My OVO account has built up to the extent that they now owe me over £5,000. I have asked for a refund via telephone and submitted a photo of my meter. They have acknowledged that a meter reading was received on 16 October 2023.

I was assure that this would be refunded to the bill paying account but have not received this yet. Should I write to them now (in anticipation of a complaint and then a further complaint to the Energy Ombudsman)? What is the best address to use? Thanks!

That’s an awfully big refund to be requesting at once, so my guess is that it may have gotten snarled by a security check or similar.

Please see https://ovoenergy.com/feedback for your options. Note that post is the slowest option and I don’t recommend it.

Hi @Cordelia

The ovo website says 5 working days via your bank account or 7 to 10 days by cheque.

Have you had your refund now? 

The refund built up so much mainly because I didn’t understand the way that the account was reported by OVO. Also I was used to a much closer scrutiny of amounts owing and debit amounts by my previous supplier SSE.  Despite building up such a large credit OVO continued to take large debit amounts and at one point apologised for under charging! 

They are not good at communicating!

I checked my account last week and it wasn’t there, will check again today. The person I spoke to on the phone assured me it would be refunded to the account that the debit is taken from. I also sent a photo of my meter.

I’m at pensionable age and receive my state pension so this is a stressful and alarming position to be in.

Thanks for your responses all.

Hi @Cordelia

I would definitely recommend signing up for the priority service register if you haven't already as you are of pensionable age. It should help generally with issues when ovo staff see you are on the register. 

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

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

Thanks so much, will register 

Since OVO changed its policy on credit rewards, it has sunken to levels of what I see as gross profiteering by expecting customers to be 3 months in credit based on not the usage but the direct debit to guage refunds. This is outrageous and given the fact they've made it difficult to request a refund by having to phone at my expense and or enter into a time consuming chat with a machine before being put on to a real live advisor, it's even worse. My Direct debits are set to cover my winter bills. Given it's summer time, I've left them at this level rather than constantly adjust them and request refunds as OVO no longer give rewards. The refunds process was excellent until now and I've commented to people how easy it was in leaving my account a month in DD credit even though my bills are much lower. This moving of the goal posts by OVO is not on. The question everyone should be asking is... *Why are OVO asking for 3 months credit based on Direct Debits that are way higher than the actual bills?* 

Below is the final chat to an advisor. 

*Thank you and as this is being recorded let it be entered into your records that I disagree strongly with OVOs policy of expecting to hold back 3 months payments based on direct debits without considering the actual bills. Given there are no rewards now for being in credit, I see this as profiteering. The need to enter chats or use a phone line that's chargeable to me is also appalling. It's an obvious attempt to make refunds more difficult and I will be lobbying my local MP and contacting the ombudsman over this new stance along with an online presence.*

There seems to be a misunderstanding here, either on your part or the part of the advisor. OVO’s policy on refunds is clear on this point: “You can ask for a refund if your balance is in credit with at least a month’s Direct Debit amount”. The three-months’-DD threshold applies only to online applications; this is a safety measure, requiring the customer to contact Support if the credit on the account is less than three months’ DD so the implications of the refund can be explained. You should have been able to order a refund that would leave only one month’s DD on the account. 

If the advisor said something different and refused to action your refund, you should submit a complaint pointing out that the advisor got it wrong and asking for the full refund you’re eligible for. 

If your current DD is above the minimum it needs to be, you can always adjust it down, which would allow you to take a bigger refund. The DD is a constant monthly payment calculated to leave the account at zero at the end of winter (31 March) or the end of a fixed-price contract. This is how the recommended minimum is arrived at.

I tried to get a refund on the app as normal but it refused which meant I had to go to chat or phone them. If you read my post again you'll see why you need not have gone into DDs.

OK, I’m still not sure what the problem is. Were you not able to order the refund you wanted?

There is no ‘OVO policy of expecting to hold back 3 months payments’, regardless of how they’re arrived at. The most they insist on is holding one month’s DD against the next bill, which is fair enough since you’re contracted to keep your account in credit by paying for the supply in advance. If your DD is well above the recommended level, you’re at liberty to lower it yourself. I don’t know where you get the idea that OVO have moved the goalposts, as you put it - what has changed?

Look at other posts regarding this. 

Yes I got my refund but not without having to fight for it which is not on.

So you're a volunteer then?

That’s a recommendation, not a requirement. As I wrote earlier, “The three-months’-DD threshold applies only to online applications; this is a safety measure, requiring the customer to contact Support if the credit on the account is less than three months’ DD so the implications of the refund can be explained.” 

You say you had to fight for your refund. I’ll ask again - did the advisor refuse to order the refund until you’d ‘fought for it’? That isn’t supposed to happen.

I logged in to my account. There isn't a problem with my account that warrants their response which forced me into a time wasting chat machine or costly phone call that we all know will be on hold forever. As for recommendations, it's obviously to anyone with any common sense that this is designed to slow down and delay refunds and potentially put people off requesting them until they're well into credit. This only serves to increase OVOs finances.

This seems to be a very difficult area with Direct Debits. After the “Whole Bill” Direct Debit scheme was cancelled by SSE ahead of the move to OVO Energy I pulled out of this method of payment. I now pay the bill monthly on demand by direct credit so there is never any arrears or credit. It has the advantage of lower bills in the sumer but higher in the winter when energy usage is more. Perhaps its worth considering moving to this method of payment which is “agro and stress free”.

Thanks but I don't run away. I'd rather raise awareness and have OVO get smart through fear of losing custom because the way they're going, they'll get increased bad pressure and have to act on it.

Looks like Noel is already handling 99% of this thread and I’ll let him continue doing that if he wants to, so I’ll just swing by to answer the 1% that remains.

The user known as @Firedog is what we call a Forum Volunteer here on the OVO Forum, the same status applies to myself as well. We are trusted by OVO and the community to help out on the Forum, but we don’t get paid and we don’t work for OVO meaning we act in a personal capacity - everything we do is on the Forum only, unless we’re doing research elsewhere for one reason or another which is - to be 100% honest - quite common.

Forum Volunteers are very highly trusted here and we do our best to get the advice right whenever we can. We can’t 100% guarantee it’ll be totally perfect every time, but we’ll always do what we can.

One major disadvantage of payment on demand is that rates are higher. Looking at the current price cap’s averages, unit rates for both electricity and gas are 5% higher when paying on demand. The standing charge is 10% higher for electricity and 12% higher for gas. The average dual-fuel customer would be paying around £35 a year more in standing charges, another £35 extra for gas and yet another £35 for electricity. So, an additional ~£100 a year for the privilege of paying on receipt of bill. 

Another disadvantage is that those who pay on demand aren’t able to opt for a favourable fixed-price deal when one comes along. Some of us who fixed before energy prices headed skywards in 2021 saved a lot of money.  

I can’t see that payment on demand would be any less stress-free than simply paying the same amount each month by Direct Debit - set the amount and forget about it, unless something radical changes. The rates are higher partly because of those unhappy customers who are faced with the year’s highest bill in the month when the coffers are emptiest. Many of them can’t and don’t pay.

We are over £550 in credit increasing by just under £100. / month app says they have a reading but only allowed £80!

not been in debit for over a year but as no interest accrued anymore want it back ! 
said allowed £83.57 but rounded down to £83 ! WHY ?

Refunds are in whole pounds only - that’s just how the industry works, just like how top-ups for PAYG must be in whole pounds.

I understand that so why not offer available amount in whole pounds ? Just saying , also says many times through app that minimum 1

month DD required but when ask get told 3 months ‍♂️

Because that’d be opening OVO up to a fraud risk. You can’t claim back what’s not available after all.

The absolute minimum remaining credit balance must be at least one months worth AFTER the refund if you’re on Fixed Rate - but you must talk to Support to do that. It’s a safety net.

So we average £70-£80 a month but DD is £150 and have £550 in credit so £250 refund would leave 2 months DD and still be 3-4 times our usage ‍♂️ so why are we allowed £83 ?

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.