I moved house over 18months ago and moved to a new supplier. All bills were paid. I am now getting harassed by debt collectors as ovo have linked the period since leaving the house to my phone number due to a trace and search but not my name, so they won’t give me any information regarding the account. I have spoke to ovo who won’t stop the collectors ringing me as they need to find who is liable. What should I do?
Best answer by Jess_OVO
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+1
Using the documents for the property you moved to is usually sufficient.
+2
The agents making contact have a list of documents and none are available. They have refused to accept what was offered outside of that very limited list (tenancy agreement, CT bill, exchange docs from solicitors)
My wife asked to open a complaint and guess what? We can’t because YOU ARE NOT A CUSTOMER.
I really didn’t believe that an organisation could be worse than SSE but OVO are stepping up to the challenge
That is annoying.
Just because the standard ovo complaints processes is that you need to be a customer, I think you really should be able to raise a complaint against an organisation.
That feels like the computer won't let us raise a complaint and I don't know how to log it.
You could try emailing the ovo CEO to see if you can get anywhere.
https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback
The old property is vacant and the bills that are being sent there are wildly inaccurate estimates but even so, she is not liable.
It’s not quite clear from what you write what the status of this property is. If it’s vacant as you say, then it’s the owner who’s responsible for paying the electricity and gas bills until a new occupier comes along and takes over responsibility for them.
It’s not enough just to move out; while there are utility meters installed, there are charges to be paid even if there is no usage. If there are no meter readings being submitted, then bills will be based on estimates.
Have you told OVO who is now responsible for paying the property’s bills?
+2
And as for a contract, there is no contract. It should be up to OVO to prove that there is
Have you made progress
Hey
Really sorry for the issues you’ve had,
Using the documents for the property you moved to is usually sufficient.
Blastoise’ advice should help here.
It sounds like whoever has assumed liability of the property- the new owner, tenant or landlord has failed to contact OVO to set up an account. So it’s had to go to a debt collection agency and your wife must have had letters sent to the property so they’ve identified her as liable, incorrectly.
Any evidence that she is liable at another property now should be sufficient. This can be given directly to the debt collection agency as they’re now responsible for the debt.
Do you know who is now responsible for the property? If it’s a letting agent it might be helpful to pass on those details.
Hope this is all sorted now.
It is not sorted. Customer services just keep asking for the same thing over and over and we keep saying we don’t have it. They obviously aren’t measured on this and I get the feeling they just don’t care.
There is no debt collection agency involved (yet) so any identification was not done as part of pursuing a debt, it was specifically done to open the account.
The obvious first point of call which was never attempted would have been to simply ask me who would be taking over the account but, like I said, I was never asked. I have the property owner’s details and have offered to provide them but nobody is interested in taking them, it is all about getting info from my wife in a form that is impossible to provide.
If anyone ever asks I can only say, avoid Ovo at all costs. I’m actually really relieved that SSE were not installing new meters so we don’t have to deal with Ovo in our new property.
Thanks all for the responses
in july i closed my account on a rental property , i was sent a final bill by ovo . but this was using an estimated reading . the bill showed a debit of around £160 on my account . i took an actual reading from the meter and sent it in to ovo , i then recieved a refund of around £120 as my reading was a lot lower than the estimated reading . all great . but since then i have been harassed by ovo for the £160 i was originally billed for . despite them already refunding me money . i looked today on the old account and im still showed as owing £160 despite me explaining their error numerous times
+1
Hi,
Please talk to Collections about this one. 0800 069 9831
So, I see that this has happened before, Hello,
I am now getting daily phone calls from the collections department at OVO about a bill that has been generated in my son’s name, Data Harvesting?, starting on the date we moved out of the property being billed for.
Ironically I’m still waiting for my final bill but instead we received via the Royal Mail’s forwarding service a ‘welcome pack’, a ‘sorry you’re leaving us’ and a final bill for a property that we don’t live in.
In my time as an OVO customer I had cause to complain on multiple occasions for reasons that I won’t list here so as not to confuse the issue. Most of my complaints required escalation and took as many as 6 months to be resolved.
The welcome pack letter was generated on the 14th December, the final bill was generated on the 15th December. The letter came with an old school bank giro credit slip as payment was being required.
On January 2nd I contacted the complaints department directly and raised a complaint with them. There were no security answers set since we didn’t ask for the account and it was agreed that I would be dealing with this issue. I gave our current address and my contact details for the Complaints team to be able to keep me informed. I requested an email to confirm the issues discussed and was told “I am writing it now”. It never arrived. Instead my contact details were used to send a debt collection text message and a debt collection email.
On January 3rd I called again to update the complaint with this new issue of harassment. It was duly noted and I was told I would not get these messages or emails again. I was also told that my complaint had been escalated and that I would be contacted by the newly-assigned case manager within 48 hours. This time frame has now expired.
On January 4th I received a phone call from the Collections Department with the purpose of getting my son to pay his debt. Long conversation ensued during which it was agreed I should not have been contacted this way, notes were taken. I was told I would not be contacted again. An email was promised.
This morning, January 5th, I received another phone call from the Collections team for the same purpose i.e. To “contact the account holder to have a discussion about the account” (the FAKE ACCOUNT that is). It was explained to me that the system had prompted the employee to make the call (“systemically provided”) and an acknowledgement of error was made “It is clear that you were not meant to be contacted … We should not have called”
Then I tried to update the complaint. Despite having successfully spoken with the department twice already this week and having managed to navigate the automated system’s need for security answers, and despite my contact details being the only ones on their records and despite my now encyclopaedic knowledge of what is going on. Two new voices refused to speak to me because I am ‘not the account holder’. These two were actually, in my opinion, very rude.
Summing up:
Fake account in my son’s name (assumption: some sort of data harvesting exercise) Question: fraudulent?
Closed a previous account in my name for the property we moved out of on the 2nd October (email received in confirmation, final bill never received)
Bills we would not have known about had we not had a forwarding service in place arrived just before Christmas
Complaint raised 2.1.24
Debt collection text message and email 3.1.24
Complaint escalated 3.1.24
Debt collection phone call 4.1.24
Debt collection phone call 5.1.24
Complaints team refused to speak to me 5.1.24 (Twice, and rudely)
Any ideas anybody?
+1
Hi,
Your options are listed at https://ovoenergy.com/feedback. Please review the entire page carefully first.
1 reply
0 views
Please
Thank you
+1
I did. My judgement after doing so is that one of the options on that page is the one you’re after. I cannot reply to a thread without viewing it first - I don’t have that ability.
The 0 Views thing doesn’t normally happen. I have a trick to try and fix that. That’s going straight to the forum provider to dig into.
+1
I’ve spoken to the forum provider, they agree that the 0 views is a bug which is now being investigated on their end. I’m not OVO staff myself, but I have special permissions that allow me to do that.
As for the fraud/data harvesting question? Nope, neither is true. If you don’t totally shut down everything properly when moving out, it can leave you financially linked to that address - this is what OVO probably picked up via the Collections Team using Trace & Search to deal with an unknown occupier. It’s a completely legitimate process that OVO is entitled to do in order to collect debts and/or what is owed for services provided and not paid for.
You need to provide proof that you’re no longer at that property, which should close that account. Please also provide OVO with info on who’s now responsible if you can.
+1
The view counter has been fixed and appears to be working now.
Hey
Sorry for the issues you’re having,
It seems like the new owner or tenant hasn’t set up an account, or perhaps switched away without paying their interim payment with OVO.
OVO would have attempted to send letters to the occupier to get them to pay the monies owed, when they didn’t OVO would have gone to a debt collection agency.
This agency would have found your sons details through ‘trace and search’ (which means communications would have gone to your son at that address or there would have been some kind of ‘mark’ there, so the assumption was he was now in the property and responsible for the bills).
Your son needs to contact the DCA and advise he has moved out and isn’t liable for this arrears and they will remove his name.
Hope this helps.
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