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Question

Account cancelled by OVO after 5+ months of supply?

  • 21 December 2020
  • 7 replies
  • 655 views
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Quick summary:

  • Moved to new flat June 2020 and signed up with OVO (on the EV plan)
  • Direct debit details confirmed by email on 9 June
  • Supply started by 23 June - notified by a “We’re now supplying your energy” email
  • Statement emails were received in September, October and November (I don’t know where July or August went)
  • Direct debit payments started in October (again, not sure why these didn’t start earlier)
  • I checked my online account (My OVO) in October, November and December (after receiving statement notifications) and it still reported “We will start supplying your electricity on 23 June”
  • In December I started querying this with the OVO customer help team but with no success
  • Checking the My OVO site again today - it’s now reporting the rather alarming “Your electricity has been cancelled”
  • I have emailed customer service again and am presently on hold via the helpline (35 minutes and counting...)

My questions:

  1. How do I get my account reinstated?
  2. Who else has experienced this?
  3. What is the most effective way to communicate with OVO?

7 replies

Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
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Hi @guycuthbert ,

Sorry for the trouble there! If you’re on the EV Everywhere plan, it sounds like you’re on the old billing system. It can be a bit glitchy sometimes.

Provided you haven’t switched away to another supplier or initiated any cancellation process, your account should still be active. It’s more likely to happen on the old billing system than on the new one. It’s also possible that your account is being migrated over to the new platform, which can make it look as if your account has been “cancelled” on the old system.

The fastest way to reach the support team is generally via Live Chat as the team can often answer those in a few seconds. If you let them know what’s happened, they should get it fixed for you.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Tim_OVO
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Userlevel 7

 

Sorry for the trouble there! If you’re on the EV Everywhere plan, it sounds like you’re on the old billing system. It can be a bit glitchy sometimes.

 

Yep I think this might be it, your account might be being moved to the new billing platform, see this topic for more info:

 

 

The other topic that came to mind is this one, which outlines actual issues with the switch: 

 

 

Let’s narrow this down and choose which topic this issue best sits with, @guycuthbert - or maybe it's a new issue…..

 

As Blastoise mentioned, web chat is best. 7 second average wait today! Click here and scroll to the bottom. 

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Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
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Good evening @guycuthbert ,

I just wanted to check in with you to see whether you managed to get this one resolved? If you still need help, please do feel free to let us know and we’ll pick up right where we left off.

I’ll keep this thread open and marked as active for now, since there’s no clear best answer yet.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
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Thank you @Tim_OVO  and @Blastoise186  for your comments and suggestions.

 

I took @Blastoise186’s advice and communicated with OVO via Live Chat… this established that my account hasn’t been cancelled and that my issues with My OVO had been escalated. I was told that this would take “some time” to resolve. Further discussions through Live Chat resulted in a commitment to regain access within 10 working days. That meant that I should have had access from 27/28 December.

Still no joy!

As the screenshot above shows… I’m no further along.

I have looked at the two articles referenced by @Tim_OVO - I don’t think either of these is quite what I have experienced but they sound strongly related.

My immediate challenges are:

  • I have no idea whether my Direct Debit is currently proportional to the electricity that I’m using
  • The smart meter in my apartment block is (apparently, according to OVO) an “old British Gas model” and isn’t  accessible by them… despite the apartment block being only 18 months old!
  • I would like to align electricity use and spend but have no idea how to do this - I’m flying blind!

All assistance gratefully received.

Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
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Thanks @guycuthbert ,

It looks to me as if your account is still on the legacy billing system, which may explain why things look strange. It might be worth seeing whether your account is able to be migrated over to the new billing platform, where you shouldn’t see some of those issues anymore.

As for your smart meters, can you take some photos for us? We can check what you’ve got. :)

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Bradley_OVO
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Userlevel 3

Hi @guycuthbert, it look’s like you’re in great hands with @Blastoise186.

 

I just wanted to make a couple of quick points to explain some of the things you’ve recently mentioned.

 

  1. We’re unable to communicate with any generation 1 smart meters that are provided by British Gas, however if you’ve got generation 2 smart meters, for the most part, we should be able to communicate with all suppliers models. This is one of the unifying features for generation 2 to avoid customers having to continually have their meters exchanged when they switch suppliers. Not only is it inconvenient, but its not cost effective for the energy suppliers to keep doing this.
  2. I apologise if you were led to be believe the issue would be resolved within ‘10 working days’, whereas this is a usual time frame given to our members to expect a response or possible resolution from our specialist teams within OVO. This may explain why the issue hasn't been fully resolved, yet may still be being worked on.

I look forward to hearing you get this issue resolved soon.

 

All the best,

I'm not lazy, I'm just in energy saving mode!
Blastoise186
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Userlevel 7
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Hi there @guycuthbert .

I just wanted to check in with you, to see if you still need any help with your question? If you still need help, please feel free to reply back to this thread at your convenience and we’ll pick this up again where we left off.

If you’re happy that the problem has been solved, please feel free to let me know and I can try to see if there’s a suitable best answer to mark this thread as solved.

Thanks!

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

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