What is OVO’s complaints procedure?

Hi @dizer06 ,

I am flagging to Forum Moderators now. Please bear with me.

Paging @ChristopherS_OVO 

Thank you. 

Hi @dizer06, 

@Blastoise186 has made me aware of your post and I’m really sorry to hear about the experience you and your parents have experienced. You deserve better and we have let you down so far. 

I’m going to ask our Forum_Support team to reach out to you so keep an eye on your messages for more information. 

I will make sure this is raised for you so we can help get things back on track for you. 

Hi all,

I’m having a terrible time getting a refund from OVO.

I took control of the account after my ex defaulted on payments and ignored final notice letters and emails.

Everything was closed down after I moved (I paid over the phone).

OVO recently sent a message to say I owed them £40, I called and they said I owed them nothing and they in fact owed me over £700.

 They said they would send me a cheque for the full amount and confirmed my address.

I received email notification again that payment would be made by BACS, I called them within minutes of receiving the email to say it should be by cheque, they said it was going via BACS to the DD account on record, there was no account registered on the portal. Turns out it was my ex’s bank account.

Told them we were no longer together and there was no contact at all.

 They confirmed they would send the cheque out.

 Rinse and repeat the above a few more times.

I called this Tuesday after receiving another BACS email notice, they said it is being sent to the ex’s account again, I told them to stop it and send a cheque.

I was contacted later the same day by someone in Complaints.

 He told me that they will try to stop the bank transfer and would call me on the 4th or 5th.

I called today and was told if I had called yesterday that they could have stopped the payment going to my ex, I spoke with the Complaints person again, who suggested that I could:

1. contact my ex (we have no contact at all)

2. contact my ex’s bank and ask them to stop the transfer (what kind of advice is that?)

He advised he is running a report and will contact me tomorrow (Friday)

Why am I being punished for a failure of every single person I have spoken to or emailed to follow the information that I provided, the bank account OVO someone has on record is not mine, they have been told this repeatedly and not once did anyone ask me for the correct details even through I offered them, and didn’t send a cheque as suggested initially by them and repeatedly requested by me.

I’ll update following my call tomorrow, this is very stressful.

J

Hi @JShannon 

I’m really sorry to hear about this situation, it does sounds very complicated but not something we’ve not seen before so we should be able to help get things sorted.

I’m going to have our Forum_Support reach out to you about this to get some help with this. Keep an eye out for a private message here soon: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview.

Update:

payment has been made to the Ex’s bank account.

Complaints case manager suggested I get a mutual friend to ask her for the money back.

this is getting beyond ridiculous.

apparently he has escalated it, but only after I asked, otherwise it was for me to contact the ex via a friend, or to contact their bank (yes he suggested that again)

Told them I will be calling back for an update on Monday lunchtime (more hours to waste)

@Abby_OVO thanks, I replied to their private message with the relevant info, awaiting a reponse. I really am concerned about the complaints case manager I have and the suggestions he is making, feels like they had made their mind up from the start that the payment will go ahead to the wrong person :(

 Hi @JShannon,

I’m really sorry to hear that you’ve experienced this. Our Forum_Support team should be in touch as soon as possible to help. Please keep us updated.

Update:

Called at lunchtime, spoke with someone competent who took notes and would pass them on to the Complaints Person assigned to the case, it could take 3-5 days for them to get the notes/review them.

I suggested (which they wrote down their notes) that they make payment to me via cheque as requested many times, once I receive that and deposit it into my account, that’s my issue resolved, they (OVO) can then reclaim the funds from the ex’s account on their own schedule and I have no more dealings with this issue.

Totted up the time spent on phone calls since feb and it’s 13 calls and just over 4 hours with Customer Support! not including the emails and this forum post (19 emails)

Thanks @Shads_OVO, seems like I have to wait, anything that can be done to help resolve (pay me) would be fantastic.

J

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Hi Blastoise186

It seems the payment has gone to an older joint account that was previously switched a couple of times, I can confirm that the payment has been received at an old account that I wasn’t aware of.

I will update CS by phone in the morning

Final Update:

This has now been resolved, I received the funds a week ago to an older closed account but no notification from the bank was sent to me.

When on calls with CS I was told the money was going to the bank details that were stored for the Direct Debit details, as the ex paid via DD (until they defaulted) so naturally assumed that payment was going to their bank account.

Turns out, when I made the payment over the phone, OVO had then linked that card to the Direct Debit details (for some reason) but this was a Cardholder Not Present payment, not a DD.

Checking old banking apps on my phone last night I found an account that had the payment in it.

So the payment had been sent to an older Halifax account which was closed, but had been switched to another bank: First Direct (seems like the banks keep some kind or redirect in place for such cases which is good to know for the future).

I still have issues with the suggestions from the representative to contact my ex, and contact their bank (Just as well I wasn’t going to do either as that would have caused drama)

I also have issues with the fact that after numerous calls and email requests, a cheque was never sent.

J

@JShannon I’m happy to hear that you’ve managed to get this resolved. Please feel free to pop back to us if you have any further issues.

ovo complaints email address just opens up my google account. is there something i don't understand.

Just use you normal email account and compose your message to complaints@ovoenergy.com 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

(If you click the email link, it will try to use your devices default service, presumably gmail for you)

It sounds as if you clicked on a link somewhere that started with mailto:. This will usually cause the operating system to start your mail program (in your case, Gmail) and show a fresh new email message with the address already filled in. You may have measures in place to prevent this.

To submit a complaint, send email to complaints@ovoenergy.com, and otherwise be sure to say as much as you can about the problem. You should include your OVO account number, name, address and contact details.

Before sending, check your account profile page. You should send from the email address shown there, because otherwise your message might get lost.

OVO have now admitted that our gas meter has been giving false readings and are investigating our payments for the last 15 years! We have been paying a substantial amount in bills for years and have been complaining and have been ignored.

Over the last 6 weeks, they have replaced the meter discovered it was faulty and overcharging us but they have also lied to us, promised us phone calls and cut us off when discussing online.  The customer service is horrendous.  They have paid us an interim compensation of £180, but the treatment we have received has been disgusting.  No one knows what they are doing and I don’t think we have received the same information twice.

We have made an official complaint but heard nothing yet, that’s been 2 weeks and we have only received the generic email response.

Has anyone got any advice please.

Hi ​@Elwell1624 ,

I’m sorry to hear about that, but I need to mention this process takes a while - especially after such a long period of issue. The industry isn’t fast and OVO needs permission from the industry to get this fully resolved.

Sorting this out can take up to 12 weeks. If you feel it gets stuck, you may want to review https://ovoenergy.com/feedback in full for your options.

Hey ​@Elwell1624 

I’m really sorry to hear this, it sounds like a very stressful experience. If a meter is found to be faulty, the billing team should be able to re-calculate your usage based on the readings from your new meter. 

The following topics might be helpful to you:
 

I have been waiting on a gas payg meter to be fitted at my property for 3 years.  This has been hell and the service from ovo horrendous. The engineers say one day over the phone they can install it then they cant. 

My debt got higher and higher. 

I then started a payment plan which was agreed by both parties. Then ovo decided to take 100 pounds more than i agreed so I cancelled it. 

A financial agreement is an agreement and cannot be upped when ovo decide. 

Then now they are saying they can fit a meter. You cannot make this up. I am absolutely disgusted by ovo the way i have been treated. I am a disabled British forces war veteran. Can someone please help me with this as im now getting threatening letters to take me to court. 

You appear to have two different issues here 

On is the delay in getting a PAYG gas meter fitred and not knowing any details of what has been going on to cause the delay we can't really comment.

(However I'll comment anyway - I suspect it has been a radio signal strength problem where the new meters wouldn't connect to the network, do you live in a rural area in the North? If it was that then there is now a new solution with different communications that they can now use for poor radio signal cases).

The other problem is that you say your account is i debit, which is why you want a PAYG meter, and you are now getting letters threatening court action.

I know that can be scary for some so I wrote a guide on how to deal with such letters, click.on this link:

I live in central scotland which is 5g signal strength so there should be no problem to connect to a signal. 

This issue has been going on for to long. Ovo are absolutely useless.

It’s not 5G that’s being used - it’s Long-Range Radio which is completely different.

2G/3G Comms Hubs have only just become available in your area.

This is a built up area so i do not get how they cannot do this. After all they have managed with my electricity meter ?

We do not know what meters you’ve currently got - you’ll need to show us photos.