Octopus Energy - £4k elec bill for 11 months?

[Watchoka]

Trying to help my brother.

He lives in a 2 bed flat on his own and works in an office during the day. Only has electric.

When he moved in in 2023 Shell was the electricity provider.

Octopus took over Shell in Feb 24

Since he moved in he has paid £135 per month for electricity.

In January 25 Octopus sent him a bill for £4k without explanation.

There were a series of charges made to his account in one day and then credits made on another day and then charges made again (all on one day) all adding up to approx £4k. Again no explanation.

my brother called them and they said he had only been paying estimated amounts and he had now been billed for actual usage for the last 11 months (amounting to £4k in 11 months)

I queried with Octopus whether the charges related to electricity used more than 12 months ago (back-billing) and they said no. They said they checked the account and the charges were correct. They did say that they attempted to install a new meter in May 25 but couldn’t. They didn’t say why they were installing a new one or whether the old one was faulty.

I’ve checked the usage amounts on all his bills and they just don’t add up for one person in a small apartment who is out most of the day.

The Customer Service Advisor appeared almost ecstatic when he came back to say the £4k for 11
months still owed.

I’m not sure where he goes now. The billing just doesn’t make sense and no real explanation has been given about the charges piled on in Feb 25.

Anyone had a similar experience please?

any help would be very much appreciated please

Does he have a record of what the metre said when he first moved in? Maybe a copy of a bill? Check that compared to the metre now.

Another check to do is turn everything off in the flat and check if the metre is still clocking round. If it is then it's either another flats metre or he's paying for another flats energy.

Does the current meter reading make sense vs the last reading on a bill?

A couple of years ago I asked Octopus to replace my meter as it had stopped working, just displayed the same figure it had at the previous reading.

I asked again every month for nearly a year, also asking them to ensure my bill for the first months reflected the special deal they were offering at the time. I had no useful response, until I finally said I was switching to another supplier. They then quickly sent someone to change the meter.

I continued trying to get them to show me figures for how they had calculated my debt until I gave up.

I would raise a formal complaint with Octopus and go to the ombudsman if not resolved. It sounds like a faulty meter. Im with octopus and they are mostly very good but sometimes they deal badly with an unusual situation.

I’ve never seen one of these threads go any way other than everyone initially agreeing with OP and wildly exaggerating how low their own usage is “I live in a mansion with the heating on 24/7 and only pay £3.50” 😂🙄

Then, OP dripfeeds that they heat the property using two plug-in heaters that are on permanently throughout winter and switch to their aircon unit in the summer or that they run a laundry service from the house or something else ludicrous and everyone then agrees that the bill is reasonable and expected.

Given that OP doesn’t live there and has no idea what he does energy-wise, that dripfeed won’t be as forthcoming…

Its a 2 bed flat and a sole occupant who is at the office most days.

He isnt in a 4 bedder with 6 kids and 2 adults. £4k would be impressive.

My dual energy bill right now in a similar flat when I'm out all day is about £58 a month and the most I ever had was £92 in the winter with heating running.

How is your comment helpful? Not everyone exaggerates.

Ain’t that the truth! Nobody wants to bother with boring stuff like meter readings, or whether they’re on an unsuitable tariff, or monitoring their actual energy consumption. It’s far easier to blame highly unlikely things like faulty meters or being wired to their neighbour’s property, or simply evil energy suppliers. It’s rather depressing.

If he has three small plug-in heaters that are on when he’s at home only during the winter months then that alone would be more than £4000. Just that. Nothing else at all.

You really think it’s impossible that a man who clearly has no idea at all about energy usage couldn’t possibly have done that?

An electric immersion heater alone can cost 90p per hour… Just having that on, just that and no other electricity use at all, could have easily cost £4000.

Standing charges alone are about £30 - your actual usage of less than £1 per day is extraordinarily low. Do you live there?

Unless he's growing weed, that figure has to be incorrect. If they aren't going to listen then contact the ombudsman for advice. Ultimately the supplier will have to provide all details of any dispute to them

That's absolutely rubbish. My partner's house has only plug in electric heaters that he has on when he's working at home in the winter. Add on the heated throw that he uses as he reckons its cheaper than the electric heaters.

He isn't spending £4k a year. Not even close and he works from home.

Edit - yes i do live in my flat. Alone. I have one or two showers a day. Usually cook on the hob so using gas rather than electricity. Washing machine about 3 times a week. Heating on in winter - gas fired radiators. Im not complaining about the low costs.

It’s not rubbish - you can calculate it yourself easily. It’s not like you have to estimate or guess - it’s explicitly stated how much energy an item uses and how much energy companies charge for that much usage 🙄😂

You know you dont need to eye roll and laugh at people who dont agree with you. Its so childish and rude. Grow up.

If he is in a flat and all the meters are in a communal basement has he checked that a. the right meter is being read and b. no one else is tapping in to his supply at all?

Checking he is reading the right meter is easy. Put a kettle on to boil and then go and watch the meter that you think is his. It should be running fast.

It’s also pretty childish to tell someone quoting facts that they’re talking rubbish.

Your comment was childish and rude! 😂😂

You just don’t like that you’re wrong. It’s not a difference of opinion - it’s a figure that’s publicly available and can be calculated. You didn’t bother to calculate it before trying to correct me. A specific item using a specific amount of electricity charged at a specified rate isn’t something you can disagree with and expect everyone bow down.

If you genuinely think I have to respect your point - why don’t you think you have to respect mine?

The opening reading should be stated (and probably photographed) on his Check-In Inventory Report from when he moved in.

Octopus should be happy to accept this as evidence of both the initial date and reading from which he is responsible.

If he wasn't sending in readings, how was there a spike shown in 2024? Does it show a reading as Actual, when they had only been estimated until then? Or quite likely a meter reader attended and provided the actual reading, which was far higher than had been estimated over the years.

The ombudsman will not get involved utill you have exhausted the complaint process with the energy company first.

Disgusting comment.

This is probably the most likely scenario, but OP doesn’t seem to want to hear it.

This is an appropriate and proportionate response to me using an emoji. You started off being rude (and incorrect, to boot).

You’re not used to being wrong, are you?

OK OP, buckle up, this is a long one.

I had a similar issue, not with Octopus, but with OVO energy recently. Out of nowhere back in 2021, they added more than £1500 in electricity charges to one bill, and said it was because we were on estimated readings and that the new reading had come through and updated the amount used.

However, we'd only had the account open 3 months at that point, and we'd paid our DD each month, based on their original estimation of likely usage when we switched to them, so an additional £1500 in charges over and above the £150 a month we'd been paying seemed unlikely.

I went through the account, downloaded every bill, and disputed the amount owed. There was absolutely no way we could have used what amounted to more than £2000 worth of electricity in 3 months. I spoke to an electrician friend who has done frequent work on my house and he confirmed that nothing we had in the house would be pulling that much power.

I disputed the bill with OVO who did some tests, meter creep, checked day v night readings, and then they insisted it was correct. It clearly wasn't. I had several arguments with them over it, over several months, and refused to pay the excess. Eventually I did a subject access request and got copies of every single meter reading and all the activity on the account. I went through them line by line, and it became clear that at some point the readings jumped around massively, at the same time as an OVO employee making some sort of correction on our account.

Anyway mid 2023 I complained to OVO formally, who did nothing with my complaint other than chase me for payment. I also reduced my direct debit to a very low amount, and when they kicked up a fuss, I told them I wasn't paying any more until they could prove the bill was accurate. That still didn't get any resolution. I had to wait 8 weeks from initiating formal complaint until I could go to the ombudsman, (Ombudsman rules) and in that time OVO did nothing useful.

So I took it to the ombudsman, who investigated and agreed with me that OVO had got it massively wrong. OVO accepted the findings and reworked the bill, they wrote off around £300 as back billing, and then insisted the bill was right, and that I should pay it. But it was still clearly massively wrong and OVO wouldn't give me any evidence of what the error actually was. By this point we were into 2024.

So I took it back to the Ombudsman again, who did a great impression of chocolate teapot. They did basically nothing to make OVO comply with their original finding. I put in a complaint to the Ombudsman and eventually got a 'soz, we got that wrong' response, but they didn't actually do anything useful.

I left it for a while, and then got fucked off with it when I started getting debt collection letters. For context, I previously worked in customer service in a trouble shooting type role for a long time, so I have an idea of how these types of investigations should go. I put together basically a huge dossier of exactly what I thought had happened, all the paperwork, a six page timeline of all my interactions with OVO, all the documents I had from them. I did the job for them pretty much. That thing was a bloody work of art.

I sent that dossier to OVO's CEO, my MP and every newspaper I could find that did a consumer issues piece. All copied into the same email. My MP was excellent, he was on them in a few days asking what the problem was and why weren't they sorting it. The CEO's complaints team also responded, and I got an actual assigned account handler who reviewed the whole account and actually for the love of god listened to me. Eventually they wrote off the errant £1500 and gave me about £300 in credit as compensation. They agreed something had gone very wrong, but couldn't tell what, so they just... wrote it off.

But from the issue appearing in 2021, to the resolution earlier this year, took 4 years. And if I hadn't been so bloody minded about it, I might never have got it solved.

Woooo that was long.

@katmarie 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

That sounds like the block bill and not the flat bill??

Anyway, my advice to you and your brother:

If he's not capable of dealing with this, get him to authorise you and your sister to speak to Octopus directly. (My DH was solely named on our OVO account and it took some back and forth for them to agree to deal with me.)

Put in a subject access request for all data held about your brother's account now - these things can take a bit of time to come through.

In the meantime build a timeline of what's happened with as much evidence as you can find. Create a folder on your computer and save everything there, clearly labeled and label it against your time line date.

For example: 1st January 2022 - DBro moved in and gave meter reading - evidence - 1- copy tenancy agreement (tenancyagg.doc) 2- Copy email to Octopus (OCTreading1.doc)

When you get the SAR data go through it carefully, looking at any amendments, adjustments, comments on the account, meter reading changes, jumps in data, etc. Keep an eye on timing, it's interesting that they have applied this excess charge to an 11 month old bill, that puts it inside the 12 month window to make it exempt from back billing principles. But why that bill, and why now? How have they found this error. They should be able to tell you all of that.

I wonder if the issue goes back further than that but has only been found this year and they're trying to bill it anyway.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/what-do-if-you-get-back-bill

If you have not already, put in the formal complaint to Octopus now. The Ombudsman won't act unless a formal complaint has been submitted to the supplier, and the supplier has had 8 weeks to resolve it.

Once those 8 weeks are up, go straight to the Ombudsman. Give them your timeline and evidence and be clear about what you want the outcome to be.
https://www.energyombudsman.org/our-process

The Ombudsman will investigate and then come up with an outcome and potential resolutions which both sides are asked to agree to or not. If both sides agree, it's on the energy supplier to then implement the agreement.

Good luck on this, and you sound like a lovely sister for trying to help your brother with this.