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Updated on 09/10/23 by Abby_OVO

 

What to do if an OVO account holder passes away

 

If a friend or family member has recently passed away, you may consider seeking advice and support from the Citizens Advice, who are a friendly and well informed bunch, able to help with energy and non energy related actions. 

 

If the person that recently passed way had an OVO account, we appreciate you may not want to speak to us on the phone right now. If this is the case, you can follow this link to fill out an Online Form . You can also contact our call our dedicated team on 0330 175 9683 (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm) or email bereavement@ovoenergy.com.

 

If you’re the executor of the estate, you can help us by gathering the following details before you call:

 

  • The date the person passed away
  • Your contact details
  • Your bank details, if you plan to take over the account
  • Meter readings

 

If you're not the executor of the estate, you can still let us know the account holder has passed away. We'll then need to arrange to talk to the executor of the estate – so if you can, please let us know their contact details when you get in touch.

 

Changes that may happen

 

If you’re already a named contact on the account or are taking ownership following the passing of a spouse or partner, we no longer require you to close the existing account. Speak to our Dedicated Team who will talk you through the steps required to get the account details updated.

 

If you’re taking over the account and you weren’t previously named on the account, you may have a new account created, with new online account login details and a new plan. Our Dedicated Team will make this process as easy to handle as possible as we appreciate that this may be a difficult time.

 

I got in touch with bereavement@ovoenergy.com.

They have dealt with it.

 

It says “energy account”.
I am dealing with Scottish Power for electricity and the gas is disconnected.
You chat-bot/person could not say what the bill was for.

What puzzles me is the amount of times I received a response that ignored the contents of my messages. I know this because it was “we don’t recognise your email address” and then “please get the dead guy to contact us instead”. I paraphrase.

Have the robots already taken over your company?

Why do you have a contact email on your webpage if it is not being seen by a human?

Hi @user47,

 

I’m glad to hear that you got this resolved. I can understand from your point of view that this would have been a frustrating experience. I can help shed some light on how our email system works. 

 

When you use the contact email address, the system will filter your email to your account using an email address that is attached to an account. You would get the “we don’t recognise your email address” message if the system can’t find an account with that email address. The mailbox receives a high volume of emails that wouldn’t be manageable without having these redirected to the correct accounts. 

In the case of the bereavement email I provided before, as they are a dedicated team, they don’t receive as many emails, and the email box can be managed by a person/team. 

 

If you need further help with the account, you can contact the Bereavement Team using the contact details I gave above. They are the best channel for any further questions or help.

 

 

 

Again …

What’s the point of offering a service to the public and then have that offer refused - by a robot.

You have delegated your customer interface to a machine. But remember, that machine was programmed by a human.

My first contact with your company was refused again and again due to your system.

Take responsibility and change your faulty, soul-less system.

Hi @user47, 

We do have other methods of contact from live chat to a dedicated support team. All of our contact options can be found at https://www.ovoenergy.com/help. 

I’m sorry that our email system hasn’t worked for you as it was designed with our customers in mind. I do recognise that as you aren’t a customer that things were more difficult and for that we can only apologise. 

 

and will you be adding another email address for non-customers, or at least state at the outset that non-customers will not receive a response?

For those who aren’t active customers, it’s actually better to use phone or live chat.

and it says this where on the website?

It doesn’t need to. Most people naturally gravitate towards the faster options by default.

Hi @user47, 

If you’re still unhappy about the issues you’ve had with our email system I would suggest raising a complaint with our Bereavement Team. They can get this recorded for you on the system and i’m sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you. 

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