How do I challenge a meter reading dispute?

At the top of this thread, it suggests that the topic is ‘Solved’. It is most definitely NOT solved and OVO continue to be extremely difficult to communicate with and refuse to even acknowledge the evidence for my correct meter reading (I have sent this to the 4 times).

The solved status here != solved status of any complaints or cases you have open. It’s intended to indicate to the wider community that there’s an answer that may help them, rather than being purely for the original asker of the question.

We do sometimes do answers that are highly customised to the point where they’re more useful to the original seeker of knowledge than anyone else, but the one for this thread doesn’t appear to be one of them.

Thank you for your reply Blastoise. As helpful as some of the replies have been, my frustrating situation is not solved. It it misleading to have a ‘solved’ status next to the title when my complaint regarding the dispute is ongoing. I wanted to make that clear to anyone else reading the thread who may be in a similar situation. 

Hey @ajjarman,

I’m sorry to hear of the issues you’re having, it sounds very frustrating.

I’ll ask Forum_Support to reach out, please keep an eye on your private messages. 

@ajjarman keep an eye out here

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

My complaint and meter reading issues have now been resolved. OVO have been consistently terrible regarding my complaint and the only way I was able to resolve the issue was by approaching a Sunday Times journalist. 

I had spent months trying to resolve the issue. I engaged with 8 different OVO agents who all failed to act on the information I gave them. ‘Suzie’ was particularly bad. 

After 1 email to the journalist, she immediately saw the problem and recognised that the photographic evidence I had provided was sufficient to prove that OVO had made a mistake that needed to be rectified. Within days of her contacting OVO, I received an apologetic email from OVO acknowledging their mistake and offering £250 compensation (later increased to £300). 

The Sunday Times journalist further helped resolve the issue with British Gas. In fairness to BG, they had difficulty dealing with my complaint as I never had an account set up with them. That said, I spent hours on the phone to various agents who did not explain this and were ultimately unhelpful with the situation. They finally offered to clear any debit amount from my account and recognised that I had paid a correct amount for a final bill the previous year.

My advice to those dealing with OVO’s complaints resolution centre, is to be prepared to be given the ‘run-around’. The agents I spoke to repeatedly misunderstood the points I made and ignored the photographic evidence I sent in. Contacting a journalist worked for me, however if that option is not available I would contact the Energy Ombudsman at the earliest opportunity. Furthermore I would thoroughly research my options for escalating/progressing my complaint, as OVO will do very little in this department. Jeffus was very helpful in this thread.

You don’t have to take my word for it. This is how the journalist described OVO and BG’s behaviour: “I think both have behaved disgracefully - you have put up with a lot.”

Sent from Outlook for iOS

Good to hear you have sorted things out @ajjarman 

It is a shame some posters have to resort to 3rd parties for help including journalists, citizens advice and the Energy Ombudsman.

Hey @ajjarman,

I’m glad to hear you got your account issue sorted in the end, and I’m sorry it was such a frustrating process.

Please pop back if you have any other issues.