Why am I receiving bills covering only 1 day?

I have left this a bit late to post, but as mentioned in my earlier post, I waited until my Nov/Dec bill arrived to see whether I received a spurious bill (as I sent in the readings on Saturday 6th Dec). Sure enough, I received my normal bill for 6th Nov to 5th Dec, followed by another bill for 6-7 Dec. So it is definitely a weekend issue.

And again, I received an email saying the amount due was £185.86, when the 2 individual bills were for £179.68 & £11.93 (=£191.61). £185.86 is also shown as the amount to pay on the OVO home page.

I will contact OVO again & include a link to this thread. 

Just to mention that the same thing happened to me too without an obvious reason, so it’s not such a rare case.

Did you ever contact OVO about it? Did yours only happen with weekend readings too?

I did contact OVO again in February, with a link to this thread. I received a reply from an energy expert, & was told that this glitch may have been triggered during the transition from quarterly to monthly billing. She said she was waiting for the technical team to respond, & she would contact me the following week with a full update. That was sent on 13th February, but I heard no more from her.

Today's reading will be interesting, as it falls on a bank holiday. So will it generate a spurious bill as it does at weekends, or a normal bill as it does for a week day?

I’ve only just realised that marking a reply as “best answer” tags the thread as “solved”, so ​@Ben_OVO  I’ve unticked your reply as “best answer”, as I don’t know if the problem is solved yet.

It happens with other suppliers as well. I'm with Octopus and sometimes they need to correct an error so I might get a bill that recinds two previous partial bills. Or I've had a bill just for gas (I'm dual fuel) followed by another bill that credits the previous gas bill and gives me a bill for the electric but then not all of the gas. Issuing ad hoc bills seems to be par for the course these days.

Octopus is more chaotic than OVO just in case you were thinking of jumping ship just for that reason. Keeping track of what I've actually paid for has become a bit of a ‘walk of faith’ in some respects but I know that my DD is set to the correct level so any massive credit is due to them not billing me correctly. It's like having to do the job yourself. Or as my boss on the railway would say ‘It’s like having a dog and having to bark yourself’ or ‘That’s as useful as a chocolate teapot.’

A bright sunshiny day with no wind. Yay!

Peter

Hey ​@RadioFox,

Do you have a smart meter? I think having one could really help with the issues you’re experiencing! It sends readings every half hour, which means there’s no crossover of billing periods and your bills will be more accurate compared to a monthly submission. It seems like the issues are mainly about how your billing looks rather than affecting your account, which is a good sign!

If you’d like, you can reach out to our Support Team through phone or live chat to get an update on your tech ticket. They’ll be happy to let you know if there’s been any progress.

We mark threads as “best answer” to highlight the best advice at any given time, so everyone can see the most current recommendations. Right now, Ben has shared the best advice, which is to check in with our Support Team. If they tell you that everything has been resolved, please come back and let us know how it went! We’d love to update the best answer with your experience. I hope that helps, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions!

I can understand an extra bill due to errors, but in my case OVO are simply sending an extra estimated bill covering a day or 2 for no reason, other than it’s a weekend. 🤷🏻 Whether it glitches on bank holidays as well, I’ll find out in the next couple of days.

I don't have a smart meter. I keep putting it off.

OVO recognise that there is a glitch in the matrix. It sorts itself out when I submit my next reading (providing it’s a weekday!), so I’m not overly bothered, I’m just interested in why it happens. Considering it’s been happening for a year now, I thought their technical team might have sorted it out. As I said above, the energy expert told me that she would get back to me with a full update, but never did. I think I will just live with it now. Not worth any more hassle.

I can understand highlighting a “best answer”, but didn’t realise it also tagged the thread as “Resolved”. The 2 don’t necessarily equate. It makes it look like the actual problem has been resolved when it hasn’t. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. I actually couldn’t remember if I selected it as best answer or not. I’ve a shocking memory! 😆

Hey ​@RadioFox, 

I was curious if there’s a particular reason you haven't gotten a smart meter installed yet. It could really help with the issues you've been facing and save you some hassle in the long run. Having a smart meter comes with lots of perks, like more accurate billing, and you won’t have to worry about submitting readings since it does that automatically for you! Plus, you’ll have access to more tariff options that could help lower your bills. I've attached a couple of articles below that I think you might find helpful! Let me know if you have any questions!