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Why am I being forced to change my Direct Debit?

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juliamc
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Have you been an OVO customer for long @Technophobe ? Is the system still getting used to your pattern of usage ? I would be tempted to ignore that message if you’ve just raised your direct debit amount. You could enquire with customer services but leave it till maybe Tuesday afternoon when it’s quieter on the phone lines, it seems Mondays are incredibly busy, more stress you don’t need! 

T
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Userlevel 2

I was switched from SSE to OVO last year. Thanks for the heads-up re Customer Services. I think I'll write. My receptive language is not so great with the reactivity of the phone. I hope they respond to letters. The snail mail address is provided as a method of contact. Thanks again.

T
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Userlevel 2

I find the section where I get to choose a new monthly direct debit of between £155 and £2000 (!) disturbing. It cannot be less than £155 and I presume isn't set up to accept less. Does OVO really have to hit me with this TWO DAYS after I've only just increased again? I really am not worried about any excess come the end of my current plan as a) I don't think there will be one after the Spring and Summer and b) I'm happy to clear any excess should it arise. I truly don't believe it will be what it is projected as being at the moment. I need my finances tight right now, as everyone does and not have to be paying out extra on vague projections which have already HALVED in recent weeks. I have written to Customer Services by snail mail sending it "Sign For", an additional outlay I could have done without, but I hope they see from this that I am taking the situation seriously, that it is important to me.

Jeffus
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@Technophobe try phoning the ovo collections team.

0800 0699 831

They can freeze your direct debit for 3 months

T
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Userlevel 2

Wow! Thanks! I'll do that. 🤞

B
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Does anyone else have their DD’s amount changed but are not receiving notification of the change?

 

Blastoise186
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Hey @bobsheppard ,

That shouldn’t happen! You should always get advance notice 10 days in advance. Did you maybe miss the email/letter or lose it in your junk folder perhaps?

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B
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Already checked SPAM and JUNK!

Blastoise186
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Hmm… That’s unusual. I’ll keep an eye out on the forum in case anyone else reports the same issue. If they do, I’ll ask for it to be investigated.

In the meantime, if you wish to discuss your payments, the Support Team via https://help.ovoenergy.com for Live Chat or on 0330 303 5063, or the Collections Team on 0800 069 9831 might be able to help.

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B
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I have tried to contact OVO without success, both by phone and chat, told I am number in the queue but after 30 minutes still no response, how about OVO contacts me to discuss?

Emmanuelle_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hey @bobsheppard,

 

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

 

Every customer should receive two direct debit review communications. Do you get other emails from OVO? I’m wondering if we have the correct email address on your account.

 

I’ll get someone from Forum_Support to reach out to you, they can take a look into it. Please keep an eye on your private messages.

 

Hope this helps. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
B
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JohnM (OVO) has apparently fixed the issue my account was set not to receive them, I am surprised that this capability is available to turn off all notifications, especially something as important as account changes.

M.isterW
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OVO shouldn't be able to switch off direct debit notifications as the direct debit guarantee states that a company must notify you of changes to your direct debit.

 

@Emmanuelle_OVO can you confirm that this notification function cannot be switched off?

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Emmanuelle_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hey @bobsheppard,

 

I’m really glad to hear this has been rectified for you,

 

@M.isterW financial communications can’t be ‘switched off’, only marketing preferences. It sounds like in this situation there may have been a technical issue with the email address, or no communication preference was selected. Sometimes we can attempt to send communications which ‘fail’. 

 

@bobsheppard, if you’d like any previous communications re-sent to you, just let our Support Team know. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
B
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Now I have had some time to think about this the words from your agent were

“Firstly I wanted to apologise sincerely If you have not received communications advising of the direct debit review. I can see that email communications have been attempted several time but on each occasion they have failed. After investigation I can see that you were not set up on the account to receive emails so I have implemented this feature so that future attempts will now be successful. Please allow 24/48 hours to take effect.”

From the above there is a communication success or failure status recorded. If sending these notifications is a regulatory requirement that has to be met this status should be checked and appropriate action taken to rectify the situation if the message fails. Should OVO be reporting itself to the regulator to say they have failed in this respect?

Bob

Blastoise186
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They do have to be sent, but delivery is beyond OVO’s reasonable control. If your email provider chokes on them or spits them out and refuses to deliver such emails, there’s nothing OVO can do about that.

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B
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Whilst I agree with your synopsis, this was not the case, mine was not enabled, hence in the above statement “After investigation I can see that you were not set up on the account to receive emails” I did not get a postal notification either, this is why I made the above statement.

As an aside I get email from all sorts of other providers with no issues, especially as I use a professional paid for email service.

If emails fail for regulatory either OVO should consider moving to a mailbox system where I get an email telling me there is something awaiting my review or as previously suggested they should be investigated or re-sent, or a postal letter sent..

Blastoise186
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It already is set up that way. As far as I can tell, the emails with your bills etc are sent via AWS SNS aka Amazon Web Services Simple Notification Service. That’s already a professional system, albeit probably not exactly a cheap option.

OVO also pays for a pretty expensive internal email system. I know what they use, but I don’t reveal that information. You cannot use stuff like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 to send out several million emails a day from a single account though - you’d get banned if you did that for breaching Terms of Service.

As for having an In-App Mailbox feature, while that would be really nice to have on the forum, I can’t see that happening for MyOVO. You’d be welcome to suggest it though. However, given that not everyone wants to log into MyOVO just to check a bill and given that it’d duplicate functionality that already exists… I’m not too sure I’d be keen to support such an idea myself.

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Andrew CS
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Userlevel 2

I had my DD set at £158 per calender month, back in September. I got a notification from the app saying we're paying too much and so they recommend a new monthly payment of £152. So I changed it to the recommended amount.

Less than 10 days later I open up the app and well I'm blowed it tells me that unless I don't increase my DD to £163 a month I'll end up owing £114 at the end of my 12 month period.

I'm sorry but this time I'm ignoring the stupid recommended figure. It's obvious that at the moment with the current cold snap that were consuming some of our built up credit at a faster rate than two weeks ago. However rest assured once the weather warms up our energy usage will decline again.

It is unacceptable to keep messing about with DD figures on a monthly basis just to keep OVO happy with the credit on the account. We never had this issue when we were with SSE.

 

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @Andrew CS,

 

Sorry to hear this,

 

Direct Debit reviews are triggered once every 3 months, this is where we’ll contact you to advise if we think you need to increase your direct debit. If the direct debit isn’t increased manually by the customer, we do so automatically.

 

 

The Online Account and direct debit calculator will constantly monitor your direct debit and give suggestions based on your usage.

 

 

Unless you’re receiving emails from us advising you need to increase your direct debit, it won’t be automictically increased. It is just a suggestion online and can be ignored. 

 

If the Online Account has been showing varying figures recently it may be as you said, because of the cold weather recently, or, if you’re on the Variable Tariff your rates might be increasing in January. 

 

Hope this helps. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
B
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It’s a mess ! I spend £20.00 a month 

I’m in credit £55.00 

 

my bill will double as going off contract 

 

OVO demanding £125.00 a month : I’m unable to contact anyone to correct this. The lowest figure the computer accepts is £110.00 

 

all on a smart meter. What to do  ?

Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
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For that one… Best thing to do is wait until the New Year and then call 0800 069 9831. The Collections Team can modify your payments down to more closely match your actual costs.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
B
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Thanks  blast    I couldn’t find a number   Happy Xmas 

T
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At 8:18 this morning (Boxing Day) OVO emailed to say they are increasing our direct debit (despite us being in credit) to £431! Not only can we not afford this but we got no warning and it is way more than the electricity we are using (we’ve recently got solar panels and a battery). They’ve obviously done this when their communications lines are closed for the next few days so is there anything I can do about this?

Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
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This was an automated action that you’d always get 10 working days notice for. It wasn’t deliberately targeted to trigger today i.e. wasn’t deliberately made to happen on Boxing Day. It is more likely that you got the 10 day advance warning today instead.

Call 0800 069 9831 from Wednesday onwards. The Collections Team can revert this for you if you have a valid reason.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!

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