We want to hear from you: Let’s talk about your last customer support experience

Boring I know, but I have not had to contact customer service in all the years I have been with OVO. Can’t complain about the tariffs as I am always informed which one may be best for me. Looks like I pay a little over the odds, but then it is there when my energy uses strays from the norm. Will be interesting to see how that works out now winter is here. 

Well, it’s been a few months since I actively needed to reach out about my account so I might be a little rusty…

But perhaps one of the most recent ones I can think of was when I called up to get my tariff renewed while in Bristol (ironically sat outside of the old OVO Bristol Hub while talking to a Glasgow agent!) last year on a day trip.

Most likely because of flags on my account, I can usually get through pretty fast and I’ve always had pretty good experiences but that one stood out as the agent genuinely cared (and couldn’t help but find my exact location on the day hilarious!) about making sure I got a good deal which is important given my vulnerability status - so finding another 2 year fix deal which was better than the loyalty rate was a bonus, especially given more recent price cuts that have been applied to it via Levy/VAT changes.

But this specific one stood out to me as someone who truly cared about giving me the best possible experience while admitting they were a fan of my time on the forum. It’s times like this which make me more valued as that’s important - I’m extremely strict that a bad experience will cause me to reconsider my relationship with a business.

I don’t recall needing to follow up on this one - it was literally a one-and-done and it was instantly queued up to swap in once my previous tariff ended.

I might add more to this later but that’s it for now.

Put it this way, my service with OVO was so bad I was able to claim enough GSS payments to be covered for 6 months energy usage following escalation to the ombudsman. That's the only good point about OVO for me. Now I'm happily with Octopus Energy who are amazing in every way. 

Dreadful as usual when account was passed to debt collector without us receiving a bill/ reminder. Bill had been sent to occupier despite us informing of change of tenancy. Bill was for wrong period & was for tenant to pay.  This was from APRIL this year.  So infuriating that a simple change of tenancy cannot be efficiently processed & it happens every single time.

Honestly. Absolutely dire!

You use poor quality VOIP, with staff whose primary language is not English, so that also complicates the situation. 
Your staff seem unable, or unwilling to deviate even slightly from your corporate script, even when they have gone through the EXACT questions only a short time before, but then the system looped them back round. 
Your staff are good at transferring you to departments…. unfortunately, the wrong ones. 
They are unable to answer simple questions, as the script doesn’t allow it. 
The staff, I assume, read the same information from my account? Why did I have 4 different answers in one day?

Without doubt, the worst Energy company I’ve ever dealt with. 
If I can actually get a response to how much I owe, as no one knows, then I can settle up and leave. 

My consistent "grump" with OVO is every time I try get a package for my energy with OVO is that to get that package I have a SMART meter which I will not have at any price until it is proven the many defects and short comings of them are proven as being rectified.

I had the ombudsman rule in my favour mid-September. Ovo paid up £200 into my account (£700 in credit) and apologised 
I tried to get a refund for the £200 but I’m told I’m on “billing hold” because “… the ombudsman claim is still open” BUT it isnt

Abby at OVO Forum said she’d help BUT a week later I’m still on billing hold although the ombudsman case has been closed for weeks.

And now I get an email asking me to comment on OVO’s responses - basically I’m not getting any. 
 

very poor OVO service

In my new property, meters are not sending information. I keep receiving messages when going into my usage that data is still waiting uploading and to "try again later". I also keep being asked for meter readings. I feel my usage and charges must have been based on estimates as the readings for usage are excessive. I spoke to customer services last Thursday who confirmed the meters were faulty and this would have a "significant impact" on charges. She said these would have been accurate after readings had been sent which I had done, but that doesn't make sense if the meters are faulty. I have since been asked to send further readings as, again, information is not being sent. She said she would call last Friday first thing as the system was down last Thursday. This call was to arrange an appointment for engineers. She never called and still hasn't. This is all very streseful and the last thing my M.E. condition needs.

Over the last 2 years I have made numerous calls to Ovo Customer Services and if I am honest they don't have enough experience or knowledge to answer the type of problems I was having, I was always transferred to numerous wrong departments before getting to the right one.(Squad 70)

I had better responses from the Ovo Forum Team and their backroom contacts than with Customer Services but I suppose you have to follow the protocol and contact them in the first instance.

My second-last interaction wasn’t on the phone, it was via webchat because I like to have a transcript of the conversation.

I like the webchat, because I could cut and paste information from extracts from the usage stats and self-created graphs. They helped pinpoint my issue which was the usage summary for the month didn’t match up with the daily (30-minute) details.

The resolution was fairly prompt and I was kept informed of progress and what was done (although I didn’t understand the solution it did work).

I’d still like to be able to get more information out of the API in an easier manner but that’s not an issue for customer support at the call level.

My last interaction was not the most relaxing, and slightly confrontational. But I was at least half at fault when I started a call grumpy without gathering all the required information.

Thankfully all my queries have been related to smart-meter readings and how they are reported.