How can I contact the OVO Feed-in tariff (FIT) team?

Orrr... There’s reason 3 (which is the real one). The team that deals with this has been massively swamped by dealing with thousands of FiT/SEG accounts migrated from SSE.

Not everything is about money in this world.

Important point - I am not blaming the staff in the FIT team that do the work.

Well, if you take on “thousands” of FIT/SEG accounts and don’t plan and prepare for it properly, that make you incompetent…

It was planned for and I’m told the team has exploded in size to keep up along with making changes to help improve the service.

Not everything is incompetence - things happen and the whole system is a lot more complicated than just “Take reading, submit reading, get paid”.

- Well until OVO took over it was that easy for me.

I agree not everything is incompetence, mistakes genuinely happen - but (and this is crucial) how you deal with the error is critical.

Did they contact the customers about the potential transfer - NOPE

Did they explain to customers that this transfer might affect the FIT payments? - NOPE

Did they explain what they were going to do to mitigate the possible delays? - NOPE

Did they explain to me what was going on when I contacted them? - NOPE

Did they explain to me when I might get my payment? - NOPE

You don’t have to worry though I will be leaving OVO as soon as I can!

Actually, OVO did notify customers in various ways - not least on both the SSE and OVO websites. Surely you must have noticed?

Arguably… You’ve also had six years advance warning that this was going to happen. SSE first announced their intention to quit the market and sell to npower back in 2017.

As for the other stuff… This forum has been open for over five years now if memory serves. Plenty of time to have stopped by and asked questions…

And you only choose now…?

I only had a FIT account with SSE and they paid mostly on time, why would I visit their website or ask on their forum (that I didn’t know they had) about something I didn’t know was going to happen?

No I was not aware - I don’t follow the news on SSE.

Why would I have been on the OVO web forum years ago when I was not one of their customers and I was not aware that years in the future I was going to be transferred to them?
 

I have never received a notification from OVO about the change. The only contact I had was they sent and email to my wife about the change on the 31st of May 2023 saying My move is now complete. My wife’s email address is not associated with the FIT account! 
 

Let’s get back to the main point, I still have not been paid. All the “we started the payment on 31st August and it will take 3 working days to arrive in your account” excuses are now no longer valid. They just need to just pay up.

Hey @StillWaiting and @Space Cadet,

Really sorry to hear you’ve had such a negative experience.

You can contact the FiT/SEG Team on fits@ovoenergy.com or seg@ovoenergy.com.

Alternatively, you can speak to our FiT Team by calling 0330 303 5063 and selecting ‘4’ when the IVR instructs you to do so.

If you’re not getting anywhere there’s always the option to raise a complaint. There is more information about our complaint procedure on the website. 

Hope this helps. 

Hello Emmanuelle,

Thank you for the suggestion, but I have already spoken with the FITS team a couple of times to no avail, and I have raised a complaint, but am still waiting for them to get back to me.

I have an email from OVO on 16th August with my statement. The web site says that I will receive payment 7 to 8 weeks after the reading month, which would have been 25th August at the latest.

OFGEM say “You should receive this payment within 90 days of the date you provided the meter reading.” Which would have been 30th August.

Very frustrating, with the current meter readings given on 1 September, which I probably won’t receive until well into 2024, OVO now owe me a total of over £600. If I was with EON like my mother is I would have already received the September payment, they tend to pay within a couple of days.

it is very frustrating trying to get OVO to even acknowledge an issue let alone sort it out. As I said above to Blastoise186 mistakes happen, but it is how you deal with it and learn from it which is the crucial thing - and well I am not impressed so far.

Hey @StillWaiting,

That sounds really frustrating, 

If your complaint hasn’t been resolved, there is an escalation process. After that, you can escalate to the Ombudsman. Hopefully it gets resolved before this though.

@StillWaiting did you resolve your issues in the end

Hi @Jeffus,

They finally paid me, nine days later than the latest that they should, but no apologies, contact or anything. Sigh.

I gave them, the next FIT reading on the 1st September and still have not heard anything from them yet.

I have asked to be transferred to Octopus but this is an ongoing process with lots of questions and paperwork. Funny how SSE can just pass me to OVO without even telling me but I have to jump through hoops if I want to transfer!

Just had my email from OVO detailing how much I am owed etc. it is the 13th November.

This is for the readings I gave on the 1st of September!

And they say I “should get my payment within four weeks” - if I don’t get the payment before the end of November then they are again outside the time frame specified by OFGEM but OVO don’t appear to care , don’t reply to complaints or anything. I am now telling everyone how bad they are and not to join them for anything. 

How did you get on @Space Cadet ?

Hi, please can you advise how to make a complaint about FIT payments.

Thanks

I would have thought the same route as published 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

Thanks, but it’s not!  I found out after I posted you have to ring the FIT team and ask to log a complaint.  I’ve “emailed Raman“ to suggest they update their website!

Hope you get somewhere. 
I looked through what I could see in the T’s & C’s and there’s no mention of a different route. 
OVO is a mandatory FIT licensee and they even mention this at the bottom of their standard complaints form. 

Thanks 😀

Seven weeks in and I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall!

Ovo have been paying me FITs since 2015.  Around June someone decided my system had an export meter and despite emailing several times they insist I must send them a picture of this non existent export meter.  Of course my payments are stopped in the mean time…

Spoke to a manager on the FIT line seven weeks ago and he agreed I don’t have an export meter; he would talk to the “back office” etc.  Phone them again yesterday because this quarter’s payments are now due and was told it would take “at least” another two weeks for the back office to remove the export meter from my account!!  Asked to speak to a manager and was told “they are not taking calls” !!!!!

Chatted with the complaints department who logged a case and advised someone would contact me withing three working days...

This morning I get a ”You’ve just been in touch with one of our Customer Care Advisors, how was the service?” text, but no one had spoken to me!!!

Chatted with Complaints again and they now say only the FIT number can take complaints on FIT issues, so my complaint with them has been closed!!!

Phone the FIT line again and log a complaint and allegedly someone will contact me in three working days….

Useless.

If complaints have closed your complaint I would go straight to the Energy Ombudsman and see what they say

https://www.energyombudsman.org/

That is unlawful.

There is only one complaint process under the ofgem legislation which includes FIT

This FIT customer recently used the standard complaint page and email address 

@Tim_OVO this isn't allowed under the legislation. OVO can't just close complaints.

I have similar issues with OVO. I was supposedly having my account transferred from SSE to OVO according to a letter dated Aug 23. Since then nothing has happened. All my emails to the fit team result in an automated reply to the effect that are too busy to respond. Phone call response is that I just have to wait. But they cannot say for how long or what the next step will be. I complained following their website process but that was not even acknowledged! I have now sent the details on to the contact Raman address but suspect that will not get any answer either. 

Am I able to switch to, say, Octopus, while my account is in limbo with OVO?

Hi sijulien, useless aren’t they! 🤦🏻

The only things I’d suggest are 1) phone the FIT team (0330 303 5063, wait for the IVR then choose option 4) and log a complaint if you haven’t phoned in already.  2) Contact the energy ombudsman… that’s going to be my next step if either the FIT complaints people don’t contact me in the next three business days or give me a sensible update.

I’d already started the process to switch my FIT payments to Octopus!  They emailed me on 19th October to confirm they would start the move process. I haven’t heard anything from them since then so emailed for an update last Friday!  Maybe Octopus are waiting for Ovo too..!

Jeffus, thanks for the link to the ombudsman 👍

Thanks elljay.  At last I have had a more promising (they are full of promises!) talk with them. My utility account with Shell is going to Octopus (not by my choice) so I will probably change to them for fits if I can ever get up to date first. The hours I have spent chasing this are ridiculous. Hopefully Octopus who have a good reputation are better than these rogues.

Hope you get somewhere, sijulien!  I’m with Shell for utilities and heading to Octopus too!

Hey @elljay,

I’m sorry to hear of your frustrating experience, 

If you’re unhappy with the goodwill payment offered by OVO, and they are unable to resolve your complaint within eight weeks, the next step would be the Ombudsman.

If you want us to check how the team has handled your complaint, you can ask for an internal review. You can do this at any stage of the process. Even if you’ve agreed to a solution with OVO, you might then decide it wasn’t the right one. You can contact OVO and ask for an ‘internal review’. 

You can find out about our full complaint procedure on the website.