FAQs on applying for a Refund from your OVO account

My understanding of the refund policy is a refund is not available unless your account is in credit and that after a refund the account would still be in credit (or maybe zero if leaving).

I recently had a refund (£400 plus).

When I checked my balance and usage my balance didn’t add up.

The usage was approximately £500 and the balance was over £1000.

The refund not asked for but does reflect where the balance stood £600 in credit.

Can anyone explain?

Thanks in advance,

bernie123

You may have been billed up to date before the refund was processed, @bernie123. You can see the transaction history on My OVO, it shows what’s gone in and out of your account! :)

Thanks Eva, 

that’s the problem, my monthly statements have been removed so I can’t see the individual transactions, only a summary, which doesn’t add up.

The initial summary was inaccurate it contained gas usage which had already been paid for.

I have no confidence in the amended summary, in fact I know it is wrong but can’t prove it without my monthly statements.

Any sugestions?

That’s odd, @bernie123, you should be able to access the historic statements on your online account. Please reach out to the team, they’ll be able to help with this. 

You can send us a message on Facebook, Twitter and our Help centre has online chat! You can reach our team on: 0330 303 5063. Our opening hours are 8am-6pm Monday to Friday.

Thanks! 

Thanks Amy, have been told that my statements will not be reinstated as OVO summary is adequate. Summary shows cost breakdown for gas and electric but no meter readings.

Not sure that this is legal.

Think they have something to hide.

Best Regards,

bernie123

Can we just get to the bottom of this, @bernie123 

When you moved over to the new online account / billing system, your historic statements should’ve been added. You should be able to view these. But since the move (migration) we show daily charges, and a monthly summary. Is it this new way of showing your usage that you’re calling out, or do you not have your old statements to hand?

Let me know when you can :)

My statements from Nov2017 were removed as part of the process of an erroneous transfer.

After the ET my balance seemed wrong so I thought to check my statements and found they weren’t there. 

I asked OVO why, their response was that they had been manually removed to my account could be cosmetically adjusted.

They supplied me with a "breakdown" of my charges and payments.

On inspection the balance of £1670 was shown to be incorrect

I questioned the breakdown an OVO admitted it included charges for gas which should not have been there.

An adjustment was made down to £1102, figures are from memory but not too far off the mark.

Certainly an OVO ERROR of over £550.

I was refunded £567 1st Non 2019. Which appeared to be closing my account and opening up afresh.

My usage from Nov 2101 to end of April 2020 was £824, a discrepancy of £278.

I believe from correspondence final adjustment took me through to end of Nov, if so the discrepancy was £417.

Consequently I requested my monthly statements to be reinstated.

OVO refused and later said they were kept for “historic” reasons.

I believe I have a consumers right to them.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

BR

bernie123

In normal circumstances if a client is refunded as they were in credit how much would be left in there balance after the refund.

for example someone’s balance was £400 credit and their DD debit was £100 how much refund would they get and what would the balance be after the refund?

I’m going to need some expert mod support with this question, @bernie123 - they will get to this on Tuesday/Wednesday and might want your account details via social media/email if they judge we need to raise a ticket for this to be looked into. tbc. I’ll tag them @Eva_OVO @Amy_OVO @Bradley_OVO @Ed_OVO 

For now, have a great weekend!

Thanks Tim.

I received a refund in  Dec 2017 for of approx £700 after much searching in my OVO statements that weren’t removed and my bank records my OVO account was left in credit to the tune of £11 with my DD soon to follow. Seems to make sense but does not tally with OVO’s summary after the erroneous transfer of my account.

Not sure about access to my account but will consider.

I am happy to screenshot specifics

Thanks,

bernie123

Hi Tim,

A question for you.

on my account summary it shows a balance transfer to Orion of -£289 on one line then on the next line a balance transfer of +£289.

My question is was my balance at that time in credit or debit?

See screenshot.

Thanks

bernie123

This is impossible for us to answer, @bernie123 - not only do we not have access to your account, but this erroneous transfer makes it really tricky to even get my head around the concept of this issue. 

I’m sorry our subject matter expert Mods didn’t get to this last week. They’ve had a few online account related queries last week after a few issues emerged. It might be time to go down the support route, as I don’t think we’re going to be able to provide a community based answer. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and our Help centre has online chat!

I would be keen to hear from you as this is worked out and resolved - could you keep this topic updated?

Thanks Tim, you’re right it’s very tricky especially when all statements and meter readings for that time have been removed by OVO.

My thinking was that  line 1 shows a negative at that time (-£289.12) so the transfer from where ever it came from had a negative balance ie was in credit.

I will keep you informed as I think this transfer has had a negative effect on my account, ie extra charge.

If I am right and I think my analysis of statements and correspondence from OVO shows that I am right, may well have affected other customers who would also be out of pocket.

Why else would OVO remove all data for 2018 unless there was something to hide.

Thanks,

bernie123

Hi,

can anyone confirm what balance remained after a refund. 

Was it zero or was enough left for the next monthly direct debit?

Thanks,

bernie123

It depends on the plan you’re on, @bernie123,  we’ll allow a refund of any credit that’s over 1 month’s payment (or for Simpler Energy customers you can have a full refund), as long as you’ve had a recent bill to an actual reading. 

Thanks! 

Hi Amy,

I had a refund of £565 (DD £156), this was after an erroneous transfer had been rectified and asked for opening meter readings at about the same time. 

Would would I be right in assuming the refund would take my balance to zero.

Thanks, bernie123

We can’t say for sure as we don’t have access to your account, @bernie123. If you login to your online account you’ll be able to see the balance. 

If you don’t have access to your online account send us a message on Facebook, Twitter and our Help centre has online chat,  be sure to include your name, DoB and account number so we can check.

Thanks Amy.

I have access to my online account but my monthly statements from Nov 2017 till Apr 2020 have been removed.

The refund was Nov2019, no statement available.

I requested a DSAR, which I received yesterday.

No statement for Nov2019

My account got mixed up in an erroneous transfer and I am trying to figure out if my balance was zero when the ET was resolved, Nov/Dec 2019.

Thanks

bernie123

Hi @LynG and thanks for flagging this. 

That’s a long wait, something must’ve gone wrong there. What’s your online account balance showing as? Are you able to request a refund via this link?

https://account.ovoenergy.com/payments

It should take no more than 10 working days. See our guide on refunds here:

Managed to get through on the phone yesterday, and on the second call, I managed to sort, and get an e-mail saying  that I should get£ 451.75 within 10 working days. On checking my actual account, this evening, It says I have a credit balance of £385.75…...Anyone know how and why I have a credit balance of £385.75, when it should be zero. Unfortunately, I was to late to contact OVO, as they had all gone home, and the offices where closed.

Hey @BOBthe BUILDER,

Thanks for your question. 

If the refund takes up to 10 working days it might not appear to have left your OVO account yet. 

I requested a refund 11 working days ago from my account by phone and it was approved. I received an email immediately confirming the refund and that it would be received in 10 working days if not sooner.

The refund was never received, I phoned in today and they said it was cancelled. When asking why it was cancelled they said it was declined by my bank. They have re issued the refund and now I have to wait another 10 working days. I did not receive any email to say it had been cancelled.

I phoned my bank Nationwide immediately after and they said there has been no attempt to make the refund payment after searching the last 11 days for the exact amount on all their systems.

Was just wondering how common this is? Its really frustrating not receiving my money and possibly having to wait 20 working days / 26 full days to get my money back.

Hi @Bunion

I am a just a customer like you, but one of the regular posters on the forum.

I honestly haven't seen another case where a bank has declined to accept a refund payment from ovo.

Although ovo quote 10 working days, examples posted on the forum are usually quicker. 

I assume you are a Direct Debit customer so OVO have all your bank details to refund the money to and you haven't changed bank accounts. 

I hear there can be issues if you request a refund, then request another refund before the first one has been processed. I assume you only did one refund request in the 11 days. 

If you post how you get on with the new refund I am sure it will help other customers. 

TLDR: The balance in my OVO account was incorrect. So my refund request was too high, despite contingency of 1 normal monthly payment. OVO do not email if a refund is cancelled or is rejected by the system after initially going through. They need to fix this.

Coincidentally(?...) later today I have received an email from OVO stating “We added credit to your energy account, when we shouldn't have. This happened after your Direct Debit payments didn't reach us.” This was from a missed payment back in November 2022 - 9 months ago, which on re-inspection matches up with my bank statement.

I phoned back in, because looking at my new account balance it would not be sufficient to meet the re-requested refund amount. They explained that the refund system probably realised my account wasn’t in enough credit ahead of when this correction was made and kept cancelling the refunds. I have made a 3rd for a request for a refund for a lesser amount. 

I am still yet to receive any of the surplus money but will only update again if it fails to arrive or some more complications happen.

How can I get my refund when OVO sent it to a bank account that was  closed 2 years ago. OVO are happy enough to take the DD from my extant account?