OVO Account still not closed after moving house - what should happen?

MrsBrush

I am baffled now. I naively assumed that when you move house, the supplier applies the actual final readings to the account, they will then calculate the final bill based on the actual reading, adjusted for any previous balances and sends this out to you - within around a month of moving. Then you settle the balance, one way or the other, they close the account and that is it. Done. Is this correct?

However, I moved in October 2021, I sent my readings to OVO on the day, and I thought they had finally closed the account down at the end of December, after 10 weeks of them doing whatever it is they were supposed to do. They acknowledged that something had gone wrong and gave me £30 because they didn't follow their own guidance of sorting things out in 4 weeks post-move. When they refunded me the balance on the account, they assured me at the time that this was the final balance and the account was settled and would be closed. So, I received the £120 refund, deleted the app and thought no more of it.

6 months on, with no letters, emails or any other correspondence from them I suddenly got a collections phone call out of the blue a couple of weeks ago. It transpires now that they had not applied the final readings (and still haven't from what I can see), they have now updated the estimated usage for the last 6 months of our living in the house and they have decided I owe them £140. Several emails and long waits on their "helpline" later and they are now threatening to refer it to a debt collector. In the frustration of going round in circles and getting nowhere, I told them I wasn't paying anything else to them until I see a final bill, with the final readings on it - that have now been provided to them 3 times! And looking at our final readings against their estimates, I think we might actually owe them slightly more, which I have also pointed out to them. 

Am I being unreasonable here?

It isn't the money. I can pay the amount they are asking for, and the additional £30 I think we might owe on top of this, but I just want them to sort this out once and for all. I don't want a similar raft of pointless and time wasting calls and threats in another 6 months time, when I think this ought to be a fairly straightforward and routine process. 

Can anyone please advise?


  

pochase

Are you just fighting the support agents or have you already opened an formal complaint?

- Open an formal complaint, this should get the case to a more experienced resolver team and hopefully resolve the problem
- if that doe snot help ask for a deadlock letter, if they don't want to give you one wait for 8 weeks from date of formal complaint
- take the issue to the ombudsman

t0rt0ise

So did you check the final bill when you received it? Was it correct. If it wasn't right what did you do about it? If you knew it was wrong and did nothing about it then you will need to explain that when making a complaint so word your complaint carefully.

MrsBrush

t0rt0ise said:

So did you check the final bill when you received it? Was it correct. If it wasn't right what did you do about it? If you knew it was wrong and did nothing about it then you will need to explain that when making a complaint so word your complaint carefully.

No, I never received the final bill. It was all dealt with over the phone and they said it would follow but I didn't receive anything at all - I thought they were going to put something in the post. I thought no more of it at the time and deleted the app because it had taken them ages to deal with it and I naively assumed that their calculations were right and their agent convinced me that it was all done and the account would be closed. 

It was only when I logged into the online account after I got the collections call that I realised that all the figures were estimates and new bills had been generated after the event. It looks as though these were processed in June, but who knows.

MrsBrush

pochase said:

Are you just fighting the support agents or have you already opened an formal complaint?

- Open an formal complaint, this should get the case to a more experienced resolver team and hopefully resolve the problem
- if that doe snot help ask for a deadlock letter, if they don't want to give you one wait for 8 weeks from date of formal complaint
- take the issue to the ombudsman

Thank you, that is super helpful.

I have made a couple of complaints that were only sent in by email, which I asked to be treated as formal - the first in December after they took the normal monthly DD in November that I wasn't expecting as the account was showing at that point as very slightly in credit and it was a month after we moved, and the second last week after several email exchanges and phone calls that went round the houses - I guess that these have not been treated as formal at this point.

I will do a formal complaint later, as I did wonder if the agents had any authority or experience in resolving issues. they have been unfailingly polite, but have so far been ineffective in actually being able to help sort things out. It isn't the fault of the agents, they are doing their best with very limited resources and authority. I do get that, but I also need it to be resolved once and for all.

I will get on the case and do a formal complaint this afternoon.

pochase

Have a look at their options to raise a formal complaint

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback