A FAMILY were charged a whopping £18,000 for just two months of gas after they had a smart meter fitted.
NHS nurse Fardusa Hassan was locked in a 16-month battle which started in January last year with OVO Energy over an error with her parents’ smart gas meter which was registered to her mum, Halimo Mohamed.
4
4
Fardusa told the Mirror: “This has caused a lot of stress for all of us and it’s been such a frustrating process throughout, dealing with this and with OVO, who’ve not actually addressed the issue or been particularly helpful.”
She added: “It’s not as though I hadn’t provided the information or that they didn’t have anything to work with – they had everything they needed.
“Even after I complained to the ombudsman they were still dragging their feet. It’s problematic.”
Fardusa’s dad, Ahmed Hassan, and Mrs Mohamed received incorrectly estimated gas readings which led to their account being charged £18,066.19 for just two months of gas from July 9 to August 9, 2022.
The incorrect readings began after they had a smart gas meter fitted at their home in 2018.
It is thought the meter had reset itself to zero but then after a short while jumped back to the full tally for the gas used.
In turn, this wrongly showed a much greater rate of consumption by the family, causing a huge skew in the estimates.
This wiped out the family’s credit on their account and placed it in a huge amount of debt.
Most read in Money
The estimated readings showed at one point the family had used 1,000 m3 volume of gas units in just one month – some 10 times what the average UK household would use – which resulted in them being billed for the £18,088.19 which covered two months.
Fardusa picked up the issue at the start of last year as her parents are “not 100 per cent tech savvy” and speak English as a second language.
The nurse contacted OVO by phone and email a number of times over the course of the 16 months.
She sent a number of readings from the smart meter and submitted photographic evidence showing time and date stamps but the billing situation wasn’t resolved.
Fardusa claimed OVO told her they would fix the issue but said she was never given a timeline as to when the meter would be sorted out and the debt cleared.
She then became frustrated with the lack of progress and contacted the Energy Ombudsman which contacted her in February to say that her complaint had been upheld.
An Ombudsman Services spokesperson said: “We appreciate mistakes can sometimes happen but suppliers need to take care and ensure consumers are being billed as accurately as possible, otherwise, as in this case, it can result in distress for a consumer.
How to complain about your energy company
If you have a complaint about your energy company, then you should take it to the Energy Ombudsman.
They handle issues between customers and suppliers.
If you’ve tried to resolve a problem with your provider and you’re getting nowhere, the Energy Ombudsman will look at your case and see if they can help you deal with the complaint.
It helps resolve issues on billing, installations and delays, loss of service, customer service, and switching suppliers.
If they help take your complaint on, they can only help back bill you for 12 months.
That means you won’t be able to get help getting money back before this.
“The supplier has been instructed to implement the remedies put forward to them and the dispute has now been resolved.
“If consumers are unhappy with the service they’ve received, we always suggest that they raise it with their energy supplier in the first instance, who’ll aim to find a resolution.
“If consumers are unable to reach a satisfactory solution, and the complaint is open for longer than eight weeks, then they should contact us.”
OVO said in a statement before the debt was cleared: “We are sincerely sorry to Miss Hassan for the confusion caused by the incorrect meter readings and have issued a £200 goodwill amount to reflect this.
“Her account balance has been recalculated and her meter is being fixed.”
4
4
