OVOenergy Scam

Have you received your credit amount back from OVO as this isn't clear?

Are they aware of your severe illness?

This doesn’t sound like a true story, and is certainly does not match my experience with OVO.

It does rather sound like a made up story.

How ironic it would be if this was a scam regarding a (supposed) scam!

Do you have proof of this supposed 'Scam'?

Just a few comments that are, probably, very relevant here.

1. “kept overcharging me by upping my direct debit without my knowledge or consent” Unless someone chooses to not interact with a company or with their bank, this is almost impossible. When I log into my OVO account, one of the first things that I see is this box:

   

   This, clearly, shows how much and when my Direct Debit will be taken. My bank statement will also show that the stated amount has been taken on the stated day. Whenever OVO have decided to change the amount of my Direct Debit (up or down), they always send me an email to tell me of this. I then, usually, respond with “Please leave it as it is.” and all is well. It is for circumstances like this that the Direct Debit Guarantee is there to support bank customers. If a business makes a change to a DD without informing the customer, the bank can be told of this and ask for a “charge back” to be made. This means that the bank will refund the charge that should not have been made. 

2. If you make an official complaint to OVO, they have a maximum of 56 days in which to resolve that complaint after which you are free to escalate that complaint to the Energy Ombudsman. Ofgem will, sometimes, take on complaints before the 56 days elapses. In reality, however, whenever I have requested a refund of my credit (if I think it has been creeping up too high), I have ALWAYS had that refund within 3 days (or less). This brings me to my second point. When I log into my OVO account, I also see this:

   

   This, clearly, shows how much of my money OVO have. I CHOOSE to keep my balance higher than some people might advise as I am on a fixed income. As with most people, my winter bills are, considerably, higher than my summer bills and I like to be able to CHOOSE to be warm. 

3. You were never “overcharged”. You paid for the energy you used. For some reason, your balance was higher than is normal, but that money was always shown on every bill and on your online account as being “in credit”. This now makes three places and occasions where you COULD have seen what was happening to your account: the online account, your bank account and your actual bills. 

4. As many people here know, I log into my account every day. If that was all I did, it would take seconds for me to notice a change in my Direct Debit or a big increase in my credit. I actually do much more than that and can bore people to tears about what a particular action in energy use costs. 

I do understand that you are long-term ill and a vulnerable person. I assume that you have informed OVO of this. If you have not already done so, may I suggest that you get yourself added to the Priority Services Register. (https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/priority-services-register)

All very good points, but you are assuming that the poster has a genuine problem and is not simply a troll stirring up trouble.
 

I would like to believe that someone would not take the time to come to a Help Forum like this (it has a finite number of people that comments reach) with the sole motivation to “stir up trouble”. 

However, the points that I made were made to encourage the poster to take the control that they have regarding their energy account. I have seen many people accusing many energy companies of “scams” because THEY have failed to take understand that the safeguards are there to support them.

There are times, of course, when all companies make errors, but I would assume that most people who have racked up a credit of £5000 would notice this before it got to that amount.

When I used to have to supply monthly meter readings, I ALWAYS checked to make sure that the numbers I supplied were correctly applied to my account. I have known people who never check their bills (I have a friend who does not even bother to open them). I have never been in a position to be able to afford to do this.

To be honest, I only decided to comment as I was sad that two people (the first two to comment) were not being at all supportive to the original poster. I think this may be the first time that I have observed this here. 

This is not my experience.  I always receive notification of any increase in direct debit and if I don't agree I have reduced it. When dealing with the property of my deceased relative the customer support was second to none. I find it hard to believe this is the same company 

Also note that the original poster has not followed up with any reply. If this was a genuine complaint then you would expect some further interaction. Of course I could be wrong, but it still looks highly suspicious to me. 

It looks too detailed to be a bot. A post like that from someone who has just created an account with a story thaf doesn't ring true and no interaction sounds like a former (or even existing) customer who has lost some kind dispute or disagreement with the company and they are trying to trash OVO’s reputation as revenge.

I'm going to try something. 

Peter

Would you bother to interact with this page if the FIRST FOUR comments, posted within a few hours of the original post, were, and I am being generous here, so unhelpful? 

It's not a bot. It is most likely someone with a genuine grievance who has knowledge of the complaints process but the escalation of emotive language suggests frustration with the process and/or failure of a possible complaint to be accepted at a higher level.

My suggestion to ​@Neo9  to reach out and have a dialogue with one of the OVO team or, if you don't want to contact a company representative, then you can DM me as an independent volunteer for a completely confidential dialogue. I can't promise to fix anything but I'm willing to listen to what you have to say and perhaps suggest a way forward.

Peter

I agree but for the fact that I think there is a genuine issue here but perhaps frustration has caused the post which is less than clear. I'm offering dialogue if the poster wishes to engage in it. If not then this thread is probably at an end and we will be none the wiser but I've offered confidentiality so at the end I could probably only say the issue has been resolved or unresolved.

Peter

Hey ​@Neo9 

I’m sorry to hear this, though I’m glad to see our very supportive community members have already stopped by with lots of advice and questions already.

We don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum so we can’t know in detail what’s happened here other than what you’ve mentioned.

Direct Debits are reviewed regularly and any changes to this are notified to customers, you can find more on how the Direct Process works in some of our topics below:

If you’ve not done so already you can always open a complaint if you feel the Support Team haven’t been dealing with this in the correct way. I’d also make sure, as mentioned by Bendog that you’re on the Priority Services Register;

As some of the others have asked, have you now received the full amount in refunds? Or are you still awaiting some of this? I would also ask, do you have smart meters in place sending regular meter readings? If not it would always be good to have the meters exchanged so we have an accurate picture of your usage, and so able to review the Direct Debit accurately. 

As mentioned, without access to accounts it can be tricky to tell exactly what’s happened and what may have led to as many increases, if there’s any more detail you can share with us that might be helpful, otherwise I would suggest reaching back out to the Support Team to discuss.