Sorry for clogging up forum space again, but in case other people have formal complaints ongoing and are interested in the way Ovo “deal” with them (lol)

Last night I sent a blunt (not rude) email to the complaints team telling them I had spotted them reducing my credit balance without first discussing any adjustment with me. This being in direct contradiction to the last phone conversation I had with the complaints team

Well needless to say I got a phone call this morning from a nice lady who quite obviously had been passed my file and was reading it as she went along. Whilst she was trying to be helpful, all i got was typical customer service platitudes:

“Yes I would be annoyed too”

“I can see why you are unhappy”

“lets see if I can help you today”

If thats the best Ovo can do, nearly eight weeks into a formal complaint, then I despair

Unfortunately the phone call took a darker turn as she said two things that really annoyed me:

“you havent been lied to sir”….oh apaert from the four emails I have on file saying my account had been carefully inspected and all was absolutely as it shoud be….and

“sometimes these account adjustments are made automatically and I cant sent you a revised invoice”. To which I replied…..so you think you can make things up as your computer goes along and deny me the ability to query things? No answer.

I can see how this could play out….they adjust all my bills, pass any debit balance to credit control for collection and deny me the ability to query the bills and seek suitabe compensation for six months of grief and incorrect billing

The scary thing is, these people have the ability to discconnect me

Anyone know how to get all the forum items about E10 migration, E10 meter E7 tariff etc.etc.  issues from SSE under one thread? We seem to have moved on from “Are E10 tarrifs available yet” to  needing a separate thread!

Sorry for posting agan, but I forgot to mention yesterday that I was once again told that when I was migrated from SSE, my account was one of a batch where SSE supplied the closing readings for peak/offpeak the wrong way round

Quite why this should be an issue that would take months to remedy I just dont know, however I was told it was a major factor in why billing has been mucked up.

Hope this helps anyone in a similar predicament

That's interesting,  why don't them admit they fouled up and sort it! It's like the band playing on the Titanic! 

Shades of the Post Office, 'your the only one who's got problems, nothing to see here!' their basically Gaslighting us! 

Sorry for the mixed metaphors!

I think at this stage anything we do or say is forgiveable

Another email to complaints going to be sent today demanding to see the bils dated 09.09.23 and 09.10.23 that they have clearly amended in the past few days

Why they dont display under “View full billing history” I have no idea

Hey @pegem and @MikeMilf, Forum_Support should be in touch.

@MikeMilf if the complaints team are unable to offer a resolution the complaint can be escalated to the Ombudsman. You can’t find out more about our complaints process here. 

Hi @Emmanuelle_OVO 

Unfortunately I am familiar with the formal complaint procedure, having gone through (and won) against SSE in the past. My own Ovo formal complaint started on 01.12.23 so the eight week window is almost up.

I was going to allow an extra week to allow for the xmas break and to be blunt, I do have better things to do than regurgitate all thats happened to the Ombudsman.

Depending on how the complaints team respond to the email I sent this morning, I will re-evaluate. It really pees me off when you email the complaints team and get a call back from general customer services who werent up to speed. The complaints team at SSE werent pleasant to deal with, but they were much more efficient

I understand your frustration, I’ll ask Forum_Support to check in today @MikeMilf 

Keep an eye out here @MikeMilf 

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview

Well Ive suddenly started getting calls from the Advance Complaints Resolution Team which I suppose is a step in the right directon

Trouble is, they are all behaving like my formal complaint is only just starting, not at the end of its eight week window.

Whats really frustrating is they each seem to be acting independently and unaware of other aspects of the dispute. When I asked for copies of the bills they amended last weekend, I got the reply “sorry thats dealt with by someone else”

Oh well, its some sort of progess I guess…..will give them benefit of the doubt until such time as my head explodes lol

BBC News - Missed energy bill error saw man pay £244,000 direct debithttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68130784

It seems the entire energy sector is at best incompetent at worst corrupt!

Im really sorry, I appear to be taking over this thread - its not intentional. Perhaps forum people might want me to have a separate thread?

Well...Ive now been presented with the same core problem that I think others have faced. This is the convo I just had…..

Ovo - Mrxxxx you are on Economy 7

Me - No im not im Economy 10, or at least I should be since coming to you

Ovo - Ovo do not offer E10

Me - So please explain why the “Your Plan” page on your website says “Simpler Energy - Economy 10”. All the peak and offpeak time changes correspond to E10 as well

Ovo - Errrrrm ….puts me on hold for ages, comes back and says “you are on Economy 7”

AAAAAAAARRGH - for the love of god how can a company so blatantly contradict itself?

The chances of me getting this complaint resolved properly I would say are next to zero, let alone receiving proper compensation for this level of ineptitude

Just had a conversation with Complaint Resolution Team, ' now your complaint is resolved we want to offer some compensation ' ! Err no, not resolved still E10 timings on E7 tariff, and Peak & off-peak reversed. Obviously not read all the emails! I Said do not close complaint until resolved, She Agreed to talk to various departments to see where we go from here.

Promised to ring back, I'm not holding my breath!

You could make a docudrama out of it, except it's too unbelievable!!

Ahh but @pegem Ovo dont offer E10…..they just told me so haha! (despite what it says on my “Your Plan”  page on their site).

Sounds like you are closer to a conclusion than I am….very best of luck

Why the hell cant they send a competent engineer out to do a site visit?

They appear not to have anybody competent! They should be able to program remotely, if they had someone who knew how to do it!

Well im now keeping a writtem diary of all my interactions, screenshots of all important website pages, and downloads of all invoices

Just in case they start trying to cover their tracks. Needless to say not received PDFs of the two invoices they adjusted

I don’t think there’s anything an engineer - particularly a non-OVO contractor - could do on site. It should be possible to make all the adjustments and corrections you and the others need remotely. An engineer on site could only monitor the results of whatever the people back at the office are doing, and you could probably just as easily do that yourself.

Just to remind you: after having a shiny new meter just like yours installed, I saw several configuration faults. 

• The heating circuits weren’t activating when they should (i.e. at all);
• The peak register was clocking offpeak usage and vice versa;
• My account had been switched from a half-hourly reading schedule to monthly.

This was all fixed remotely in a matter of a couple of days after intervention by Forum Support.

(… and an engineer wouldn’t be able to do much about your bizarre billing experience.)

It looks as if it’s going to take the Ombudsman’s big stick to concentrate their minds. 

Well, the face from Ovo continues.  I've just had an update from the Ombudsman service regarding my complaint and they are next to toothless as well.  The following is a direct quote from their last communication:

It is evident from the evidence your supplier has provided on 15 December 2023 that the remedies have been completed and I’m satisfied that the TPR codes have been updated for you. You explained that the billing is not correct and that the meter is now billing on economy 7 times when it should be economy 10 as this is the agreement you had with the supplier. Unfortunately, these are seen as new issues and it was not part of the remedies requested within the original case. 

So it's official. the Ombudsman service is happy with Ovo switching my to E7 billing on an E10 meter as an acceptable resolution.  With this level of mediocrity, is it any wonder than no one can hold Ovo to account..  I now have to wait 3 months of messing around with Ovo again and open yet another complaint!

@MikeMilf @Firedog - Happy to join any cals action howver the ombudsman service have made it pretty clear that they’re not going to do anything.  I really think it needs to be a legal calss action for breach of contract (or similar, based on legal advice).

In the mean time, I have started downloading the usage data from the Ovo APP, it downloads as a CSV file which can be imported into a spread sheet.  I’m calculating my bills athat way, allowing for peak / off peak rates, standing charges and VAT.  I’ll be using that to contest the bills provided and if necessary I will switch off my direct debit and go over to payment on demand.  If I then refuse to pay, Ovo will have to take me to court and I can prove then that they are in breach of contract and the bills are inaccurate..

I also see that there are a couple of companies offering 1 year fix for new customers now and seem to indicate that they can take an E10 meter so I might well be leaving Ovo soon anyway and will then look to take action retrospectively.

My day started really well, got better up until lunch, then I had two Ovo phone calls and read @JessicaRose ‘s message. I now feel utterly fed up of this fight, with the nagging feeling that Ovo will do whatever they want without fear of any comeback

Beginning to re-think that bad publicity might be a more potent weapon

BTW I share your desire to get away from Ovo now, but I wouldnt rush to fix current prices as quite a sizeable in the enegy cap is expected in April

This is interesting. Could it be that instead of simply reversing your existing TPRs, which you reported on 28 December last as:

    tier    1
    timeOfUseLabel    offpeak
    timePatternRegime    374
    tier    2
    timeOfUseLabel    peak
    timePatternRegime    375

you’ve now been put on a different SSC (Standard Settlement Configuration, a set of TPRs) altogether, designed for E7? Or is this the current situation, not having changed after 28 December?

Here are the equivalent data for another struggling customer, whose TPRs are apparently correctly set for E7:

    tier    1
    timeOfUseLabel    peak
    timePatternRegime    40
    tier    2
    timeOfUseLabel    offpeak
    timePatternRegime    206

If you’re being billed on E7 timings, this (or equivalent) is what your supply points JSON file should show. Is this the case?

Hey @JessicaRose,

If you’re not happy with the Ombudsman decision, I wonder if you can ask for a review.

Here’s how to get in touch with them:

• Phone: 0330 440 1624 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, and Saturday, 9am to 1pm)
• Email: enquiry@energyombudsman.org
• Website: www.energyombudsman.org
• Post: Energy Ombudsman, PO Box 966, Warrington WA4 9DF

I’ve asked Forum_Support to reach out to you. 

@MikeMilf once the 8 week window has elapsed, you’ll be able to go to the Ombudsman.

The complaints team may also write to you with a final decision that you disagree with. This is called a ‘deadlock’ letter and you can also speak to the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with the outlined actions. The Energy Ombudsman provides a free, independent service.

They’ll review what’s happened and how we’ve handled your complaint. First, they’ll look at everything we’ve done so far with your complaint. Then they’ll decide if we should have done more – and what OVO need to do to put it right.

AFAIK you can only appeal an Ombudsman decision if either:

• New evidence comes to light - you need a VERY good reason why it wasn’t brought up before
• A material error has been made in the process of the Ombudsman that screwed up the entire handling of the case - NOTHING prior to that qualifies e.g. if the supplier screwed up prior to Ombudsman stepping in

Otherwise, the decision is final and binding as far as the Ombudsman is concerned, meaning your options are limited to basically the High Court iirc - and that gets expensive very rapidly.

Well Im close to blowing a fuse now….

Im getting one or two calls a day now from the Advance Resolution Team and they are all parrotting the same mantra day in, day out….

“You are not on Economy 10. you are on Econom 7. Ovo do not offer Economy 10

Well my website Plan page says otherwise, and looking on all the invoices I have downloaded, they say Economy 10 as well. If Ovo dont effing offer this tariff why is shown in so many places.

When I stated I will have been over-billed because of the rate and timing differences, they get very defensive and say that is not possible. Oh really? and how would you know that when you have been   incapable of billing any actual usae in over six months

Im sorry to the ever helpful people on here, but Ovo are a customer service disaster, at least to us ex-SSE customers previously on E10

I’m sorry to hear you still aren’t getting the response you want from the resolution team, if the eight week timeframe elapses @MikeMilf, then you’ll be able to escalate this issue to the Ombudsman.