OVO have sent an email about my Direct Debit - Why are you increasing my monthly payment when I’m already in credit?

If you wish to dispute payments and request a freeze, you can discuss that with the Collections Team on 0800 0699 831 or Support Team on 0330 303 5063. Please bear in mind that the teams are extremely busy right now, so it may take longer to answer your call.

Alternatively, try the Live Chat at https://help.ovoenergy.com . :)

It’s a difficult balance to be honest. There’s no point having 1,000 support agents if most of them are just going to be idle for 99% of the year.

You might want to try calling 0800 0699 831 instead, the Collections Team can discuss this one with you.

Oh and thanks for your support @KeithA , between the group of 10 or so forum volunteers, we’ve dealt with several hundred threads in recent weeks. We try our best to divide the load between us and sometimes we’ll call on each other if one of us thinks another volunteer might be better suited to a particular question.

When backed up by the forum moderators (who do an amazing job!), a smart meter engineer and a few of our “forum friends” as I like to call them, we’ve got a very powerful team.

Thanks for the response. It’s very much appreciated. I will try the collections team number tomorrow and give the web messenger another go as well.

There’s more as well.

OVO is currently rolling out a massive upgrade within the Support Team and it’s being rolled out to all members this year. The plan as I understand it is to try and have a 100% rollout by the end of this year, but it could be a bit faster or slower.

Can’t say too much, but I will say this. You will notice a huge upgrade once your account is enabled. Faster call answering, more personal service, a whole squad of agents assigned to you… And that’s just the start! It’s way better. I’ve been on it for some time now and I know you’ll enjoy it. Just imagine having a personal account manager, except that rather than having one account manager… You have a whole squad of 10+ account managers. That’s basically the idea.

I am very happy to pay for what I use and very aware that energy prices are volatile at the moment, therefore DDs will be expensive. It also makes sense to me that energy use is calculated over the entire year and the DD is calculated by taking this into account.

What I am not happy about is OVO taking me on as a new customer with a suggested DD amount, having been given my actual kwh usage for both gas and electric taken as the highest out of the last 3 years and yet they have got some magic crystal ball out and decided that I will use more than double the amount of gas I have used in the last three years and must therefore pay them an additional £50 a month. 

Well this must be worked out on your usage with them since you started I hear you say. Alas, it is not, because I have not quite been with them 8 weeks yet and in that time I have used 2 kwh of gas. And when I finally get through, they start telling me they can offer me assistance and 'breathing space' to manage my payments. I just want them to use a bit more common sense and not pull a figure out of the air, I have no problem paying my bills.

Its a bloody con.

Double the gas for the estimate does seem a bit steep. However I would suggest (if you can stand the suspense) letting everything settle for at least a month while the new gov rates kick in and see how it looks then. 

Hey @tneast,

I’m sorry for the issues you’ve had.

We understand direct debits aren’t for everyone and you can opt to go onto the Simpler Variable on demand plan. Then you can pay on receipt of the bill instead of by direct debit.

If you believe your estimated annual consumption is incorrect you can contact Support about this. If you give them your annual usage figures in kWhs they will be able to check if the figures we have are out of line. If necessary they can put your account of a direct debit review hold. 

Hope this helps. 

For the last 2 months every 2 weeks Ovo has taken £116 from me even though my bill isn’t that high. Why is this and how can I make this stop?

Hi @Naikoru ,

I think the Collections Team are probably best placed to help with this one. You can reach out to them by calling 0800 069 9831. If they agree that there’s no need for this, they can put a stop to it for you.