Not an OVO customer- How do I get a late payment fee reversed?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 20, 2023
11 replies
773 views

I pay my monthly electricity bills by cheque. November’s statement/bill did not include the £66 gov grant so I queried this and did not pay it. December’s statement/bill showed 2 x £66 grants plus November’s bill and a £10 penalty charge for late payment. I paid the sum due for both months less the £10 penalty charge. This was applied to my account for a late payment.

Now I am being pursued with red notices and phone calls and my explanations not accepted.

How can I get the penalty payment removed and the black mark on my credit taken away?

Best answer by Jeffus

Updated on 31/13/23 by Abby_OVO

Jeffus; No I’m not. Using this forum for all sorts of help, its brilliant.

The response above from Juliamc does not address what happened but what maybe should have happened. So I am saddled with a penalty notice and have no idea how to get rid of it.

@jaybell i just asked as it helps us regular posters when replying. It is a hard one to give advice on as personally I would have paid the November bill in your situation. I think it was a mistake not to. So it is difficult to give advice. So what next?

Well, what were the dates of the EBSS payments in November? How late was the payment? Lots of people have experienced late payments across suppliers, it hasn't been easy for suppliers and payment delays occur for a variety of reasons. 14 days isn't unusual and is often longer. I haven’t seen any examples of customers not paying bills in these situations.

Did you explicitly agree with your supplier that the bill didn't need to be paid until the EBSS payment was given to you? In writing via on line chat or via a recorded phone call? Do they have a record of that agreement?

I think without that it will be hard to get your money back and you would be better paying the penalty. You can't just not pay the whole of a queried bill without some formal agreement as the system will trigger penalties. Have a look at your suppliers terms and conditions related to disputed bills and what process you and they should have followed.

You could write to them first and ask if they will remove the £10 charge and black mark as a gesture of good will, given you have a good record of payment with them and you honestly delayed payment while the bill was investigated.

If you did get explicit agreement, then you could use the suppliers formal complaint procedure. They have 8 weeks to reply or issue a deadlock letter, then you can go to the Energy Ombudsman.

I would seriously consider paying the penalty now while you progress the case, just so the penalty doesn't escalate into further penalties in the short term if nothing else. I think you don't want to risk the issue getting worse should you loose any complaint.

Does that help?