The formal complaint that you have raised is the right way to go to get this wrong address issue resolved.

Although see also below about Royal Mail*

Did you email it to the complaints address given here?
https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

(Unfortunately that isn’t something that telephone support can do, they are limited to what the computer allows them to access, but I agree that they should have a channel to escalate such issues to someone who can put them right).

It does seem a bit odd that the support agent can see that different address on their side, but the letters appear to be being wrongly addressed, with the wrong house number.

*There again, as you say that the letters have a different postcode then is it Royal Mail who are at fault here by delivering them to the wrong address?
Maybe you should be complaining to Royal Mail?
(In the past I have had letters (not bills) where the number and street name were the same as mine, but the postcode was an entirely different town).

I would tell your mother that if she gets any more letters with that wrong postcode to simply write on the front:
RTS - Delivered to wrong postcode.
(RTS= Return to Sender).
Then get someone to put them in any postbox, or hand it to the postman/woman if she sees them.
(I’m aware that with the elderly simple seeming instructions may not always be that simple).

Just a few further comments, nothing really to do with the wrong address/delivery issue;
As these letters are addressed to ‘Occupier’ and not by name then that indicates to me that OVO do not know who us responsible for that bill, but it certainly isn’t your mother.
The amount being so low also suggest to me that the correct property is probably empty and it’s only a number of months standing charges that are being billed for.
So it looks to me that someone has moved out of somewhere and closed their account,OVO have opened a new ‘Occupier’ account to charge whoever is now responsible for the standing charge there, but don’t know who that is.
Again though, nothing at all to do with your mother.

Hi, Thank you very much for your reply that's really helpful, i will raise a complaint with Royal Mail too as you are right they should not be delivered with the wrong postcode. Its just a bit of a nightmare as it seems with everything at the moment you cant get to speak to the right people to get thing sorted. again thank you very much your help is much appreciated.

Just to note that when I was getting that mail with the wrong postcode I did some further checking myself.

I simply entered that postcode into Google and then looked at the Streetview for that postcode.
That showed me that the property there which would have had the same number had been demolished and was now just waste ground.
The letters had no return address on them, so I’m guessing that RM were just trying their best and thought that perhaps someone had used the wrong postcode so tried a street somewhere else with the same name?

Good idea, thank you i will try that too.

Hi ​@TracyJJ,

I’m really sorry to hear about your experience. It seems that one of our forum volunteers has already stopped by to offer some great advice here.

Hope you’re able to get this resolved asap. Please keep us updated with how you get on. 

Hi, we have had a phonecall this morning to advise all resolved they had this linked to the incorrect address,  fingers crossed thats the end of it.

Although i had received an email saturday trying to tell me that the electricity was linked to the wrong address but they did supply our gas! Again incorrect but hopefully this phonecall no means this all sorted.

Thanks all for your help.

You’re welcome, glad we could help!

Just one more thing. OVO will attempt to fix the records with the Credit Reference Agencies - namely Experian, Equifax and TransUnion - to set things straight and permanently remove any black marks that shouldn’t be there. However, they only do it once a month so you may need to wait a while. This usually results in stuff like credit scores being recalculated to put you back into the position you would have been in had this not happened.

Would you like me to tell you how to access the Statutory Reports for all three? There’s no charge for that and it doesn’t make you sign up for stuff you don’t want as it’s a one-shot thing.

Hi, thanks for your reply.

That would be great if you dont mind.

Thanks

Sure thing. I’d recommend you wait until after the 1st December before you do these so you get more accurate results, or possibly after 1st January 2025.

I will not earn commission or kickbacks* if you use these exact links and they won’t know where you found them from so it can’t be traced back to me either. You ONLY want the Statutory Report - nothing else.

Experian: https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/statutory-report.html

Equifax: https://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/statutory-report

TransUnion: https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/CreditReport/AboutYou

*Thanks to some outsourced sales reps from Scottish Power that I ran into a few weeks ago, I’ve chosen to be even more crystal clear about that because apparently that’s a thing I have to worry about now.

brilliant thank you.

No worries.

If there ARE problems on there as a result of this and you’ve already waited until after the 1st January, you can get those fixed. In the first instance, going via OVO’s Collections Team will always be best. They keep good records and if they know the black marks relate to something they already cancelled, they can force the fixes through again.

Failing that, you can raise a Dispute with the CRA(s) that is showing the issue and have them look into it. This option does take longer though, but can help if you have trouble talking to OVO about it. Definitely try OVO first whenever possible!