Get up to 2,700 free miles, thanks to our partnership with Volvo Cars and Charge Anytime

What is annoying about this “news” is that a) Charge Anytime isn’t available on all Volvo PHEVs, only a small set of their range, b) it isn’t available on newer Volvo PHEV models but WAS in the past on older versions of the same models and c) it isn’t available on my Volvo when Charge Anytime WAS working just fine on my previous PHEV; a BMW.  So in 3 ways the situation has gone backwards. 

So well done Volvo / Ovo you might think its a great partnership but it isn’t for me as a customer for BOTH your products. 

But the very worst part of this is that no one (at Ovo CA helpdesk) can tell me when or if it might eventually get rolled out onto my 2024 Volvo - do I wait for a TBD roll out, do I change electricity supplier, do I change my charger (when I don’t need to as it worked just fine with the BMW)…….? Or change the car back to a brand (non Volvo) that doesn't cost a fortune to charge?!  

No wonder the market for EV cars is stalling.

Hey ​@Brock 

Thank you for your feedback, I’ll pass this on to the team.

Dear Emmanuelle

Thanks I will wait a few days longer for OVO’s solution before I finally pass this case onto the Advertising Standards Authority: I can see I am not alone in this predicament; you are selling a product that is not actually available (there are 7 Volvo EV models that are no longer compatible with Charge Anytime, significantly exceeding the ones that actually are!).  For the avoidance of doubt and again to indicate what a mess this is, I did check the Ovo Charge Anytime compatibility on my Volvo and saw that it was compatible according to your eligibility checker.  Except, in reality it turns out that it isn’t.  And yes I did notify the OVO Charge Anytime team and they did subsequently change the compatibility checker after I notified them of their error (though obviously this hasn’t helped me).  But if I were a cynic I could suggest that it might be in OVO’s interest to attract people to this product…….. but then leave us stranded on a vastly higher pence/kWh deal…….. with no light at the end of the tunnel. 

Furthermore, I was assured during one of my several calls over the last 8 months (since 12th April) with the OVO Charge Anytime helpdesk that my specific Volvo model would be made compatible within the next quarter. Clearly this has not happened. I do wonder what the ASA would make of all this?

Strictly speaking, the OVO Forum is out-of-scope of the Advertising Standards Authority remit because it’s not used for “advertising” as such. You may find that the case gets rejected so should be prepared for that outcome. The stuff you get told by the Charge Anytime team would also arguably be out-of-scope because only you got told that - it wasn’t broadcast via any public media.

In my eyes, both this Forum thread and the landing page clearly ONLY reference specific models that ARE supported and make no attempt to reference any other Volvo product. So that also weakens your case quite a bit if we’re being honest here. The ASA will not consider products that aren’t mentioned at all in the materials being complained about.

Same reason they won’t take action about a Samsung printer in a Samsung TV ad - because said ad is about the TV and not the printer! FWIW Samsung also makes tanks and radar systems because yeah, it’s a massive enterprise with a bazillion divisions, but you don’t see folks moaning about those to the ASA - because they don’t advertise that stuff!

For the avoidance of basically any doubt whatsoever, Charge Anytime is also an Add-On that you bolt onto any of OVO’s existing Plans/Tariffs. It’s NOT a standalone product that can be used by itself so the worst case scenario is you just pay whatever the “normal rate” for your tariff would have been anyway. That kinda means you’re no worse off than if you took whatever the Standard Variable Rate is for your area because guess what? You’d have paid that rate anyway without Charge Anytime. Given that there’s basically no competition in the market right now for SVT, you’re no worse off with OVO than anywhere else.

To be clear, you cannot use my comments with the ASA either. I don’t work for OVO and I’m just a Forum Volunteer who acts as myself - so everything I say is Out-Of-Scope because it didn’t come from OVO.

As for the removed models? IIRC it’s because an issue beyond OVO’s control caused them to break too often. It makes sense that they get taken off if the reason is because it’s no longer possible/viable to support them.

I would also argue the terms are pretty clearly written here too - including exactly which EVs are compatible and which are not. If you fail to read that section, that’s on you.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is just quit while you’re ahead - not everything requires you to blow things up and explode the complaints processes. I’ve dealt with some pretty tough stuff recently but managed to get pretty much all of it resolved with a simple phone call and got a solution within 24 hours by just talking to those involved. Despite the fact that this was about some pretty serious stuff - far more so than just some outdated data in a compatibility checker - I was satisfied with the outcome after just one phone call. Sometimes, you might want to consider doing the same. Worth asking yourself this: you got what you wanted, do you truly need to push for more?

Problem sorted.  Switched to Octopus.  Who offer a genuine EV rate not based on the false dawn of an App that isn’t compatible and may never be.

Saves me a MINIMUM of £852 per annum.  I say minimum because this is simply the EV saving which is very easy to calculate based on actual charge data, white goods duty cycle scheduling will save considerably more.  

(To the poster above Ovo advertised a product nationally stating compatibility that was simply false.  That is what the Advertising Standards Authority is for.  I do hope I am unique in falling victim to this but hence why I brought this to this forum. 

Please also note this statement is completely incorrect: “there’s basically no competition in the market right now for SVT, you’re no worse off with OVO than anywhere else”)