OVO refusing to refund when I'm in credit - why?

If you want more than that back, talk to OVO Support: ​​https://ovoenergy.com/help . They will discuss it with you and if appropriate, process it on your behalf.

I will on Monday when “helpline” comes back on that’s why I’m asking forum members  , not fraud or any other security issue apart from our financial security 🤷‍♂️ work all week then when have free time to deal with these issues can’t talk to a real person ? Zap that security issue ! 
# being punished for being energy careful !

similar properties 150% higher consumption yet DD not altered to show this ?

Easy. I can blast it off into space with Hydro Cannon.

OVO Support is open tomorrow morning 9am to 1pm via Live Chat at https://ovoenergy.com/help . The Social Media Team is also around at weekends and their chats run as async - you can just ping them and then do something else until they get back to you.

Your DD cannot be compared to other properties - doing that is only fooling yourself.

Thought had  to “call “ to get a different refund , and again why show us different properties consumptions ? So therefore OVO is fooling us not us fooling ourselves ? What I know to be certain is that we haven’t been in debit through whole credit crunch either in winter 

or or summer as our credit status shows we just want it back

and our DD be in comparison to our consumption or

at least

to be paid interest on any credit in our account  !

I am in credit by over £600.00 I have tried to request a refund but the app is asking for a meter reading. I am unable to provide this as I am a smart reader user.  Can you tell me how to get a refund via their app, which I have been trying to do.

Refunds of above a certain amount (I think it’s £500) have to be confirmed by customer support after a current meter reading had been provided.

Is there a particular reason why you cannot take a reading from your smart meter?
(Is it locked in a cupboard that you can’t access or something like that?)

The reason is that I have a smart reader hence the fact I cannot provide a reading as they say they have a reading via this method.  I don’t recall this happpening in the past . The last time I requested a reading I just tapped the refund button without issues, unfortunately OVO Energy are putting barriers in the way again.

Hey @Wiseman65,

You can find more information on the refund process on the following article:

“If you’d like more credit refunded you can contact our Support Team who can initiate refunds up to £2,000. If the refund is over £599, we will need to check the account has been billed to smart reads, or actual meter readings if your meter is still traditional, and request photos of the meter.”

You can also request a refund through our Social Media teams:

https://www.facebook.com/ovoenergy/

https://x.com/ovoenergy?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/ovoenergy/?hl=en

I hope this helps! 

I was actually £2,000 in credit so I rang up to request a refund, but after an interminable wait I was told I wasn’t entitled to a refund as there was an error as they”hadn’t connected me properly”. It wasn’t explained at all, I was told they’d raise a complaint. But i received no acknowledgement of an investigation or anything.

I have provided regular readings and the consumption seemed to be as you’d expect - ticking over each month. By the end of the call I was now down to £1500 credit, with no explanation where the £500 went to. Luckily I had earlier downloaded my September bill which shows the higher amount as well as the new ‘adjusted’ bill.

I’d just like some explanation, maybe an email saying it’s being looked into and a refund please. 

Hugh

Good evening @Hubiegas ,

I’m sorry to hear this, but we can’t arrange that here. Please see https://ovoenergy.com/help and https://ovoenergy.com/feedback .

But I’d say fully check your online account first and especially the billing history there - the refund might already be on the way.

Thanks Blastoise186, I wasn’t expecting you to organise it, just wanted to know if this happened to others or if someone might be able to shed light on it. 
 

I have looked at my account, but can’t see anything that might explain it.

It’s a rare situation, but the system leaves logs behind so it should be possible to trace whatever happened to those funds. IIRC they cannot leave the account without leaving some kind of marker behind.

Definitely let OVO Support know about this ASAP - the sooner you do, the easier it’ll be.

It depends how much you wanted to have refunded. First-line support agents can authorize up to £500, but anything more needs higher authority. It sounds as if the agent was trying to get this but failed to get through, so you’ll probably get the £500 in a few days and the rest when whoever you talk to next manages to get authority.  

You would normally get an email pretty quickly telling you that ‘your refund’s on its way’.

Hi @Hubiegas,

I’m sorry to hear this. 

It seems our forum volunteers have already given some good advice here. 

Unfortunately we don’t have access to your account via the forum so it would be best to contact our Support team so they can look into this further.

These threads may also be helpful:

i have requested a credit refund (acc is now 1000 pounds in credit ) , our usage is about 50 per month.   I have been requesting this now since march 2025 . It has been refused as they say that they may owe me other credit from other years and cannot make ANY REFUNDS whilst they investigate . this has been going on for 3 months and they cannot say how long I must wait .

I was told that they will not guarantee it will be resolved this year ! 

can any one help

i have requested a credit refund (acc is now 1000 pounds in credit ) , our usage is about 50 per month.   I have been requesting this now since march 2025 . It has been refused as they say that they may owe me other credit from other years and cannot make ANY REFUNDS whilst they investigate . this has been going on for 3 months and they cannot say how long I must wait .

I was told that they will not guarantee it will be resolved this year ! 

can any one help

I’m sorry you haven’t had any earlier response to your appeal for help. That may be because you’ve given us limited information to go on. The more you tell us, the more likely it becomes that we can make sensible suggestions.

The account balance can vary wildly during the month, so £1000 the day before the Direct Debit (DD) is taken means something quite different from £1000 the day after. 

There are a few hurdles in place to minimize mistakes and fraud, and you seem to have run into some of them. The first requirement is an up-to-date meter reading. This shouldn’t matter too much if you have a smart meter sending readings regularly, unless it’s set only to send once a month.

Second is the amount. The online tool will not allow a refund that would leave a balance of less than the amount of three months’ DD. Nor will it allow a refund of more than £500. To get round these limits, you could request a refund of £499, so long as the amount left is more than three months’ DD. 

The supplier can’t legally refuse to refund any credit on your account so long as there’s at least the amount of one month’s DD left in the account after the refund, but you’d have to call Support to make the request if the online tool can’t handle it. I don’t understand the refusal to issue a refund because that credit balance may be higher, so you’ll have to explain that to us.  

I’m sure you’re familiar with this document, but others falling over this thread may not be: Refund Policy | OVO Energy

Hi firedog

The small property is our second home , it has a smart meter . the direct debit is set at 211 and they will not let me alter this amount until they have investigated why they have overcharged me . the last bills  -mar 17.60 - apr 66.36  may 23.67 jun 14.41

the property has storage radiators , you can see that the property has not been used much during the last few months . we normally spent 1 week each month there , the electricity is switched off at the consumer unit when we leave each time . the credit on the account continues to increase . now stands at well over 1000 .

I have now started the process of switching to a more honest supplier , but fear that OVO will not refund the money they have stolen from me 

You shouldn’t attempt to switch away whilst an investigation of this type is ongoing - you risk never getting it resolved if you do so.

Thks Blastoise 186

This is my fear , but I have tried for 3 months and the money is still being taken . they do not listen or want to resolve the problem .

Your next step in that case should have been https://ovoenergy.com/feedback followed by the Energy Ombudsman.

If you want the best chances of resolving this, I’d suggest cancelling the switch and using that process if you’re still able to.

OVO  customer service told me that there is such a backlog of complaints  that they could not even tell me when this problem will start to be looked at . It is obvious to me that OVO will soon collapse under such pressure . I have been waiting for 3 months already , and have been told that they cannot guarantee that it will be resolved this year . I dont want to give them more of my money .

Actually, the deadline is eight weeks, after which you can head to the Ombudsman automatically.

[I see that several posts have been made while I was drafting this. I don’t think they make much difference to what I’ve written.]

Thank you.

The amounts of the bills aren’t really helpful. What counts are meter readings, leading to consumption figures in kWh. If you could share the latest readings and those for the same date a year ago, along with the current (day/night) unit rates and standing charge, we could see what’s reasonable and what isn’t.  It would help to know where this property is located - the first part of the postcode is usually enough.

The Direct Debit (DD) is based on the Future Annual Consumption (FAC) figure, which you can see on the online Plan page. This should be not very different from the difference between last year’s and this year’s readings. You can also see how the DD amount is arrived at on the DD Calculator pages.

If Support have refused to recalculate your DD, you might consider submitting a formal complaint. If you don’t get satisfaction in either respect within eight weeks, you can refer the case to the Energy Ombudsman.

I’m sure that this isn’t a question of honesty or theft, but rather human error. Switching supplier at this stage is likely to make it more difficult to get to the bottom of the situation.

Yes i’m sure that’s right   OVO told me that it is a technical issue code 10304 . and that it did not fall within the regulation - I do not believe them . i spent over 2 hours on the phone to a guy called Bellan as I refused to be side tracked . Then eventual spoke to a Sandra ,senior resolution manager  who was truth full enough to tell me that they were totally overwhelmed , She feared for her job if OVO went bust