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

OVO was taking about £180 per month from my bank account for electricity, paid by Direct Debit. When I noticed that the amount that OVO owed me had grown to £671, I thought they’d had enough money from me – at least for the moment.

So I requested a refund. Good news? I could have one. Bad news? No more than £59.07.

Yes: My electricity usage amounted to about £180/month, and OVO’s Direct Debit claims had given them a loan of £671 of my money, of which they would allow me just £60 back.

It was at this point that I decided that I’d source my electricity elsewhere.

This is an ideas forum, so I’d suggest that OVO might re-think its claim and refund policy.

This doesn’t look like an idea to me - it’s likely to be converted to a discussion as we’ve discussed it many times. It also doesn’t currently appear to fit within what the ideas section is aimed at.

If you wanted a bigger refund, you simply needed to call OVO - the app/website would have said this.

Hey ​@Peter Helectric,

Welcome to the Forum! 

We have a few articles that offer advice and support on how to claim a refund which i’ll link below: 

Need more than the in-app limit? No problem! Just get in touch with our Support Team using the options below, and they'll be happy to sort you out.

I hope this helps!

Am owed so much money from OVO. So much trouble getting this money back   Every obstacle thrown up emails not accepted. Yes using correct address. But comes up every time ( when asking for balance returned) that there is a problem with server !  How convenient   A pensioner here who has been left continually with no money in my account as OVO has increased payments unjustly and unnecessary. I have managed to get so much money refunded but they still owe me over £1000  which I badly need to live on   What do I do 

Irenec 

I not had a problem with OVO I was previously with Southern Electric and they were string on thousands. 
OVO have approx £300 bal with another £103 going in end of month I’ve been getting small refunds £65 £79 if it became more than I could manage, I request a refund

I would put a hold on d/d I don’t know your circumstances, how much you are using each month. I have a four bedroom house with 3 adults and many visitors Grandchild visiting for sleepovers during school hols

I’m telling you all this to give you an idea of my usage. Going into winter I expect our gas use to rocket atm we have it on occasionally for an hour. However as it gets colder and use increases we have bills over £280 on a colder yr, so I understand why they hold this money, so I don’t go into fuel poverty and go into debt. I never have in 30 yrs in this house

Have you managed to speak to a customer service agent & explain your situation over the phone, tell them it’s eat or heat but now that’s not a choice ax they hold the money you need to eat. & pay other bills putting you into difficult position with other her commitments

Something has definitely gone wrong I fully get your frustration that your attempts to make contact are not getting through Maybe send another email clearly explaining your situation AGAIN and the number of times you have reached out to them for YOUR MONEY to be returned also give them 7 days to refund to your bank £ xx amount. Make it clear your have been put in a vulnerable position and will possibly need to approach the local food bank which isn’t fair as you have the money sitting in their account and food banks aren’t here to provide assistance for families made vulnerable by utility company, that are holding money IYO unnecessarily

Make it clear You will be forced to escalate this to ombudsman to take action not something I’ve ever done all sounds scary to me, but you must do what you need to

I really hope you are able to this resolved quickly & get your money. 
Please keep us updated how you are getting on

chrisb
 

I’m sorry to hear your story, and I’m afraid I can’t really help. We’ve learnt that there has been a problem with delivering refunds for the past couple of weeks (yet another case of an unreliable sub-contractor), but that can’t have been the excuse before 7 October.

If emails aren’t being responded to, I’d suggest that you try the web chat option. It’s usually served me well, and you can get a transcript of the whole conversation.

You’re a pensioner - have you asked to be put on OVO’s Priority Services Register? Look at the documentation and take the plunge. It’s free, and you may get better service from Support.
 

I would like to encourage you to take the advice of chrisblake.

When OVO took over from SSE I found myself in a similar position. Every time I tried to ask for a refund on the web page I was told there there was some system reason why it could not be done at that time. Eventually I tried calling Customer Service and had no problem in asking for a refund, no argument at all and I received the refund fairly quickly. 

I would also encourage you to go on the priority services register. My boiler broke down a few years ago, my contract was with B. Gas. I was told I would need to wait at least 2 weeks and it was very cold at the time. I then called Customer Services and when I mentioned my age and condition it all changed and they managed to send an engineer the next day!

I do think that it would be better to take the personal touch, and call Customer services. You may get a transcript of your chat with a bot, but I think that the personal touch may be more helpful here and it may well be worth the wait for it!

Are you saying that Ovo sub contract their accounts department? Since 7th October?

Hi, I also never had issues with receiving a refund, I have been with OVO for 5 years and never had any real issues with my account, I always try to speak with a human when asking for help.

No! We know that OVO use other companies to carry out specialized tasks. For example, setting up Direct Debits, assessing customers asking for extra support or making payments. We have seen many instances recently where failures affecting household-name companies have been traced to faults at third-party service providers; of course they’re just as liable to breakdowns as anyone else.

I don’t know for certain that this is the case with refunds, but it doesn’t matter much whether the fault lies in-house or elsewhere; what does matter is that it’s dealt with quickly. It took M&S months to recover from a software fault (in their case resulting from criminal activity), but I expect OVO’s little problem will be solved very soon if it is indeed still ongoing.