Hi

If it helps anyone, I did the steps that are described above, and it worked without a hitch.

1. Before I moved I cancelled my account at my old address using the online “tell us you are moving” option.
2. After I moved in to my new home (luckily already supplied by OVO) I called OVO and a very friendly person set me up with a new variable account for gas and electricity, with a new direct debit on the same bank account. I gave her the meter readings I took when I left and the ones I took when I moved in, and everything went fine.
3. OVO have now sent me a final bill (which was actually a surplus that they have refunded) and have now cancelled my original direct debit.

Frankly, I was extremely worried and expected the worst, but it was actually plain sailing. Well done OVO!

Andy

I have recently moved into a new property supplied by British Gas, in my old property my energy was supplied by Ovo therefore I'm an existing Ovo customer. When I notified Ovo I was moving I was told that as soon as we moved I could switch my energy from BG to Ovo (I hate BG with a vengeance). Having moved into the property I immediately rang Ovo to request an energy switch only to be told they are not taking on new customers, to which I am not in my opinion. The customer service team were unhelpful on the phone, telling me there was nothing they could do and instead I should email their complaints team and customer service. Rather annoyingly I've heard nothing back which I am extremely disappointed about as I really like Ovo and the visibility of their billing and my usage. Surely Ovo want to keep and assist existing customers rather than putting up barriers? What can I do to get my account setup against my new property?

I believe that you’ll have to set up your account with British Gas (I’m not surprised you hate them as I do too). Once that’s up and running you can switch to OVO again.

That's exactly what I've done, I've got my account setup with BG (very reluctantly), I then rang Ovo to move it across and was told they couldn't do it as they are not taking on new customers & are advising new customers they should stay where they are due to the energy prices at the moment. But I'm not a new customer I'm an existing customer with a change of address. I feel very cross about their response as im only doing what they advised when i notified them i was moving which was set up the BG account, then call Ovo and they would take care of the switch. But they are now being very unhelpful which is disappointing as I've had nothing but a good experience with them up till now.

This is what the website says.

Maybe try again, you’ll probably get a different agent - and remind them that you can still get a quote

@Tim_OVO @Emmanuelle_OVO

This is very worrying as it is against the ofgem licence agreement in refusing to take customers on the Simpler Energy tariff.

Do you need to  follow this up to find out who is saying this? 

It seems to me as if OVO’s policy is to take on new customers as long as you want SVT, so I’m wondering if an agent messed up?

Hey @aimsz,

Sorry for the issues you've had.

I can see @Blastoise186 and @juliamc have already given some great advice here.

When you move into a new home you’ll inherit the supplier at that property (in this case British Gas), you’ll need to set up an account with them in order to switch away. Otherwise your switch might be blocked as they won’t know whose financially liable for the interim period. You’ve already done this step, which is great.

Each home is treated as a new supply as every home has a unique supply number (MPAN) and meters. This is why you’d be treated as a new customer signing up. Prices also vary regionally.

But @Blastoise186 is correct although we aren’t advising customer’s to switch to us currently, you can call and request to switch. Unfortunately, due to the energy crisis there’ll be no financial benefit to switching as we can only offer the Simpler Variable Tariff. Which will have the same prices as other suppliers, including British Gas. 

Hope this helps. 

@Emmanuelle_OVO 

There may be a financial benefit due to some of the Support packages ovo are offering.

These do vary across suppliers.

Also British Gas don't get great reviews so some people may wish to move for that reason.

I do think someone needs to follow up as this looks like a breach of the ofgem license, even if it was a misunderstanding and retraining is required

I can vouch for how easy the OVO Customer Support Package is to request as well. Took me less than 10 minutes and I’ve got an electric throw on order.

I would recommend you jump ship from British Gas whatever you do!

I’d be the first to move from British Gas to OVO - if I wasn’t already here !!

Mind you, if you fancy signing up to the CSP, you can do so at https://www.ovoenergy.com/winter-support-delivery/sign-up as long as you’re with OVO, SSE or Boost. I know the website says to use live chat, but my aim right now is to try and help reduce the load on the teams a bit. :)

I really need to put that link on Confluence later so I don’t have to keep digging through Discord for it!

And yeah… I’m going to be recommending that package a LOT over the next few months because I’d love to see people benefit from it.

Thank you all for your input it's great to know there is support and no one minds a bit of venting :) 

I've sent a message to Emmanuelle_OVO to see if someone can call me to get us switched as the 2 people I've spoken to on customer service have both said the same "they are not taking on new customers", by the sounds of it the customer service team may have been given the wrong details? Let's hope I get somewhere with this  

No worries, and don’t worry - we’re used to it and we know how to handle venting. :)

Obviously none of us work for OVO ourselves (trust me, I’d get this fixed in a heartbeat if I could!) but we’ll be around if you need us for anything else.

There’s just the small matter of the bill. You owe us £1,000,000 for our time! 

Hey @aimsz,

I’ll respond to your private message 

@Blastoise186 doesn't need any money, he has got his shiny new blanket coming

I do need more money! Giant Sekrit Underwater Evil Genius Lairs aren’t cheap to build, I’ll have ya know! :P

I’d just like to close the loop here to confirm I have flagged the misadvice that was provided to @aimsz about us not taking on new customers. I’m sorry to hear about that experience, and I’ll do all I can to make the Support team managers know of this and any other examples, so that training and resources can be provided to those speaking to our customers. 

Thanks @Tim_OVO 

Thankyou, unfortunately my issue is still not resolved and I was passed from pillar to post yesterday, waiting on a call back but I have a feeling it will me me chasing again :( 

@Emmanuelle_OVO just tagging 

Hey @aimsz,

I’m sorry you’re still not having any luck with Support. 

You can find out more about our complaint procedure here.

Hi can anybody give me advice I mite be moving into one bedroom house I want to stay with ovo how would this work only for my eltric though would it just be a new account 

You need to start by registering with the company that currently supplies the house. You do this when you've moved in (don't forget to take meter readings as soon as you get in the house. It's the first thing you should do). You must register with this company and get a new account. You can't take over the account of the previous residents.

When your account is set up with that company you can switch to OVO, or whichever company you want.