Unexplained change to direct debits?

What kind communications do you mean? I have received an email suggesting to increase my DD amount. I disagreed with it,  so left the amount the same. Then, it was increased by the company. Is that a communication? Also, I’m certain about my email address and always aware about the spam folder, it’s not the case here. Right now your company reduced the satisfaction of your customers and put an additional pressure on your customer service phone lines. It was unnecessary. 

By “leaving it the same” it sounds like you responded by doing nothing, which means you would have agreed to the changes by way of deemed consent.

You need to actively contact OVO to raise such objections if you want the objection to be valid.

I understand what you mean. Phone call is not always the option for some people. 

It doesn’t make sense. I would agree if I would increase the amount. I didn’t increase, that meant “no”. Also, I don’t remember the letter saying something like “if you would like to keep your DD amount the same, please contact our customer service, otherwise it will automatically be increased by the amount mention in this letter”. That what I would call as communication.

That’s usually how these work though - it’s a prompt to get in touch if you want to talk about it. IIRC it does count as a communication about an impending change.

In the Core Terms and Conditions (§7.11, bullet 5), it says: “We can ask you to increase your Direct Debit amount anytime ... If you don’t do this by the date we give you, we can automatically increase your Direct Debit ... “

In other words, if you don’t do it, we will.

That’s probably fair enough, except that in your case - and presumably that of others grumbling in this thread - neither of the conditions required for this to happen applies:

“… if prices change (in line with this contract) or you’re using more energy than we estimated.“ 

All that’s changed is that they moved the goalposts by extending the calculation period. That doesn’t, in my view, entitle them to use this clause to increase your DD. 

It would be really helpful if someone were to submit a formal complaint and persevere with it for the eight weeks needed to be able to escalate it to the ombudsman, to find out what he would say about what I reckon to be an unfair change. I’d do it myself, but I’ve not been asked to change my DD, so I don’t have anything to complain about.

​@Firedog I understand what you mean. But it looks like “we suggest to increase your DD, if you won’t - we’ll do it anyways”. There is no choice given. And I agree with you saying: “All that’s changed is that they moved the goalposts by extending the calculation period”. 

Right now I don’t have a mental capacity for the formal complain. But if somebody would assist me in that, I would be happy to try.

Hey ​@costeek 

If phone calls aren’t the best option for you we also have a webchat option:

 

Our Support team’s web messaging and WhatsApp opening hours are:

• 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday 

• 9am - 2pm on Saturdays
   

You can see all open contact channels via our Help Centre. 

I am fuming this morning, after some long conversations with people at the helpdesk several times over the last few weeks. Originally (wrongly) thought and was advised that the suggested increase in my DD was down to having a smart meter installed and it not yet updating the usage. I have opted to change from an Economy 7 to an Economy 10 meter for electric, and a standard one for gas. 3-bed mid-terrace property with rubbish insulation and drafts. 

Now I have received an email telling me they have increased my DD to almost double what it was from £116 to £221. I am in credit by 2x my previous DD (almost £300!). Without checking with me - made me very cross and I do apologise if any of you had to dealt with me being irate this morning!! 

Gentleman on the phone went away and said actually. yes, that was their fault that they hadn’t contacted me first to ask me to manually review it, and that they should have got in touch to ask me to look at it. Then offered to raise and then close a complaint for me about it, and £15 apology money - I am not sure how raising it and then closing it again will solve any problems? 

Anyway, I was on the phone to him for a good 40 mins, going round in circles about how they got figures and where the kwh figure was pulled from - turns out he couldn’t help me. Put me through to a lovely Scottish gentleman who has been more useful. My DD has been changed back to where it was, fixed for 3 months now, and then we will review it again in 3 months. Still no clearer about how they calculate my usage going forward (in kWhs) but this gentleman will raise the issue for me higher up again. 

So my advice is call them and query it. Mine clearly didn’t need to be raised to keep me in credit, I can’t see how I am going to go from £1740 worth of electricity and gas usage a year to £3600 by using the same amounts, even with the price increases that may or may not happen - and no-one can tell me why that value is there, beyond telling me that the computer came up with the calculation/prediction. 

An aside, they keep having to estimate my usage as my meter keeps stopping sending readings, and they are estimating double the usage on average from the last several months. ie, actual usage sitting at 33-42kwh per day, but days when they have estimated usage are around 70kwh. Can easily see which days my gas meter wasn’t sending readings!!! Finally catches up once I call OVO and they poke my meter from their end….  

OVO need to sort this out, I am becoming very tempted to leave after using them since we moved in here 13 years ago. 

It’s not easy with an Economy 10 tariff, but most of the numbers you need are on your Plan page. The first to look at is the Future Annual Consumption (FAC). This is supposed to be the same as your actual consumption over the previous 12 months. You’ll have to check your bills or meter readings to see just what this was. Find your latest bill and note down the meter readings used to calculate it. Then find the bill for the same period last year and note its readings. Subtract last year’s from the latest to get the annual consumption. For electricity, do this for peak and offpeak, then add them together to get the total for electricity. Do the same for gas.

• Are the numbers you get anything like what it says on your Plan page?  

The change from Economy 7 to Economy 10 will have a major influence on your costs unless you’re very careful to use your power-hungriest appliances (e.g. space and water heaters) only during offpeak hours. Your meter should have been configured to switch on power to the heating equipment at the start of each offpeak period and off again at the end.

• Have you seen that this is what is happening? 

That’s a nuisance, but any estimates will come out in the wash when actual readings are received. To be sure that you’re billed correctly, submit meter readings in the morning of the first day of each  billing period. If your bills cover a calendar month, you’d send in readings on the first. If it runs from, say, 16th to 15th, send them in on the 16th, and also on the first day of each quarter when the tariff changes (next will be 1 January 2025). This won’t affect anything if smart readings are also received for the same day, but it will avoid silly estimates if they’re not.

Please reply with answers to the questions I’ve posed, and tell us too where you are in the world so we can see what rates and offpeak times you should be getting. The first part of your postcode is enough to nail your region down. It would also help to know what equipment you’re running at offpeak times. As always, a couple of clear photos of your meter (touch a button to light up the screen) and of the meter backboard/box/cupboard so we can see all the cables to and from the meter would be useful.