Hey @BristolMatt, 

Welcome to the forum! :)

This is an issue we’ve come across on the new online account. You can change your communication preferences on your profile on your online account, you just need to select email rather than post and we’ll stop sending paper statements. It may be worth checking your billing summaries to see if you’ve been charged for the paper statements.

If you have, we’re really sorry but don’t worry we will refund the charges. Just send us a message on Facebook or Twitter with your name, DoB and account number. if you don’t use social media, our Help centre has online chat!

Thanks! 

Hi @Eva_OVO - thanks for your answer!

I have double-checked my profile and I don’t have “Post” selected, just “Email”. It has been like this for a long time. I started receiving paper documents a couple of months ago and thought it was just a glitch but they seem to keep coming. Obviously one of the draws to your company was the green credentials, and so I am hoping that this isn’t the case for a lot of people as it could be a huge amount of wasted paper!

I’m unable to see if I have bee charged for paper billing or not, but will send you an email.

It sounds like something has gone wrong here then, @BristolMatt, if you reach out to the team using the methods in my last message then they can certainly help with this and stop sending the statements out in the post. They can also check where paper statement charges have been applied to your account.

I have had another thought, have you signed up for PSR? If you have you could've selected an extra service which means we have to send paper statements. Don’t worry, if this isn’t required we can edit this for you! :) 

There seems to be a couple of errors on my on line account. Firstly you are sending me statements via the regular mail which I’ve never requested, I’ve always received them via email.
Secondly you are sending these letters to my wife. The account has always been in my name.
Thirdly you have stopped sending me emails when my meter readings are due.
I have always had good service from Ovo and moved to you a number of years ago when I got fed up with Scottish powers cock ups and diabolical service, I hope, now that you have become larger you are not going the same way.

Hey @Tomahawk,

Check out @Eva_OVO’s best answer above, this should help you get sorted. 

Thanks! 

I have had this same issue paper billing has started today I got my second one which i have never requested and its in an name which isn’t mine my account is in my name only so now I am getting my usual bill via email plus a paper bill in another name there is no where in my account to turn this off or any other name in my account 

I have requested with online chat to remove this contact that has appeared from no where and to turn this paper billing off it was my second request to do this as last request obviously didn’t work most of all I am confused where this mystery second contact has appeared from.

Hi @stevebethere and thanks for raising this on the Forum.

There are two possible reasons that I can think of for you receiving this second (paper) bill. The first is a keying issue when inputting your account data to the new Billing System.

The second is more serious, and can occur when there is a particular type of fraud being attempted by a 3rd party. I’m obviously not gong to explain here how this happens, and it won’t affect you financially! However, you should send an email and alert them of this anomaly.

Ask here again if you need further assistance.

Thanks for your response I have now rang them and they said they are aware of this problem and should be sorted soon 

Like others, I have been switched to paper statements which I don’t particularly want.

According to the replies above, I ought to be able to switch my communications preferences to email in my online profile, but I can’t find this particular option anywhere. Has it been removed, or if not, could sometime explain where to find it?

Many thanks

Hey there @benm !

As far as I’m aware, I don’t think MyOVO has a feature right now that lets you flip the switch between Paper and Paperless Statements. However, that’s definitely something which is probably a good feature idea for the future. I’ll make sure this gets fed back to the team. @Jess_OVO is best placed for that if memory serves.

From memory, you can opt-out of postal marketing in your profile settings, but not postal statements.

As for changing back to Paperless, I believe the Support Team can do this for you. As it’s a pretty simple change, Live Chat will probably be the best option but you can also phone through or email in instead if you prefer. The team will be back on Monday at 8am, so they’ll be able to help once the office is open.

Thank you!

No worries, you’re welcome! :)

I’ll make sure you get credit for this feature request rather than me as well, since I wouldn’t have thought of it if you hadn’t brought this up. Either way, the support team should be able to flip the switch fairly quickly.

If you need a hand with anything else though, feel free to give us a shout. We’ll get you on the road. :)

Sorry for any confusion caused by these recent posted statements.

I’ve checked in with the team who have confirmed that this is not currently something you are able to update on your online account, so best to reach out to the Support Team to get those unwanted paper statements stopped.

Don’t forget you can always access your historic statements via your online account, check out this handy guide to find out how:
 

When are you going to add this feature?

It’s not exactly rocket science to enable us to opt out of paper billing. (And yes it is not selected on my account communication preferences).

I’ve had it on every other account for years.

It’s ridiculous that you promote green energy and then send a huge stack of paper through the post.

Why don’t you make it opt in instead - and just assume no-one wants the huge waste of resources that you supply to god knows how many 1000’s of customers that then just shred it.

I find it unbeleivable that you cannot implement such a simple measure.

Actually, these days OVO does make it so that paperless billing is the default, unless you specify otherwise. I would imagine that most members probably do keep  it that way, but there’ll always be a few who prefer paper billing, so both options will remain open while demand exists. There is also factors such as the Priority Services Register which do play a part as well.

It’s definitely a feature that can be added to the suggestions box, but OVO can’t guarantee whether it will become a reality, or how long that might take. I’ve also not really seen many suppliers that let you change this setting via self-service either, so it’s not a unique situation.

I understand that.  But it wasn’t selected on my account and I still received bills.

Every supplier including water companies offer this service - it’s very basic.

It would be nice to see this become a self-service option in the future, so I’ll keep an eye on this. No doubt Tim or Jess will spot this thread as well.

In the meantime, the fastest way to change the setting over would probably be via Live Chat with the Support Team. They should be able to flip the switch within a few minutes or so.

Just wanted to step in here to clarify what I suspect might be behind the unrequested paper statements you’ve been receiving, @bobbyfrombarnham. As we have an obligation to send a copy of your statements to all contacts named as financially liable on an account there’s a chance that if there’s a second contact on your account we haven’t yet had an email address registered for them, meaning we’ll be sending a copy of the statements in the post even if you’ve previously selected to be contacted via email.

It’s great to hear that you’re concerned about the environmental impact of this and I’ll be passing on the point you’ve made about including the feature to get this updated yourself via your online account. In the meantime as our community volunteer @Blastoise186 has mentioned, it’s best to reach out to the Support Team to make sure all contacts have an email address registered so we can stop sending out those paper statements.

I hope this helps get things sorted. 

If I open an online account will I still receive my regular Posted paper bills?

Hi @Daveb2 ,

OVO does Paperless Billing by default unless you opt for Paper Billing. If you set up an online account, your preferences won’t be changed.

Hope this helps!