OVO Bungling Home Move - Why have I been charged after I closed my account?

Hi, I’m concerned about the emails I’ve been getting and wonder if anyone has any advice/experience with this problem.

I had an account with Ovo until June 2021, after which I closed the account and paid any remaining balance (I was in credit so was refunded instead), this account was with an email I shall call Address A

About a month ago (16 months since I moved out), I started getting emails from Ovo on a different email address, Address B.  The first which said ‘Welcome to your new home’, at the time I thought it was some scam or error on their part. However since then I have recieved a number of emails saying I owe them £179.80 from collections at Ovo, I still thought it was a scam, but  I sent ovo an email or two asking for clarification. 

Now to today, I have had no response to my emails and I was told this was a final notice on my debt. I phone Ovo Collections and Customer Support, both of them tell me that there is only one account registered at the property in question, and it is the account with Address A, and there is no outstanding balance and the account it closed. They said that they will stop sending the emails, but that didn’t exactly clear my conscience.

So, case closed right? Well I’m not 100% sure, I have emailed Ovo from a different email about the issue as I’m worried if I have no written notice from them saying that this problem is all sorted, I could end up getting visits from debt collectors or owing more money.

Does anyone have any similar experience, or advice on the matter. I may call them again, but I feel there is little I can do to confirm the problem is sorted other than wait, with the probability of them responding low and possibility of my credit rating being effected.

Thank you

Hi @LemonLemon123 - what a shock those emails must’ve been. 

During change of tenancies (when someone moves out and someone else moves in), the energy supplier is often a bit in the dark. What can happen is that details of the new tenant are provided either by the landlord, a lettings agent, a tenant, for who they think is now responsible for the property. It might be that your latest email (who would they have got this though?) was given as a possible contact. 

If the bills relate to a date when you weren’t in the property, you can totally disregard them. Especially now that you’ve let the Support team know about it. However, I’d recommend you double check the billing period for those charges, just in case. It’s unlikely but possible that the reading used to close your account the first time was wrong, or a new incorrect reading is being used, and a rebilling has happened. You can rule this out by checking the billing period. 

A guide on what should happen for new tenants is here:

• Moving into a home that OVO supplies - A Guide Tutorial

My story begins in January 2022 when I moved into a flat that I was renting. I received an OVO welcome pack and proceeded to set up the account. There was an error saying that I need to call the support to solve the issue. I did so several times - yet, after 8 months of waiting, writing emails, calling, writing formal complaints, looking for help on this forum and posting on Facebook, OVO was unsuccessful in setting up the account for me.

I continued getting letters addressed to the “current occupier” with the bills and usuage information. Since the account was not set up I was not able to make the payments via the internet. When called I was told that OVO DOES NOT provide me with the energy - my arguments saying that I’m pretty sure they do as I keep on getting bills and the whole process of setting up the account was in motion (or so I did believe).

For 8 months I was making bank transfers to pay up the energy bills. Finally, in September I have moved out to another city. My agency informed me that they contacted OVO and said that I have moved out and there is no action required on my side as they have provided OVO with the end of tenancy meter readings. In the meantime, I was still trying to set up the account as I was told that I need to send OVO my tenancy agreement. I did send it 3 times with no word back from them.

Imagine my surprise when I got an email today saying that my moving out of this property has been cancelled. The email was addressed to me, however the account that was set up in my name is not the same I was using for the 8 months of me living there. There is of course an outstanding charge (on average £15/month summing up to outstading charge in my of around £120).

It feels like the moment I left the flat, OVO has decided to do something, they have set up the account in my name FINALLY but they back charged me some standing charge for 8 months for a new account and forget about the account they opened in January this year. It feels like OVO is trying to extort me at this point. I cannot get help anywhere, call center is a joke - nobody could help throughout the past 8 months and nobody can help now. OVO does not care about the formal complaints either.

I really just need a moment of time of a person who will be willing to help me close this from the beginning to the end. I truly just want to leave, close all the accounts and NEVER use OVO EVER again.

Next steps for me is writing Ombudsman and Ofgem hoping that they will be able to help and get a minute of OVO’s time to deal with this problem.

Hey @maciej65537,

I’m sorry for the issues you continue to have.

This sounds like an account specific issue, I think our Support Team would be best placed to help you as they can raise this problem to the necessary team. 

If you haven’t done so already, it might be help to send in a tenancy agreement so that there is no room for discrepancy about dates of liability? This can be raised to our team that deal with home moves. 

You can now contact our Support Team through web messenger.

Hope this helps. 

I closed my account two months ago, my account was in credit. I requested the credit back. Last week I received an email saying due to an ‘Error on the system’ my account is now £320 in debit. They have gone in an updated all my past bills online. Firstly, how is this legal? Secondly, i am a single person living in a 1 bed flat and during the months of July and August they have gone back and charged me around £150 for each month. This some of money seems ludicrous considering i only lived in the flat 5 days a week, work in an office and was only there of an evening. Surely there isn’t correct and how can they just say ‘due to an error’?
Has anyone else received anything similar and did you get any clarity? I’ve contacted ovo on several occasions and no one is actually willing to help, they have transferred me and lost me, referred me to another number which doesn’t exist. I don’t have the money to pay said ‘debt’. Please someone enlighten me.

Hi,

Your best option for this is https://ovoenergy.com/feedback . It’s account specific so there’s not much else that can be done on the forum I’m afraid.

Hey @libbar,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

We don’t have access to customer accounts here on the Forum, but I may be able to offer some advice. Usually when a customer is re-billed it’s due to an actual meter reading being received. If your account was estimated for a period of time, and then you submitted an actual reading you may have received a ‘catch up’ bill. 

• OVO Energy Live billing platform and monthly summaries - What do I need to know? F.A.Q.

Or, it may be that the opening reading used to open the account was altered based on subsequent readings you’ve provided.

Have you been receiving regular, monthly statements? You can check your billing history by downloading your PDF statements from your Online Account. If you’d like, you can also send a screenshot on this thread of your meter readings and we can look into whether there are any anomalies. 

Hope this helps.