Do you understand your energy bills?
While working on a story about hundreds of customers who believe they have been overcharged by supplier Ovo Energy, I’ve realised just how baffling they can be – not to mention the terrible impact it can have on customers’ lives when energy firms make mistakes.
Since I told the story of one Ovo customer who believed her bills were wrong last month, scores of readers have been in touch to tell me they are in the same situation. At the time of writing, that number was closing in on 400.
I’d wager that I’ve looked at more energy bills in the past couple of months than the rest of my life combined, and I’ve seen some absolute shockers.
Devastating: An incorrect energy bill can have a hugely detrimental effect, especially if the customer is vulnerable, elderly or already worried about money
Some people swivelled from being hundreds of pounds in credit to hundreds in debt. One was told she had spent over £900 on energy in one day, meaning her annual estimate was £160,000.
Others saw their monthly direct debit payments hiked by hundreds of pounds per month, with one saying their monthly bill of £150 had been ratcheted up to £3,600.
Many said they had ‘balance adjustments’ of hundreds or even thousands of pounds, without an explanation of what these were for.
On others, the amounts going in and out simply didn’t add up to the final amount charged. One plus one equalled five. Ovo isn’t the only energy firm making a hash of its bills – but the floods of people who have contacted me suggest that there is a systemic problem there which urgently needs to be addressed at the Bristol-based firm.
For an older or vulnerable person – or someone who is already worried about money – having such a letter drop on your doorstep, or seeing a hugely inflated charge when you log in to the app, can be devastating.
When queried, the response too often seems to be: ‘Energy bills are expensive now – so just pay up’. Unfortunately, I expect many are so scared of the repercussions that they do.
Some of the stories I have heard in recent weeks have been genuinely heartbreaking
Some of the stories I have heard in recent weeks have been genuinely heartbreaking. People told me their inflated bills and failed efforts to put it right have meant they cut their energy use to the bone to stop them spiralling any further.
Others reported sleepless nights, and stress that exacerbated health problems. A clearly vulnerable older person told me over the phone that they had, for a moment, considered ending their life. These are just three lines from reader emails I have received:
‘I sat in a cold dark house until I got the money to pay.’
‘I have a long-term illness and I’m too scared to put on the heating.’
‘I live in a tiny flat. The bills are like a runaway train. I tried to call them but they just say ‘do you want to pay your owed balance’. This is terrifying.’
Ofgem: The regulator is investigating issues such as long call waiting times, but not bills
Since energy costs rocketed, plenty of people have been diligently taking meter readings – or keeping an eye on things via a smart meter – and trying their best to cut how much electric and gas they use.
But if firms aren’t bothering to bill them properly, what’s the point? As one reader told me, it can feel as if the firms are plucking numbers out of thin air.
A thought I find particularly scary is, what if this has always happened? What if energy firms have always been doing dodgy sums and producing mind-boggling bills – but no-one noticed or bothered to complain until bills hit the roof and it became a matter of hundreds of pounds, rather than just a few quid?
Part of the problem is that our bills are, for the most part, automatically generated by computers. While that makes billing a speedy process, what the computers can’t do is apply common sense.
It’s clearly not practical to have a human check every single bill. But in cases where the balance is being adjusted by hundreds or even thousands, I think a real person should be made to check the workings – and spell out, in clear language, why the change is being made.
I bet it would root out some of the more heinous errors – as well as reducing the hours call centre staff spend dealing with upset and angry customers.
Enforcing that sounds like a job for the energy watchdog. So where is Ofgem in all this? I asked if it had any ongoing investigations into billing at Ovo, or the SSE-Ovo switchover – which many customers say is when their issues began.
It said that it was already in contact with Ovo following a February review into customer service, which found Ovo, along with most other major energy firms, had ‘moderate weaknesses’.
But this review focused on issues like long call waiting times and slow responses to complaints – which doesn’t get to the heart of the issue.
If billing was clear and correct in the first place, there would be fewer calls to be made.
It has published a further consultation into customer service this week, which makes some positive noises – such as telling suppliers to ‘identify and prioritise domestic customers in vulnerable situations who may require immediate assistance’.
Again, though, billing errors aren’t specifically addressed.
So I’m calling on energy firms and the regulator to get their act together.
People are still being battered by sky-high bills – the least the industry can do is have the decency to make them correct.
