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

The ofgem rules  give ovo 10 working days after the final bill for the customer to get any refund including any time for the customer to get a cheque in the post under normal circumstances if that really is the only way possible. 

With my bank if I give them a cheque before 3.30pm the money will be in my account the next day. I don't need to go to a branch if I don't want to, I can upload an image of the cheque onto their banking app. This isn't even one of the new internet only banks. 

There really are no excuses for the slow processing of cheques these days with the automation of cheque processing. You don't need to give all banks a physical copy of a cheque any more. 

Cancelling a Direct debit doesnt stop a bank refund according to @Tim_OVO 

"I have one really quick thing to add to the advice above: if you cancel the Direct Debit, this won’t prevent a bank refund. All this will do is prevent any further (over) payments. "

The ovo moderators on the forum have said it is OK to cancel DD after a switch if a customer has a heathly balance.

"If you’ve already got a healthy credit balance when you apply to switch, you’re able to contact your bank to cancel the Direct Debit arrangement early."

Similar advice I see is given out by the ovo social media team.

Well last week I had a different person from the complaints department who specifically told me multiple times that if I get the balance below £250.00 that I could switch but just today I got a private message from OVO_Forum_Support telling me it must be below £25.00. So that’s now 4 different stories I’ve been told about this matter… 1) The first person in complaints I spoke with told me the balance must be under £300.00, 2) then a normal agent insisted that it has to be completely paid off, 3) then a different person from complaints told me under £250.00, 4) now I’m being told under £25.00 by forum support. OVO is a total joke… why is it that every single person I talk to tells me something different. How is this possible? I am really tired of all the lies, it really starts to take an emotional toll.

What if I owe OVO money?

If you try to switch while you still owe money, we’ll need to raise an objection. You can’t switch away while you’re in debt, unless it's under £25. As soon as the debt is cleared, you’ll be free to switch.

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/leaving-ovo

Looks to me like Forum Support has given advice based on what is on the website. Have you seen anything else on the website? I have only looked on this page. 

The £25 is also in line with the advice from one of the ovo moderators on this very thread.

Well last week I had a different person from the complaints department who specifically told me multiple times that if I get the balance below £250.00 that I could switch but just today I got a private message from OVO_Forum_Support telling me it must be below £25.00. So that’s now 4 different stories I’ve been told about this matter… 1) The first person in complaints I spoke with told me the balance must be under £300.00, 2) then a normal agent insisted that it has to be completely paid off, 3) then a different person from complaints told me under £250.00, 4) now I’m being told under £25.00 by forum support. OVO is a total joke… why is it that every single person I talk to tells me something different. How is this possible? I am really tired of all the lies, it really starts to take an emotional toll

 

What if I owe OVO money?

If you try to switch while you still owe money, we’ll need to raise an objection. You can’t switch away while you’re in debt, unless it's under £25. As soon as the debt is cleared, you’ll be free to switch.

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/leaving-ovo

Looks to me like Forum Support has given advice based on what is on the website. Have you seen anything else on the website? I have only looked on this page. 

The £25 is also in line with the advice from one of the ovo moderators on this very thread.

 

Thank you for trying to help clarify things Jeffus but I honestly don’t believe anything that OVO has said or written anymore. I’m not even going to try to switch until I’ve paid the balance off… OVO has successfully managed to keep me hostage.

This is kind of beside the point now as my largest problem with OVO has been how much time and energy they’ve cost me with all of the misinformation and lying. Like just trying to find out the debt limit that will allow a person to switch away… I have been dealing with this for two weeks now and have heard 4 different stories. Even if what you have told me is in fact the truth, why does a person need to go to such great lengths as speaking to a first tier complaints department agent, a normal agent, an escalated complaints department agent(who on the phone and in email specified under £250.00), and forum support to finally get a reliable answer. In the process of spending hours of my time trying to find out the truth I’m being told different things and being gaslighted by agents… and this is just the tip of the iceberg of my bad experiences with OVO.

I would love to lodge a complaint about being lied to by OVO countless times but I’m quite sure OVO agents won’t even let me make a formal complaint much less do anything even remotely helpful about it. Even if a complaint was allowed to be made it would just result in either not being called back or taking a lot more of my time, discounting my experience and/or gaslighting me, and more lies.

Actually I think my energy is best spent going to as many online forums as possible to share my experiences with OVO. Maybe I can spare others the anguish of inadvertently getting into to bed with a nightmare like OVO.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend that. Most forums are either running so fast your comments would just get washed away in the flood, too slow and nobody would ever read it or have rules which might result in a takedown. You’d probably end up wasting your time.

Also, I think the £250.00 reference may have been a typo from whoever you spoke to. £25.00 sounds much more likely to have been what they intended to say.

I looked into swtiching from ove and got told i cannot leave yet i owe nothing and am ahead with my direct debits - anyone got any idea why i cant switch ?

Hi,

I’m sorry but for this question I have to signpost you back to OVO’s Support Team. The OVO Forum isn’t the right place for it because no-one here can access your account and this question sounds very account-specific to me.

Please see https://ovoenergy.com/help and https://ovoenergy.com/feedback for your options.

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