Using gas whilst away, how is this possible?

We've given up, got precisely nowhere when trying to sort this all out. Have deleted the app & will no longer check online account. Ovo can do whatever they like (they do anyway!), we'll just hang on until the end of our contract & leave. Dreadful company to deal with, unfortunately we have another year that we're stuck with them.

It is on that page, @Jeffus. 

Suppliers can offer free gas safety checks every 12 months. You can request a safety check if you get a means-tested benefit and either:

• live with a child under five years old
• live alone or with others and have reached state pension age
• live alone or with others and are disabled or chronically ill
• live with others who have reached state pension age or are disabled, chronically ill or under 18 years old. 

@MrsSB there’s an interesting topic here where another forum member helped someone else who had usage around midnight (electricity not gas):

Could we hear a bit more detail about your home’s set up? What is your night time appliance use? 

Unless it’s something odd on the meter itself or with the data we’re getting, it’s very likely to be something beyond that meter and related to an actual appliance. The Centre of Sustainable Energy can offer you free and impartial advice. Or as Jeffus advised you may consider a gas safe engineer visits. 

You asked for info re appliance set up. We have just 3 gas appliances, a hob (definitely not used overnight), a gas fire (hasn't been used for probably a year or more), and a combi boiler for heating & water. Heating goes off at 9pm, comes on again at 7am. While there may be a pilot light, this has never registered as being used overnight before, ie when heatíng/water is not being used usage has shown as 0.00. Very rare for hot water to be used overnight as we generally use cold water to wash hands overnight so as not to use boiler.

There is no way any of our 3 appliances have been used overnight, and, strangely enough, since a phone conversation with a member of your Resolutions Team last week, during which she insisted everything was " normal" and "just being averaged out", overnight usage appears to have returned to what it has previously been, ie 0.00 between the hours of 9pm and 7am!

All very odd, obviously not a gas leak or appliance problem as nothing has been done to rectify either (should they have existed) and things have gone back to what we consider to be "normal". It's a pity Ovo can't be honest with us and admit that there was something very strange going on with our meter and/or account.

Thanks for getting back to me, @MrsSB.

The usage section itself can show estimated usage if we don’t get sent that data from the meters. But the daily readings, which your charges are based on, should be spot on or it needs closer attention. 

If you have any concerns that your meter readings aren’t accurately recording your usage, I’d encourage you to check out this guide: 

We are having a problem whereby our half hourly gas meter readings online and on the app are showing gas being used when in fact no appliances are in use, eg when we are in bed with no heating on, so no use at all (it has been suggested that this overnight usage might be a pilot light on our combi boiler, but we have had the boiler for over 5 years and all previous overnight readings have been 0.00 all through the night) This is happening intermittently, some days there is no use shown but other times up to 2kWh in any given half hour period when we know for certain that no gas is being used.

I have had various conversations with Ovo customer services and each time they tell me that they are not able to see the detail of my account, and I am getting precisely nowhere. For example, on 2 consecutive days our gas usage was identical apart from an extra boiling of a kettle on the second day. However, according to our account, on the first day we used 4.84kWh of gas and on the 2nd it was 22.92kWh with considerable overnight usage included in the 2nd day.

Surely someone at Ovo must be able to see the same detail that we are able to see, both on the online account and on the app? This has been going on now for a number of weeks, I have spoken to at least 4 people in different departments, yet each of them insists that they can't see the details I can see and that it's just our meter " catching up"???????

Has anyone else had a similar problem or have any idea what could be going on, as it appears that Ovo haven't a clue or, indeed, any interest in finding out. We are in our 70s and this is becoming very stressful for us but it appears that no-one at Ovo is interested in helping us.

There have been regular meter readings sent by our smart meter. We believe that the meter readings are not accurate as they went from 4.84kwh one day to 22.92kwh the next and the only difference in our actual usage was one kettle boiling. The rest of the additional "usage" was recordings overnight when no gas was actually being used.  The guide you have mentioned is useless as it refers to electricity usage testing, not gas. We have had enough now, this situation is becoming extremely stressful and no-one at Ovo is interested in trying to find out what is happening. We are just being fobbed off as stupid old people. What's new about that???????

Hey @MrsSB,

Sorry to hear of the trouble you’re having.

Have you sent any photos or screenshots to the Support Team so that they can see what you can see? The view is different online from the internal system, so it may be difficult sometimes to see the same thing as yourself. You can submit these through our Support Webchat here. 

This way they can get a better understanding of what you can see and what may be the issue.

It may be that we aren’t receiving readings on each day, and those days where the usage seems a bit odd, may be that we have estimated the reading instead. You can check here for any missing daily readings: https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings

The usage page online is a guide, and if we haven’t received the readings from the meters we will estimate this instead. You will not be overcharged as long as your daily meter reading is sent to us and used in your billing.

Hey @MrsSB,

I’ve linked my response to your post on another topic. 

To answer your question, yes, I have sent many screenshots, I have had numerous phone conversations, meter readings are being shown on my account daily (we have a smart meter). I am being overcharged as my online account is showing usage in the middle of the night when no gas is being used, in fact higher usage overnight than during the day sometimes, and this "usage" is apparently included in the meter readings and is being billed on my account each day, and then each month. It appears no-one is taking this seriously and I am continually being fobbed off because OVO customer services staff "can't see the usage showing on my account" regardless of the many screenshots I've sent.

Hey @MrsSB 

Sorry you’re still experiencing issues with this.

Do you know if the meter reading schedule is set up at once daily, or is it set to send them every half an hour? It may be that the reading only comes to us once a day and so the system may be estimating the usage in between those actual readings each day. Our Support Team can check this for you, and if it’s not already set to half hourly, they can get that changed for you.

We also have this forum idea, which is focused on making this sort of action, something that customer would be able to change themselves: 

I know it must be frustrating trying to get this resolved, but as we have no access to accounts here at the Forum, we won’t be able to provide you any specifics on your account & usage.

There is a test called the meter accuracy test, this is when the gas meter is removed for testing. They would replace it for a new one when they remove the meter, if they found that the meter wasn’t faulty there would be a charge for the appointment, so it’s always worth ruling out all of the gas appliances first to be sure it’s not one of those. 

Please do get back in touch with the Support Team about this so that they can look into it.