What is the best way to contact OVO customer service / support team?

After having a dispute with my gas bill and an incorrect smart meter reading, the agent I spoke to promised OVO would contact me back to resolve the problem…….I’m still waiting!

How long should I wait before I try and speak with an OVO agent once more?

Hi @King3,

I’m sorry you’ve had issues trying to get through to our Collections Team.

As @Blastoise186 said it may have been due to the lines being busy. They are open Mon- Thur 8:00- 20:00, Friday 08:00- 18:00 and Sat 09:00- 14:00, it might be worth trying to call either in the morning or evenings when lines might be quieter. 

Another way to get in contact with our Collections Team is through our Support Team. They can call collections internally and transfer the call through. In the meantime have a look at these resources which may mean you don’t need to call in:

Price rises: we're here to support you

Here’s the latest information on rising energy prices, and how we can help 

Energy Bills Support Scheme

This page has all the information that we and our call centre team have on the Energy Bills Support Scheme right now. 

Ways to get financial support

If you’re struggling financially or you’re worried about your energy bills, we’re here to support you. Find out about the different ways we can help here.

I hope this helps.

What utter nonsense. You are saying people are being cut off because your lines are too busy, as if that’s a perfectly justified business practice.

Appalling customer service. 

Hi @Rootbeer ,

If you need help with something, I might be able to answer your question here as a forum volunteer.

It’s worth noting that just about everyone at OVO is working flat out to try and keep up with huge contact volumes. Whether that be the Social Media Team absolutely smashing up Facebook, Twitter and Trustpilot right now, the teams on the phones racing to keep up with all the phone calls, the support agents running the live chat with up to three members at once each, or the 10 or so independent forum volunteers (and two moderators!) absolutely crushing the task of juggling lots of forum threads in our own time while also balancing our real jobs… We’re all doing our best and my heartfelt thanks go out to literally everyone helping out! Your patience and understanding is appreciated.

Hi,

I too have been trying to call  the numbers listed in OVO help sections and repeatedly being cut off. I am also currently trying the web based messaging system and have been waiting 2 hours for a reply.

To summarise, I have received a notification that my direct debit needs to be increased despite being over £440 in credit and pro-actively manging my energy usage (currently just over £40 per month). As far as I can tell, the ‘predicted’ shortfall does not take into account the £400 energy support scheme either. Is there any other way of actually contacting OVO, as if my direct debit is increased simply because there are no staff available to take calls or answer messages, then I will simply cancel my direct debit.

Hey @Alf,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community.

I don’t have access to your account or any notes so I won’t be able to give you a timeframe, it depends on what the issue is and the team it has been raised to. 

I’d recommend getting in touch with the Support Team through web messenger to ask for an update on this. 

Keep us posted with how you get on!

Hi @KeithA,

I’m sorry for the issues you’ve had.

The direct debit review doesn’t take into account the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme as if you pay by direct debit you’ll receive your discount as a refund. This means you’ll carry on paying your full Direct Debit amount. Once the Direct Debit payment has cleared, we’ll refund the monthly discount amount to your bank account shortly after.

Here are some helpful guides explaining how OVO calculates what your direct debit should be and how to make the most of the direct debit calculator on your online account. 

If the direct debit amount isn’t suitable for you, you can contact our collections team on 0800 0699 831, they are open Mon-Thurs: 08:00-20:00, Friday: 08:00 - 18:00 and Sat: 09:00-14:00. They will be able to set it to a more acceptable amount. 

We understand that direct debits aren’t for everyone, you also have the option of going onto the Simpler Variable Plan on demand. With this plan you can pay on receipt of your bill. It is more expensive than the Simpler Variable Plan by direct debit. 

Hope this helps!

My support worker and I have spent a substantial part of an afternoon trying to find out to whom to report a case of suspected fraud but in spite of telephone calls - currently being diverted to Boost - and attempts to contact an agent via chat, we are unable to get through to a customer service agent. What we really need in any case is to make direct contact with the investigations department that must surely exist even though contact details are not publicised.

Does anyone have some information on this?  Short of reporting an ‘emergency’ how do I report an issue relating to my account that requires urgent attention?

Hi @Smeagol57 and thanks for reaching out about this pressing issue. 

I’m lacking some info to know what sort of fraudulent activity or issue you may be affected by here, so my advice is broad.

If you’re a Boost Power (prepayment) customer, their Support team are the ones to contact. For an OVO (pay monthly) payment method, it’s OVO’s Support team. Depending on the issue, the correct team are then sent a ‘case’ with the relevant details. If it’s a GDPR issue, or a fraudulent sign up (see our guide on ‘erroneous transfers’) or banking fraud, different teams are notified via the frontline Support team. 

If you’re able to give us any more info we may be able to be more specific. Either way, hope this helps and you get everything sorted!

Tim

Thank you, Tim. I am an Ovo customer. My issue is about payments made by my local council’s Housing Support Fund to my Ovo account over the past twelve months that have not been credited. The council is satisfied that the payments were made successfully but there is no sign of them in my account. There has been some correspondence over one of the payments between a debt advisor acting on my behalf and one of Ovo’s customer service advisors but this did not resolve the matter.

Since then a further award of £90 each for my gas and electricity was granted from the HSF but after allowing more than the requisite six weeks for these funds to be credited to my account there is still no sign of them.

I have downloaded all of my bills for the past twelve months to my support worker, who has printed them out and examined them. She also has references for the payments . These are very serious anomalies which we feel demand investigation.

During our meeting yesterday I made the above post on the forum while my support worker was attempting to make contact by phone and chat, but getting nowhere. She has also sent an email but I know from experience that response to these can be very slow and we are concerned about being simply referred back to the team that issued the payments when by this point it seems clear that investigation by Ovo into these payments is required.