I'm moving out and want to close my OVO account, but I can't find where to submit my info online?

I have moved house and:

a) could not submit final meter readings because the meters had been disabled on my move out date

b) have been told I have to wait 4 weeks before a final account is sorted despite the whole system being automated.

Why in the 21st century cannot a so called modern customer based business process a contract end quickly efficiently and with say 48 hours?

In the time I've been with OVO the service has been inept incompetent and inefficient. 

Anyone from this pile of rubbish business care to explain as I'm quite sure if I had ever defaulted on a bill it would not have taken 4 weeks to demand payment.

A R Milne 

Ooh, you’re quite cross aren’t you. As far as I know the forum will only be looked at by fellow customers, not OVO staff, until Tuesday 20th ie after the bank holiday. If you’re lucky you’ll get a great explanation soon from @Blastoise186  who volunteers on this forum ! 

The OVO Forum is technically closed today as a mark of respect, so the advice that we’re offering is going to be more limited than it usually is. Most of us - including myself - are likely to take the day off so there will be no further comments from me on this thread today after this one.

All I will say is this. The process is usually almost fully automated and very rapid (it still takes up to six weeks to fully shut down an account anyway). However, manual intervention is required in some cases and it might be that yours is one of those. I know from personal experience that digging through server logs is complicated and takes a lot of time to do properly. If someone from OVO is having to go that deep, you’ll just have to be patient because one cannot rush that task.

To be clear, it’s actually impossible to fully and properly end a supply contract and account with an energy supplier with just 48 hours notice. You can of course start that process with less than 48 hours notice under certain circumstances like moving out, but it takes six weeks to completely sever the contract (regardless of tariff) and terminate the account. That’s just how it works! You have to give the supplier a chance to tally up the final bills, calculate the final usage, verify against industry data, run a bunch of processes, issue the final bill and either take the final payment/issue a final refund. It’s just not possible to squash all of that down into 48 hours, regardless of how much you automate the process.

As for the customer service? OVO is rolling out a serious upgrade that will improve it massively. You’ll need to dig through the forum if you want to know more. Today isn’t the day to be talking about such things.

And for the record, over 90% of debt collection is automated - the Collections Team only usually steps in at later stages or if you get in touch.

Hey @Alasdair Milne, 

I’m sorry for the issues you’ve had. 

If you have a smart meter it should take the reading automatically so you shouldn’t need to take a manual reading. You can check your meter readings through the online account to ensure we have been in communication with your meters:

Your meters wouldn’t be disabled when you leave a property, you can take a manual reading from your meters by pressing ‘A’ on your electricity meter and ‘C’ on your gas if it’s SMETS2 or ‘9’ on each meter if its SMETS1. 

Your final statement can take up to 4 weeks from your move out date. But if you have a smart meter that submits daily reads your account balance should be up to date as we have a live billing system. Find out more about the moving home process here. 

Take a look at this helpful guide to find out more about our live billing system:

If we had communication issues with your meters, or for whatever reason you need to submit readings manually you can contact our Support Team who can submit your readings on your behalf. Your final bill will then be produced to these readings. 

Hope this helps. 

honestly i am to the point in my life where I don’t need the stress. I am a vulnerable customer trying to leave my old address and not only is my bill going up online every time I look, my final bill doesn’t make sense and now my old landlady telling me that I am liable for another bill come addressed to the occupier and saying I didn’t tell ovo I moved out - which is all lies, I gave my final meter read and literally to try and contact them. I have tried calling - jokes no way to get through, so tried website was 264 in queue it went down to 107 and now it has stopped telling me where I am… oh and whatsapp - i was told account was closed and to call….. *edited by mod*

Strange I noticed a lot of people say they can’t get through. But I always get through to speak to someone on the webchat . Within 10/15 minutes. So I just tried for you .

Hey @louise74,

Sorry for the issues you’re having.

Did you process the move out online? That’s the easiest way to do it through your Online Account. 

You’ll then get a final bill within 4 weeks. If you’re still in the 4 week period this may be why you can still see a daily standing charge increase online.

What do you mean by your final bill doesn’t make sense? Think we’ll need a bit more information to try and figure out what’s going on here. Your move out should be processed for the date you cease liability, you’ll be liable for the bills until your tenancy ends. 

Did you process the move out online?

When did you process the move out?

What date did you cease liability for the property?

Can the landlord open the letter, if it’s for a date after your liability they should know you don’t need to pay that bill. It sounds like they may not be aware they’d be liable for a period between tenants. 

Let’s get to the bottom of this 🙂

Hi, the online wouldn’t work and kept taking me around in circles (that wast the first joke) so I had to call and the guy I spoke to made an error it now appears and failed to put in the correct meter read.  I managed after 5 hours to finally get someone on the webchat.  I have to say your customer service is appalling, after being on hold for 45 mins I finally spoke to a lady in a VERY noisy call centre, she could hardly hear me, then whilst she was looking into it and raising a case she must have either put me on hold or done something as next thing I know is I am back in the queue!!! I waited another 30 mins or so and gave up.  The webchat I went back to the beginning even though I never left the page….. I literally had to start again at 200+ and finally I spoke to someone on there, she was helpful but offered me a mere £20 compensation for the error and I am sorry but £20 for now close to probably about in total 7 hours of trying to resolve this that was not good enough.  Also I was told if I want to speak to collections I can only call, there is no email and they can’t call me… I asked but with no reply what about the deaf community?  I am supposed to be as I was with SSE on your priority list for vulnerable people… seems not!  I am now waiting for a new final bill and then I will call collections (if I can get through) however, I did ask to speak to management and nothing, I have raised a complaint and so far no acknowledgement and when I asked for a copy of the online chat so I had evidence of our discussion and that the correct meter reading and information was logged the lady said she didn’t know how to send this to me!  Crazy!  I have never not had a webchat emailed to me as a standard after raising an issue…. in my 48 years I have never had so many issues just trying to speak to a human, let alone one that can get the information right!  How hard is it….. The exit date was 4/10 and yes the landlady has opened the letter but literally believes I am liable and told me when she called them said I didn’t give them the information correctly and told OVO 11/10 which is just lies… she doesn’t understand but I have told her it is not for me it is for the new occupier and a new account number to which she said no it’s for you the occupier who left…. she was going to call OVO again as I said again it is NOT my bill.  I am not going to go into my health issues on a public forum but believe me no-one should be put through all this just to get the correct information.  I am at the mercy of trusting the bills you send me are correct and I am just so glad I don’t have to deal with you ever again in my life once this is finally sorted, the stress and time used is not conclusive to my healing! I feel sorry for people who don’t have the mental capacity to even deal with this and I feel there is a serious lack of CUSTOMER SERVICE…. it feel like OVO are just here to look after themselves!  Sad times. However, I do appreciate you trying to help. Thanks, Louise 

@Jacko6625 lucky you!  I was over 200 in the queue twice the other day!  I am pretty savvy online luckily despite my health issues… but thanks for your input…. if you want to read my rant feel free… maybe I picked a bad day but seriously the customer service for me has been appalling never on the phone have I waited less than 45 mins so far in all the times I have called….

Hey @louise74,

I’m really sorry to hear this.

I’ll get someone to reach out to you, please keep an eye on your Forum inbox.