Skip to main content

Quite a long one here so apologies up front.  I’m out of patience with the Ovo customer manager after almost a year of conversations since my account was transferred.  I have a holiday cottage I don’t get to as much as I would like.

There were a series of power cuts in the area, the jittering power caused the old SSE metering equipment to fail.  As a result, my storage heating was off for almost a year which is an issue as I need it on to keep damp off the lochside location.  SSE would not acknowledge the fault on their equipment and blamed my storage heaters for failing.  I replaced two of the heaters and still they didn’t work.

When I reported this to SSE, they said they would like to send an engineer but couldn’t due to them all being transferred to Ovo.  I would have to wait until my account was novated to Ovo before they could act.  Called it in to Ovo shortly after the transfer and waited over four weeks for an engineer.  Engineer cancelled on the day due to the type of meter I had.  I complained, they sent an out of hours engineer to look at it.  Engineer fitted a single meter that would replace the standard and Economy 7 meters.  I was there when he called in the MPAN meter numbers for each of the meters being replaced and the new one.

First bill arrives and I have gone from being almost £1500 in credit to being over £900 in debit.  Series of calls and messages to the helpdesk via Twitter ensues that has now been going over ten months.  One of the early calls, the agent confirms she can see the issue, she can see the SSE balance being in credit and the sudden dramatic change to being in debit.  Says she will raise a change order and manually correct the numbers,  Nothing happens,  Subsequent calls and evidence yield nothing.  In June I initiated a complaint to try and resolve the problem.  I wait almost two months, have update calls - there is no update.

Today I have a call from the advanced complaint resolution team and now I have to evidence all of the above, again.  I have to prove what my balance was at transfer from SSE, which is difficult when that account no longer exists.

Ovo have worn me out on this one and I stand to be almost £2500 out of pocket as a result of their incompetence.  I am told there was significant usage of electricity over a period of a month, which coincides with the period the meter was changed, fails to register with the agent.  I explain I don’t live there, the only things on were fridge freezer, security camera and smart meter which was installed at same time as new meters.  Storage heating was off during this time due to the initial fault.  So I fail to see how I could have used £2500 of electricity in that period and how the complaint manager fails to acknowledge any of this evidence. 

I am left having to provide evidence to my case while Ovo remain fully unengaged and incompetent over the whole matter.  How do I get them to listen to the facts or at least look back on the history of the case and see that the first agent saw and tried to act of the issue?  Grateful for your assistance and advice to try and take this around the complaints team that are clearly failing me here.  TIA.

Hey @atj1968,

 

That sounds really frustrating, I’m sorry to hear you’ve had such a negative experience. 

 

Your complaint is with the advanced resolutions team which is the highest port of call, so hopefully they should be able to get this resolved for you. If they are unable to do so, your complaint can be escalated to the Ombudsman.

 

You can find out more about our full complaints procedure here.

 

We will do everything we can to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. In a small number of cases it might take longer and if it’s taken over 8 weeks, you can speak to the Energy Ombudsman. We may also write to you with a final decision that you disagree with. This is called a ‘deadlock’ letter and you can also speak to the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with our actions. The Energy Ombudsman provides a free, independent service.

They’ll review what’s happened and how we’ve handled your complaint. First, they’ll look at everything we’ve done so far with your complaint. Then they’ll decide if we should have done more – and what we need to do to put it right.

Here’s how to get in touch with them:

Helpful to know – you don’t have to accept their decision – but we have to.

 

 

 

I have no confidence in the advanced resolution case manager, but thanks for your response Emmanuelle.  The case manager is failing to take on board the facts or listen to reason.  Furthermore she knows I cannot access my old SSE account to show the amount of credit I held, yet is holding me to find this evidence to prove my position, nor is she assisting me in accessing this - Ovo must have a record of what was transferred over.  I am taking this to the ombudsman if Ovo can’t provide me with the chat transcripts from my initial calls about the billing delta.  

Hey @atj1968,

 

I’m sorry you’ve not had the best experience with our advanced resolution team,

 

Yes, if you have the number you called from the calls should be able to be located. If it’s taken over 8 weeks, you can speak to the Energy Ombudsman. This topic might be helpful to you:

 

 

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings