After 4 months of trying to get a refund of a positive balance from Ovo Energy, I am now having to initiate legal proceedings. I am guessing that Ovo have cash flow problems - so anybody that has a large positive balance, be careful!

They continuously sound reasonable and promise to repay, I keep giving them one more week to make the payment… then nothing, no contact, and back round the same conversation - so the formal ‘letter before action’ was served on Ovo today.

Who else has similar issues?

Thanks for sharing this, @surema - sounds like a very frustrating journey to get your credit back. 

Can I ask for a bit more info, just to help us comment more? For example are you still with OVO? Do you have smart meters or an update to date statement based on actual meter readings? What reasons have OVO previously given for the delay?

My advice, if you haven’t done this already, is to make sure that letter you sent in gets raised as a complaint. The final point of complaint escalation will be between yourself and our Complaints team. If then your issue is still not resolved as you would like it, a deadlock letter will outline the details for the Ombudsman. However, please be advised that if the issue was raised longer then 8 weeks ago (and you say it was 4 months) you would be able to approach the Ombudsmen directly. 

More info on our complaint process here. 

I moved house in November, informed Ovo, was promised a refund of the positive balance. I complained/escalated in December.

I have been promised ‘refund by the end of the week - to very nice representatives of Ovo, They all sounded great, very helpful: then the payment did not happen.

After drafting and emailing the LBA, I realised there was an ombudsman option, and so have instead initiated that today.

I have just posted an “Idea” as Conversation and Question options did not allow me to post my COMPLAINT !!!!!

I want a refund as I have £600+ in my account, meter readings sent, only allowed £100+ despite policy of £1000 max.

Also told another claim had to wait 24hrs but guess what “computer says no”.

Disgusting customer service that I notice on this site has been going on for at least four years.

I will be changing supplier without waiting for an apology.

Hi @MrAngryofBournemouth 

Sorry to hear about your situation. 

I don't work for OVO, a few of us here try to help customers where we can voluntarily.

You can't register official complaints via this forum. Hence why there is no option. 

OVO complaints can be registered in a number of ways including an online form. There is a link to the form on this page. 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

Finally would you like us to try and help understand what is going on? We would need to ask some questions about your usage and tariff etc. 

Am not sure if you are asking for help or just telling us you are moving. 

Happy to help, but no worries if you think you don't need any help. 

Why are Ovo avoiding refunding the credit that has built up on my account even though I have supplied them with meter reads, photos of meters and a copy of my bank statement?

Hi @sidpotato and thanks for posting on the OVO Forum about this. 

It sounds like you’ve done everything we’d recommend to get a refund. It should be possible on your online account. More info here:

Just make sure the refund amount doesn’t leave your account below 1 month’s payment. We recommend having 3 months credit in there. At this time of year the idea is to build up credit in the summer to avoid ending winter in a large debt…

If you’re sure the refund amount is correct and it’s not working on the online account, our Support team are here to help. 

Yep done all of that. Website says no readings. Staff say send readings, pics, bank statement etc. Still no refund. Still no one can say when the refund will be made. Staff all say they cannot do anymore and there is no one else I can speak to. I have been effectively told to go away and if Ovo decide they will give the £2.5k back they may do that at some point in the future. This is an account on my name on my deceased mothers property. Ovo don’t seem to want to refund the credit which built up due to a reduction in usage. The platitudes on ovo website about supporting customers and charitable giving do not ring true for me. Ovo is using its corporate power to fob me (and I believe others) off. Ovo should not have taken over SSE if they are unable to manage their business and cannot afford to repay customers like me.  Please let me have the contact details for the person in charge of Ovo. 

Please let me have the contact details for the person in charge of Ovo. 

I can’t give you those details as they’re not publicly available and there’s no way for me to find them either. But I can recommend the complaints process at https://ovoenergy.com/feedback . You’ll probably get the matter resolved pretty quickly that way

Already raised a complaint. Received a generic email that says not to email more than once because it will delay the process. What a joke.  I appreciate your attempts to assist but tbh Ive had enough of your  awful company and their attempts to thwart and frustrate my simple request. There always seems to be a reason not to pay and there is no one at Ovo who seems to have authority to make the payment. This refund is overdue and ovo are not paying. Ovo’s behaviour in this instance is typical of dodgy debtors who are trying to avoid paying what they  owe using their power to make the people they owe money to give up and go away. Beneath the platitudes Ovo are simply  a typical greedy corporation pretending that they aren’t.

If you’re trying to pull out more than £500 at once via self-service, it will fail for sure because you can’t withdraw more than £500 at a time via self-service refunds.

Maybe try breaking it down into smaller chunks if you need to withdraw large refunds in the future?

Tried that. The web portal says I can’t do this because I have not provided readings. I have. Emails I have received from Ovo confirm this.

It’s pretty simple. There is a build up of £2.5k credit on this account (my account relating my deceased mothers property) due to a drop in use that wasn’t reflected in reduced direct debits. I have requested a refund. Ovo are not making the refund within the timescales they previously indicated. I have tried to speak to someone to sort this out but I get fobbed off. This is behaviour typical of a bullying organisation. I did not even ask to become an Ovo customer - this was an SSE account. If ovo are not capable of managing their business, why did they takeover another company and then claim that they are too busy to answer calls, pay refunds, etc?

I think you might be seeking the wrong solution in that case.

If you’re looking after your mothers estate, the easiest way to get the refund out would be to close the entire account down. By default, you don’t usually have permission to access an account that doesn’t belong to you, but with the right documents, you can have it closed down and any refund paid to her estate. Once that’s complete, you can set up a new account in your name and start afresh if needed.

OVO has to protect itself and show that it’s protecting its customers data and finances as well. Know Your Customer checks are important and if you can’t pass them, OVO can’t let you in.

No I want to continue with the utility supply to the property, not close that account. This is an account in my name set up for her property after she died, so that we can keep it habitable while we sort out the estate. Appreciate that you are trying to help but it really is as simple as:

There is a credit of £2.5k built up on the account due to a change of usage levels. 
I have requested a refund of that amount. 
Ovo said they will refund once I provide information. 
I have provided all the information that Ovo requested. 
They aren’t refunding within the timescale they set out and are unable to tell me when they will refund. 

Hi @sidpotato i don't work for OVO, i am just a customer like you. Sorry to hear about your issues, it can be really frustrating when things like this take a long time 

You may have already tried this. 

Try posting a 1 star review on the OVO Trustpilot site.

They always seem to reply in a couple of days and ask you to  Private Message some details. Seems to work when normal channels have been frustrating. The OVO staff who monitor Trustpilot have access to your account. 

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.ovoenergy.com

I would simply be factual and ask for help. That seems to work. 

You can also post a link to this thread if you think it might help

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/my-account-140/why-are-ovo-avoiding-refunding-the-credit-that-has-built-up-on-my-account-10953

I assume you already tried entering the meter readings in the actual OVO website?

Let us know how you get on. 

Hi Jeffus. Thanks for your comments. I have already  posted a one star review on TrustPilot. I did receive a message requesting further info. I have responded and have not heard any more. 

Hi @sidpotato

You probably already know or have tried all this, so just FYI in case in might be useful for you or anyone else. 

1. You should be able to request a refund on this page

https://account.ovoenergy.com/payments/refunds

2. You can ask OVO to freeze your direct debits for 3 months at a lower rate, this might help if the balance is still increasing.

3. You can check what OVO think you will use over a year at any time. It is the Future Annual Consumption figure on this page on the website not the app

https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

This figure automatically comes down over time if you start to consistently use less energy. However this can take some time and no automatic system is perfect given the wide variety of usage patterns we all have. 

If you have any more specific queries then feel free to ask in case any of us can suggest anything else that might help. 

Thanks for sharing this experience, @sidpotato - I’m sorry to hear about your loss and I’m keen to offer help where I can. 

We’ve created a guide here to outline the steps for someone in your situation: 

If that’s happened and you have an account in your name that’s in credit, you’re entitled to have this back. For refunds over £499 this needs to be supported with a photo of the meter and a recent bill. If that’s all happened already, I can’t comment on why a refund isn’t now possible. It sounds like that’s not the whole story. 

If you’re unable to make progress with our Support team, let me know and I’ll be able to ask our Forum_Support team to reach out. 

Thanks for your comments, Tim. It is the full story. I have provided meter reads, photos of meters and a copy of my bank statement (not entirely sure why this is necessary but I did as requested). These requests were made by Ovo at different times. The account is in my name not my deceased mother’s so your bereavement  guide is not appropriate at n these circumstances. 
On returning from being away, I expected that the refund would have been made in accordance with the timeline that Ovo had previously advised. When I tried to enquire about why the payment had not been received I have experienced very poor communication at Ovo. It is not possible to speak to anyone at Ovo who has any authority to deal with the matter. 
I have already requested help with this but have effectively been told to go away and wait until Ovo feel ready to respond to me. Even the generic email that I received one time told me not to email more than once! 

Ovo’s behaviour here is the same as I have experienced from people that owe my business money and can’t pay or won’t pay. In this case Ovo are also using their power to make it even more difficult. Realistically they know that there is nothing I can do to recover this money without incurring expense or wasting lots more time.  

At a time when people are struggling with soaring energy bills, and difficult personal circumstances Ovo are creating more stress and anxiety.

Another day has gone by and I am still waiting to hear if Ovo will pay the refund ….

 

For some reason I have received a number of emails telling me that there are comments on this thread. There are no new comments. 
I have still not received the refund that I requested. 
What do I have to do to get the refund of my own money? 
There is something very wrong with Ovo. 

Hi @sidpotato and thanks for the update. 

I’ll get the Forum_Support team to contact you now via a private message. 

Just a heads up that I did combine your topic with an existing one yesterday, which may have prompted those email notifications. We do this every few weeks just to keep things organised to help people find the right information. 

I am still awaiting any news of the £2.5k refund that I have requested. I found out yesterday that my case was referred to the “Advanced Resolutions team” on 9th August but as of yet no one has been assigned to the case to deal with it. I have communicated with Ovo by twitter message only to be told that the refund will take longer because I have complained! What a joke.