How do I contact OVO Customer Services if I need some help?

How can I accrue debt on a pay as you go meter!

Your IT system is cleary broken and judging by the multiple complaints I've read, I'm not alone and OVO needs to be held accountable for having the ability to get it so wrong and cause immense stress for customers. If I don't now put the work in to resolve this fault, my credit rating is going to be destroyed because of your broken system. It's totally unacceptable and I cannot believe you get away with it.

I can understand not paying a bill and incurring debt/charges but PAYG simply means if I don't top up my electricity goes off. 

This isn’t anything to do with OVO’s IT systems.

Siemens Quantum has been a thing for over 30 years and pretty much all Traditional Prepayment Meters run on it. It’s that which supports Traditional Prepayment Meters and by design, the meter itself enforces debt collections where needed. IIRC the functionality for Free Vend Mode and Non-Disconnect Mode has existed in Quantum from the start. These are just two ways you can rack up debt on PAYG, others being emergency credit usage and insufficient credit to pay Standing Charges.

If you run out of credit, you do NOT escape those charges - they rack up as a debt instead and the meter claws them back over time.

Same story with Smart Meters in Prepayment Mode - the meter itself enforces the debt.

Another trigger is that your Smart Meters are temporarily switched to Credit Mode while changing supplier for safety reasons - any charges racked up during this time get added as a debt on the meter once it switches back. Failing that, you get sent a bill instead if memory serves.

It’s nothing to do with IT systems.

The bottom line is I moved in on the 1st September and paid roughly £30 a week until the 23rd October. It's a 2 bed with 2 adults and 1 child with no heating turned on so there is no way I owe an additional £250 plus for a 6-8 week period. 

If you think the bills are wrong, you’ll need to discuss that with OVO - I can’t access other people’s accounts.

Hi, wondering if anyone can help me. Been on the phone to customer service, call handler told me she’s placed me on a brief hold, she then took me off hold but remained silent and in the back ground I could hear everyone leave the office and even set the security alarm at 6pm!! I’m now still currently sat on a silent call to an empty office…. Anyone else had this experience? 

Hey @Evie shelton 

I’m very sorry to hear about this incident.

Have you been back in touch with the Support Team since? If not, I’d suggest getting back in touch with the team now as this shouldn’t occur again.

We switched Sept 23 to Octopus. Ovo write to us afterwards saying they'd moved us onto a new tariff. We called saying we've left, they said sorry. They then billed us, despite us being in credit. We called again and said not to worry. They have sent us a bill again for £110. It says they've sent a statement to us but they haven't. So we've been billed for something we have no idea about, no explanation what it is for? No statements and we haven't been able to access our online acct for a year as when we do it says they're updating the website etc. this is crazy and it's causing me no end of stress. We aren't paying a penny because we left months ago and you can't bill people and not say what you're billing them for. 
 

we never received a final bill as far as I'm aware. We were in credit though. Any advice. I've emailed and no one has responded. Octopus have been good confirming the switch and sending proof of them taking over the supply. Ovo have been truly awful - their customer service has been nonexistent, don't bill us and not say what it is for? 

My 96 year old neighbour rang yesterday to say she had no heating. I went over and reset her boiler but it still didn’t work. Her heating engineer had a look and discovered there was no gas. Gas was getting to the meter but not out. The meter display was blank. She spent all night with no heating as OVO was closed until 9am this morning. My neighbour is deaf so I’m trying to sort this out, but all I can speak to is an automated system which says OVO is closed until 9am on Monday. So is my 96 year old neighbour supposed to have no heating for another 24 hours! Is there no OVO customer support available!!!

Hi @jonfromfleet 

I don't work for OVO. I am just a customer like you 

You could try the official OVO Facebook or Twitter page

They often reply out of hours or will pick it up first thing in the morning.

For example they posted in the last minute.

https://twitter.com/OVOEnergy/with_replies

The ovo team on Facebook and Twitter can access accounts unlike the ovo moderators here. There won't be any ovo moderators on here until Monday 

If you send a direct message on twitter and Facebook rather than a general post on those platforms then include the name, address, date of birth and account number to get passed security. I would include the word Emergency.

A general post should get someone's attention on those platforms.

Be worth them getting setup on the priority service register 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/register-for-priority-services

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/priority-services-register

Personally I wouldn't recommend ovo for vulnerable people. None of the suppliers are great but there are better ones for Emergency support.

Use the blue Messenger button at the foot of this page to get in touch with OVO support, also on Sundays. It may not be straightforward because of data protection restrictions, but it should be possible with determination. This sounds like a real emergency that calls for ‘action this day’.