Help! Octopus charging almost £900 for a month's electricity!

[SusanSHelit]

So I've recently swapped from a pre pay meter to octopus. I've just xh to see my first bill and while my gas is perfectly reasonable it's claiming I've used just over 3000kwh of electricity and charging me just under £900 for August!

I've emailed them but I'm in a bit of a panic as when switching I had emails off them to say they'd checked my meter (smart meter) and everything was in hand but clearly something has gone wrong. I can't even speak to anyone on the phone until Monday

I live in a tiny three bed (two box rooms) terrace, I don't think I could use that much electricity in a month if I tried!

Wise mumsnetters what do I do? 😭

They email e quite regularly saying they're gonna take some insane amount out. I email back saying no, I don't give permission for that, take out our agreed amount (I pay the same every month) and they always do.

Don't be afraid to challenge them. You're their customer. You're buying a service from them.

I just looked at my bill. I got charged approx £125 for the last month (gas and electricity). Three adults at home, dishwasher every other day, tumble drier- twice a week, two adults wfh, washing machine -daily, plus usual cooking, hoovering etc.

As others have said, check your closing balance, or are you running a cannabis farm!

There's obviously been an issue with the meter readings. I'm with them and they've never tried to charge me £900 a month just for shits and giggles.

Try and keep calm.

Your advantage here is that is such a wild figure that it shouldn't be hard to get it flagged as a problem with them.

It is completely out of step with any normal or expected usage.

It will be an error.

Speak to them first thing on Monday. They usually answer quickly and I'm sure you'll get it sorted.

The advice to manually read your meter every couple of hours is good. Gets notepad and keep track. You are then armed with additional information which will help but I can't see any way they won't recognise that as an anomalous reading .

They reply to emails 24hrs

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/aug/18/the-never-ending-drama-of-dealing-with-errant-energy-companies

I hope you find this link helpful.

3000kwh is approximately a whole years usage according to average UK consumption!!

Relax, its clearly an error and it will get rectified.
the direct debit wouldn’t go out over the bank holiday anyway, and if it tried it would likely bounce.
I’ve been with octopus about 5 years now I haven’t had any errors like this but their customer service is usually pretty good, they do reply to emails.

The other thing, OP. Check the meter registration number on your meter, and the meter registration number on the bill.

Have they sent you a bill relating to someone else's meter? Have they put you on a business rate rather than a domestic rate?

As PP said, phone them as soon as they are open and state clearly that you do not authorise them to take that amount from your account. That you are disputing the bill. Note the time of your call and who you speak to.

Octopus are generally very good so they will sort it out. Are you sure that figure is not the annual estimate?

This is my bill

It’s the opening reading that’s an error. It isn’t reset to zero whenever you change supplier.

Contact them now instead of posting on here. A pp saying they aren’t in til Tuesday is talking out of her hat.

I very much doubt the opening reading was 0.0
That's likely to be where the error has occurred

Do you have a record of any readings when you were on prepay?

It's clear they've started you on 0, dont panic it's an error and they'll sort it. For future, it's advised to take a final reading when changing suppliers etc.

I agree with the PPs , the opening reading should not be zero. Did you take a reading when you changed supplier?

I live in a big 3 bedroom semi and we both charge our EVs once or twice a week - so quite heavy users. My monthly bill is £142 so yours is definitely wrong unless you’re growing cannabis in your loft!

When did you start with Octopus? As others have said, it is the opening reading that is wrong. They will rectify it.

This is my first bill, I emailed them last night but haven't had a reply yet

I would cancel your direct debit and set up a standing order instead. Then they can’t take out any amount they like, you set the amount with a standing order and they can’t amend it.
Did they put a brand new meter in then? If they did then it will read 0 to start with. I’m sure you’ll get it sorted but it may not be quickly, so I’d definitely be cancelling the direct debit in the meantime, just in case they try to take some ridiculous amount.

Octopus used to have great customer service but over the last year it’s plummeted. I had a terrible experience with them then they sent me a survey, hopeless. A person with first name starting with D made a simple situation awful. Avoid anyone else thinking of joining

But OP went from a prepay meter to a smart meter as well as switching supplier. When we first had our smart meter fitted (also Octopus) the opening reading on it was 0.

OP you need to go and manually read the meter and have that reading to hand when you talk to the company.

No, the meter wasn't changed. My meter was already a smart meter, I used to top up on an app on my phone. Octopus then took my meter id, saw it was a smart meter and no new meter was required.

They accepted the final reading from my previous supplier who then refunded my remaining credit (only about £15)

The usage summary on my online account and app for octopus are showing much more reasonable usage than 3000kwh. 150/160 kwh for July and August. This £900 is saying 3000kwh for july

I didn't give them an opening reading because apparently it was all done automatically because I have a smart meter. The same smart meter that the house came with over three years ago.