How do I get away from OVO!?

glock339

Since going with OVO about 5 or 6 months ago I've had nothing but trouble. I've basically had what would be a few very minor problems with any other utility company that I've been with but for some reason OVO are completely useless in dealing with anything.

From the start they have insisted on charging me £77 PM direct debit when I only live in a tiny 1 bedroom house & even though I asked by email 3 times & pointing out that I use about half this amount each month I then phone twice to reduce this amount & they gave me an excuse each time asking me to ring back next month. So my account just keeps going more & more into credit each month & they are holding onto my money.

Now to make matters worse I asked my partner to do a meter reading for me the other week & as she is not familiar with the old style Gas meters she rounded up all the figures that were half way as she would do with any maths problem I suppose, not realising that this would give a much higher reading than it actually was. So my bill came in at about £900 this month which compared to my usual £37 per month is obviously a mistake. I rang OVO to try & sort this out & the girl I spoke to just kept going around & around in circles telling me she wouldn't be "comfortable" taking the reading I was giving her while stood looking rite at the meter dials because it was less that the one she had on her computer! That was the whole point of me ringing her I kept trying to explain but I was getting absolutely nowhere fast. In the end I had to ask her about 5 times in as simple language as I could "what can I do to correct this problem then???" & in the end as I don't think she actually knew what was the answer she just fobbed me off by telling me just to enter the correct reading online next month & everything would be sorted & not to worry as my direct debit would just remain the same at £77. I then wrote a complaint message to OVO about the service I had been receiving from them & have had no reply.

So today I got an email from OVO telling me that my Direct debit is going up! I simply cannot afford for them to keep doing this, my finances are very tight these days. I have just rang their "help line" again & got a recorded message telling me they are very busy rite now etc etc then I got cut off!

I NEED to get away from this company but as my account is in such a complete mess I'm not sure how!? I know if I ring them (& do actually get through!) to settle my balance etc I will get nowhere & they will just fob me off until "next month" like they always do. I'm desperate to switch to another company even if they charge a bit more. If I do try & switch to another provider now will OVO be forced to settle my account once & for all or am I stuck with these jokers for ever?

Cheers.

jalexa

glock339 wrote: »

I then wrote a complaint message to OVO about the service I had been receiving from them & have had no reply.

You have done the right thing to complain but whether or not you have done the thing right I do not know.

You make a fundamental mistake expecting big suppliers to manage difficult things well (and OVO is not a big supplier). You need to focus on a single issue at a time. What do you *really* want to do? Sort the problem or rant?

If you want to switch go right ahead and switch. Bear in mind there is no expectation of the balance being "settled" until 30 working days after the switch completes.

If you really want the billing sorted, focus on that.

Since you have already initiated a complaint I suggest you see that through first. You can exploit a "non-reply". If the issue is not resolved 8 weeks after first raising the complaint you can ask the Energy Ombudsman to investigate but OVO aims to respond within 5 days so there is already something to discomfort OVO with. I suggest by telephone.

http://www.ovoenergy.com/contact-us/if-you-are-unhappy/

BTW, do you have proof of posting and/or receipt of the "complaint message"?

chanz4

This is the problem with these small suppliers, when problems occur they don't understand how to deal.

[Deleted User]

Hi Glock339, in a dispute like this is not possible for OVO to actually send out one of their meter readers out for a check, verification read ? Do they employ any meter readers at all ?

AppleMatt

Hi Glock339!

I'm with OVO too, and have had great service - surprised to hear your story, I know energy can be a stressful utility to deal with!!

What the lady said is actually correct though - if you enter your meter reading online (I do this every month 5 days before the statement is calculated, keeping my DD amount sane and I know I'm paying for what I use) it will recalculate accurately.

My advice is to put the correct reading in online now, and then wait for it to recalculate (you can view a generated statement online immediately that takes in to account your new reading) and then decide whether you are happy to stay.

I know they are the cheapest I can possibly get, this may be the same for you?

Not a salesman for them, honest!

jalexa

AppleMatt wrote: »

What the lady said is actually correct though -

What the "telling me she wouldn't be "comfortable" taking the reading I was giving her while stood looking rite at the meter dials because it was less that the one she had on her computer"?

I think that is a very narrow definition of "correct". To be "correct" requires OVO to have no customer service mechanism to flag erroneous reads. I am reluctant to believe that so I consider the adviser probably lacked competence.

But the fundamental issue is not the customer making a mistake but the OVO billing system apparently not detecting a questionable read. Frankly I am gobsmacked at that.

AppleMatt

Sorry I should of been clearer - I was referring to her suggestion to enter the reading online.

Sounds to me like she's inexperienced with the systems there, but that's little excuse as she could of obviously passed you on to someone more in the know.

Agreed with the system not flagging anything - a £900 spike says to me cannabis farm!

jalexa wrote: »

What the "telling me she wouldn't be "comfortable" taking the reading I was giving her while stood looking rite at the meter dials because it was less that the one she had on her computer"?

I think that is a very narrow definition of "correct". To be "correct" requires OVO to have no customer service mechanism to flag erroneous reads. I am reluctant to believe that so I consider the adviser probably lacked competence.

But the fundamental issue is not the customer making a mistake but the OVO billing system apparently not detecting a questionable read. Frankly I am gobsmacked at that.

chanz4

add a zero for a cannabis farm

Terrylw1

I disagree though for another reason about the online reading. When you enter this it will see that your customer reading is lower than the previous customer reading and it will reject out for manual processing. Now, the traditional way of checking this will be to give you a call and ask whether its correct hence you will be going around in circle.

Hopefully the person working the rejection will have an understanding of how to do this by reviewing your previous consumption to determine if its unusual. If still in doubt, they send out a meter reader.

You can't switch properly either. Why? If you give your switch reading, guess what happens? It will be passed to the agent who will validate it against previous consumption and reject it due to its unusually high nature and create you a Deemed reading. Now if the previous erroneous customer reading has been accepted by your current suppliers agent, your customer switch reading will go through fine but your meter will be showing a reading far lower. This requires the issue fixing with both suppliers and their agents.

This is such an easy issue to fix, so raise a complaint. At most, sending a meter reader out resolves the whole issue.

glock339

Well shut my mouth lol, just got an email from OVO replying to the complaint I made & they have actually listened & amended my bill & stopped the increase in my direct debits.

Now all I need to do is reclaim all the cash that I am in credit with them & maybe reduce my monthly payments a bit to stop me going into credit so much each month. The last time I rang up to try & do this i was told I could only do one or the other per month for some strange reason so think I may reduce payments first, then reclaim the credit the following month as it will be into the hundreds by then.

Cheers for all of the advice :beer:

Terrylw1

There's no reason why they can't recalculate a DD and refund the excess credit. Don't accept doing one per month, at worst it may require an overnight batch process to run or the action might take a few updates over a few days...but that's their problem!