A man spent the weekend worrying over a "bill that doesn't exist" after his energy meter showed a daily usage of over £42,000.
Mike Ellis, of Seaforth, decided to check his energy usage for the day as the start of the month marked an increase in energy prices. But he got the shock of his life when he checked his meter and saw he had used over £42,000 of electricity in just one day.
With his daily usage usually around £1.70, seeing it read £42,541.10, he was understandably concerned. He told the ECHO: "I don't usually look at the meter but with the new month and bills rising I wanted to see what the new daily cost would be.
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"It's usually £1.70 I use on the electricity and I looked and saw it said £42,540 and I thought it was strange. I posted online and got replies people saying the same thing happened to them.
"At midnight, the meter went back to normal but when I checked the daily history it showed that I owed over £400 for October 1 and over £42k for the month. Contacting the company you get no reply.
"It's only today, (October 3) that after more digging I've found out the amount hasn't gone on to my bill but everyone you talk to is scared they will be charged horrific amounts and we've had two days of not knowing."
Mike said the weekend has added to his stresses due to "not knowing for certain". He added: "It's totally wrong. You know it has to be a glitch but you think what if, how will I pay it?
"There will be some people who won't look into it and be worrying about their bills but it is a glitch. I'd been checking the site every two seconds for an update all weekend.
"There's people on Twitter up and down the country really worried about being unable to afford it."
OVO Energy has since confirmed to the ECHO that for the majority of customers, the issue has resolved itself and customers do not need to do anything at this moment.
With concerns about the increasing bills, Mike, who received Universal Credit, is adamant on not putting on his heating unless he really has to. He told the ECHO: "I am worried.
"There doesn't seem to be any increases on universal credit and yet bills are rising. My bill was around £60 a month and has jumped to £120. There is the government payment that is a massive help but it's going to be hard. I just have to wait and see. I've got medical conditions and I won't be putting the heating on until it snows.
"I've got an electric blanket, but with all these worries, you don't need the added stress of your meter going crazy saying you owe thousands. People will be panicking no end, borrowing money to pay a bill that doesn't exist."
An OVO Energy spokesperson said: "We're aware of a fault on a small number of our In Home Displays that's causing them to show incorrect costs. We communicated with impacted customers ahead of the error and confirmed that this impacts the display only, not the actual meter, meter readings or energy bills. Customers do not need to do anything at this time as a fix will take place within 24 hours."
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