When I try to log into my oneline account, I get the following :

 

We're working on a new website for you

We're very sorry that you can't log in to your account at the moment. We're working on fixing things and will be back in touch in the near future with an update.

In the meantime, you'll continue to get your bill every month by email or post as usual.

This is not a problem that I have seen posted anywhere for some months and I have no idea how or if it was sorted for those who did report it on the FB pages I belong to.

Have you ever been able to log into your online account?

Hi ​@RogerP 

How long have you been a customer of OVO?

Was your account previously transferred from SSE to OVO?

It's been a while since someone reported that particular message but I believe that most/all of the previous instances we have seen were account transfers from SSE that hit a snag.

Moved to my new place last August and the account was moved too (been OVO customer for years, and when SSE existed), although the details ended up being incorrect (PAYG instead of paying monthly). 

Whilst the correct billing type has been fixed, online access hasn't and it's It's been like this since. 

Hey ​@RogerP 

I’m sorry to hear about this issues you’ve had, have you reached out to the Support Team about this?

Unfortunately we don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum so we can’t be entirely sure what the root cause for this will be. We have seen similar previously while we transferred our older customers over to our newer system so I wouldn’t have expected to see this if you only joined in August.

I would recommend reaching out to the Support Team so they can take a look and see why this is happening and if they can then help move a fix forward.

Will do, thanks

Hi, sorry for not posting how this was eventually resolved. It was a long time ago now, so I don't remember the specifics, except that it was some anomaly in how my account had been set up to manage two homes at once: My own (though I had moved to another supplier so the OVO account was dormant), and my mother's (because I'm managing hers for her under power of attorney). There was something amiss in the settings and it took a very patient complaint handler about 40 minutes to solve, going backwards and forwards between different departments. With all kinds of security checking, passwords, authorisations to resolve, I remember being very impressed with this person's knowledge of how the system worked and their patience to resolve it. The account has worked fine ever since.

...However I should add that this original message about 'We're working on a new website for you and we'll be back in touch with an update' - was very confusing and unhelpful. Chiefly because there was no new website and no-one got back in touch with me. Initially I waited weeks while this message persisted, occasionally calling in but getting responses that may have been well meaning, but either gave incorrect advice or suggested I hang on for a bit longer. Possibly because the 'new website' message confused the call handler too. I'm a bit surprised to see that it still appears. A message which reads 'We have a problem with the setup of your account, please call our registrations helpline' - might be more helpful.

I think you’re seeing that because there really was an old billing system back in the day that ran under the paym.ovoenergy.com domain. It was codenamed Apollo by OVO’s team (the underlying platform was Gentrack if memory serves) and it was basically the system OVO initially chose in the early days to run the show with.

However, it didn’t work and OVO eventually dumped Apollo to build their own system in house - the one that’s known as Orion is the custom built billing platform which is maintained by OVO’s sister company Kaluza and runs under the account.ovoenergy.com domain (formerly under the smartpaym.ovoenergy.com domain). The codename is officially Orion, but it’s sometimes called Kaluza Orion or the New Billing Platform depending on who you ask.

Pretty much all of the above is easy to verify - it’s well documented in the OVO Forum history if you were interested in digging through the archives.

It’s likely your old (now closed) account was hosted on the legacy Apollo billing system which would have sent you to that domain - which now just shows a holding page which is what you were seeing. The online portal for it was shut down a few years ago due to security concerns (apologies, but I don’t have the exact reason as OVO needed to keep it secret) and the system was basically left running in “headless mode” while the transition away carried on behind the scenes. From my understanding, Apollo has now either basically been switched off completely, or OVO is pretty close to doing so. If you left OVO before your account migrated to Orion, you wouldn’t have had an online account on the new system and that’s probably where the issue came from - especially if you are managing another account on the same email address that is running on Orion.

The most likely fix was that whoever you spoke to was able to get your email address disconnected from the old (closed) account which usually forces the system to fix the redirect logic to force it to do what you expect - actually let you in to the active account. OVO usually has no problem with this when the old account is closed and settled (and has been for some time) since there’s no real need to keep it linked anymore.

Not an excuse to not have had this resolved sooner, but I hope this at least helps to explain what (probably) happened.

Thanks Blastoise, all that seems to fit very well with what happened with me. I did wonder why they didn't simply delete my old account and just let me set up a new one, especially since it was dormant. Much appreciated.