What is OVO’s complaints procedure?

Whaaat ?? That’s not very ‘OVO’ !!

Thank you for getting back to me. That’s helpful information.

Yes, I was quite taken aback by the whole thing to be honest!

Is it possible to be gaslighted by a company? 
 

made a complaint yesterday and spoke to someone in the resolutions team. Received a call today whilst at work (which I couldn’t answer) and then an email asking me to call the resolutions team to discuss the resolution to my complaint. Spent another hour on the phone tonight to be told I haven’t made a complaint. Huh?! 

Hey @KatyL 

I’m really sorry to hear about your recent calls with OVO and how they’ve made you feel. That’s definitely not the kind service we aim for and I want to help as much as I can to help get this sorted for you.

The best thing to do next will be to contact the number they’ve provided to you again if they did leave a number to contact, as this would suggest the complaint has been raised and escalated.

Otherwise, if they’ve not left a number for you to call back, I would suggest contacting our Support Team, and they can make sure that this is escalated correctly for you, part of your complaint can be that it wasn’t escalated correctly when you first requested it. As Jeffus mentioned, you can also go to the energy Ombudsman if your complaint hasn’t been resolved within 8 weeks, but hopefully we can get it resolved before then.

You can see all open contact channels via our Help Centre

We don’t have access to accounts here, so we wouldn’t be able to check for any complaints on the account. I would recommend asking for a note of the complaint reference number as well when you speak with someone.

Hi again @KatyL

So did they finally log a formal complaint when you spoke last night?

Did they give you a complaint case number?

Not a lot else i can suggest, probably worth highlighting your experience on the OVO Trustpilot site

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

Thanks both for getting back to me. 
 

I spent an hour and a half last night talking to someone in Resolutions who said that because there is an issue with my account, complaints can’t actually be logged against it. He helped me to raise an “off…something” complaint and linked it to my account so it will eventually be linked to my account. I now have a number for my complaint. My account seems to be having issues with the migration process and is still stuck which means I’m getting no bills, no updates on charges and nobody can help because they can’t get into my account. Smart meters are now working and sending readings but still no bill info. 
 

in the meantime I’ve received a further call asking if they’ve resolved my complaint because they want to close it 🤦🏻‍♀️

Hey @KatyL , I hope you’ve had a good weekend.

I’m glad you’ve got a complaint logged and a note of the complaint reference now. I know it must be really frustrating to have to wait for the account to be sorted, but you are more than entitled to keep the complaint open until you know that your billing etc, is working for you as it should be.

Have they given you any timeframe to expect the account to be ‘unstuck’ by?

Hi @Abby_OVO 

they’ve said it could take up to 30 working days

Hi @KatyL 

If it does not get resolved in 30 days to your satisfaction. 

I would ask the Ombudsman to get  involved 8 weeks after you first raised a complaint. 

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/sectors/energy

It is not your issue that OVO didn't log your complaint properly in the first place. 

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

Please remove this thread

Threads aren't normally deleted here.

If you seriously need it deleted, please provide a reason 

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.