extra credit you’re seeing. Can you not see it explained on your latest bill?

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
M
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Can anyone explain to me why OVO, rather than applying adjustments to the current billing period, quietly make adjustments to historical bills (and hence every following bill) without so much as offering a single word of explanation?

 

No, because this shouldn’t happen. I suspect you’re seeing the results of a recent discovery that a few OVO customers had been over- or undercharged in recent months because of a mistake in applying the price cap. You should have received, or will shortly receive, an email explaining what happened if this is the case. When this sort of thing happens (and it’s by no means common), there will usually be a consolation prize, which might explain the unexpected extra credit you’re seeing. Can you not see it explained on your latest bill?

Not as yet .. my last bill notification from OVO was 22nd July (which is one of the historical bills that has changed since then) but my bill for 14 Jul - 13 Aug is now pending so I guess just sit tight and see if there is an explanation with that. 

The extra credit is fully explained by the changes to the charges on the historical bills and therefore the quiet change to the opening balance for the period 14 Jul - 13 Aug. 

Definitely no communications about this … the only communications from OVO since my last bill are three marketing emials trying to sucker me into signing up for the new fixed rate tariffs. 

 

 

BPLightlog
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There is a problem with the current billing set up as whenever you open a bill online, it only shows that days date and not any version revision numbers at all. We have been mentioning this for a few months now. 
 

If there was a proper audit trail, some of the adjustments may be easier to track

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
M
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There is a problem with the current billing set up as whenever you open a bill online, it only shows that days date and not any version revision numbers at all. We have been mentioning this for a few months now. 
 

 

Thanks. Yes, I was also going to comment on that glaring fault with the dates too, but thought I’d stick to one issue at a time ;)

It is somewhat ironic that when there were several versions of the same bill on my old SSE account, all of those versions are accessible through my OVO billing history, but not when there are several versions of an OVO bill. 

Jeffus
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@MCH59

As others have said, it could be related to this where two suppliers were highlighted by ofgem for not correctly applying the Energy Price Guarantee to all their customers. 

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/good-energy-limited-and-ovo-energy-limited-pay-ps4-million-overcharging-customers

As per the ofgem statement

  • Between October 2022 and March 2023, a total of 10,987 OVO Energy customers were overcharged £1,492,917 above the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee, brought in last winter to protect consumers as households struggled to cope with rising energy prices. 

The specific ovo information is here. 

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ovo-energy-limited-pay-ps2000000-energy-price-guarantee-overcharging

If you were impacted you should also have received a goodwill compensation payment in addition to correcting the error. If you were on the priority service register the automatic compensation is higher. 

"In addition, the supplier has paid £498,838 in goodwill payments to affected customers, and a further £10,000 into Ofgem’s voluntary consumer redress fund for reporting failings, equating to a total package of £2,001,755." 

D
Rank

I am feeling desperate and hoping to find some help!

Ovo are consistently over-estimating our usage, despite giving meter readings.

When we have given readings in the past, the bill seems to be revised in their system. Our opening meter readings on subsequent bills no longer follow on from the previous closing ones. We have not received any revised bills. No bills are showing for these periods in the billing history in the online account. 

How can I reconcile the usage, cost and VAT without a full billing history?

Has anyone had similar issues, and if so, how were they resolved?

BPLightlog
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Not quite sure what you mean @DisneyCupcake .

Have your previous bills been removed? Or is it that they’ve been updated?

All bills (including any amended) should follow closing and opening readings. There have been cases where bills have been updated without notification but the updated versions should be available.

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
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Yes, they are no longer showing. Account opened in August but that bill is no longer there.  I have had a reply from support now with a few things to try, so I will see how that goes!

 

 

Firedog
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[Sorry, this crossed with your latest post.]

 

Your bills as they are now should be available at the account website. If you want to compare a previous bill, e.g. a PDF emailed to you, with its current version, just use the Download bill button to get a copy. The date it was generated is at the top of page 1. 

Any historical change will cause the opening and closing balances of all subsequent bills to change accordingly, even if the charges all remain the same. 

To help make sure your bills are accurate, try submitting the closing reading for a billing period in the morning of the first day of the next period. This will be recorded at the preceding midnight and should be used to generate the bill without using an estimate. 

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
Firedog
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Apologies for the confusion. 

I don’t know if this helps at all, but you can usually specify the dates of bills you’re interested in when downloading. For example,  https://smartpaymapi.ovoenergy.com/bast/bill/nnnnnnn?from=2023-09-22&to=2023-11-21 might retrieve one of your missing bills after you change nnnnnnn to your own account number. It won’t if the bill really has been taken down, though. 

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
B
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Hello

I received a very brief email saying

“I’m Chaitrali, a billing agent here at OVO. I’m getting in touch today to let you know that because of an error on our system, your bills were missing some charges. I’m very sorry about this.

We’ve fixed the problem and your energy account has been updated with your latest balance.”

I have now downloaded a copy of every bill I have ever had and compared with my own copies taken over the past 3 years. It appears that in Sept and October 2022, OVO incorrectly calculated the cost of my gas usage and brought forward the wrong balance from my previous statement. They have now changed every monthly bill I have had since to reflect the change to the invoices in 2022. I cannot believe that this is legal as surely they would have to raise a credit note and then re-issue the invoice and advise me of this. 

Fortunately for me it it is a small amount of money but if everyone elses invoices have been changed it will make an enormous difference to OVO. 

 

Can others please check to see if their invoices have been changed?

 

Regards

Bob

BPLightlog
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Not sure they can do this according to Ofgem

 

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
K
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Interesting. I too have a similar experience dating back to 2022 where a ‘technical error’ has necessitated OVO closing my old account and opening me a new one. On porting over the balances of my past bills from the old to new accounts they seem to have calulated using unit prices based on  ‘On Demand’  instead of ‘Direct Debit’. It makes a couple of pence difference per unit but calculated over 2 years it’s a significant loss for me. After nearly 8 weeks it’s still not been sorted.

I asked one of the 11 (yes eleven!) representatives I have contacted as to whether there was some sort of system change in 2022 and that I wasn’t the only one having problems but was told  no changes and it was just my account… I’m not so sure, Smells a bit like The Post Office.

Definitely. Everyone should check past invoices. Good Luck!

Emmanuelle_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hey @bobsheppard and @Kilgore,

 

I’m sorry for the issues you’re having, 

 

This is our backbilling process, let me know if the following information helps:

 

What is a backbill?

 

We send a backbill, 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. Backbills can be for any amount, and may be a result of:

  • A technical or human error on the customer's account has resulted in a delay in receiving a statement within the usual timeframe
  • The customer has supplied a reading that exceeds the previously estimated readings used in their statements
  • There is a discrepancy between the information OVO has and the current meter setup, such as crossed meters (where multiple properties have been billed for each other's usage) or a meter exchange not updated before joining OVO, which requires a corrected bill to be issued.

 

What is a Backbill Write-Off? 

 

Where we've issued a backbill 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 backbill write-off will be a credit applied to the account to cover the difference between the updated usages 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

Charge Adjustment Write-Off 

 

If we discover an account where we realise a customer's previous bills are incorrect this can sometimes mean we have to rebill a customer's usage that is older than 12 months. In these situations, once the account is correct and ready to issue an accurate statement, we'll look to bill the customer back up to date. However, for any usage over 12 months old (from the date we fix and statement the account), we'll need to review the customer's eligibility for a write-off.
 

12+ Months Write-Off

 

There are occasions where a customer hasn’t been accurately charged for a period longer than 12 months. Although we work hard to ensure this doesn’t happen we have a process in place to rectify this when it does come up. In these situations, once the issues that prevented us from billing are resolved, we'll look to bill the customer up-to-date. However, we'll need to review the customer's eligibility for a write-off.

If we find the charges of our write-off statement would not have been covered by the payments made (or payments leftover), we write off the difference. If the charges have been covered, following backbilling guidelines, we're not required to perform a write-off. Once we’ve added (or not added) a write-off transaction, we then run the write-off statement. Afterwards, we run an up-to-date bill to the most accurate reading available for the customer's usage within the last 12 months. 

 

 

Ofgem rules

 

You can also read Ofgem's explanation of the back-billing rules, covering these topics:

  • What are the back-billing rules
  • If you get a back bill
  • If you haven’t had an energy bill in over a year
  • If you can’t pay a back bill
Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
K
Rank

Hey @bobsheppard and @Kilgore,

I’m sorry for the issues you’re having, 

This is our backbilling process, let me know if the following information helps…..

Regards the back billing process. This is really no help to me. OVO are aware of my personal issue and I’ve been told that it is being investigated and that I will not be out of pocket. I’m assuming that they will eventually match my ported new account billing with my old account billing. I’m not really bothered as to how this is done only that my account is credited with what I’m owed. My main issue is the amount of time it’s taking. I first reported this on 22nd January and have been going around in crcles since then. What is the time scale for this type of thing?

 

 

 

B
Rank

Hi Emmanuelle_OVO

So let’s look at my issue, you said, looking at your response

 

 

What is a Backbill Write-Off? 

So I have not received a backbill or catchup I had to go through all my invoices to find the differences myself as no-one at OVO could tell me what the differences were and I am still waiting 2 weeks later to hear from your accounts department who obviously cannot cope with the mess that has been made. 

I did not have any delay in receiving my original invoices.

I did not supply any readings they were taken from the smart meter by you and they were accurate.

There are no crossed meters here, just the one, yours

Charge Adjustment Write-Off 

Yes you have done this but my issue is that I had to go through all my invoices to find and check the differences between my original and now revised invoices.

12+ Months Write-Off

You were not prevented in sending me an invoice for the periods that were incorrect and I missed that you had brought forward the wrong balance, however the calorific value change I would never have found

If I had bought something from a shop or online and the supplier gets the bill wrong this is their issue and they could not be able to come back 1½ years later and say sorry but I got this wrong. Are you going to come back and tell me that you got my bill wrong back in 2021 next and change all the bills again?

I need a letter from yourselves firstly sincerely and honestly laying out what was wrong with my bills. An explanation as to why this occurred would be good too.

I need a promise that you will never do this again on any previous bills from today without first consulting me and to be open and honest with me and not send an email that says we’ve changed your bills with no detail. 

Also, I have to ask what would have happened if I was no longer a customer?

Regards

Bob

 

Emmanuelle_OVO
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Userlevel 7

I’ll ask Forum_Support to reach out, please keep an eye on your private messages @bobsheppard 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

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