Incorrect billing - is my old imperial gas meter being read incorrectly?

Hi @1220charlee ,

Please show us screenshots of what you’re seeing, and photos of the meter.

Thanks

Looks correct to me. However, I’ll ask @Firedog to swing by, and probably also @BPLightlog as they’re better than me at crunching figures from imperial gas meters.

With that being said, we would probably recommend that you get that meter replaced sooner rather than later, otherwise you may have more problems with its accuracy slowly getting worse.

Thank you! Unfortunately OVO told me they can’t replace it.

So, given that the readings have been entered correctly, any idea why the kWh might be so very, very wrong? OVO estimated my move in day reading, and it was WAY too low, so in effect I’m paying here for energy that was used by the previous tenant. I gave them exact readings from my move in day and they put them in the system this morning, but so far no change to the balance, despite the fact that it should more than halve my bill. 😬 I can’t fathom what could have gone wrong.

They didn’t have a starting reading because they incorrectly estimated it. I have given it to them now, but it’s not done anything to the balance of my account. My meter is so old that it doesn’t use x100 cubic feet, so the multiplier is actually 0.0283. Otherwise my bill would be thousands of pounds for seven weeks hehe.

I’m not sure why you think it doesn’t read in x100 cu ft .. the indicator says ft 3 by the last digit which is cubic feet. That would include the red dials and so the first white digit would be x100’s of cu ft

I can’t see any difference from yours to a similar meter shown as an example 

BPLightlog wrote:

1220charlee wrote:

 

They didn’t have a starting reading because they incorrectly estimated it. I have given it to them now, but it’s not done anything to the balance of my account. My meter is so old that it doesn’t use x100 cubic feet, so the multiplier is actually 0.0283. Otherwise my bill would be thousands of pounds for seven weeks hehe.

 

I’m not sure why you think it doesn’t read in x100 cu ft .. the indicator says ft 3 by the last digit which is cubic feet. That would include the red dials and so the first white digit would be x100’s of cu ft

I can’t see any difference from yours to a similar meter shown as an example 

 

Because if you used that number and multiplied it by 2.83 and then did the maths, they would’ve been billing me in the thousands of quid. Do you see what I’m getting at? The 75 units I’ve used over the 7 weeks would come in at £1799.14 + VAT. That is…not a normal gas bill unless you are a business or something.

75 units would give you about 2400 kWh 

which at say 7.4 p per kWh would mean about £177

Oh god I’m an idiot. I had the decimal in the wrong place when I was doing the cost bit. Sorry.

But yes, so definitely not £500+ quid! Yet they seem to think that’s what I’ve spent. 

Sounds like you need some way of registering your starting reading. No photo I guess?

Nono, I do have a photo, taken on the day I moved in. I gave them the correct move in day readings this morning and they said it had been submitted. But nothing in my account has changed. 🫤

Sorry to be late to the party, but @BPLightlog seems to have got this covered as usual. 

A couple of observations:

• Gas meters are nowadays certified for, I think, a maximum of 20 years, but the one you have may have a longer life (no pesky electronics to deteriorate). OVO should know when its certification expires and warn you before that. 
• If you look carefully, there’s no decimal point between the white and red figures on your meter. Metric meters have an obvious decimal point at the appropriate position. The white figures give the volume recorded in 100s of cubic feet, and 100 ft³ = 2.83 m³
• If there is a difference between what the previous tenant submitted as the closing reading and the opening reading you took, that’s the landlord’s responsibility. You both probably recorded this on takeover, so that’s all the evidence OVO need to bill you properly.
• It may take a while for billing to catch up with your recently-submitted opening reading, but you may be able to see the reading history in your online account. You could also check the billing history to see where the bill calculations came from.  

It’s good that you found the error in your own sums - it’s easily done. 

Awesome, thank you everyone. So it seems likely that if I just wait, my balance should adjust itself with the correct move-in readings in place. Presumably if it doesn’t by sometime tomorrow, I should jump on the customer service chat again and get someone to have another poke at it…? It seems like (my shoddy maths notwithstanding) everything I’m thinking about what the bill should be is on par with what you’ve come up with. OVO have received the same readings from my agent (on move in) as I gave them today, so why they didn’t use them is a mystery for the ages, but they also allocated my account to entirely the wrong customer at first, so perhaps it was that SNAFU that kicked all this off.

Thanks so much for all the input and patience. 😊

Keep an eye out on this page to see if the first reading is corrected @1220charlee 

https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings/history/gas

That will then feed through to the bills and balance 

@1220charlee have ovo said why you can't have a smart gas meter?

Yeah: it’s in a location that gets absolutely zero signal, and can’t be moved.

Someone’s on the case with my bill, so fingers crossed everything’s gonna get sorted in the next couple days. 😊

Wait… Even Dual-Band Comms Hubs and AltHAN can’t reach the gas meter? That’s… Rare...

How about the electricity meter, is that a smart meter?

@1220charlee you could try online chat with ovo and ask if they are going to try these options.

You can include a link to this post in any chat

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/my-account-140/incorrect-billing-is-my-old-meter-being-read-incorrectly-17021?postid=110458#post110458

It often helps customer support when they can see you have had support from this forum with possible suggestions