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Can you speak to anyone at OVO on weekends?

  • 22 October 2017
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Transparent
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OK @Teri1967 so if your hypothesis is that you can't get responses from OVO on a weekend, then I think you've just gone a long way towards proving that to be true!

Posting the above on the warmest Easter Bank-holiday Saturday since records began was a pretty sure way to get none of us other Forum Members responding then either! 😜

I have no idea either where you get the figure of £500 being a reason that a Supplier may object to a switch. A switch is "held" for any level of outstanding debt, pending its resolution.

You can't actually take this matter to the "energy watchdog" until you've been through the stages of your Supplier's published Complaints Procedure. OVO have a very good record of resolving complaints long before they get referred to the Office of the Energy Ombudsman.

I would be surprised if OVO Customer Services couldn't resolve your issue within Stage-1 of their Procedure, which elicits a response within 5 days. There is usually a very clear reason why a Switch gets halted - such as a missing meter reading or incorrect meter reference number.
Save energy... recycle electrons!
T
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we have been forced into having our energy supply from OVO due to our last company collapsing . They say we can switch to another supplier of our choice because of this, but when we try to do this they make it difficult.
Ive tried to switch to a company Bulb who have great customer service AND ARE OPEN AT WEEKENDS !! however have had an email yesterday to say OVO have rejected my switch ... I’ve looked into any reasoning why this may happen and there is none ... if you are due more than £500 of your bill is the only reason an energy supplier may stop this happening... this is not the case with me....so OVO why are you stopping customers from moving to another supplier ???
iand to add insult to injury your not open on weekends for enquiries . Don’t you realise people work during the week which is why some people cannot call during the week, therefore rely on weekends to sort out any problems .... I will be taking this to Energy watchdog and advertising this on social media if I get no resolve with this very 😡 angry customer
T
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OK @Teri1967 so if your hypothesis is that you can't get responses from OVO

on a weekend, then I think you've just gone a long way towards proving that to be true!

Posting the above on the warmest Easter Bank-holiday Saturday since records began was a pretty sure way to get none of us other Forum Members responding then either! 😜


I have no idea either where you get the figure of £500 being a reason that a Supplier
may object to a switch. A switch is "held" for any level of outstanding debt, pending its resolution.

You can't actually take this matter to the "energy watchdog" until you've been through the stages of your Supplier's published Complaints Procedure. OVO
have a very good record of resolving complaints long before they get referred to the Office of the Energy Ombudsman

.

I would be surprised if OVO Customer Services
couldn't resolve your issue within Stage-1 of their Procedure, which elicits a response within 5 days. There is usually a very clear reason why a Switch gets halted - such as a missing meter reading or incorrect meter reference number.
A
Hello @Amy_OVO and @Tim_OVO

For future reference what do you do, if like me, you dont use Facebook or Twitter???

Thank you
Eva_OVO
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Good question, @Phil_H, if you find yourself in an off supply situation over the weekend you can call our usual contact number for advice.

There's a team who work through emails on Sunday, however the response time is 48 hours so you may not get an immediate response.
My friend told me how electricity is measured and I was like Watt!
A
Hi @Eva_OVO

Thanks for replying however its clear from the posts above that the usual number is not being answered out of hours.

The answers from @Tim_OVO to the original email indicate that the problems described here were picked up on social media- which was the reason for my question above- what if you dont use social media?

Sending an email that might not be responded to for 48 hours, in an emergency is not good enough.

If a customer posts on this forum about an issue like this there is also no mod at the weekend/out of hours and other users are unlikely to be able to help.

Also i think there are probably still lots of customers like me who only use the internet/email from their home network, so if power goes down and their router goes down - no internet or email, so contact by telephone in the event of an emergency seems to be the only option that would allow all customers to contact OVO if there was an emergency out of hours.

From the above it appears OVO have ruled out having an emergency out of hours contact number and there have been a number posters commenting on this including @Transparent

I think OVO need to review this including how all customers can contact OVO in the event of an emergency, including getting a timely response to resolve an issue.

At the moment it sounds like there is a good chance you could have an emergency resulting is a loss of power Saturday PM and not be able to contact OVO till 9.00am Monday!
Amy_OVO
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Hey @Phil_H,

We offer the best phone cover we can, inline with common industry standards. We can offer support to cover the majority of the day, Monday-Friday 8am-6pm. As @Eva_OVO mentioned outside of this you can call our normal number and it will give you advise regarding emergency situations.

There is also OVO Help section on our website - this is available 24/7.

You’ll also be able to self serve your account on My OVO, whenever you want, wherever you are, on our super handy app.

Here’s some information on what to do in an emergency, this may be of use to someone finding this thread at a later date.

I'll ensure your feedback is passed on.

Thanks!
OVO-Joyed to help!
A
Hi @Amy_OVO

Thanks for responding to my questions, I was not fully aware of the contact hours until I had read this post. I dont think many customers would be until they need to contact OVO.

I am glad you will pass on my comments.

OVO are an expanding company and I think as expansion happens and they are increasing their customer base, it becomes more important than ever to ensure those customers can contact OVO should they need to.

I think OVO should consider extending hours the customer phone lines are open to at least cover Saturday- some energy companies offer this already.

Also have a mod monitoring the forum over the weekend to help with any urgent queries.

Consider a system for monitoring emails out of hours.

Thanks again

Phil
Amy_OVO
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All good points, @Phil_H, I'll feed them back.

Thanks!
OVO-Joyed to help!
R
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What sort of company closes it’s customer service department on a Saturday morning? To me it stands for Your our Customer and we don’t care!

Eva_OVO
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It’s a shame to hear you feel this way, @RTFishall. As mentioned in the best answer the team are available on social media to contact during the weekend. Here’s what to do in an emergency off supply situation. 

My friend told me how electricity is measured and I was like Watt!
G
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Hi I need an emergency number for electricity....my supplier closed till money 

 

Blastoise186
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Who is your supplier?

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
G
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Ovo  apparently and there closed till Monday was on to a number they gave for 1 hour and then the call ended. 

Tim_OVO
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Hi @Gallag, sorry to hear you had an issue over the weekend. What’s the latest?

 

OVO’s digital channels, like web chat and whatsapp are open on Saturdays from 9am-2pm. If you have an issue outside of these hours over the weekend, see this guide on what to do. 

 

*update: ignore me, I can see you’ve got help via this topic. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
S
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Why does ovo not have a out of hours emergency call out, absolute disgrace. Got a meter fault. Only notice at tea time on Saturday night. Calling last night and this morning. So as there is no service with them I now have to wait until Monday at 9am. I have a 5 year old and no heating and a week and a half away from December. Thankfully its mild weather just now. OVO need to get there act together.

Blastoise186
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What is the meter fault exactly? And are you PAYM or PAYG? What kind of meter? This is all important stuff for forum volunteers like myself to know how to advise you.

Also, things might be changing next month, but right now only electricity has an emergency service via 105 - gas isn’t considered as critical by the industry, so there isn’t technically a service at this time.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
S
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Thank you for your reply. I am asking if there is a out of hours. Your response suggests they don't.

Pay monthly digital display gas meter with a dead battery, which has now put the meter into tamper mode and now no gas supply. Not can be done without an engineer to replace the battery, which I doubt will happen as a nightmare to do. So new meter it will be.

This is a thing, so why aren't they replacing batteries after 5 years.

If OVO can buy out SSE then they are large enough to cover out of hours surely.

Blastoise186
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It’s not just OVO. Pretty much no supplier across the entire market has no gas out-of-hours service at this time.

That may change next month though

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Emmanuelle_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hey @Shaun07,

 

I’m really sorry to hear this, sounds like a very stressful experience.

 

In a scenario where the gas meter is faulty and off supply and the energy supplier is closed, the National Grid will be unable to replace the meter. In the case of OVO Energy, our Support team are on hand 6 days a week to help arrange a short notice engineer visit to replace that meter. Our Social team are able to support you as well - send them a message on Facebook or Twitter from 9am - 5pm, Saturday and Sunday. This team are also able to schedule in an emergency meter appointment if needed.

 

 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
S
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Hey @Shaun07,

 

I’m really sorry to hear this, sounds like a very stressful experience.

 

In a scenario where the gas meter is faulty and off supply and the energy supplier is closed, the National Grid will be unable to replace the meter. In the case of OVO Energy, our Support team are on hand 6 days a week to help arrange a short notice engineer visit to replace that meter. Our Social team are able to support you as well - send them a message on Facebook or Twitter from 9am - 5pm, Saturday and Sunday. This team are also able to schedule in an emergency meter appointment if needed.

 

Thank you, but the information from web, app and social media team are all conflicting. Not everyone is singing of the same hymn sheet and information is incorrect. Most customers in a desperate situation would get there Hope's up but then their expectations are quickly deflated. 

I have all the screenshots to back these statements up. To add insult to injury, OVO contacted me by email, stating the contact email is incorrect as well as contact phone number. Which is not the case as the human ( very helpful customer service advisor) I spoke to today, and confirmed these to be correct. The Engineers scheduler and engineer both got me no problem when calling today, and there was no missed calls from OVO. So another lie to further insult me. 

I appreciate your help, due to my work I am well versed on energy supplies and meters.

I called the emergency number (SGN) due to the automated message explaining if there is no gas from the meter then to call 0800111999. Again wrong information as this is if there is no supply to the meter. Not a meter fault.

Thank you for everyone's input, very much appreciated and I felt like I was being heard.

To answer my own question and to help others.

There is no out of hour service out with their operating hours. There is no help available on a Sunday. So if you do have an emergency let's hope it's within operating business hours as this was dealt with very quickly. The more people complain the more chance there may be a service, but until then there is no plans to provide this. Or that complaining will influence a decision.

My issue has been resolved. Thank you.

 

Jeffus
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Hey @Shaun07,

 

I’m really sorry to hear this, sounds like a very stressful experience.

 

In a scenario where the gas meter is faulty and off supply and the energy supplier is closed, the National Grid will be unable to replace the meter. In the case of OVO Energy, our Support team are on hand 6 days a week to help arrange a short notice engineer visit to replace that meter. Our Social team are able to support you as well - send them a message on Facebook or Twitter from 9am - 5pm, Saturday and Sunday. This team are also able to schedule in an emergency meter appointment if needed.

 

Thank you, but the information from web, app and social media team are all conflicting. Not everyone is singing of the same hymn sheet and information is incorrect. Most customers in a desperate situation would get there Hope's up but then their expectations are quickly deflated. 

I have all the screenshots to back these statements up. To add insult to injury, OVO contacted me by email, stating the contact email is incorrect as well as contact phone number. Which is not the case as the human ( very helpful customer service advisor) I spoke to today, and confirmed these to be correct. The Engineers scheduler and engineer both got me no problem when calling today, and there was no missed calls from OVO. So another lie to further insult me. 

I appreciate your help, due to my work I am well versed on energy supplies and meters.

I called the emergency number (SGN) due to the automated message explaining if there is no gas from the meter then to call 0800111999. Again wrong information as this is if there is no supply to the meter. Not a meter fault.

Thank you for everyone's input, very much appreciated and I felt like I was being heard.

To answer my own question and to help others.

There is no out of hour service out with their operating hours. There is no help available on a Sunday. So if you do have an emergency let's hope it's within operating business hours as this was dealt with very quickly. The more people complain the more chance there may be a service, but until then there is no plans to provide this. Or that complaining will influence a decision.

My issue has been resolved. Thank you.

 

@Shaun07

If you feel passionately there are other things that you can do.

1. Encourage people to write to their MPs. All have many areas they focus on. Lobby to get the legislation changed. A lot of legislation changes start this way in the early days.

2. Look  out for relevant consultations on the ofgem website.

3.Start a parliamentary petition and encourage people to vote for it   https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions?state=open

4.  Switch to a supplier with longer opening hours and better emergency out of hours support. There are suppliers that are better than ovo at opening times if that is a priority for you.

There are lots of ways to compare suppliers including

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/get-a-better-energy-deal/compare-domestic-energy-suppliers-customer-service1/

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/energy-companies/article/best-and-worst-energy-companies/which-energy-survey-results-ajqM43e6ycY8

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.ovoenergy.com

 

T

Hi all,

I spoke to OVO at ~15:00 today as we’re not getting any gas to the property upon having a boiler replaced.

Mentioned to them that we have a newborn in the house and are struggling to keep warm enough and they booked an emergency engineer who was due to be with us within 3-4 hours.

It’s now 19:40 and no sign of the engineer. OVO is closed so I can’t reach anyone on the usual numbers, the emergency gas helpline have said they cannot help.

Do we really have to go overnight trying to keep a newborn baby warm in minus temperatures?

Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
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Hi @tomgravell ,

There’s no 24/7 out-of-hours gas emergency service with energy supplies like there is for electricity. Try calling out a Gas Safe Registered heating engineer - a lot of them do out-of-hours services.

Otherwise, you’ll need to wait until the morning I’m afraid.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Abby_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 6

Hi @tomgravell 

 

I’m really sorry to hear about this.

 

If you didn’t get a gas safe engineer out last night and are still off supply for gas, please contact the Support Team so that they can rearrange this for today.

 

You may also be entitled to £30 compensation if the engineer failed to arrive without notice, check out this helpful page: https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/guaranteed-standard-of-performance-gsop

Location: Electric Avenue

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