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I have three meters - Why is my Monthly statement wrong again?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
July 14, 2020
101 replies
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Hello all.

I only joined OVO in March, so I’ve only had 4 monthly statements so far & every 1 of them have been wrong.

As a new customer I’ve been keeping an eye on my account, just to make sure my direct debit payment covers my actual usage costs.

I’m guessing I have a different setup to most, as in the fact that we have 2 gas meters & 1 electric. only 1 gas, 1 elec are smart meters.

The normal view on the illustrative statement is correct up until my monthly statement has been produced, so the billing on all 3 meters is in sync. Albeit as long as a manually supply my dumb meter reading.

But my actual bill so far every month has only incorporated any 1 of the meters, or 2 of the meters or even once after a phone call to OVO to let them know, it had been amended to show a combination of 2 different meters.

Every month I place a call to OVO to let them know my monthly statement is wrong again & eventually OVO produces a correct statement.

I’m almost certain it’s the 3 meters & not the usual 2 that are the problem.

I did have the smart meters turn dumb for 6 weeks in May- June with the IHD also showing no data, a power cut during the night restored the service, I lost the daily smart meter readings for a week the end of June so yet another phone call to OVO, but OVO we’re still receiving readings, my OVO account is now showing smart meter readings OK but is not showing any usage data for July.

I've had more conversations with OVO in 3 months than I’ve had with any energy supplier over the last 10 yrs.

How hard can it be to get my actual monthly statement correct.

Tom...

Best answer by TomThumb

Updated on 18/10/23 by Abby_OVO

Sorry to hear of the difficulties you’ve had with the billing on your account since switching to OVO with multiple meters.

Usually, even with more that one gas meter associated to your account you should receive a monthly summary covering the combined usage on both meters. The easiest way to view these monthly summaries is via the ‘Billing history’ page of your online account of OVO app (download for Android or iOS).

If you notice any errors or missing usage on these monthly summaries, reach out to our Support Team who can take a look in to the details of your account and raise this to our technical team if it’s not something they are able to resolve immediately.

In this example the combination of a smart and non-smart gas meter caused an unexpected technical bug. See the comment below for the action taken to resolve this unusual issue.

Having given OVO 9 months to resolve my billing issues to no avail, I changed my approach this month & I decided to raise an official complaint on this matter.

This resulted with an informative chat with the technical department & fingers crossed a full resolution.

Previously I had requested that my traditional gas meter be moved to a separate new account, leaving my 2 smart meters in place, but after the customer service agent consulted with management, the answer came back as a NO.

This time however, ovo have agreed to this & a new account has been setup for the sole use of my dumb gas meter.

From a customer point of view, it’s the best possible outcome.

If all goes well?

I will gain accurate monthly bill’s,

I will see usage history across all 3 meters,

It will make my energy usage / costs / bill’s & statements a hell of a lot easier to manage,

Im guessing my traditional gas meter will still have a conflict with it’s projected Vs actual kWh’s usage & costs, given the fact this meter is heavily used during the summer & has zero usage over the winter months, I will be in a better position to identify any mismatch as this meter is no longer grouped with the remaining 2 smart meters. I’m also hoping that ovo’s backend system will see this as a trend & adjust it’s estimates accordingly for this supply?

I won’t have to call ovo every month to complain about my account & bills,

The only drawback is I’ll have to click to switch between accounts on a drop down tab 😳👍

(I can cope, bring it on)

What I did ascertain from the call with the technical department,

The only error found on my account was a validation error for my traditional gas meter for this month?

The old billing system can’t cope with 3 meters!

The new billing platform can’t cope with 3 meters ? (I never got to test it!)

Ovo had no clue of what was broken, so didn’t know what to fix?

Ovo should have listened to my suggestion of 2 account months ago! (wishful thinking)

Hopefully after next months bill / statement, if all goes well, I can post an update & finally mark this as case closed?

Tom...

Show previous replies

Tim_OVO

OVO Forum Legend

Yep thanks for this update, @TomThumb

It’s frustrating to hear our Autumn fix to your account billing has failed. Please raise this with our Support team if you haven’t already. It’s essential that we get this right for you.

I did confirm earlier this year that elements of the new billing platform isn’t compatible with a 3-fuel set up. However if you wanted to make sure, put in a request for more info when you reach out to us. I’d be keen to hear if we can progress with the upgrade if the customer is aware of some features (such as usage section) not working. Or if there’s something more fundamental that is preventing this.

Your Direct Debit recommended amount seems to be effected by the COVID hardship fund, although I’m lacking details on this. It’s a steep change in recommend figures though, but this can happen with new bills (with charges different to what was expected) and subsequent changes to projections to getting you to £0 at contract end dates. More info on the process here.

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6

TomThumbAuthor

Rank 6

Yep thanks for this update, @TomThumb

It’s frustrating to hear our Autumn fix to your account billing has failed. Please raise this with our Support team if you haven’t already. It’s essential that we get this right for you.

……...I have just been in contact with the team via live chat & my account notes read as my billing issue has bounced from the billing department > operations team > technical department who are working on a fix!.

(So I’m not holding out much hope)

I did confirm earlier this year that elements of the new billing platform isn’t compatible with a 3-fuel set up. However if you wanted to make sure, put in a request for more info when you reach out to us. I’d be keen to hear if we can progress with the upgrade if the customer is aware of some features (such as usage section) not working. Or if there’s something more fundamental that is preventing this.

The old billing platform doesn’t exactly work with my account at present, with part bills & NO USAGE history for 1 of my meters, how bad could the new platform be?
The customer service agent sought an answer from a team leader who’s reply stated, as soon as the fault on my billing issue is resolved & the case closed, my account will be migrated over to the new system.

(again I’m not expecting that to happen anytime soon)

Your Direct Debit recommended amount seems to be effected by the COVID hardship fund, although I’m lacking details on this. It’s a steep change in recommend figures though, but this can happen with new bills (with charges different to what was expected) and subsequent changes to projections to getting you to £0 at contract end dates. More info on the process here.

……...The hardship scheme aside, £205 < £259 > £202 represents a 26% increase to a 1% decrease over a 3 day period, not the single monthly adjustment that is referred to by ovo.

(Just to reference that following ovo’s recommendation on payments on any given day, could result on a unjustified increased payment)

….I did also ask for an answer as to why ovo had previously point blank refused to put my 3rd meter on a separate account & if that reasoning was still valid, I await ovo’s response on that question.

From a customer point of view, having 2 accounts should resolve all my present issues, but where would the fun be in that, plus as the new platform is currently in development! Cough cough.

I’m still up for stress testing the new system so to speak @Tim_OVO

Tom...

3 meters: Smart Gas & Smart Elec / Traditional Gas meter

Blastoise186

Super User

It’s worth a try at very least.

When you have a chat with the support team, please provide a link to this thread and ask them to have a read through so they can catch up with the story so far. Given the length of this thread, it might take a while but hopefully they’ll be up to speed after that.

From a customer point of view, having 2 accounts should resolve all my present issues, but where would the fun be in that, plus as the new platform is currently in development! Cough cough.

Great minds think alike Tom. If you’re going to make it implode anyway, might as well make it implode early!

As for splitting up the second gas meter, my guess is that it’s because OVO doesn’t offer Gas-Only accounts and that might break something even more.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way! Remember, I'm just like you - AI Powered Evil Geniuses aren't Staff!

TomThumbAuthor

Rank 6

Great minds think alike Tom. If you’re going to make it implode anyway, might as well make it implode early!

As for splitting up the second gas meter, my guess is that it’s because OVO doesn’t offer Gas-Only accounts and that might break something even more.

It could very well be @Blastoise186
I’ll see what I can discover on that one & I’ll post back when I receive a response from ovo.

@Transparent if any body can answer me this it is you, Google has drawn a blank so I presume not!

Are there any rules or regulations in place for energy companies to make usage history available to the end user? My curiosity has got the better of me!

Tom...

3 meters: Smart Gas & Smart Elec / Traditional Gas meter

Tim_OVO

OVO Forum Legend

Hi @TomThumb

We need to get your billing and charges correct and clear for you. It’s a requirement and it’s fundamental. Usage visibility such as online usage graphs are something we desperately want to get right so our members have the info at hand to reduce their usage.

We’ll get there with our new billing platform. But in the meantime we have the means to get it right for you now. Very much hoping this gets done.

How about you share with me your account details once you’ve raised the automated billing issue with our Support team (via a PM) so I can make sure the team working it understand the context and history?

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6

TomThumbAuthor

Rank 6

Cheers @Tim_OVO. A short summary on unresolved issues.

I have 1 account with 3 meters, 1 smart electric / 1 smart gas / 1 traditional gas

Since joining Ovo in March 2020, I have constantly been receiving bill’s for a random combination of only 2 meters out of 3.

Upon contact with ovo & reporting this issue, a new bill / statement is manually generated to bring my account up to date.
This billing issue then returns the following month with the same action required to resolve.

Not being able to view any usage history whatsoever for my traditional gas meter also flags the limitations of how the old billing system handles my account & 3 meters, a trend that is possibly carried over to the new billing platform.

PM incoming @Tim_OVO

3 meters: Smart Gas & Smart Elec / Traditional Gas meter

TomThumbAuthor

Rank 6

As my monthly bill & statement are due at this time, I’m back with an update.

As per all previous statements, I have yet again only been billed on 2 out of my 3 meters,

I’ve been with ovo 9 months & over that time frame not once has ovo got it right without my reaching out to them to let them know of the error.

The only plus point is that it is my traditional gas meter that has been omitted from the bill again, so due to it’s seasonal use, it’s only the standing charge cost.

@Tim_OVO Given the timeframe from our last pm, I had been hanging on until my latest statement had been produced before reaching out again.

I’ve had NO contact whatsoever from ovo since you gave them a poke with a big stick,

1: so my billing issue is still unresolved,

2: I have NO usage history available whatsoever for my traditional gas meter.

3: I’m still on the old billing platform.

4: not a huge problem, but my statement for my smart meters is reporting the meter readings for the billing period as estimated! But they are indeed actual smart meter readings.

5: again not a problem unless the status changes from suggested to a forced increase,

My annual & monthly forecast is grossly over estimated resulting in a suggested DD payment increase of 40% this month, but as my seasonal usage is nowhere near what you would class as normal, the only way of keeping on top of my expected Vs actual usage is to keep a close eye on my account & my bills, but as ovo can’t get there end right & produce an accurate monthly statement / bill, I’m at a disadvantage.

Can I leave it in your hands for now Tim?

Tom...

3 meters: Smart Gas & Smart Elec / Traditional Gas meter

Tim_OVO

OVO Forum Legend

Hi @TomThumb and thanks for the update on what is a miserably broken account.

I can’t do much, so leaving it in my hands isn’t the best option. However I am trying. I’ll reach out to see if we can get the ‘case’ for your 3 supply billing issue fixed, but I can’t promise anything.

I’ll try and pull some strings, but plan A should always be to report it to Support directly. In this case I think you’ve earned me putting in the effort on your behalf first.

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6

TomThumbAuthor

Rank 6

@Tim_OVO I had been reporting this billing issue every month to ovo’s customer services,

A call to ovo & a new statement is manually generated,

That has resulted in random billing dates / different bill period for different meters,

Also in the beginning it was a random set of 2 out of my 3 meters that were actually billed,

so trying to keep an eye on my account was a hell of a lot harder than it should have been.

Then the following month is exactly the same, I reach out to ovo customer service, a new bill is manually generated, but it seems that nobody is looking at the root cause of why the account & billing system is unable to cope with my 3 meters & apply a fix.

After 9 months of reporting my billing issues to ovo with no improvement, a new approach is needed as I’m at a loss now.

Any help for the billing / statement issue,

The fact that I have no usage history whatsoever for my traditional gas meter,

The constant over estimated usage predictions resulting in a none justified recommended increase in DD payments.

Would be most welcome

Tom...

3 meters: Smart Gas & Smart Elec / Traditional Gas meter

TomThumbAuthorSolved