Why have OVO raised an objection (blocked) my switch to another supplier?

Hi @letmego ,

This comment was left by a forum volunteer who doesn’t work for OVO

From what I understand, once you trigger that debt threshold, you do have to pay back the entire balance before being allowed to switch i.e. you can’t just get it below the £300 and it must go to £0. Once fully paid, the objection will be removed.

You might be able to discuss this with the Collections Team but I suspect they’ll require full payment before you can leave. The number to call is 0800 069 9831.

The person from complaints assured me that if I got the balance below £300 that I could then switch. I absolutely hate that OVO’s reps constantly tell me conflicting information about company policies.

@letmego I can understand why that would be frustrating. Let me get our Forum_Support team to take a look. They’ll reach out to you via a private message shortly. 

Keep an eye out here for the message 

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

My balance was below £300 and less than my month DD, but an objection was still raised; and despite the OVO FAQs clearly setting OVO would contact me they never did.  

I made a one off payment to clear the balance  and leave a bit in reserve, have now switched, but OVO haven’t closed my account so I expect will claim the next DD.  I daren’t cancel the DD as I will likely get that on my credit score, even though OVO now owe me. 

Switching is no longer a straightforward process, the levers are pulled by the providers to suit them and not customers. 

I’ve recently switched and didn’t cancel my direct debit thinking OVO had enough notice and I had enough credit (+£500), but they did take one 10 days after the switch date.

If an individual did that it would be theft.

It’s funny how it strangely takes so long to close an account, but how quickly a new account is up and running. 

I have got the whole balance back now so I’m thinking of it as a loan to OVO !!

Hey @JOC,

I’m glad that the issues you had with switching away are now resolved.

Usually when you switch suppliers, we’ll receive the information we need from your new supplier and issue a final statement within 6 weeks of your switch date. If you’ve got a credit balance, once the final statement has been issued, this’ll be automatically refunded and back in your bank account no longer than 10 days after you get the final statement.

If you’ve received your final bill, or you are sure the final bill can be covered with the credit on the account you can cancel the direct debit. We’ll still be able to refund you, although our advice would be to keep it open. 

There are a few reasons this may happen and it’s not always due to a debt balance. There is a  page on OVO Help about switching objections. This similar Forum topic may have some helpful advice:

The best advice if your switch gets objected to and you haven’t received an email explaining why, or you believe this to be an error, is to contact the Support Team, they will be able to look into this for you. 

10 days really should have been plenty.

It is a shame that some of the ovo processes are so poor.