prepayment overcharge

parky1

in october last year i swapped from british gas to ovo & within weeks ovo pointed out my old meter was one of those that was over charging & they refunded what they owed till they installed new meters advising me to contact british gas to get a refund from them also.Before xmas a customer service advisor contacted me to say yes i was one of those affected & the refund would arrive in the new year.that came & went & family & friends still with british gas received theres,so i emailed with no reply then phoned to get if you are one of those affected (which i no i am as ovo told me ) it wll be sorted in a few weeks,rang again this time it would be april so have contacted them again to be told i am not getting a refund as there was nothing wrong with my meter even though ovo have told me it was ,So as a last resort i have threatened to go to the ombudsman with the information in writing i have from ovo if i have not got it sorted by friday .Am I in the right & if so how do i contact the ombudsman ?

macman

You don't. The Ombudsman will not look at a complaint until you have exhausted the supplier's own complaints procedure-you haven't begun that process yet. So start with a written complaint (headed 'complaint') and sent by RD. Don't phone or email them, it won't count. That starts the clock ticking, and they have 8 weeks to resolve the problem after which you can go to the regulator if no response or you have received a deadlock letter.

parky1

oh right according to them i had started that process so they kept quoting to me i originally started that process in january but all i have is emails so is it better to wait to see if they solve this by friday then start again by doing a letter & include a copy of my written facts from ovo

macman

It's entirely up to you. I'd draft it all out now and then send it on Friday if no response received. I wouldn't hold your breath on that, given the delays you've already encountered.

parky1

thanks for the advice

[Deleted User]

Just out of interest ,what was the overcharging that Ovo had identified and why would they have to replace the meter .? I know prepayment gas meters received approx £9 a year for a wrongly calculated conversion factor, but that would not need a new meter. Hopefully you have nt been fitted Ovos Liberty Secure smart prepayment meter.

parky1

A technical fault with 1.5 million gas prepayment meters installed since 2007 customers have been overcharged 2% a year on there gas.I am sorry to inform you your meter has the fault.(quoted from the letter i received )
ovo automatically replace the meters for smart meters when you change to them but for 3 months i had to use the meter i had with british gas till i got a date to replace which was the 23rd december from the 6th october when i went with them they refunded £5.82 for the period

footyguy

parky1 wrote: »

in october last year i swapped from british gas to ovo & within weeks ovo pointed out my old meter was one of those that was over charging & they refunded what they owed till they installed new meters advising me to contact british gas to get a refund from them also.Before xmas a customer service advisor contacted me to say yes i was one of those affected & the refund would arrive in the new year.that came & went & family & friends still with british gas received theres,so i emailed with no reply then phoned to get if you are one of those affected (which i no i am as ovo told me ) it wll be sorted in a few weeks,rang again this time it would be april so have contacted them again to be told i am not getting a refund as there was nothing wrong with my meter even though ovo have told me it was ,So as a last resort i have threatened to go to the ombudsman with the information in writing i have from ovo if i have not got it sorted by friday .Am I in the right & if so how do i contact the ombudsman ?

It's all fully explained in the British Gas complaint procedure

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-advice/contactus-personal-details/complaints/pay-as-you-go-energy.html

[Deleted User]

Thats not actually a "fault " in the meter itself, but a minor programing calculation. The meter was fine and functioning correctly. Now you re lumbered with Ovo s awful smart prepay, the Liberty Secure, which from what I ve heard is ridden with faults. When you come to want to ditch Ovo, as you surely will at sometime they will charge you for the meter removal.