Good afternoon @Dale12 ,

Please accept my condolences for your loss. As a forum volunteer I can’t take any actions myself. However, to try and help you towards a solution, I’ve asked the forum moderators to check this thread. They’ll be along as soon as they can.

Thank you. 

Hey @Dale12 

I’m really sorry to hear about this, you should have a Private Message from the Forum Support Team, so look out here for a PM: 

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview 

It looks like they sent my refund into my late sisters account  ( they wrote to me as her executor so why ??) and I have destroyed all the paper work so I've lost that £500+  yet they still take my direct debit out, it just doesn't make sense  ???

 Stay safe all

Obviously I don't know all the details. 

You could put in a complaint. 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

If you are not happy after ovo reply to that then you can ask the energy ombudsman for help. 

https://www.energyombudsman.org/

Hey @Dale12,

I’m really sorry for your loss, this sounds like a very stressful situation to be in. 

Call our dedicated team on 0330 175 9683 or email bereavement@ovoenergy.com, this team deal with bereavements and should be able to assist you. Forum Support have also reached out view private message. 

Thanks for your thoughts and time.

Hey @Dale12 welcome back.

Did you get things sorted out with the refund?

Hello. 

No, what they have done is send the credit  (£ 500+) back into my sisters account even though they wrote to me as her executor saying they would send the refund into my account  or send a cheque to the house and they already had take a direct debit out of my account so why they would send it back to the person they know is no longer with us just makes no sense and all my sisters paper work has long gone,  we lost her on the 7th June.  I was on the phone to ovo with in a week and a few times since and really they are saying it's down to me or its lost. 

Dale 

Hey @Dale12,

I’m really sorry to hear this,

It sounds like you may have been misadvised by the first agent you spoke to. OVO's system will automatically attempt to refund the bank account initially (if there has been a direct debit attached to the customer account) if there's a final credit balance. There is no way to halt that process currently. Even if we know the bank account has been closed for months, it will still try and will also send automated communications detailing the attempt. If it can't reach the bank account and is returned to us, bounces back, we'll send a cheque to ‘the executor’, however if it can reach the bank account successfully, it will go there.

And it varies from bank to bank, some still allow incoming refunds but freeze outgoing payments only. Once the estate is settled the refund will be returned to you as the executor so the refund shouldn’t be lost. Have you spoken to the bank? 

If the issue is that the bank account has been closed, the refund will bounce and be re-issued via cheque. 

I hope this helps. 

Hey @Dale12,

Just wanted to add, 

If you’ve spoken to the bereavement team (and not just customer care), we'll have taken your details and noted them for a refund cheque when the funds bounce back. If the refund went to the bank more than two weeks ago and hasn't been returned, it's very likely the refund was successful in reaching the bank and you will have to speak to the bank about it. We categorically cannot re-issue the refund until the funds are returned.

I’d advise contacting our bereavement team directly, they’ll be able to provide the best advice to you for this scenario.

Keep us posted with how you get on.