Huge usage showing online and on app after I submitted a reading - is this because of the reading dispute?

Hi everyone,

I’m in a bit of an undesirable situation after being moved over from SSE. 
 

I set up my OVO account last week and was greeted by an outstanding charge of over £1400 (small flat where I only reside ½ a month). I understand this is a standard result of energy companies taking estimated meter readings, so I submitted up-to-date meter readings and still no prevail, over a week later.

The meter readings on the app look correct, but there is a large balance adjustment causing my debit to be huge. I called the help line and got readings taken, but the problem hasn’t been fixed. 
 

It doesn’t look like I can call them on weekends - anybody had a similar problem? 
 

Just trying my best to pay what I owe - but it’s  certainly not £1400. 

Best regards 

William 

Similar here.  I had a good amount of credit with SSE, then around the migration period a bizarre bill with readings way higher than my meters currently read was produced which wiped my credit out and they stated a minus balance on transfer.

If you still have access online to your previous SSE bills check the same hasn’t happened.  Afraid I find their customer service very poor.  You will wait months to have it sorted out even if you have the evidence they are at fault.

Hey @willyb2908,

It sounds like you’ve been affected by a a meter reading dispute, we have more on this topic here:

The ‘Meter Reading Dispute’ Process

- We ask you to take two meter readings at least two weeks apart
- We use these to calculate what the meter reading should’ve been on the date you switched
- If there’s a big enough difference between the reading used and the reading calculated, we can officially raise this as a ‘Meter Reading Dispute’
- We contact your previous supplier with our calculated read
- Once they’ve agreed to this new reading, we can amend opening meter reading and reissue your opening statement. Be aware that your previous supplier may also re-issue their final statement with you.
- This whole process can take up to 12 weeks as we have to wait for the calculated reading to be received and agreed to by the other supplier.

During this process your regular monthly billing will be paused whilst we look to correct the opening statement. If you pay via Direct Debit these payments will continue, building up a credit balance in your account to cover the opening statement once it’s issued.

If you don’t yet have a Direct Debit in place, we’d recommend setting one up with our Support Team, to avoid a large balance to pay when your initial statement is re-issued.

The Support Team will be able to raise this for you, you can contact them via webchat. 

Hope this helps. 

I have been trying to sort out a billing problem on my account since November following a change of suppliers.

Following multiple attempts to tell Ovo they had incorrect meter readings and can I please have a corrected bill I received a letter in January asking for payment. Spoke to customer service who confirmed that I don’t owe any money, in fact they owe me a credit.

Today I have received another letter saying they have passed this to a debt collection agency.

Seems like customer services don’t work for the same company as billing - based on my minimal experience with them to date I strongly recommend you avoid them like the plague

Hey @unhappy customer,

I’m sorry to hear this,

Is the letter you’ve received in your name or is it addressed to ‘the occupier’, if it’s the latter, it might be the debt balance is for a previous tenant. 

I’ll ask Forum_Support to reach out to you, please keep an eye on your private messages. 

Its definitely in my name, and I have already been through this with customer services in January.

I posted a similar comment on the Ovo Facebook page & somewhat unsurprisingly I had a response from support on there in less than an hour confirming I don’t owe anything. It is funny that your billing team is only available from 9-5 to normal customers and yet a public complaint at 7 in the evening con be responded to very quickly.

Even less off a surprise is the fact that I have yet to have any messages from anyone other that the social media teams.  You seem to be much more interested in your public image then in actually solving the problem

I will reply to the PM you have sent on here as well, it will be a useful addition to the complaint I suspect I will end up sending to Ofgen

Just received an email from Ovo with my updated bill: - Nearly blurted out my drink!!!!

😳😵‍💫

Quite an eye popping bill!

Yeah! Hoping it’s a system glitch!

Just for interest:

Was your closing balance just as scary?

Does the attached PDF have the same figures? So you can see which one(s) other than the total are wrong?

We saw an embarrassing fault with an OVO email recently, where two figures had been transposed, so I wonder if someone didn’t misplace something in the template, after which the template was corrected, but somebody else didn’t get the memo and used the wrong one to notify you ...