Ovo Energy Reviews: Give your feedback

LittleMax

Been with OVO for just over 2 years - not had any problems until now, when I have requested to switch from them.

Today I received a letter stating, "And just so you know, your fixed plan finishes on 7 July 2016. As you’re leaving us before then, you’ll also need to pay £30 for each fuel you get from OVO (that’s £60 for both electricity and gas)."

Moment of panic!!! Do i need to cancel switch? Don't panic still in cooling off period...

Checked tariff info - no exit fees!

Called them up - no, definitely no exit fees on that tariff. Can you hold while I speak to the billing team? 5 mins later - letter is an error, there are no exit fees. However, the billing team can't guarantee how the account has been set up, and you may get charged the exit fee and we can't do anything to stop it. So what you will need to do is, if it does get applied, you will need to ring us back and we will then knock it off after the final bill has been processed!!!!

In fairness I did ask for that to be emailed to me, so that I don't have to go through it all again if I am charged an exit fee, and they sent the following within half an hour...

Thanks for getting in touch with Ovo Energy.

Following our earlier telephone conversation, I can confirm that the letter you have received saying that exit fees will be applied to your account was sent out in error due to a fault on our system.

As discussed on the phone, I can not guarantee that these fees will not be automatically applied when your switch away is complete. However, I can confirm that if exit fees are applied to your account we will be more than happy to reverse these charges.

Kind regards,


So if you leave OVO double check and don't assume they are correct about exit fees.

kazt2006

Switched to Ovo from a Npower in November 2012 - no problems for almost 2 years! Then I moved out of the property having bought a 3 bed house but still had 1 bed flat to rent out and boy did it then become complicated. Had to fight to get DD reduced from £60 to £10 but eventually they agreed.

They couldn't understand that there was no one living in the flat and therefore no electric being used and had to cancel several monthly bills. This combined with their renewal offer for a 3rd year not being competitive, I decided to swItch. Initially refused to give me £91 back and even then they tried to bill me for over 600 units I hadn't used. This was November 2014 and it was finally resolved in May to the point where OVO cancelled the outstanding bill.

Luckily I'm a bit sad that I monitor my energy usage and water consumption weekly so I always have current readings.

Good while it lasted but not sure I would return unless the incentive was significant!

System

I post this for information. I switched back to Ovo in June. My electricity account is set up but, as I am with an IGT, my gas account has still to go live. Yesterday, I tried to enter an electricity meter reading on My Ovo and it failed. I was advised to contact Ovo which I did. I got a response back in about 10 minutes stating that the issue have been resolved and that there would be no further problems.

This morning, I had an e-mail in my inbox stating that my statement was ready to view. All good so far. Sadly, not so. Even though I have a different account number to the one that I had previously, my electricity account has latched on to my previous account and it has taken my closing reading as the last actual reading, and I have been billed accordingly for units consumed. It has ignored the opening reading given to them in June.

I suspect that this is an IT glitch associated with the same meter number being used on two different accounts. It'll be interesting to see how quickly this one is resolved.

Update:

What is it with CS staff working for energy companies? My e-mail to them has resulted in them deleting the opening readings that I gave them on the day of the switch - which were acknowledged by them and used by my losing supplier for final billing. They now intend to raise a reads dispute which could take 14 weeks to resolve!!! Why - I have no idea. The 'fault' is entirely with their billing system which has ignored my opening readings and latched on to a closing reading given to them some months ago when I left them. A 5 year old could see what the issue is but not Ovo CS. I just hope that they can read a written complaint properly.

bullshot

Been with OVO for 7 months and they are like breath of fresh air.I made an error entering a meter reading, phoned them , they answered in under 2 mins and sorted it.I get an email every month advising me to enter readings within 7 days, which I do .I then get a statement.I can check my DD online and follow their recommendation whether or not to increase or decrease it.They have suggested I decrease for the last 4 months which I have done.My monthly payments are now £9 less per month than when signed up.Switching to OVO went without a hitch and they really have been the best Energy supplier I have ever been with, cannot recommend them highly enough.They maybe a few pounds more than the cheapest out there but in my opinion they are worth it.

System

bullshot wrote: »

Been with OVO for 7 months and they are like breath of fresh air.I made an error entering a meter reading, phoned them , they answered in under 2 mins and sorted it.I get an email every month advising me to enter readings within 7 days, which I do .I then get a statement.I can check my DD online and follow their recommendation whether or not to increase or decrease it.They have suggested I decrease for the last 4 months which I have done.My monthly payments are now £9 less per month than when signed up.Switching to OVO went without a hitch and they really have been the best Energy supplier I have ever been with, cannot recommend them highly enough.They maybe a few pounds more than the cheapest out there but in my opinion they are worth it.

That was my experience previously which is why I switched back to Ovo. Ovo CS have now got themselves into the extraordinary position of deleting validated opening meter readings which my old supplier has accepted and issued a final bill against. They now insist that they need to raise a reads dispute when only they are disputing the readings. This could take 14 weeks. Why: Because my account shows a customer reading of 52121 on 5 February which is the same as an estimated reading of 52121 on 30 June. They have already attempted to bill me for 1089 units when 972 units were supplied by a rival supplier during the period 5 February to 30 June.

In fairness to Ovo, they did delete the disputed statement: sadly, delete was all that it did. It didn't reverse the £131 erroneous bill.

It really is time that OFGEM jumped on these companies. No other sector is allowed to get away with such poor and prolonged billing practices.

UPDATE:

Yet another member of the Ovo CS team has responded by informing me that they have an industry-validated opening meter reading for gas which is nearly 900c3Ms different from the one that I gave them. This will need a reads dispute which will take 17 weeks (3 weeks up on yesterday). The laughable thing is that the reading is indeed validated and 100% accurate for an account that I opened with Ovo in April 2014.

I have now told them at least 5 times that the problem sits within Ovo's IT system. It has corrupted the merging of 2 accounts separated by 6 months. I just wish one person would sit down for 5 minutes and look at all the evidence before them.

The moral here is BEWARE of going back to an old supplier.

UPDATE 2 Having raised a complaint, a complaints person has finally accepted that they have correctly validated meter readings and that their accounts' system has an issue. No need for any disputes!!! Her defence is that CS colleagues do not have access to all the account information. ' Try believing what your customers are telling you.'

UPDATE 3 This just gets better and better. Ovo has sorted out my electricity account and acknowledged that a readings dispute is not necessary. Sadly, two months on since requesting a switch, they have now found that their system has not initiated the gas switch as the 'system' thought that I was already a customer!!

I am pretty sure that Ovo would have never detected this issue without a complaint from me. When Ovo gets it wrong, they get it spectacularly wrong and their CS staff are incapable of sorting out anything but basic complaints as Ovo admits that CS does not have access to all the relevant customer account details.



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Evileye_2

OVO are the absolute worst company (after Scottish Power) that I have had to deal with. They have this pseudo 'Great, yah' girls voice while you wait asking you ridiculous questions. They first give you a low monthly rate, which you have suggested (on usage), then decide to nearly triple it, just so they are in profit (they owed me £350 when I left). They put in a hideous smart meter that is so complicated it is difficult to use. It 's signal didn't work and they refused to change it back for free due to it not working. Never ever use them, they first come over as 'sweetness and light' then they just get so difficult to deal with. They were still billing me 4 months after I had left. Good riddence to them, use them at your peril - I did for over 3 years, gave me nightmares! Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!

System

Having had a few days of communicating with Ovo over a messed up gas switch, there are a few things that are worth knowing before anybody decides to switch to this company

Positives

1. Ovo's online account management is excellent once it has been set up properly.

2. CS respond pretty quickly to e-mails.

3. Ovo's complaints team will take ownership of a problem and come up with a solution.

Negatives:

1. Ovo is still having issues managing IGT-supplied gas transfers. They say as much on their latest complaints report.

2. Its online complaints reports show that for 2015Q1 - 7% of 5577 complaints related to transfers. Ovo's 2015Q2 report shows an increase to 21% (5411 total complaints).

3. If you sign up to online account management, then there is the risk of losing the online discount if you do not use e-mail etc.

4. Ovo has no tariff exit fees but within its ts and cs it states that it will charge £60 if you leave and return within 3 months. This effectively bans customers from changing to a cheaper tariff whilst with Ovo. Other energy companies that I have dealt with will waive exit fees and permit in contract tariff switching.

5. CS adopt a next in queue approach. If you raise a query and respond to Ovo's response, then you will get a reply from A N Other who might not understand the original question. A lot of energy companies now work like this. Also, CS staff may not have enough information to hand to resolve a complex issue.

Nothing in the post above is aimed at deterring anyone from choosing Ovo. They are just things that I had wished that I had been aware of when I initiated my switch.

Consumerist

Evileye wrote: »

. . .Never ever use them, they first come over as 'sweetness and light' then they just get so difficult to deal with. . .

Yes, I remember their "part of our family" con when I was with them.

Although their CS was quite good while I was with them, they seem to regard leaving them as a personal affront. Glad I left them. They are getting a pretty bad reputation of late.

Ebeneezer

I have been with OVO for almost two years and until this week Ive been satisfied. In July no payment was recorded and no statement appeared on the website. I have contacted them by email 3 times and received no reply to my queries. I cant phone as i'm on an online only tariff. A company is only great until you have a problem and customer service wont help you. This company in my opinion is useless.

System

Ebeneezer wrote: »

I have been with OVO for almost two years and until this week Ive been satisfied. In July no payment was recorded and no statement appeared on the website. I have contacted them by email 3 times and received no reply to my queries. I cant phone as i'm on an online only tariff. A company is only great until you have a problem and customer service wont help you. This company in my opinion is useless.

As I found out over the past weekend, the guys at the coalface do have access to all account information. I actually had to send them a screenshot so they could see what I was talking about. Try feedback@ovoenergy.com if you haven't done so already. The word COMPLAINT also gets Ovo's attention.