My current supplier have raised an objection to my changing to OVO - can anyone help?

Hello OVO,
Seeing this post is like seeing my future. I am also switching from Iresa to OVO . Iresa completely screwed up my account . I have been requesting a bill for 2 months . They told me they were going to increase my DD , when my account showed £200 in credit . I told them not to , and checked their Facebook page . Comments really scary , others complaining of DD increases when in credit and worse , not getting money back. I cancelled my DD and told them I will pay when I get a bill , if I owe them money . According to FB comments if you phone you are on hold for an hour. I expect they will make problems with the switch , but I simply cannot contact them . I am hoping OVO will have better ways to talk to them then their customers.
If OVO see this and there are problems , please contact me straight away .

Hi there - what an awful situation to be in, Iresa are SUPPOSED to be cheap but in review after review they are renowned for being amongst the worst of all energy suppliers.

Ovo have consistently won awards and have the highest approval rating in the country, your making a good choice!

Little tip if I may, when choosing a company of any sort or type, try Revoo site or Trustpilot, literally hundreds and hundreds of reviews, I dare you to type in Iresa!

Once again sorry to hear your situation, I realy hope you get it sorted soon.

All the best,

Tris 🙂

Just to follow up, I've just been on Trustpiolt reviews, Iresa have a 78% BAD rating. That could well be the worst in the UK. 😢

Tim , as you probably know , getting anything from Iresa other than a no-reply automated response is impossible. I have asked them for a bill repeatedly for over six weeks. I have "spoken" to their reps on messenger , i have sent an email directly to their CEO , I have asked them for bank and reference numbers to pay them when i get my bill . I am in Greece right now , returning to the UK on Wednesday when I will attempt to phone . Sometimes there are over 100 in the queue when calling. Perhaps , with clout of your company , you can ask them to send a bill . You have my name address and phone number . I was a customer of yours in the past . My post code is (hidden by Moderator) which should be enough to find me in your system.
Jonathan Smith

I'm in the process of moving from Iresa (I know, god help me!) and after some teething troubles it looked like it was all going through and OVO asked me to submit meter readings. When I logged on to the site today though I could only submit electricity and not gas. Is this indicative of something going wrong?

Tim , as you probably know , getting anything from Iresa other than a no-reply automated response is impossible. I have asked them for a bill repeatedly for over six weeks. I have "spoken" to their reps on messenger , i have sent an email directly to their CEO , I have asked them for bank and reference numbers to pay them when i get my bill . I am in Greece right now , returning to the UK on Wednesday when I will attempt to phone . Sometimes there are over 100 in the queue when calling. Perhaps , with clout of your company , you can ask them to send a bill . You have my name address and phone number . I was a customer of yours in the past . My post code is (hidden by Moderator) which should be enough to find me in your system.
Jonathan Smith
For Data Protection purposes, we won’t be able to request this from Iresa. Even if we tried, they wouldn’t do it.

Good luck with pursuing this!

Lucy

Hi @hcjling,
Sorry to hear of your plight.
I've had similar problems with two previous energy suppliers, so I've gleaned a bit of useful experience.

The Energy Ombudsman will take on your case so long as you have evidence that you've followed the advertised Complaints Procedure of that Supplier. Most have two stages:

• Contact Customer Services and identify it's a complaint you're making
• If the response is adequate/unsatisfactory, contact Complaints Dept

Sometimes a Supplier's Procedure includes a third step

• Contact Complaints Manager/Director

Provided you can demonstrate that you've done those 2 or 3 steps, then the Ombudsman can intervene. I always use email for complaints, so I retain a copy of what I said with a time/date stamp on it.
If they insist of telephoning me with their answer, then I write back to them by email with what I think we've just agreed.

Once you've done that, the Ombudsman has considerable clout. In a lengthy dispute I had with Extra Energy, I was awarded the difference in price from what they were charging me compared with what I could've enjoyed by switching.

Since they had actually failed to properly take over one of my two fuels in the first place, they had to pay me almost a year's worth of bills plus an amount equivalent to me not being able to enjoy a dual-fuel discount. There's also a discretionary amount that can be awarded by the ombudsman, which is usually around £75.

So don't waste time on other courses of action. Get the evidence that you've followed their Complaints Procedure, and then copy those emails to the Ombudsman.

Finally, just remember that there are a number of reasons why an Objection to Transfer can be raised apart from a disputed outstanding bill. Incorrect Address or Incorrect Meter Number are two possibilities. But it's up to your Supplier to have clearly informed you of the reason. If not, then the Ombudsman will sort it for you.

I’ve moved your comment to on here @veato as it’s possible Iresa objected to your switch.

I’d suggest contacting them to query this further as they’ll be able to provide more concrete information on your switch.

Lucy

Hi @veato,
@Lucy_OVO is correct. This is what happened to me with Extra Energy. One fuel-type transferred ok and the other one didn't.

In my case the original problem turned out to be a Meter Number that didn't match my address... but Extra Energy continued to take my DD, as did my other supplier. Hence I was paying twice for one of my fuels.

In your case, OVO have (correctly) stopped the Transfer Process whilst this is resolved.
You now need to write to Iresa as I've explained above.

I also recommend that you email your Meter Reading in to OVO today. If it turns out to be Iresa's fault then both parties can still agree to use today's figures and Iresa will need to compensate you for not being able to move to OVO on the agreed date.

Keep us updated here on the Forum. There's help and advice available.