TLDR: The balance in my OVO account was incorrect. So my refund request was too high, despite contingency of 1 normal monthly payment. OVO do not email if a refund is cancelled or is rejected by the system after initially going through. They need to fix this.
Coincidentally(?...) later today I have received an email from OVO stating “We added credit to your energy account, when we shouldn't have. This happened after your Direct Debit payments didn't reach us.” This was from a missed payment back in November 2022 - 9 months ago, which on re-inspection matches up with my bank statement.
I phoned back in, because looking at my new account balance it would not be sufficient to meet the re-requested refund amount. They explained that the refund system probably realised my account wasn’t in enough credit ahead of when this correction was made and kept cancelling the refunds. I have made a 3rd for a request for a refund for a lesser amount.
I am still yet to receive any of the surplus money but will only update again if it fails to arrive or some more complications happen.
How can I get my refund when OVO sent it to a bank account that was closed 2 years ago. OVO are happy enough to take the DD from my extant account?
That refund will probably be sent back to OVO. You’ll need to talk to Support for this: https://help.ovoenergy.com .
Tried that 10 minutes n hold - spoke to someone who then put me on hold for a further 1 minutes before the call was disconnected.
Try Live Chat, it’s faster: https://help.ovoenergy.com .
Hey @mgrant,
Sorry for the issues you’re having,
Is the refund from a previous account that has been closed? If this is the case, the refund will bounce and then a cheque refund will be issued.
We may have a direct debit set up on your new account but we can only issue refunds to bank accounts that have been opened on an account (your old and new OVO accounts are separate). So unless you set up a direct debit for £1 with your new bank details on the old account, the amount will be refunded via cheque.
Hey @Bunion,
Really sorry for the issues you’ve had,
The following need to be met for a refund to take place if you are initiating the refund yourself online, you need to make sure you have been billed to an up to date meter reading so that the balance is correct:
Self serve refunds
Customers can request refunds up to £500 via the OVO Energy App. They must match the following criteria to request a refund online:
- Have an active Direct Debit with at least one payment received from that bank account
- Request a refund of over £5
- Request a refund up to £500
- Leave a remaining balance of at least one month's Direct Debit
- If they don't meet the criteria an error message will be displayed
In regards to your other issue, I think it might relate to the following:
We’ve seen a few examples of repeated failed Direct Debit payments being incorrectly credited onto customers’ accounts - this has only been impacting the 5th and final failed DD attempt.
This means these customers’ accounts may not accurately reflect their actual account balance, and we’ll be removing any incorrectly applied credits.
We don’t have access to your account on the Forum so I can only make assumptions based on the information provided.
I hope this gets sorted for you soon.
The issue is that the confirmation email said the refund would be paid to the account from which the direct debit is taken. So why did OVO try to send it to an inactive account rather than the one I use to pay from each month?
I look forward to receiving my refund somehow, sometime soon.
Has anyone else happened to try the online Refund page of My Ovo?
Yesterday all was well and I was thinking of applying for the surplus today only to find that I can no longer apply as:
“It looks like you haven’t sent us any meter readings in the last 28 days, so your balance isn’t up to date.”
Funny, the previous page has all my smart meter readings and my latest bill to date so I am hoping this is only a temporary glitch.
Hey @Chris D. ,
Support can override if needed. Have a chat and they can set up a refund for you: https://help.ovoenergy.com .
Have you tried contacting support recently?
I was simply hoping it was a glitch, one of many Ovo seem to be having lately, but if no one seems to be having the same problem I will form a queue on the phone!
I have actually. Live Chat gets me through in a matter of seconds
Hey @mgrant,
Sorry for the issues you’re having,
We wouldn’t send a refund to a different OVO account, a refund would be issued to the direct debit details that were on the account. So in this case, we’re refunding your old account, the direct debit details are no longer valid so your refund will bounce and we will issue a cheque instead.
If the refund is from two years ago and you’ve had an email about this, I’d advise contacting the Support Team back to either set up a direct debit for £1 on the old account, so that refund can be issued to your new bank account details, and then the direct debit will be cancelled. Or give your new address so we know where to send the cheque to.
It is not possible for us to pay an amount owed on one OVO account into another OVO account and then refund it.
Hope this helps.
Hey @Chris D.,
Really sorry to hear this,
I’ve not heard any other reports of this issue, so I think it may be account specific. If you’re able to report back to this topic when you find out what the issue is, it may help other Community Members.
If I hear any updates on this internally I’ll let you know.
This shows a complete lack of understanding. You tried to send the refund to a bank account that OVO has not used for over two years. You tried to send it to an account which the direct debits do not come from. This is an extant refund. I don’t know how I can make this any clearer. OVO do not seem to be following their own processes nor accepting that this issue is likely to cause stress to the customer.
Hey @mgrant,
I’m sorry, we don’t have access to your account here on the Forum. I assumed that the refund was from your old closed account. I didn’t realize the refund was in relation to your new account. In which case it is very unusual that they’ve attempted to refund it to an old, closed bank account when you have a current, active direct debit.
Please contact our Support Team they should be able to re-issue the refund or issue a cheque, whatever is preferable to you.
I am in credit and used to be able to regularly request a refund from the app or online.
Now the app says “There’s a problem, please call...” and I have searched high and low for the option on the website.
Am I going mad or has OVO added some hoops to requesting a refund?
Works for me on Dewott: Android 14/Samsung One UI 6.1.1 & App v19.3.2 w/ CodePush v481.
Either way, https://account.ovoenergy.com/payments/refunds should do it.
After I posted this, I found the blinkin’ ;-) page, still won’t allow a refund online though.
Got my refund using Web Chat.
Hey @Sealink,
I'm glad you managed to find it, and the team on Web Chat could arrange this for you. There are a couple of occasions where you might need to speak with a member of the team to arrange a refund. If you have a larger credit balance on the account (over £500), then a meter reading would usually be requested so we can ensure your balance is up to date, and a refund wouldn't leave the account in debt.
You can find more information on refunds here:
https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/refunds
I hope this helps!
