Government levy fixed rate changes now showing on online account?

Hi ​@Abby_OVO thanks for the clearing up…I must say I had to read ​@Bendog’s post two or three times to get a handle on what was going on!  But now I think I understand…maybe it might have been clearer if the wording at the top of the Plan info had been something like “The newly amended Government Levy rates of your 1 Year Fixed Loyalty 17 June 2025 plan will apply from 1st April 2026” perhaps just to emphasise that no existing contract was being terminated, just the terms relating to the new tariff? Forgive me, my suggested wording is a bit woolly and only a feeble example, but something along those lines to make it clear that the rates were actually being improved!!

I mean ultimately it’s good news (at least in the short term!) for us consumers, but at first or third glance might not actually seem be worded to imply that!

All the best as ever….Walt

My problem was that nothing was communicated to me before these changes were made. I said that I understood WHY the changes were to be made. I just expected that customers would be informed of changes before they appeared on their Plan Page. 

The statement at the top says, quite clearly: “Your new 1 Year Fixed Loyalty 17th June 2025 plan will start on 1st April 2026.” This implies that the new plan will last for 1 year and not just until the end of my present plan. That could and should have been worded more accurately. That page is, after all, where customers can check that the rates on their bills reflect the rates on their agreed Plan. 

It would have been, relatively, easy to make the statement at the top an accurate reflection of what Abby has said will happen by saying something like (in my case): “Your amended 1 Year Fixed Loyalty 17th June 2025 plan will start on 1st April 2026 and finish on 6th August 2026. Details to follow via email/post.” There is no ambiguity here. 

I’d just point out that suppliers are under no obligation to give prior notification of price reductions, but they are required to notify price increases. You’ll enjoy the Standard Licence Conditions’ legalese to cover any nasty not actually a price increase - Disadvantageous Unilateral Variation:

  
You could argue that (c) applies here, I suppose, in which case there’s all sorts of other conditions to be met. That will presumably become clear when the promised email or letter turns up.

Still, it would be nice to let the customer know what was going on. Just a couple of sentences briefly ensuring that there is nothing to worry about and a more detailed email will come soon. 

To be kinda fair on the industry…

This is probably the first time the UK has ever suddenly made a change to the system which requires all Fixed Rate Tariffs to be modified mid-contract. It’s likely most billing systems aren’t really built to handle that because almost no-one ever thought it would happen.

Just some thoughts as an IT guy.

This is uncharted territory, so I suspect that there’s a little bit of left-hand-right-hand going on, coupled with a whole army of billing, IT, commercial, website and communications people rushing to meet a deadline which has probably already passed. Perhaps they’re concentrating on what has to be done, even if that means skating over the ‘would be nice’ stuff. I don’t envy them at all.

Fair comment.  However the emails that we have received are personalised to the extent that they include an estimate of the effect of the (as yet) unspecified rate reductions.  Given that this estimate can only have been produced with knowledge of the future rates, there seems to be no good reason not to have included that information, as well as clarifying that fixed term contracts were not in fact being abrogated.

Try scaling that up to 5+ million customers with a bazillion different possibilities…

It’s not as simple as you might think. With the limited time available, there’s only so much OVO can do.

As I said, OVO clearly know what rate they are going to charge me in order to be able to make the savings estimate, and they have managed to sow confusion by amending the contract end date without explanation.  At least one other supplier that I know of has overcome the challenge of telling their customers what their new rate is going to be in two week’s time.  But if you are telling me that it is too difficult for OVO, I am sure you are correct.