How can I make a complaint about my OVO Energy account?

Hello

When I submit a complaint via the preferred way of a web form at Want to make a complaint? | Our complaints procedure | OVO Energy, I get a little green notice on the page itself, but not durable confirmation that the complaint has been received. This is different from the email address, which has an auto response with a generic message. 

I don’t think that is ok, and I think every message should be acknowledged properly. (Ideally, I would like to get an issue reference as you would get with any modern issue tracker.) The lack of a response makes it difficult for example to follow up on any issues. 

So, do you think I should better communicate via email? 

I had the same issue, you will have to persevere on the phone to get anywhere.

I used the online form a week after asking for a formal complaint to be raised whilst I was on the phone to them.

A week later I hadn’t received any sort of response, so I wrote out my complaint in full, saved it as a PDF and emailed it in.

Two weeks later I still had no response and it was now four weeks after the original phone call.

I rang in and queried the lack of response or acknowledgement and I was amazed that the customer advisers do not get notified when something is submitted online. Apparently it just sits in a queue until someone actually gets around to checking them…given the current call queue times I suspect this will take weeks!

As for the lack of acknowledgement to my email the adviser had no answer as to why no-one had bothered to look at it and respond.

So for everyone who is happy with the OVO service will not realise the extent of the problems. Those customers who do have issues, although in the minority, are having to suffer at the hands of OVO.

Personally I cannot hold it against the advisers, they are dealing with massively increased call volumes as they now have the former SSE customers as well as the original OVO customers and I very much doubt the number of advisers in their call centre has increased much, if at all.

Hi @Simon Tate ,

To direct you to the right place, I need to ask you which side you’re intending to complain about. Please confirm whether it’s about:

• A Pay Monthly account, in which case it’d be https://ovoenergy.com/feedback 
• A Pay As You Go Account, in which case it’d be https://www.boostpower.co.uk/feedback

I think I have figured it out now. 
The way to go is to submit a written request by email. This does get linked to your account (no idea how, probably AI), but it does not get actioned (at least not for a few months in my experience). So, then you have to call up, and tell them to actually process it. So far, that seems to do the trick. 

I would not recommend using the chat feature. The people seem to be a lot less competent than on the phone, and this has caused me a lot of issues. 

So, then you have to call up, and tell them to actually process it. So far, that seems to do the trick. 

Umm… I’m not sure I like that idea as it’s incredibly load generating if tons of people start doing it. All you’ll end up doing is slowing down absolutely everything for everyone, so I’d personally advise against it. Trust me, 10 years in IT is more than enough to tell you that from experience!

This does get linked to your account (no idea how, probably AI),

I know many ways of making that possible. inSided has taught me a few tricks and platforms like Zapier make that incredibly easy to do. It can even just be a case that the support ticket system has an integration with the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and simply pulls in data from the CRM in the process of creating the support request.

Hey @Kevinrc,

Sorry to hear this.

Please find more about the complaint procedure on our website.

If you have an active complaint it needs to be escalated if you are unhappy with the resolution, if no resolution is met within 8 weeks or we have provided your with our deadlock letter, then you have the option to refer your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman. 

You can also contact the complaints team through email complaints@ovoenergy.com.

We don’t have access to your account here at the Forum, so please if you have a question let us know if we can help? We can offer general advice. You mentioned an erroneous transfer… Can you please provide more information about your issue?

Hi @yuna1971

To quote the OVO official stats

61.24% are resolved by the end of the next working day 

92.49% are resolved in 8 weeks. 

Given the general speed of email with the majority of companies these days i would be tempted to phone or use web chat if you haven't heard back by next week. Best not to try Monday.

Feel free to post details of your issue here if you would like other customers to see if they can help in the meantime. Obviously don't post personal information 

Hey @yuna1971,

I’d advise calling Support on 0330 303 5063, you can then raise a complaint then and there. If they’re not able to resolve your complaint it can then be escalated. 

If you feel it would be too hard to explain over the phone, you can get them to search your email address and they should be able to see the email you’ve sent. 

You can find out more about our Complaints Procedure here. You can also post your issue here on the Forum and we can see if we can offer some helpful advice?

Hope this helps. 

@yuna1971 a good way to contact ovo is via private message on their twitter or facebook pages.

The ovo staff their have access to your account. 

Include your name, address,  account number and date of birth for security purposes in the private message. Ask them to check if your email complaint has been received.

They usually get back in 24 hours in my experience in the week. 

Useful as you will have a date and time stamped audit trail, including the name of an ovo employee

Hi this is the ofgem decision if it helps people understand my  question about if to accept it or not and what to do:

Conclusion

I have concluded OVO Energy failed to provide you with the appropriate customer service, and I am not able to determine if the readings provided are correct based on the evidence you have provided.Therefore, I have requested for the following actions to be completed: Change the opening reading to 17442 on the 16th June 2022 , provide an apology and £100.00 goodwill to credited to your energy account. If you have any questions, please contact me on 0 or send me a message online, using our complaint management system where I will be able to respond directly to you.

Outcome: Upheld

Remedy 1

Remedy: Action

Comment:

Apply the reading 17442 for the 16th June 2022 as the opening reading. 

Remedy 2

Remedy: Action

Comment:

Issue an apology for the shortfall in service and any inconvenience caused.

Remedy 3

Remedy: Goodwill

Value £: 100.00

Comment:

Provide £100.00 as goodwill payment to your energy account, as a goodwill gesture for the shortfall in service and any inconvenience caused.

No consumer comments found ...

Decided by *removed name* on 20 Dec 2022 at 08:58
You can download this decision as a PDF letter 

Hey @eyupwolf,

I’m really sorry to hear of the issues you’re having,

Unfortunately, we don’t have access to your account on the Forum, and are unable to deal with complaints of this nature.

As you’ve already raised a complaint which was escalated to The Ombudsman I'd advise calling 0330 303 5063 and asking to speak to the complaints team regarding an ‘escalated complaint’ they should be able to put you through. 

You can find out more information about our complaints procedure on our website. 

Hope this helps. 

I've tried every way possible to speak to someone from ovo and the only direction I seem to get at talking to anyone is their collections line. Which is rediculous. I'm a vulnerable adult with autism and an acute anxiety disorder and when trying to find out a few issues regarding my enery support scheme not being applied, I found myself amid a panic attack due to being shouted at by one of their staff.  I had only so far informed her of my attempts at trying to source some information about my account. My wife found me crying and asked me to put the phone on loudspeaker to which she listened as shocked as myself to hear how angry this lady was and took over the call. Her attitude didnt seem to change regardless of my wifes attempts at appeasing and pacifying. I was given several different numbers to try by different staff. And for all of those numbers, the extensions led to the same location. Collections. I was told over the course of over a month, that I was to expect payment shortly, payment was delayed, then finally shouted at that the scheme payment was not applied. Please note I am not a confrontational person and can fully assure you I had not encouraged or instigate the level of abuse that followed the conversation. I requested to be transfered to another collections advisor as I was struggling to communicate with the level of aggression. I was told that I did not have authority. Not the ovo employee. She was implying myself. It took me a few hours to try to calm down. I then tried a different form of contact which was through whatsapp. It took two days to get a reply. The only information I was given was that they couldnt access full details of my acvount due the fact they work in collections. So I then tried to contact them through online messaging. I now have several reasons I am trying to contact ovo. One of them being funding of over a thousand pounds that was credited to my account in the beginning of December, still not available.  Have been trying in a que to speak to someone for days. Nobody is replying to me on whatapp and no advisor is answering me on messenging either. It's starting to seem like you just take money and supply little care for your customers.  We have no way to contact you regarding emergencies, funding, queries or advice.