Feed in Tariff (FIT) or Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) payments - who to contact if I have a query?

Why doesn't the SEG team have their own phone number and customer services for us to call? 

This is from their website 

and I think on the support number it’s option 4 for the SEG team

Up until now we have been receiving our FIT payment exactly two calendar months after inputting the figures.  No payment today, 31st August.  Anyone else experiencing delays.

Yo have been doing well to receive your FITS payments after 2 months. Ours have taken anywhere from 3 to 6 months.

No confirmation of what we are due from our June reading which should have come at beginning of August and no payment.

This time the excuse is the payment emails  were not formatted correctly so they are having to redo them. They have used every excuse going not to pay us on time.

This is a company in financial difficulties which is using FITs money from OFGEN to support its business. We are leaving and would encourage everyone else to do the same.

Further to my original post I manage our bank account online.  The FIT is in my husband’s so he gets all the emails.  When we were migrated from SSE to OVO my husband missed that returns had to be submitted on the last day of the quarter so he input on the 1st of the Next month as he had done for years with SSE.  This massive change was not highlighted sufficiently.  Thanks to this forum we realised his mistake.  So the first payment arrived at the next quarter.  What OVO does not seem to realise is that since 2011 we have relied on SSE’s prompt payments.  I have checked with my husband and yes, he has had an email from OVO which he didn’t tell me about dated two weeks ago.  Therefore the FIT payment will be made in the middle of September two weeks after we should have received it with OVO moving the goal posts again..  Again, I will reiterate that we have over the last several years come to rely on the prompt payment that SSE used to pay.    If the above post is true what will happen to our FIT if OVO ceases trading.  We did contact Octopus but they were inundated with FIT requests and at that time said we would not be put on the same return which we have had since 2011.

I don’t seem able to access the other comments either.

Hi @MAG1036 , this being a customer based forum, you will often see odd, unsubstantiated comments and usually negative ones as those without any issue tend not to post here. 
All that I can say is that having been with OVO for almost 2 years, once I had got my direct debit sorted, I haven’t had any problems and having visited their HQ back in February, cannot think there are any financial issues. These things are monitored closely by OFGEM, after the failures in recent years. 
FIT is a particular area which seems to have grown significantly since OVO acquired SSE and they appear to have struggled to cope. 
My own FIT is with my original provider (not OVO) and they had system problems a few years ago when the whole system was updated. Since then, I have not had any problems with them either

Just hang on a few minutes and Forum Volunteer Blastoise186 will surely give you the benefit of his years of experience in receiving FIT payments in a timely manner……….

“The way OVO pays out is actually safer than the way SSE used to pay out. SSE used to pay without waiting for Ofgem to cough up first. If Ofgem didn’t reimburse SSE, they’d be out-of-pocket and getting their money back wasn’t always easy.
By waiting for Ofgem to hand over the cash first, OVO doesn’t have to risk taking a hit to its bank balance.
I’ve always advised against relying on FiT/SEG Payouts to pay other bills or maintain your bank balance with. If you do rely on them, it’s probably a good idea to think through your strategy again.
It’s worth remembering that FiT/SEG don’t necessarily last forever and they could get terminated at anytime. Unlikely to happen, but definitely not impossible. It’s much safer to consider them a bonus thing rather than part of critical cashflow.”

I’ve definitely changed my strategy with OVO since receiving his advice !

Actually… I don’t have FiT/SEG at all. All I’ll say is that my flat is not suitable for such systems.

If you’re wondering why I respond so fast, it’s because I have a lot of free time and I’m a ninja.

• P50WKB   When I say ‘rely’ I mean were are very happy to receive the payments.  This year we are on holiday soon so was expecting OVO NOT to change the goal posts yet again and pay promptly.  Our panels have paid for themself so if anything changes re the payment so be it.

I have read this elsewhere on the forum.

Our FITS are paid for 20 years from when they started by legal agreement and cannot just be removed.

I have read about concerns about OVOs financial status in the financial press.

Any company that uses all the know excuses for keeping people's money raises suspicion.

As far as I am aware SSE only paid out FITS money once readings has been accepted by OFGEM. OVO just sits on the money after it has received it. We should receive our payment within 3 months of submitting the reading. I even got an email from OVO advanced complaints team showing me when we would receive our statement and when payment would be made. So our June reading should have got a statement at beginning on August and payment at the end. Neither so far.

We are moving to Octopus. Not worried about how soon they pay us as long as we do not have to spend months chasing them for our money.

I was told today the email sent confirming DNO was not acceptable as I could have written it myself! I need to screenshot an email the SEG team already have.

After 6 months they still find a reason I can't have SEG payments. I've been with OVO for 5 years but they seem to think I'm trying to defraud them.

Hey @FreddieE,

Sorry for what sounds like a very frustrating experience.

I’m not an expert in FiT but I’ve found this pdf from the OFGEM website. Which explains in more depth the evidence/documentation required from the DNO.

Hope this helps. 

Hi,

Problem is the SEG team change their mind every week about what documents are needed.

Yesterday they decided an email from the electricity company confirming DNO cannot be accepted as I may have made up the email. Why would I do this.

The email even says I can use itbto orove DNO.

Cheers 

Fred

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I have finally managed after 5 months to get changed from a payg to a credit meter. I moved into this house 5 months ago and it has solar panels however I have no idea how this works regarding payment. Can anyone help please?

Payments for FiT/SEG are managed via the FiT/SEG Team. You can reach them via  fits@ovoenergy.com and seg@ovoenergy.com . But be advised that not everyone has their FiT/SEG accounts with the same supplier as the supply account.

You’ll need to set up a FiT/SEG account before you can get payments.

Here’s an OVO guide on the Smart Export Guarantee, @annmalone28 

Welcome to the world of solar panels, nice new badge!

Ok, so I’m on an endless loop. SSE have been taken over by OVO and Ovo don’t know anything about the meter! I have to apply for it in my name but I have no paperwork as this is a council house! I’ve asked the council so waiting on them now! Meanwhile it’s costing me nearly £7/day to run air source pump @ 16* . Yesterday was a sunny day so that helped but I cannnot afford this if it’s not sorted soon. 🙁

surely it shouldn’t be this difficult,?

Hey @annmalone28 

Sorry to hear about this.

The best thing to do will be to contact the team via email fits@ovoenergy.com and seg@ovoenergy.com, or you can give the team a call to discuss things on 0330 303 5063 and selecting ‘4’ when the IVR instructs you to do so.

I know the team have been facing back logs so timings can be a little delayed at the moment. Hopefully the council get the paperwork over to you soon.

I emailed fits@ovoenergy.com over two weeks ago and aside from the automated acknowledgement explaining how busy OVO is, I have had no response.

I phoned the FiTs hotline on 0330 303 5063 a few times and after listening to lots of hold music and hearing how busy OVO is a few times the line went dead.

One of the messages on the phone hold system suggested that I go to the website help, so I did that and used the “chat” option.

After the chat bot worked out that I had a FiT query I requested to speak with an agent, and was then told that I was first in the queue. After about 10 minutes, the helpful lady told me that she would love to help me but she doesn’t deal with FiT and would have to transfer me over and that would take at least another 10-15 minutes.

At this point I was doubtful that the promise of 15 minutes would be kept and decided to leave a message on the forum just in case there are better results to be had here.

In passing, I note that forum posts that I made the last time I logged a query here, some time ago, about FiT payments, have all been deleted, I wonder why.

Hey @PeterCamb,

I’m really sorry you’re struggling to get through to the FIT team, 

Are you pressing ‘4’ on the IVR? 

Can you explain more about your query? I’ll see if there’s any general advice I can offer. 

Thank you for your response @Emmanuelle_OVO 

I did not keep a record of the numbers that I pressed whilst navigating the OVO phone system but I selected the one that included FiT.

I want to switch to an export tariff and so I need to end the payment of deemed export FiT payments and I need confirmation that that has been done.