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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think OVO energy are taking the piss?

42 replies

HollyMollyPolly · 15/02/2023 09:01

... or can anyone explain what is going on if not?

I am asked to submit meter readings monthly. I then pay what I owe once the balance has adjusted to the readings. So my balance starts the month at £0. It says £0 on my online account.

However, once the month is over I receive a bill for it that says eg:

"1st Jan - starting balance - £50
Total charges - £10 [ie. What I've used in Jan minus government support scheme]
1st Jan - Card payment £20
31st Jan - closing balance £40"

What I can't understand is why the starting balance isn't £0, if I've made a payment and cleared the balance on Jan 1st. I always pay everything they say I owe and my balance shows as £0 just after I've paid! So where is this extra charge coming from? If it's left from the previous month, why don't they tell me the full bill at the time so I can pay it all?

They seem to make the bills purposely confusing.
My last supplier I just submitted a meter reading then paid what I owed so the new bill started at 0. Doing the same thing with OVO and this mysterious confusing billing happens.

AIBU to think they are taking the piss and trying to take money I don't owe, and/or making the bills purposely confusing so it's easy to overpay?

If not, can anyone make sense of it?

OP posts:
Icecreamandapplepie · 15/02/2023 09:03

They've got a really great chat se4vice where you can get an answer to your question quickly.

We've found them really good since switching.

Original poster
HollyMollyPolly · 15/02/2023 09:15

Icecreamandapplepie · 15/02/2023 09:03

They've got a really great chat se4vice where you can get an answer to your question quickly.

We've found them really good since switching.

Really? My question seems too complicated for online chat, and help topics just lead back to their weird confusing explanation telling us to think of our energy account as a pot of money with payments in and out (no thanks, I just want to pay what I owe each month like a normal bill🙄).
I've tried calling but couldn't get through. Have resorted to not paying bills in the hope they contact me...

So your bill doesn't start with money mysteriously owed despite paying up to date like mine?

OP posts:
forwhatitsworth22 · 15/02/2023 09:16

Is it the VAT and SC?

dementedpixie · 15/02/2023 09:18

Is it a debit or credit balance it shows?
Payments to your account won't show instantly. Is it just a mismatch between you making the payment and the statement being produced?

Motorcyclemptiness · 15/02/2023 09:21

I am equally unable to work out Ovo's bills - only thing I really understand is that they charge me a lot of money! Am also stumped re the figures they throw at me.

hattie43 · 15/02/2023 09:22

OVO is the worst company I have ever dealt with and I've dealt with a few . The call centre staff are not adequately trained, give incorrect information. Appointments made and then unmade because it shouldn't have been booked in the first place . You aren't allowed any complaint details as ' they will highlight my concerns '. They don't them know who their governing body is . The bills and invoicing make no sense at all . The sums on the app bear no relation to what the bill says. It just shows what a complete dereliction of duty regulators have when a shower of a company like this is allowed to operate in the way it does .

bellabasset · 15/02/2023 09:27

I think many of the energy companies have the same issue in that their call centres are useless. Put your question in an email to the CEO of Ovo with a copy to your MP and [email protected] FAO Matt Allwright.

Have a look on fb for the complaints group for OVO.

MangoBiscuit · 15/02/2023 09:29

I'm not with OVO, but I usually see the same with my bills, which are generated when I submit a meter reading, but before I pay the balance.

So for example,
December starting balance £40
Total charges £30
Payment recieved £40
Final balance £30

I then go and pay the £30 and see that my balance is at zero.

January I submit another read and get the following

January starting balance £30
Total charges £25
Payment recieved £30
Final balance £25

If they waited to trigger the bill until I'd paid, it would start on zero, but they don't, so I always see the amount I paid last month as the start, and then my payment going in.

Could it be the same for you OP?

ThePixiesTookIt · 15/02/2023 09:49

From day one I haven't had a clue what they are doing. I started to screenshot my bill every day because I'm not joking it would massively change every day.
It started when I received an email on the Friday to say I owed £65. Sat I logged on it said £180 owed. Ok I thought another bill has come in, paid all of it off. Look a few days later it showed £97 owing. Rang them up and all they wanted to do was take me back 6 months to my first bill and every bill since no matter how many times I tried to stop them and ask them what has happened in the last two weeks!!
Honestly is was like looking at a different account every day. I can't work out any of their workings out either and I do think it's deliberate.
Life was much simpler with SWALEC.

hedgehoglurker · 15/02/2023 10:00

I came to the conclusion that the app is set up for Smart Meters with frequently updating readings and Direct Debits. If you don't have both of these, it doesn't make much sense.

My elderly mother was moved to Ovo from SSE, and I manage the account for her. It is really hard to understand/ read, but does work out. She used to pay on receipt of bill, but now has a DD, but not a smart meter. I think the current government payment also shows up strangely and affects the balance.

LadyKenya · 15/02/2023 10:05

I rue the day that Ovo took over from SSE. I do not have a clue what is going on with my billing letters. I ring up for clarification, and just end up getting confused by the call handler. I do not understand why it seems so complicated.

Original poster
HollyMollyPolly · 15/02/2023 13:28

Not just me then!
Mango you may be onto something, will comb through bills after work and see.

It definitely seems purposely confusing.

OP posts:
Original poster
HollyMollyPolly · 15/02/2023 13:48

Oh actually it can't be the cost of what I used the previous month. Because then it would match the amount I then paid.

I hate OVO.

OP posts:
Pinkbonbon · 15/02/2023 13:57

Yeah I helped my parents set up an online account for then and it's a different amount every other day.

Don't even get me started to trying to actually get them their refunds for their solar panels every few months.

TrudyProud · 15/02/2023 14:07

OVO are terrible- glad I'm not the only person who realises this. We've actually reported them to the ombudsman.

Zipps · 15/02/2023 14:14

SSE /OVO are the worst company I have ever dealt with, I am surprised they are still trading. They make numbers up. I know several people who have the same problems, one who deals with them through her job. Thankfully we switched companies.

hedgehoglurker · 15/02/2023 14:18

Pinkbonbon · 15/02/2023 13:57

Yeah I helped my parents set up an online account for then and it's a different amount every other day.

Don't even get me started to trying to actually get them their refunds for their solar panels every few months.

Can you look into changing who they get their FIT (solar) payments through? It doesn't have to be their electricity supplier.

We get ours through Shell. It is easy to submit the quarterly readings through an emailed link, however the payment isn't credited to the bank account until towards the end of the following month. Some other companies pay out much sooner.

Dijoduo · 15/02/2023 14:23

We got shoved onto a PAYG meter when they illegally broke into our house by mistake. When it was eventually changed back, they claimed we owed them hundreds for energy we used whilst on the PAYG meter. They couldn’t even explain how it’s possible we could’ve run up that bill given that we were on a fucking PAYG meter! They’re scammers, simple as that. Nasty, scamming little shits. If Ofgem weren’t so busy licking their arse, they’d have stopped them trading by now.

PureBlackVoid · 15/02/2023 14:36

Yes my nan is with them now and I do her meter readings and sort her bills out. The new ‘starting’ amount seems to be taken from when you were last billed, not the actual 1st (or whenever you paid in to make your balance in credit). They include what you’d paid in the next month’s statement. Something along those lines. It’s hard to explain from memory, and yes they do make it extremely confusing.

Their own team can’t explain it, they blame it on estimated bills and that she needs a smart meter, which make no sense as she doesn’t get an estimated bill. I do all the bits before the meter reading/statement is due.

I write it all out, and calculate it and it does work out every month but it shouldn’t be that difficult. My nan can be in credit by £200 before her bill, but then starting balance is like -£50. I take a lot of screenshots of her account.

With SSE atleast you could clearly see: your balance, your usage, what you’ve paid in, any gov help credits.

SgtBilko · 15/02/2023 14:38

I have the same problem with them. I have no idea how they work out my charges.

Malbecfan · 15/02/2023 14:45

OVO are a bunch of lying shits. We have an economy 7 tariff and they managed to transpose the 2 separate readings and try to charge us the GDP of a small country. When I realised what had happened, I spoke to them and they tried so many times to claim it was my fault, which it wasn't. I caught them out multiple times. In the end, I worked out exactly what I thought I owed them over the months of balls-up. They agreed to do the same. They came out £40 lower which I accepted on condition that if they were wrong, they could not ever chase me for it. I paid the balance by card and got a new supplier.

Moral of the story: write your meter readings down EVERY month in a book. We have done this for the past 16 years since we moved to this house and it has been very useful on several occasions.

Greentree1 · 15/02/2023 15:22

It seems the month ending balance is just recorded, then the next month starts from zero but in the bill they add on the the outstanding ending balance from the previous month. Confusing! I think it's probably correct but...Try paying the end of the current month balance (ie, what you spent this month) plus the end of month balance for the previous month (which they are carrying forward and eventually adding on), that should clear the whole debt.

Lloki · 27/02/2023 22:56

Just seen this thread after a search as I am having a nightmare with OVO, and I don't understand why their billing is so complicated!
I got moved over from SSE, whom I had no problems with what so ever through no choice of my own.
I paid an amount thinking I had cleared my balance, then got a bill, so I log on and the balance to pay is completely different to the bill they just sent!
Figured out they have this stupid live billing that I am struggling to understand, I've now received several bills with amounts different to when I log in.
After many hours trying to work this all out, I know what I have outstanding, but the problem is this figure is not anywhere to be seen to pay on my account, I just have the 'today's balance' crap, and when I go to make a payment I can only pay 'todays balance' which is essentially a top up for a billing period that hasn't ended yet, I think.....and makes everything confusing!
I've had a response to my complaint email and been told the reason I cannot pay my outstanding balance is because I am not using the app?! What the actual? so I can't pay it on my online account, one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. I also used to pay quarterly and there is good reason for this, but nope even though I'm mid contract and had not choice in the move, I can no longer pay quarterly, grrrrrrr.
Ironically it says on their website they like to make things simple...

Badbudgeter · 27/02/2023 23:02

Pinkbonbon · 15/02/2023 13:57

Yeah I helped my parents set up an online account for then and it's a different amount every other day.

Don't even get me started to trying to actually get them their refunds for their solar panels every few months.

I was moved to ovo for my solar panels from SSE they have just paid me for my October reading. Got a reading received email, Then a we will pay you in six weeks at start of January. They move incredibly slowly but do pay eventually.

Kimboly · 12/10/2023 02:19

Hi. I get exactly the same every month. I pay what I owe and a few days later I have an opening balance of £19.80 sometimes more sometimes less. I’ve recently sent an email asking them to explain. I have said I will take it further. They said I don’t owe it’s a daily charge of what im using as a referral. Crap. They will send me a letter soon asking for payment. I would change companies but it’s not that easy anymore