Pay As You Go Final Bill claiming I owe £1000 and OVO refuse to let me complain

I’m so sorry to hear this @Mc68, it sounds very stressful.

Are you with OVO pay as you go or Boost?

When I last posted on here I was promised a call back within 10 days to update me on the complaint.

Over a month later, still haven’t heard anything.

Since it’s been over 8 weeks now I called and asked for an outcome or a deadlock letter so I can go to the Ombudsman and I was told “it’s gone to second line so we can’t help you, we will have to send an e-Mail and someone contact you at a later date”

Honestly, this is just awful. 

That really isn't great 

If it has been over 8 weeks you should be able to go to the Ombudsman without a deadlock letter

I suggest you ask the Ombudsman

Also post a review on Trustpilot as this can sometimes prompt action

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.ovoenergy.com

I have also flagged the ovo moderators on the forum

Hi @RW1987,

I’m really sorry to hear that you haven’t heard anything since you last gave us an update.

I’m going to have our Forum_Support team reach out to you so they can help you further with this.

Look out for a private message here soon: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview.

** UPDATE TO ANYONE ELSE IN THE SAME SITUATION**
 

Moderators, no response needed from you, please.

Dont give up.

If they say you owe them money from a PAYG meter, insist they log a complaint and go to the Ombudsman.

As you can see, they claimed I owed them £1,000….

I paid it down until they finally allow me to move to a different energy company.

After refusing to let me make complaints (actually closing down chats on me telling me, you can’t make complaints about debt), I finally got someone who let me make a complaint and surprise surprise, OVO didn’t get back to me after the 8 weeks period, so I went direct to the Ombudsman with proof they had not come back to me.

It turns out, on PAYG, your meter should send OVO a reading at least once a month (industry standard) however, my meter wasn’t.

Despite me calling them and complaining and giving them meter readings, no one bothered to update my meter reads and realise something wasn’t right, just constantly saying “I owed money”….

Also, the Ombudsman’s findings were OVO customer service was lacking… and they had failed me as a customer.

OVO tried to dispute the Ombudsman but it was ruled in my favour, it ended in OVO owing me money, the Ombudsman also telling them to give me a GOGW payment for the failings.

The final insult from OVO was, they were late in doing it.. and their apology letter was pitiful. Absolutely disgusting.

A kind of “here is the money owed, the account is now settled…. However, if at any point you would like to rejoin, please call one of our representatives who will be happy to assist you”

To be quite honest, I’d rather freeze than join OVO ever again. 
 

Don’t give up, don’t let them beat you down and if they claim you owe them money on a PAYG meter and you have regularly topped up… fight and go to the Ombudsman! 

I was in my old flat from November 2016 until December 2024. I was switched to Boost from Economy Energy in January 2019 when it went bust, and in June 2024 Boost announced that it too was in trouble and I would be switched to Ovo.

On 28 June I received a welcome email from Ovo.

I continued to use gas and electric, topping up when needed and never resorting to emergency credit.

In mid-December, having previously notified Ovo that I would be leaving the property and been told to phone back on the day I physically moved out, I was sent a final statement for £28.47 which I paid that same day. I noticed that the final statement had a closing balance of £274.06 but ignored this as I knew it couldn't apply.

To repeat in those 8 years I topped up the gas and electric when needed and never used the emergency credit.

On 8 January 2025 I received another final statement, in which it was claimed I was £193.38 in debit. I phoned Ovo and explained the situation, saying that it was impossible to be in debit because I paid for my gas and electric in advance and that if I didn't pay I would have no gas or electric.

The woman insisted that the system was correct and that they had no record of payments in May or June. Ignoring the fact that I wasn't switched to Ovo until June, on 14 June I topped up my electric with £75 and on 21 June topped up my gas by £30. Yet according to the "ins and outs" on my final statement I made no payments (top ups) that month.

Ovo appear to randomly produce figures claiming that by mid-June I was £112.26 in debit and at one point this rose to as much as £203.00.

I am 71 years of age, and as I said I never even used the emergency credit, and if I was in debt which was impossible because it was pre-payment, why didn't Ovo ever notify me. Indeed, the 'final' statement on 18 December was the first time I had ever received a statement of any kind.

Because top ups are usually done on an infrequent basis and there is seemingly no official record, as would be the case if you were paying online or by direct debit, Ovo appear to think that they can say you are in debt and it is up to the customer to prove otherwise.

However, as I have said, with pre-payment no money no gas or electric so it is impossible to get into debt, other than the £5 emergency concession. However, since I paid for my top ups at the same Cooperative shop using my debit card there will be records.

No matter the cost I will fight this all the way. This is an absolute con and I can see that others are being conned in the same way.

​@pitchris ,

I’m sorry to hear you are going through the same as I have. I can empathise with the stress it puts you under.. and OVO customer service really is lacking.

They would sometimes hang up on me, refused to listen to me, end web chats.. and would just refuse to let me make a complaint, saying “let’s resolve this now” and also promising me people will get back to me when they didn’t.

Have they let you make a complaint and giving you a complaint reference number?

If they haven’t resolved your complaint within 8 weeks, you can go to energy Ombudsman.

If the resolution also isn’t satisfactory, you can ask for a “deadlock letter” and you go to the Ombudsman with that.

In typical OVO energy style, they didn’t resolve my complaint within 8 weeks, didn’t get back to me when I asked for a deadlock letter so I just went to the Ombudsman who even said “unless you haven’t topped up your meter in years, this kind of debt of standing charge build up on PAYG is impossible, surely someone at OVO should have spotted this?” 
 

Even though I sent OVO a copy of my tenancy agreement and did some maths that, it was impossible to have £1,000 of standing charge debt, even if I never topped up my meter in the time I had lived here.. and wouldn’t of been able to use gas they claim I consumed because my meter would have been on £0.00, they refused to listen to me. 
 

It was the same mind numbing “you have consumed more than you have topped up so have an outstanding balance” every time.

Let the Ombudsman take the stress out of it for you.

OVO’s GDPR/Data protection is also appalling… the Ombudsman looking into it is quite in depth and you see an upload of all the data OVO keep and all the conversations you have had with them and their attempts to call you/letters to you.. and what OVO claim they sent me/tried to call me didn’t match reality.

I then separately did a “Subject Access Request” and the info provided to me on all the data they held on me, actually matched the reality, not the lies they told the Ombudsman.

Just keep insisting on making a complaint.

Even though their website says for PAYG you can complain by email, they won’t let you complain by e-mail on PAYG… I even e-mailed their CEO complaints team 3 times and to this date, which is over a year later, still haven’t had a response.

I’m no expert, but I have been exactly where you are, I know they will just insist you owe the money without looking into it… or say “we can no longer deal with it as it’s with our back office/secondary team, someone will call you back” and refuse to get back to you, but if I can be of any help let me know.

Keep us posted.

Thanks for that RW1987

At present I’m more angry than worried. Indeed, last week the woman at Ovo said “I can understand you being upset”, to which I used the classic line used by Rowan Atkinson when pretending to be a gorilla. “Upset? I’m livid”.

Other than that one phone call, and the statements there has been no dialogue, though they have ignored the tweet I sent earlier.

So, how do I begin the complain process?

​@pitchris ,

Call them and say you want to log a complaint, tell them it’s your right to be able to complain about this and dispute the debt owed and INSIST they make the complaint and give you a complaint reference number on the telephone..

My gut tells me, they will try everything to not let you make a complaint and if they do, you have to give them 8 weeks to resolve it.. if by 8 weeks they are communicating with you but haven’t resolved it, you ask for a deadlock letter so you can go to the Ombudsman..

If they refuse the deadlock letter, you can go to the Ombudsman anyway.

You have to give them 8 weeks from the date you get the complaint reference number.

Once that 8 weeks has elapsed, go to https://www.energyombudsman.org and they will take on the complaint for you, it’s quite a long process with the Ombudsman, took about 4 months for them to resolve it as OVO have to be given time to investigate it and the Ombudsman.. but they are thorough and really understanding. 

So, to clarify, I want to make a complaint, and whether they allow me to or not they have 8 weeks. Though ideally they allow me and give me a complaint number?

The complaint department is open on Saturdays, I’ll call first thing.

Thanks for all the help.