I've been charged £13,000 for 29 days electricity and gas! Is this due to an out of line reading?

Hi @MHarley ,

Please bear with me. I’ve flagged this on the forum backstage to figure out how we can best advise on this one.

You haven’t seen my Joker Card yet. :)

Let’s just say my Joker Card is played only when I absolutely must use it. However, with great responsibility comes great power - I can call in expert assistance from a special team who really know what they’re doing. 

That’s what I’ve done in this case. Please wait until the morning for an update.

Still working on it - I’m waiting for someone to pick up my Joker Card.

However, try 0800 069 9831 in the meantime - that team might be able to fix this. If they don’t please come back here and update this thread.

Hi @MHarley 

Apologies for the difficulty getting that sorted yesterday, I know the teams were working at much smaller capacities, but they’re all back to normal now.

You can call the collections team on 0800 069 9831. We’re open Monday to Friday 8am-6pm, Saturday 9am-2pm. You can also get through to the collections team via webchat.

Keep us updated with how you get on.

Dear Abby_OVO,

Tha KS for your continued interest in this.

I talked with a collections team agent on the webchat.  They told me to call the phone line.

I called and spoke with a collections team agent said that they could see there was a complaint email sent to me yesterday saying 'we'll be in touch in 2-3 days'. 

They said they couldn't do anything until the complaint was resolved.  I've already complained via email on 29th February and nothing was done about it then, so I'm still in exactly the same position six weeks later.  

To conclude, the collection team didn't do anything for me.  No confirmation that the debt collection has been permanently stopped, no 'this is what's going to happen' or no reassurances it's being dealt with - just 'you need to let complaints deal with it' but I've already tried that route and it's a dead end.

I feel like I am back at square one.

Regards

Michael

Ok, let me try the next trick. You won’t see anything obvious right now - but that’s just because this one’s a bit more invisible.

Hey @MHarley 

I’m sorry to hear you’re still having trouble here.

I’m going to have our Forum_Support reach out to you to help with this matter. Look out for a private message here soon: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview.

And that is my Joker Card. :)

PROBLEM NOT SOLVED like the forum header says it is...

To recap...i was sent 2 bills for a period of  approx 28 days gas usage in a 3 bedroom semi.  One bill was approx £9,500 (22 days duration approx) and the other bill was approx £3,900 (six days or so).

The forum people who helped me were lovely and a great help - got me where i needed to be and alleviated my stress - much appreciated.

All was going so well.  I got a dedicated complaint handler and a phone call and apologies and assurances that all debts against me were stopped and that a new bill was being calculated.  OVO recognised the meter readings used for the bill were NOT related to the actual meter reading when the property was left vacant by the last tenant.

Today (14th May) I had YET ANOTHER  email from a debt collector (and a telephone conversation with them to make sure they weren’t mistaken), telling me that I owed £3,900 for the very six days i have been disputing since the beginning.  Despite OVO assuring me verbally and in written form that they have stopped all the debts against me whilst they investigate, they have not.    

Yet again, I have debt collectors asking me for payment plans.  After the apologies for the stress caused and for the mistakes I’m still dealing with the same issue - an OVO debt against me that is clearly ridiculous and so infuriating. 

To be told, “Don’t worry we’ll sort it all out, all the debt against you and the property has been suspended” and then to get told a month later, “Hey you owe OVO £3,900 when are you going to pay” is infuriating.

If someone there who helped me on this forum before could give someone else at OVO a heads up and please ask them to give the problem the proper attention it deserves it would be a big help.

Regards

Michael

Hi and sorry to hear you are having problems with Debt Collectors.

Unfortunately it is not uncommon, and I’ve had to deal with a few myself in the past.

When you have Debt Collectors chasing you then you have to stop them, the company who has instructed them to chase the alleged debt can’t or won’t.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Debt Collectors and the Supplier are working together, they are not and each is doing their own thing.

To deal with a Debt Collector:

Email, or write to, the Debt Collectors telling them the following in your own words and adding dates etc. as necessary, keep things polite but to the point, don’t let them sidetrack you they only do it to try and confuse things:

•     State that you are making an- Official Complaint of Harassment.
      Put that in bold, underlined, at the top of your email after the addresses, ref numbers, etc.
•     Thank them nicely for their previous correspondence
•     Tell them that the alleged debt is in dispute with the supplier.
•     Tell them that as the alleged debt is disputed with the supplier then you require that the collectors cease action until that dispute is resolved.
•     Tell them that you will not be making any payments, that you are not their 'customer' and will not be creating or logging into any account on their 'payment portal'.
•     Tell them that if they fail to cease action then you will make complaints of Harassment to both the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman.

Personally I also tell them that I require that all communication must be by email or letter and that I refuse to discuss anything on the phone, it they do ring me then I’ll politely hang up.

Don’t go into unnecassary details about the alleged debt with the debt collector, (that’s a mistake that most make, I know that I used to), just stick to the fact that the alleged debt is in dispute and so they should back off.

You can add the following if you want to get semi-legal back at them:
"In accordance with the FCA Handbook CONC 7.14 "Settlements, disputed and deadlocked debt" you should now suspend any and all collections activity whilst my dispute with the energy provider is still ongoing.

I am also aware that as I have made this Official Complaint of Harassment to yourselves you now are required to inform the FCA of this complaint."

What will/should happen then:

•     The collector will reply saying that they have checked with ‘their client’ and there is no dispute.
  (That’s pretty standard practice with all debt collectors but as far as I can tell they don't actually check anything. I doubt that they report your complaint to the FCA either, they should do but no one checks unless you later complain to the FCA yourself).
•     You reply back saying you are astonished to hear that your supplier told them that, and send them proof of the dispute, eg. a copy of a dispute email from the supplier or something like that.
•     At that point the collector should then reply saying that they have 'placed your account on hold for 30 days'.

If they come back after 30 days you simply inform them that it's still in dispute and that they should back off again.

I hope that the above advice helps you, it’s always worked for me, and worked for others on here who have followed it.

I have tied that up a bit and added a few things, so you might want to read through it again.