Add a Self-Service appeal to MyOVO for accounts that accidentally get charged exit fees

I can see the benefit of this, @Blastoise186 for genuine examples where the exit fee was applied in error. 

I feel that this feature may get abused by anyone charged an exit fee. What’s to differentiate between them? Does this not simply open up a new channel that needs to be resourced and placed in a queue. If so, how to prioritise? It gets complicated the more I think about it working in practice. 

That said, it’s a genuine idea for the online account so lets open it up for votes. 

Yeah, there definitely would need to be some kind of anti-abuse mechanism in place! But I see a potential hybrid approach here, using both automation and manual processes.

If the appeal feature is used and the billing platform is immediately and fully confident that the member qualifies for a refund, go ahead and approve the appeal on the spot and process the account credit(s). This should mostly be reserved for cases where the member cancelled a fixed rate sign-up well within 14 days of signing up to it.

If the billing platform isn’t sure what to do, flag the appeal to the Support Team for manual review and go from there.

If the billing platform is immediately and fully confident that you don’t qualify, initially warn the member that the case doesn’t seem to qualify, but allow them to submit for manual review anyway. Because you shouldn’t use a computer to say no.

Something like that could work well. I spoke to a support agent last night and he was extremely supportive of this idea!

Oh and obviously, if the system cannot detect any trace of any exit fee ever being applied to the account, then it definitely makes sense to either immediately deny the appeal, or not offer the option to appeal at all. :)

Just had the exact same thing. Contract started on 27th August making 10th September the last day I could cancel without an exit fee. Today I've had a £30 exit fee added to my bill even after being told on the phone I wouldn't be charged it. Really annoying

Update here from the product team that looks after this:

We’re in the process of changing how we apply exit fees in light of the new government Energy Price Guarantee, so we hope that this change will mean customers do not have to get in touch to raise this issues.  

When that change is in place, I’ll make sure to update this Idea.