Skip to main content

Hi all,

I moved into a new flat back in April and on my first day, I updated the existing OVO account details from the previous tenant (my landlord) to my name. For context, I moved into the flat AFTER the transition from SSE had occurred, so I never had an account with SSE.

 

In our entire tenure with OVO (from the day we moved in, up until right now), we have been on a pre-payment meter - and by definition, have paid for ALL of our energy usage in advance of actually using it. As I type this, we are actually in over £100 of credit according to our little in-house display (so if anything, they actually owe me money)

 

You can imagine our shock and confusion when last week, we received an out-of-the-blue communication from OVO that we “owed” +£1200. This debt had apparently been applied to our account in mid-June but we were never told about it until this recent e-mail and text. 

 

Not only have we paid for all of our energy usage in advance, I have gone through an tallied up our entire energy usage since day 1 (the beauty of smart meters) and we have only consumed around £450 of gas AND electricity in total. Therefore an outstanding bill of almost 3x the amount of our entire historical usage with OVO is obviously insane.

 

Of course I immediately got on the phone with OVO and alerted them to this discrepancy. I was put through to their South African call centre and we were told an “investigation” would be launched and we would hear back within 10 working days.

 

Admittedly, this was only circa 6 working days ago, however my experience with OVO’s customer service had been utterly appalling so far. I have zero faith that they will:

  1. bother calling me back with the “investigation’s” findings or...
  2. bother “investigating” my issue at all.

The above is based on personal experience 🙃

 

My concern is that while they are “investigating” this, what happens if this debt is escalated to a debt recovery agency? Or what if the investigation comes back as inconclusive and they double-down that I must pay?

My Questions:

  1. What are my options if they don’t respond to me about the investigation, or fob me off with “oh the investigation is still ongoing” BS?
  2. Am I entitled to see the results of the investigation?
  3. Am I able to request transcripts of previous phonecalls? Because I very much intent to go to the ombudsman and my MP if necessary

Updated on 15/11/24 by Abby_OVO

 

Hey @MxcLxllxn 

 

I’m sorry to hear about this.

 

We don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum but we can do our best to make some suggestions and recommendations.

 

Do you know when the bill for this amount is dated from? There are a number of reasons that could have caused this, one being the account hasn’t been opened to the correct date, another may be that the meter details could be incorrect, which would cause the bill to be for the wrong meter. If the date on the account is wrong, the bill may be for a period of time before you moved in perhaps? 

 

What information did they take from you in order to carry out the investigation? I know that things like a tenancy agreement can be helpful to the teams when getting the move in date right, ensuring you’re only being charged from when you became liable for the property. Did they request any meter details or photographs of the meter? If they’ve not requested any of this, it might be helpful just to send these over just in case, and this may save some time down the line.

 

 

My Questions:

What are my options if they don’t respond to me about the investigation, or fob me off with “oh the investigation is still ongoing” BS?

I’d definitely send over the above information if they didn’t already ask for these, you can raise a complaint if you’re still having issues. 

 

Am I entitled to see the results of the investigation?

You’ll receive a phone call or email with details of the outcome of the investigation. The team will most likely want to discuss the outcome with you, so should look to call you when they’ve completed the investigation.

 

Am I able to request transcripts of previous phone calls? Because I very much intent to go to the ombudsman and my MP if necessary

You can request that calls be listened to, if you’ve already raised a complaint and an agreement is not met by 8 weeks, the complaint will be at deadlock and you can contact the Ombudsman if needed, but I would hope the team can resolve the matter without the need of the Ombudsman stepping in.

 

I hope this was helpful, and as mentioned we can only make some assumptions on the Forum, so the suggested reasons may not cover some/all of the issues, but are the most common for such problems you’re experiencing. Feel free to update us here with how things go, and if you’ve got any other questions you can post those here too.

Hi @Abby_OVO, thanks for the response.

Do you know when the bill for this amount is dated from? There are a number of reasons that could have caused this, one being the account hasn’t been opened to the correct date, another may be that the meter details could be incorrect, which would cause the bill to be for the wrong meter. If the date on the account is wrong, the bill may be for a period of time before you moved in perhaps?

Yes, they told me the exact date that the balance adjustment was applied. And I believe that they also have my correct account activation date on record.

I know that things like a tenancy agreement can be helpful to the teams when getting the move in date right, ensuring you’re only being charged from when you became liable for the property

 

Okay this has given me a bit of a lightbulb moment… Truth be told, I actually moved into the property in July 2020 -  I have shared this information with OVO as I have previously sent them a copy of my tenancy agreement. However, when I initially moved in, the landlord had an SSE pre-payment account under his name. As it was pre-payment and I had the gas and electricity cards with the account information, I simply topped up both gas and electricity via the webapp using these cards. Technically the account was still under the landlords name and I was topping up monthly from July 2020 to April 2023.

In April 2023, I finally got round to updating the account information to my name. It is possible that the money I paid in from from July 2020 to April 2023 was “refunded” to the landlord and now has been charged against me, as the tenancy agreement would show that I was actually living there during this period?

 

I know that’s probably confusing to read… what’s your thoughts?

 

Hey @MxcLxllxn 

 

Nope not confusing there don’t worry, it sounds like something I’ve heard before, so it should be easy enough for the team to rectify. 

 

It does sound like they may have opened that up all the way back to when you moved in, and in turn, wiped out any ‘billing’ and payments you made during that time, as the system thought the landlord was paying, and now wants you to pay, although it was you topping up the whole time. 

 

The team will definitely be able to sort this, either by re-billing the account or changing the dates on the account back to when you should have had the name changed (April 2023 rather than the actual move in date). 

 

I hope that does make sense, I know it’s a little bit of a tricky situation, but the Support Team can certainly resolve this.

@Abby_OVO Thanks again for this.

 

I have contacted my landlord and explained the situation to him.

 

My landlords partner has confirmed that they received a cheque of a similar amount from OVO around the same time that this balance adjustment was applied to my account,but they are out of the country at the moment and won't be able to give me details until they return next week. I am hoping that if the amount they received via cheque is the same as the amount I was charged, then it should be pretty conclusive that both things are corelated.

 

In the mean time, they have asked me to provide an email address so that they can make their own inquiries to OVO.

 

Can I ask you what email contact I should give them for discussing the details of Pay As You Go/Pre-payment meter accounts?

Hey @MxcLxllxn 

 

Okay that’s certainly positive to hear, I know it’s not an easy situation but it does mean that we’re on the right track to getting things resolved.

 

Their best way of inquiring about this will be over webchat, as email response times can vary by team so I’d recommend they contact via webchat. They could even contact us on Social Media which might be a better option for them. They can send us a message on Facebook or Twitter from 9am - 5pm, every day of the week.

@MxcLxllxn in case it helps you could give a link to the thread to anyone in ovo messsaged

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/my-pay-as-you-go-account-159/inexplicable-balance-adjustment-applied-to-our-pay-as-you-go-account-pre-payment-meter-16162

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings