Thanks Blastoise186. The person who CAN and SHOULD communicate with customers on the Apollo platform is Raman Bhati, CEO of OVO.

Only one forum member has ever been granted the privilege of meeting the CEO. You might think that’d be me, but alas… It was not. That member no longer comes here and has been granted anonymity these days but they were granted that privilege for very special reasons.

It is possible that privilege might be extended to myself someday, but even if it doesn’t I don’t mind. To be completely honest, I’m not even sure what I’d talk about with him!

As far as I’m aware, meeting the CEO is a privilege that’s only granted to forum members under very, very special circumstances. Those circumstances appear to be a closely guarded secret and are one of the only things - or possibly even the only thing - I don’t know about this forum.

We have already said how to reach his team. If you really want to reach him, step this way and if you manage to convince his team, it might (or might not) reach his desk. Whether it does or not however, is something that’s beyond my control.

I’ve just received an email from OVO about ways to save energy which contains a link to My Account, which of course does not work for me because my account has still not been migrated to the new system.

Like all the recorded messages I hear when I call telling me how easy it is to do X Y and Z by logging into my account, it really rubs salt in the wound to receive an email that is another reminder that I am still one of the people who can’t see my account after more than a year. What is the latest update on when this will be resolved?

OVO will reach out to you directly when there’s an update regarding that. There’s not much else that can be said right now.

I have been with OVO almost from their beginning when they used to be really good and different to all other energy suppliers. Now, I haven’t been able to access an app or functioning website for over a year. I went through a period of a year when I didn’t even receive a bill though I was still paying my direct debit. Couldn’t get any sensible answers about why not because I was able to calculate my usage without a problem. I see other users on the forum referring to apps but mine no longer functions because they are building a new one?? It seems that having absorbed so many new customers from other failed business they have forgotten their original loyal customers. Pity.

Something’s not right here. The ‘new’ system has been up and running for several years now, and existing OVO customers should have been automatically moved on to it years ago. The problems you’ve read about are almost all migrants from other suppliers, notably SSE, so they shouldn’t affect you.

What happens when you try to visit account.ovoenergy.com on a computer? Use a private browser window to avoid interference from earlier attempts. Screenshots would help us understand your situation. 

• Do you have an account number? It’s on your bill. 
• Has the email address you use for your energy account changed since you first joined OVO?
• Do you have a MyOVO ID (probably an eight-digit number)?

This is what I see when I log in. It’s been like that for the last year.

We're working on a new website for you

We're very sorry that you can't log in to your account at the moment. We're working on fixing things and will be back in touch in the near future with an update.

In the meantime, you'll continue to get your bill every month by email or post as usual.

If you have any questions or need help with anything, please chat, call, or email our support team.

Thank you. This is a new one for me, and I’ll be asking around to find out what’s going on.

Ok, as promised I wanted to swing back and update those watching this thread.

I have now been told pretty much the exact reason why the legacy Apollo billing system was shut down and why your accounts weren’t able to finish migrating over to Orion first - OVO would have finished the migration first and then switched Apollo off afterwards if they were able to, but alas, circumstances prevented that plan from working out. And it’s a reason that I actually ultimately agree with - and chances are Ofgem probably would too.

However, I’m sorry to inform you that the exact reason can’t be made public and has been placed under the NDA rules that all Forum Volunteers agree to as part of being granted extended forum rights.

What I am allowed to tell you however - partly because this is already public anyway - is that OVO will be in touch when they’re ready to restore your online services. Please be advised that the mobile app will still be the same one, but it may require an update and the next login could take longer than usual as the app will need to refresh itself first. You also won’t be able to use the My OVO ID anymore - it’d be email/password from that point onwards.

Either myself, one of the other Forum Volunteers or (most likely) a Forum Moderator will make an announcement post on the OVO Forum as soon as we’ve had confirmation that the Apollo to Orion Migration and re-activation of online services is completed, once OVO is happy for that to go public.

I suspect you will be making your announcement in September (from what MarkS1 was told) to absolutely no one as we will have all left OVO by then. It takes between 7 to 21 days to change suppliers so we could have changed for 1 year then come back to OVO and it would still have been 6 months faster than our current situation. OVO should have just set up new accounts for the remaining 1000. It would also probably take just 5 minutes to send an apology email to the 1000 and a quick monthly update too. 

A quick public relations tip too. Don’t tell angry customers that you know what the problem is but you can’t tell them, that just makes it worse.

I’m just a forum volunteer, I don’t work for OVO.

Also, I think you miiiiiiight just find that your services get restored a bit faster than September...

I know you are a volunteer not an employee but it does still mean you are representing the company, especially when you are getting inside information. As I said, it was a tip to help customer relations, not make it worse. Not that it can get any worse with OVO!!

Oh trust me, it could. You could be dealing with Microsoft after cancelling Microsoft 365 Business and then being told you can’t kill the tenant for another year even though the subscription is properly disabled and cannot get a (several thousand pounds) refund until the tenant is dead. Because that’s what I’m currently dealing with. But they can’t kill the tenant until the refund is issued, leaving me in square one.

At least in the case of OVO, you still have a working service!

I see from other threads that people are receiving an email saying the Rewards Program is ending.

I presume the reason I have not had this email is that access to my account is no longer possible.

So how am I meant to be able to keep an eye on my considerable balance on my account and to make sure I only have a minimum balance and to make additional payments when needed?

Or am I expected to waste half an hour of my life every time I need t interrogate my balance etc.?

Actually, you have three choices.

Just before I mention them, you WILL still get OVO IR in January if you’re entitled to it - that much is guaranteed. You might also get it in February, but either way that will be the very last one across the board.

As for the choices, you actually have three - and it’s up to you as to what you want to do:

• Do nothing and just leave things as they are - which may trigger automatic payment reductions
• Keep the payments the same and ask for a refund of spare credit
• Keep the existing credit in the account and reduce your payments

If you need help doing the latter two, let Support know. We will not be influencing folks into choosing any particular option, as the Forum Volunteers feel it’s something that we shouldn’t interfere with. You should do what’s best based on your own circumstances.

Like quite a few other people, I haven’t had access to my online account since early last year. I’ve been with OVO for years and originally elected to switch to the company, so I’m not someone whose account has been “swallowed up by OVO” in a merger or anything like that.
 

Having been involved in system migrations before, I felt very surprised that customers had been relieved of their online access and doubly surprised that their accounts wouldn’t be restored for a full eight months (at the time the estimate was still that we’d be back online by the end of the year). I couldn’t think of another company where there’d been a big gap in service like that – and OVO seemed well-funded and capable of moving data from one system to another.

Obviously, like other people, my online account isn’t available and there’s no firm update as to when it will be. I’m befuddled and bored now — I like data and appreciate being able to track my energy usage. This also just seems silly now: I’ve read all the bickering in the forum and it seems we’re getting our wrists slapped for questioning the timeframe. Then there’s some talk about “I know exactly what’s going on but I can’t tell anyone because I’m sworn to secrecy by an NDA.” What happened: did a foreign spy sabotage the system by implanting rogue code? Did someone accidentally drop a packet of ricin in the server bay?

It’s just daft, isn’t it.

I’m ready for a change. Apparently my account data is circling in the ether like a ghostly murmuration of swallows — or maybe it’s just all written down on a series of crumpled sheets of paper. Who knows. Anyway, does OVO have the information (maybe written in Sharpie on the back of a crisp packet?) to facilitate a transfer to another provider, or do I need to wait for my new account before migrating away? Would a mass seance help?

Do let me know.

Actually, it’s extremely common for forum volunteers to get… Advanced and enhanced… Levels of access and insights into internal stuff at a company beyond what everyone else gets to see. It makes it easier for them to help out and can act as a reward to say thanks for doing so.

However, it’s often still confidential stuff hence the NDA rule. This isn’t unique to the OVO Forum - it’s ALL forums of this type. But what I can say is that all your theories are a million miles off track. :)

We only have a forum administrator’s word that there around 1000 of us without access to our accounts. Do we need to hire the Fenny Compton village hall?

I suspect that Ovo is now waiting for us to get fed up and move to other providers as then they will not need to bother about us.

(My posts now seem to be being censored so lets see if this gets through)

That’d be the AutoMod. This forum doesn’t censor posts unless they trigger the AutoMod rules designed to prevent spam and other abuse. However, detected stuff doesn’t get binned completely - it goes to a moderation queue for manual review.

If a human approves it, the post/comment gets published and inserted back into the thread at the same place it would have been had the AutoMod not triggered, albeit with some edits in a few cases.

If a human rejects it, the post/comment stays offline and only then gets sent to the bin.

Hey @Hadders52,

I’m sorry for the issues you’re having, I can understand how frustrating this must be for you.

The support team can assist you with any account related queries in the meantime, and send you your bills. 

We’ll update topics about the online account access when we get the next update. 

when will the new web site for account holders be on line

Dear Emanuelle

Thankyou for re phrasing my original question My error obviously. Yes the question is when will the account be online in 2024 or later???

Hey @3Phasesupplies,

We’re very sorry that you can’t log in to your account at the moment. We’re working on fixing things and will be back in touch in the near future with an update. In the meantime, you’ll continue to get your bill every month by email or post as usual. If you have any questions or need help with anything, please chat, call, or email our support team.

As soon as we have an internal update with a specific timeframe we’ll update all Forum topics with the new advice. 

Thank you for the response. Could you advise how long those “On Line Accounts” have been “Off Line”. Whilst you are working to fix things who  or  what seems to be the problem. OVO no doubt rely on accurate information to be able to operate the business. Can we assume that the system procedures require a  Business Systems Analyst to help correct things and get them moving forwards?

OVO energy used to have a customer facility where one could check usage and billing and actually increase or decrease the monthly outgoing payments? There has not been this facility for well over a year now? Is there something drastically wrong with OVO energy?