OVO after the first 12 months

Terrylw1

Unless there is something specific in the T&C's, then I suspect you would be treated as a creditor.

It's happened before with Independant Energy, so have a look on the net at how that was handled. It's a long way back for me, but I think Ofgem had involvement in it???

rogcal

Nothing in the T&Cs, so hence my direct request for info.

Very little info on how the "customer creditors" of Independant Energy faired after its collapse but from what little I did read the bulk of its customer base (220,000) were debtors and it was earlier billing problems that led to the cash flow problems that caused it to fail.

Last I heard, OVO has around 30,000 customers and as such shouldn't really have to many enquiries to deal with, unless of course there is a large proportion of dissatisfied clients who are overwhelming OVO's customer services team with complaints at the moment

Terrylw1

Independant Energy's billing system became inable to bill it's a customer base. So, Npower bought them for a pittance and transferred the customers into their own systems. As far as I know, customer credits were moved to new billing systems but honestly it's that far back in the industry for me to remember all the workings.

I think IE would have had most as debtors literally due to the billing crash, but Npower would have backbilled them all I'm sure.

Small company, so small workforce. Unlikely they get the hassle of the larger companies unless they are doing things badly.

To be honest, I would want something in writing on this credit issue. It would also need to have a suitable name on there so they don't dispute someones rank in terms of agreeing on their behalf later.

rogcal

Got a call from a manager at OVO this morning and all has been resolved to my satisfaction.

DD payment will not be increased and if I fall into a debit situation I shall immediately pay the amount outstanding by immediate bank transfer bringing the account to zero balance.

This is the same arrangement I'd had with BG for 5 years and it's a pity it took several emails and a managers time to resolve it.

On the question of why when I supply monthly readings do OVO still base the monthly statement on an estimated reading, it appears that the billing run is done the day after the customers readings are submitted and for biling purposes they estimate a day's usage and add that to the actual reading sent in the day before. Crazy, crazy system!

It appears that OVO are soon going to base the calculation on the actual reading supplied by customers for those that want it. Why not do that in the first place?

On the matter of "is your money safe with OVO" the answer is no!

Customer's money held in credit is not ring fenced and would be lost if the company failed.

Of course there is no evidence that OVO or any other energy supplier is likely to fail in the near future and I'd hope the discussion on here doesn't put anyone off of joining OVO for this reason as I suspect the same applies to many other energy suppliers, large and small.

I hope OVO has learnt some valuable lessons from having to deal with my issues and in some respects I bet they hope that the majority of their customers are not like me.

However, it still comes down to fair play and as OVO made great play about how they saw customer satisfaction as being so important when they first launched, having to resolve my issues should have not been necessary in the first place!

Terrylw1

So, it's the same issue as any other elec/gas utility that has your credit and goes bust then.

On the billing run day thing, thats a pretty convenient answer, timing wise. So, they bill up to exact dates and add pointless estimation. Thats a poorly designed system!

Sterling

I signed up with OVO in late April of this year, at an unbelievably cheap fixed rate for gas and electricity for 12 months, just before OVO increased its prices. The actual supply began in mid-June, and I have been very pleased with OVO so far. However, this thread has raised some interesting points.

Prior to my switch, I had been with Npower from March 2006, for gas, and British Gas for my electricity. I was a victim of Npower’s gas sculpting scandal of 2007, and its numerous misleading statements and billing mistakes generally. British Gas worked its bills out correctly, but included a discount of ridiculous complexity, all for a paltry £10 per quarter (max).

To my amazement, OVO’s tariff and its bills are simplicity itself. The company does what it says on the tin. Here at long last is a company that seems to want to treat its customers fairly; but there is a slight niggle highlighted by this thread, and that concerns direct debits.

As I am on a years fixed tariff, I assumed that my DD payment calculated by OVO would be the same every month through the year.

As my year had begun in June, I knew that I would build up a credit balance that would carry me through the winter months etc. Better still, from July, OVO began to credit “interest” each month to my credit balance, at 3% p.a. plus VAT (=3.15% p.a.). I know of no other company that does this, but I am merely a customer, not an expert.

It then occurred to me, supposing my year with OVO had begun in (say) November; then clearly over the winter months, I would have a debit balance that might not be fully cleared until the end of my year, if my direct debit remained the same.

Assuming that customers join OVO at random, then roughly half of them would begin sometime after the summer, and have a debit balance for several months. Any sensible management has to look at its cash flow and be aware that as it takes on new business, the number of customers with debit balances increases. As Terrylw1 mentioned in post #12, Independent Energy may have folded as a result of its failure to address this problem.

OVO, on the other hand have tackled this in a sensible way. My only reservation is that the explanation is buried away in its website under the FAQ’s, which in turn are buried away under its Help Topic.

In a nutshell, it appears that OVO calculates its customers DD’s twice a year; once in April, and again in November. By setting the DD’s according to the forthcoming season, the credit and debit balances are ironed out considerably, which is good for customers and OVO alike.

Here are OVO’s own words in answer to an FAQ on this point.

“We’ve reviewed your current account, and calculated your expected winter energy consumption -from November to April. From that amount we’ve deducted your current monthly Direct Debit payments, and also taken off any credit that you may currently have. The amount remaining determines whether we need to increase your Direct Debit. If it is a debit amount, we spilt this cost into equal payments each month – so you spread the cost over a larger period and don’t face a sudden large payment in the spring!”

Fair enough, but if OVO’s General Manager, Stephen Fitzpatrick reads this, I would strongly suggest that customers are told about this at the outset in its information pack (which is otherwise very good), and in a special section on the website, where it can be more readily found; preferably in plainer English too.

I’m sure most if not all customers would see the sense of the above, and it would save, I’m sure, a large number of customer enquiries and trouble, when like me they were simply confused or even annoyed. The company mantra should be …always keep the customer fully informed, and don’t just bury information in the website, put it where it is easy to find.

I wish OVO well. Also, I really don’t think we should ask OVO to ring fence the 3% interest. For most of us, I doubt it will exceed £5 over a year. I don’t believe the interest is taxable, or whatever. I believe HM Revenue and Customs will either treat it as a simple customer discount (which is what I believe it is) or will consider it not worth the expense to worry about anyway.

Terrylw1

Adding interest is something thats been kicking around in the industry for years for 2 reasons, 1 of which OVO seemed to have addressed to our benefit:

1 - they hold money they don't need so we lose on interest which they should pay.
2 - if we're in debt, should they charge us interest for their loss? This would be a real pain due to estimation and billing disputes, but possible. Did Bgas try this?

How do they get to the 3%? Does it track with savings on interest? Perhaps it's too early to get this far with it until they know how well it works. Perhaps we may get trackers!

Tax wise, I think it would be included somehow. Cashbacks added to accounts are considered taxable.

They seem good from this respect.

They should make it nice and clear so potential customers are not put off by something to complex to get an answer to easily.

Perhaps this will mark a change for other Suppliers. For instance, on the Npower £70m payout they are giving interest back which is a first. Whenever do we get even a chance at anything beyond gestures of goodwill?

backfoot

I am notoriously hard to please regarding gas and electricity.

So far, touch wood, OVO have been excellent.Very cheap rate,still miles cheaper than NPower for example.Offering credit interest, small but hey it's a positive move.Clear bills and systems.

I don't understand some of the grievances over adding a few days estimation to arrive at a regular monthly billing cycle.It is absolutely logical to me.If they didn't we would another group of customer's complaining that the bills weren't up to date.

The only minor gripe I had was that even though I input regular meeter readings easily through the online system,some chimps from Lowry Beck kept ringing for readings as well.:o. Anyway, they said they would look into it and it's ok now.

Let's hope they stay in business.:T

Terrylw1

Since Lowry Beck are a reading agent, they obviously don't know about your readings. If your Supplier decides to use your reads, they have to pass them on to a Data Collector so they get included in their pattern of your usage since that drives how Suppliers pay.

On the estimation issue, it's a preference thing I guess. By adding those extra few days on, it does mean you pay more now so less catch up later...however it's how accurate the estimates will be. For a few days, they will be ok but the further out the worse it gets bearing in mind that this is how all the rest do the estimating.

Just seems a bit odd to me in an industry that knows unless they/you ring on the exact date of the bill, it's going to be out by x days. If not, they would have to refuse customers wanting to replace their bills with customer reads.

rogcal

backfoot wrote: »

I don't understand some of the grievances over adding a few days estimation to arrive at a regular monthly billing cycle.

As well as the very favourable fixed rate tariff, other aspects of what they claimed to do attracted me to them, one being the statement "bills calculated from actual meter readings".

As this is not the case, I have a right to question why they don't do as they said they would do and since they have removed the offending statement from their advertising literature, I feel somewhat vindicated by taking the action I did at the time.

The other points I've raised about OVO's customer services are based on fact and if it's bad I'll say so and if it's good I'll say so!

OVO have come good after a week or so of communications but the fact that I had to do it in the first place is irksome and time consuming.

If some people want to go through life accepting everything on face value and never speak up when things are not right that's their problem but not mine.