Unjust energy bill adjustment

J
Rank

Hi all,

After logging into my account yesterday I was surprised to find that a near on £400 balance adjustment had been added to my Dec – Jan bill with absolutely no rationale as to why. Going from around £200 in credit to now being £190 in debit. This amount must’ve been included over the course of the weekend as I check my account weekly.

To give some background context, myself and my partner moved into our first home in July 21, we signed a 2yr fixed plan with SSE before they merged with OVO and were automatically transferred across. Just to note that I already had a balance adjustment earlier in the year that was my final bill from SSE, even though this didn’t add up, I didn’t dispute it as it was a minimal amount.

Has anyone experienced the same thing and what was the outcome as I’m completely flummoxed?

All meter readings/plan details below;

Electric
Unit rate - 18.82p per kwh 
Standing charge - 24.11p a day

Gas
Unit rate - 3.43p 
Standing charge - 26.59p a day

Meter readings
Joined SSE 28th July 21 - 23106kwh (E) - 5481m3 (G)
OVO transfer Dec 21 - 23553kwh (E) - 5613m3(G)
Today's reading - 24188kwh (E) - 5879m3 (G)

Electricity - £203.63 (1082KWh)
Gas - £152.90 (4457KWh)
Standing charge - £145.49

Total cost since July 21 - £502.02 (apologies if my calculations are off)

Direct debit - £78 per month (10mnths paid since joining SSE - £780)

7 replies

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Hi @JG26012012 ,

I’m Blastoise186, one of the OVO Forum volunteers.

Sorry to hear of the problem there, to me this sounds related to a migration issue that affected a few SSE customers who were migrated to OVO around the time period that your bill adjustment relates to.

Unfortunately, as a forum volunteer I’m unable to access your account myself so I can’t say for sure exactly what happened. The best thing I can recommend would be for you to give the Support Team a call on 0330 303 5063. They can take a look at your account and advise you as to what the bill adjustment relates to. My understanding is that it almost always relates to correcting account balances affected by technical issues and is never done without a valid reason. You should have received an email at the time to explain everything.

However, you can ask for this to be reviewed again if you think it’s incorrect. The Support Team will be best placed to assist with this. I’m afraid no-one on the forum can help you to solve it as we’re not allowed to access your account.

Thanks for understanding.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
J
Rank

Hi @Blastoise186 

Thank you for the advice, just to note I did not receive any notice as to why these balance adjustments were added to my account.

I have since contacted OVO customer service and was told that these balance adjustments are added by SSE as part of my account migrating over. So this would be my second lot of balance adjustments with absolutely no reason behind it when you look at my energy usage since being with SSE/OVO. I was then told that OVO cannot do anything their end and to contact SSE.

After a frustrating call with SSE, I was informed that my account was fully migrated over in early January. They cannot see the additional £400 balance adjustment that was applied over the weekend nor can they do anything about it and to raise a complaint with OVO.

Whilst I take comfort in being told that I’m not the only one to experience this issue with OVO/SSE it saddens me to know that there are others who are being robbed of their hard earned money. 

With neither company accepting responsibility/ownership where does that leave the customer?  

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +3

It’s a massive migration project affecting several million SSE customers, inevitably there will always be some who get a few glitches along the way. As far as I can tell, most of it seems to be more down to pre-existing bad data on SSE’s billing system than anything OVO has done. This isn’t something I can say for definite though, as I’ve never had access to any internal systems.

In some cases, the migration may have revealed a long standing account issue that might never have otherwise been discovered. If you’ve already migrated, OVO will take responsibility of getting things patched up. However, for anyone who hasn’t migrated yet, that task remains with SSE at this time. I have been told a rough estimate of how many customers are migrated each month, but I’m not able to reveal the figures. All I can say is that it’s a pretty big number. What I can say though is that I think SSE had around five million customers before they sold the retail division to OVO.

As soon as your account begins to migrate to OVO though, that’s when responsibility for it begins to shift over. I’m not sure at exactly what stage the customer service stuff is moved, but certainly once the move is done, SSE can no longer get involved.

If a complaint has been raised, a dedicated complaint handler will take on the case and they’ll be in charge of getting it resolved. Hang in there for a bit and they’ll be in touch.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Jess_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

I’m so sorry to hear of the issues you’ve been having with your account balance since you joined us from SSE, @JG26012012.

 

As mentioned in this related topic, a balance adjustment showing on your new OVO account could indicate that the meter reading we’ve used to close your SSE account and open your OVO account has been amended.

 

It’s really disappointing to hear that you were directed to SSE to raise your concerns that this balance adjustment was incorrect. The OVO Support Team should be able to check the status of any migration meter reading change, without you needing to contact SSE.

 

If you haven’t already we’d recommend getting back in touch with our Support Team to make sure that you account balance is checked. The quickest way to reach the team is via our webchat which you can access here.

 

Do pop back if you need any more help getting this sorted.

 

 

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J
Rank

Thank you both @Blastoise186 and @Jess_OVO

I’ve since raised a complaint and hope to hear back from the support team soon. 

A
Rank

Hi there about balance adjustment on ovo bills my husband who helps people with energy bills helped me with this one there was a period when ovo took over that smart meters couldn't send any signals so you would get an estimated bill this is the adjustment for the estimate those who don't have smart meters he suggests sending a meter reading as soon as possible hope this helps

Jess_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

This is always sound advice, @audrey7958.

 

Submitting meter readings (if you’re able to) or opting for a smart meter usually means that your account will be up-to date with no need for adjustments.

 

Have you recently joined us from SSE too?

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