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Why are my monthly charges so high since I entered a meter reading incorrectly?

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S
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Hi 

I’ve tried numerous times to no avail including we chat , the missed call is probably because I cancelled my debit until this expensive error is corrected. 
they seem impossible to contact at the moment. 
but I think someone from billing should be ringing me instead I’m wasting my phone  bill constantly trying to get through only to hear the automated service who finally tells me they are busy 🙄

Jess_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hi @Sam 85,

 

I’m so sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve had reaching the team. I’ve just highlighted this to the billing team again and they’ve advised that you should be receiving an email shortly to explain things.

 

Let us know if there’s any further issues. 

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S
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Hi Jess 

 

I’ve just had an email and it’s all been amended.

thank you all so much for your help .

best wishes 

sam

S
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Since moving to OVO from SSE months ago I've been getting charged £300 per month in direct debits for my electricity and I live in a 2 bed flat.

 

I submitted readings the wrong way round and had a case open with OVO's billing team to correct the readings but they never did and just ignored me when I followed up over email.

 

My most recent bill says I've spent over £1700 for the previous month which I'm pretty sure is impossible?? Also when I look at the details of the charges it says I've used £60 of energy so why am I being charged ridiculous amounts of money from my bank account??

 

Please help as I literally can't afford to pay £300 each month anymore.

Tim_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hi @SeanLC and thanks for flagging this. I’ve given some similar advice in this topic which I’ll copy below. Before that, I’m making an assumption that when you mean ‘you submitted the readings the wrong way round’, this means you have an Economy 7 (two rate) meter with peak and off peak meter registers. 

 

I suggest you do load test: Take a picture of the meter in the morning when your peak rate has started to clock, and another in the afternoon before the off peak kicks in. These two pictures prove to us which register is which, so we can update the industry data files and rebill the account. 

 

I’m not able to access your OVO account so please copy this topic URL and those load test results into a online chat when you get a chance. 

 

Hope this helps,

Tim

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
B
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Smart meter can’t be fitted at our property due to CHboiler being in way, so we read the meter daily and keep a record on Excel, which calculates our monthly usage and is really helpful. Until one of us reverses 2 digits in thousands column when we report to Ovo, and we don’t notice until we get triple-the-usage-bill.  Yikes. We find the error and call but all the person can do is write it on our record, but asks for us to email a  photo of the meter to hello@ovoenergy.com , which we do.  Back comes the auto-reply saying, ‘‘

Reply-To: hello@ovoenergy.com

 

Thanks for getting in touch. At OVO, we always want to make sure our processes work best for you, so we’ve updated our contact channels. Unfortunately, the email address you contacted isn’t available any more.

WHAT?! I called immediately and spoke to another who denied this message and said that IS their email address, so I re-read it to him and he said he’d talk to his boss, so I waited on hold and of course was then cut off. So I messaged and had to deal with a poor, harassed operative on their chat system (dealing with multiple messages at once, so it took hours) who we uploaded the photos to and said he’d pass them on to whoever needed them.  God knows if he did as we just got another copy of the same bill 2 days later😤 as if we hadn’t spent a whole blooming day on trying to sort this out. 

That’s the background. So, 1. DO they have a functioning email address?2. Do we bother trying to get them to correct this?

Thank you, fellow customers, I do hope you can advise.

 

 

 

 

Blastoise186
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I’m afraid that particular email address is no longer being used for certain things like this one. Your best bet would be live chat for this one. The email address is still used for some purposes though and it is correct, but only under the right circumstances.

If you’re unhappy with how things are going, I’d probably suggest using the complaints process here.

If you ever get a meter reading wrong again, the easiest fix is to simply submit the correct reading by midnight the same day. Doing so will cancel out the first one and the replacement will be used instead.

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B
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Thank you so much for your time, Blastoise186 it’s unfortunate the error wasn’t spotted until the bill arrived or I’d have corrected it in the approved way. 

Given your comment that the email address is only correct under certain circumstances, my next questions are: 1. how do you know? 2. why isn’t this explicit with the criteria clearly stated and 3. why weren’t 2 operatives aware of this, given one of them advised me to use it? 

And 4. Do we try bothering to correct this? I envisage us getting a harried communication from them when the next 2 months’ bills should be zero while we catch up.

All I need is a written response acknowledging our communication, the correct meter reading and what they propose. Their chat system doesn’t offer a transcript, which is deeply frustrating as I have no evidence of our communications.

 

 

Blastoise186
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No worries. You OK if I answer each of those in turn? I find it’s usually easier that way.

1. how do you know?

I’m one of the forum volunteers here and I sometimes get told certain information a little bit faster than most people, in order to help make sure I can give out the right advice. However, in this case I noticed it brought up on several threads over recent weeks and answered by moderators - and also because the email address is gone from the contact us page

2. why isn’t this explicit with the criteria clearly stated

I only found out recently myself and as far as I’m aware, OVO now prefers members to use phone or live chat, which tend to be a lot faster anyway. I’m afraid I don’t have a list handy either, but I might be able to ask about that somewhere

3. why weren’t 2 operatives aware of this, given one of them advised me to use it? 

Bit of a tricky one for me to answer I’m afraid, but at a guess it could be things like force of habit, older playbooks or just that the agents in question hadn’t yet been informed

And 4. Do we try bothering to correct this? I envisage us getting a harried communication from them when the next 2 months’ bills should be zero while we catch up.

Definitely worth getting this fixed. It’s crucial that your bills are accurate and also meter readings as well. If you don’t get this fixed, your account may suffer other problems in the future

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
B
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Really appreciate this, Blastoise186, huge thanks for the clarifications. 

I want to get it fixed, but haven’t been able to, and now I really don’t know how to go about it, having had 2 failed phone calls, 1 failed email and a failed chat.  If they haven’t worked, what am I left with?

A letter of complaint? What do you suggest?

Thanks, it helps to talk to someone!

 

Blastoise186
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Hehehe, you’re talking to someone who’s been on this forum for a couple of years now. But I’m also very mysterious and it’s said that pretty much no-one on the internet knows who I really am. :)

So naturally, I know you’re not out of options yet. I’d probably suggest the complaints process as your next stop. Chances are pretty good that you’ll get this resolved fairly quickly that way.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
B
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Oh, thank you again, Blastoise186, I feel so much better.  

I’ll get onto it.

 

Blastoise186
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No worries.

As for the transcript thing? That’s actually a pretty good idea. Would you be OK to post a new Idea for that one? This link here should set up the right type of thread for you and if you set the Product Area as being OVO Help, it should reach the right team once it’s been reviewed by forum moderators.

I had a look at the documentation for the chat tool that OVO uses and it seems like it might be possible with some clever trickery on the back end. But that’s just a guess as I’ve not dug very deep into it.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
B
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Good thinking, you’re a star, and thank you for all you do. Its a very valuable service you are providing and shouldn’t go unacknowledged. 

Plusnet (phone etc) provides chat transcripts so I know they exist.  I’ll follow your suggested route.

Huge thanks, again :-)

 

B
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Blastoise186 ,

it appears Ovo has received the photos of the meter we sent via Chat, and has amended our bill online.  YAY!

All is well with the world again 🙂 (the Ovo one, anyway).

Thanks for all you did to help, again.

Blastoise186
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Nice! Please check the Billing History too, as you should find a new version of the bill has been uploaded there with the new information. Feel free to disregard the previous version as it’s no longer relevant.

If you ever get stuck again, feel free to stop by. :)

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
B
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Muchas gracias!!!

C
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Hi, got an issue with meter reads, since 0oct 2020 been sending readings as kWh, from table top device, resulting in crazy bills since Dec 2020

My meter read opening 711, latest 1976 April 22

SSE say I owe them £5200  as have converted to kwhs the reads that were in kwhs.

No help from SSE or Ombudsman, who was basically useless, this has now been dragging on fo 18 mo.nths

What is the address for CEO dept. As multiple complaints unanswered. *edited by mod*

Jamie

 

 

 

 

 

Blastoise186
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Hi @cedricthefrog ,

I need to double check, are you still with SSE, or have you migrated to OVO recently?

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M
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They need to send a meter reader to verify the correct reading. I think it’s entirely legitimate to demand that. In the meantime I would allow direct debits to continue but then immediately claim them Zack using the Direct Debit guarantee.

while it’s up to OVO now to correct this matter swiftly, always remember it was your errors that led to the problem.

Question was this due to a smart meter failing to supply readings but your in home display giving you data nonetheless?

Eon and EDF customer. Don't think smart meters are worth the expense.
C
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Hi Blastoise

 

Was with sse, migrated to ovo last year

C
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OK, hands up I took meter reads in kwh, but should not be rocket science to change reading back to m3 format, have had numerous emails from validation, but they don't understand it.

 

1 bill had 100, 000kwh use in one month, even though meter reading is 22400kwh

C
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You spk to Customer services

Do they take reads in kwh?? Answer clueless

Collections , clueless

Blastoise186
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I’ll need to go away to think about this one. It’s a complicated solution that I rarely get asked about.

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

Hi @cedricthefrog,

 

I’m sorry for the issues you’ve been experiencing.

 

Gas meter reads will either be in cubic meters or cubic feet. It sounds like you might have a smart meter as you advised your meter shows both kWhs and cubic meters. 

 

If you’ve been reading your meter wrong, it should be possible for us to sort this out. It may require meter photos, it may require a meter reader visit. 

 

This depends, and our Support team is best placed to work with you on the best route to get your account billing corrected. You can contact them through web messenger if you are having issues getting through to them on the phone.

 

I hope this helps.

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

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