Why have I been billed to an incorrect estimated opening reading - can this be recalculated?

Hi there @DanielTSTocks !

Thanks for posting on here. I’m Blastoise186, one of the forum volunteers. I don’t work for OVO myself and I can’t access your account, but I can give advice that might help you out.

I won’t deny that OVO did get in a bit of a tight spot with Ofgem a few years ago, but that’s been resolved since and the new billing platform is designed to be a lot more accurate than the old one. I think it’s also fair to say that OVO has actually learned from those mistakes and I’m told that pretty much every affected member has already had any refunds that were due and accounts corrected.

In actual fact, the fines were only £2 total - £1 against OVO’s Electricity license and £1 against OVO’s Gas license. The rest was paid to a voluntary fund which isn’t considered to be a fine and is intended to help customers who need it most.

Your estimates do sound a bit high there and it may be worth getting a Smart Meter to help make sure your readings go in on time. These can indeed be corrected on request and your payments can be adjusted to more closely reflect your actual usage. If you let the Support Team know, they’ll get right on the case. If you have paid too much, this can indeed be refunded as well. You’ll never be expected to pay for any energy you didn’t actually use.

Can I ask in what form you were meant to receive the meter reading reminders though? It sounds like there could be a bug there, but it should be possible to fix if you can tell us a bit more about what happened.

Everything you’ve mentioned should be resolved fairly quickly, but if you are concerned that you’re not getting any progress, I would definitely recommend using OVO’s Complaints Process to get this sorted out. There’s a very quick response time on that and the Complaints Team aim to get all complaints resolved within five working days if possible - with an ideal target of two working days.

I have already raised this issue with customer service, and I was given an email address which I emailed, explaining the situation.  I also provided a dozen photos of my meters (6 gas, 6 electric) taken over the last 10 months.  My concern is that they could argue that I used all the extra energy between joining and the first readings they say they have on record (7th of Dec I think they said it was).  Will they use the figures I have provided to backdate an accurate number?

My usage for this Oct-Aug period is:

Electric - 1037 units - £149.64/£223.32 (inc. standing charge)

Gas - 61 units - £18.02/£90.21

Their ‘estimates’ are:

Electric - 1713 units - £247.18/£320.86

Gas - 3591 - £1,063.58/£1,135.77

As to the reminders, I can’t remember what format I was supposed to recieve them (I assume email or text), but as the online account system has been down for several days, I can’t check this, or submit my most recent meter readings.

Thanks for the update.

Wow, that is quite a big difference. OVO is still working on getting MyOVO back up and running properly at the moment, but it might be possible to submit readings using the automated phone system on 0330 303 5063 option 1. I’m not sure if it’s working properly right now, but you’re definitely welcome to give it a try and see what happens.

I’m also going to ask @Tim_OVO and @Jess_OVO to see if they can raise a bug report about these meter reading reminders just in case. If it’s been broken for that long, then that’s not ideal. I have a smart meter myself so I don’t get them at all and can’t monitor the reliability of the reminders.

Once OVO can verify your actual readings are valid, then your bills will indeed be updated and back-billing will be used if needed to fix all of them. It’s worth noting that OVO does Monthly billing rather than Quarterly billing - which is a trend that more and more suppliers are moving towards. However, MyOVO is designed to be a lot more “real-time” than other suppliers, so entering any readings at anytime should refresh your account balance within 90 seconds.

Someone in the Support Team should get back to you within the next few days. but if you do contact them again or reply to the active case, please feel free to let the team know that I’ve been helping you out on the forum and provide a link to this thread. It helps them to know what’s been said over here which sometimes speeds things up.

Hi @DanielTSTocks  and welcome to the OVO online community!

Sorry to hear about the inconsistencies you’ve seen with your billing and estimates since joining us. Just wanted to clarify a couple of things before we advise of the next steps to get things back on track -

Were we already the supplier when you first moved in or did you switch over to us after the move? 

If you’ve got a record of readings taken since you moved in which show that the reading we’ve opened to doesn’t line up with your usage, we may be able to recalculate this but how we do this depends on how you set-up the account.

In terms of the gas usage costs you’ve worked out, are you looking at your meter units to calculate this?

Gas usage is a slightly confusing one to figure out as your meter will clock your usage in volume (cubic metres/feet or M3/Ft3) which are then converted to kWh on your monthly summary. The full conversion is detailed on your monthly summary but it’s roughly 11 kWh per m3, which might explain some of the difference between the gas usage figures you’re seeing.

 Shame that the meter reading reminder emails haven’t reached you - this is definitely something to raise with our Support Team who can check why this might have happened. I’d echo @Blastoise186’s recommendation to think about upgrading to a smart meter too! This would allow us to receive your meter readings automatically, making your billing far more accurate in future. 

Let us know how you get on - we’re on hand here to advise where we can! 

Hi Jess.  I believe Ovo were the supplier to the address before I moved in.  My landlord suggested sticking with you, and as I don’t use a lot of energy the differences between suppliers prices is negligable. Or it should be under my normal circumstances.  I believe that the previous tenant ran up various debts before he was evicted from the property as I still get letters for him asking for payments, so I assume this will have include Ovo.

My account opened on 30th Sep, and the first readings I have are for 12th Oct.  I am sure I would have given a reading as soon as possible after being asked, but at that time I regularly worked away from home for 7-9 days at a time, and so would have submitted them as soon as I was back home.  Also, as I have not received any reminders, it is possible that I was never specifically asked for a reading.  I have no idea why the first accurate reading is for Dec, when I am sure I gave readings before this that have not registered, hence the photos I have submitted.

As to my gas usage, I used the calculation provided on the Ovo statement to convert units to kWh.  My numbers are correct.  Yours are not.

Thanks for the info. I’ll need to have a really deep think through about this before I can respond properly, but the fact that OVO was the supplier for the previous tenant might work in your favour. Not least because this increases the chances of OVO being able to dig through the archives and pull up the final reading from that other account. Obviously, any debts run up by the previous tenant aren’t your responsibility so feel free to either forward them on (if possible) or do a Return To Sender on the basis that the addressee is no longer at your address.

I get the feeling OVO will need to dig through a whole bunch of archives and do a pretty hefty amount of number crunching to get this resolved. Tim and Jess know more about handling weird edge cases like this than I do, so I’ll probably have to rely on their knowledge as well here.

Yesterday I was able to log in to my account and provide my most recent meter readings.  There are 5 or 6 actual readings listed, as well as a few estimated ones. The first (actual) one on there is 7th Dec, but I am sure that I submitted readings before this.  I take pictures of the meters to take the reading as they are in an unlit basement.  I provided these pics when I emailed my complaint.

The gas usage is so low as I currently don't use a gas cooker, or a washing machine which uses quite a bit of hot water. There was also a problem with the central heating which was only resolved a couple of months ago, so when I was not away for work I was using an electric heater (or nothing, I don't really mind if I'm a little cold). The only gas I am using currently is when I take a shower or wash the dishes.  Once I have those appliances connected, no doubt my usage will increase to a more ‘normal' level.

Sorry to hear there’s some readings missing from your online account, @DanielTSTocks.

As long as you’ve got a record of the readings you’ve taken previously, our Support Team will be able to get these added to your account and adjust any billing accordingly. 

Obviously the most important readings to check would be the opening readings. Did you manage to track these down yet? 

Hi Jess, the earliest readings I have are dated 12th Oct, and I opened my account 30th Sep.  I am fairly sure that I would have taken readings on the day I signed up, but I can’t find them.  The confirmation email I received at the time implies that I was not asked for the opening readings on the day I signed up, and would be asked for them shortly.  My assumption then is that the readings for the 12th Oct were those first readings I was asked for, but I’m not sure.

On a semi-related topic, I received a phone call on Friday from a man saying he was from Ovo, wanting to discuss my issue.  He spoke in a weird, stilted manner, and sounded a bit like those robotic automated voices you sometimes get on marketing calls, but it was a real person.  Unfortunately I was at the supermarket and was unable to talk at that time, so he said he would email the details to me instead.  So far, I have not received this email (inc. my spam folder).  If the call was genuine, then it is possible it was sent to the wrong email.  It would not be the first time someone has emailed the wrong person by leaving out my middle initial from the email address.  Can this be checked on your end?