Ovo - cooling off period

erin94

Hello, 

Wondering if anyone has any experience of Ovo and their cooling off period? I signed up to a fixed tariff at the end of August before the energy price guarantee was announced, with the new tariff due to 'kick off' (words within the confirmation email) on 2nd September. The energy price guarantee was announced and it was much more favourable than the fixed tariff we entered into, so decided to bail on the fix. 

I called on the 12th September, 10 days into the new fixed tariff, and said on the phone I'd like to cancel the fix as I was within my 14 day cooling off period, and go onto variable instead. The guy on the phone made no mention of exit fees, but I've checked my monthly summary for aug/sept and I've been charged £30 per fuel so it's like the cooling off period has been totally ignored. 

Anyone any experience of this? I've sent a complaint to Ovo to try get a refund but keen to know what the process might be here. 

Thanks

BUFF

what date did you sign up? The cooling off period starts from then rather than on supply date.

QrizB

erin94 said:

I signed up to a fixed tariff at the end of August before the energy price guarantee was announced, with the new tariff due to 'kick off' (words within the confirmation email) on 2nd September.
I called on the 12th September, 10 days into the new fixed tariff ...

As BUFF points out above, if you signed up at the end of August, the 12th of September is at least 12 days into the cooling off period. Might you have signed up before the 28th of August, which would have meant that the 12th of September was more than 14 days later?

erin94

BUFF said:

what date did you sign up? The cooling off period starts from then rather than on supply date.

It was in August, so going from the date I signed up I would have been outwith the 14 days.

I screenshotted the 'thank you for staying with us' page on the Ovo app and it says "If you change your mind after your new energy contract starts, there's a 14 day cooling-off period. If you change your mind during this time, you can contact us to cancel before the 14 day period ends. We'll cancel the renewal and you won't have to pay any exit fees", and given this is after a piece that says "Your new plan will kick off on 2 Sep 2022, the day after your current energy plan ends", surely that means the cooling off period begins the same day as the new plan does? 

[Deleted User]

I always thought cooling off started on the day you signed the contract, not the day that services are delivered.

pittcity

I have just had an online chat to change from my fixed rate to the variable. I signed the contract in June. I asked and he said the exit fees would be waived. I do hope that this is true. 

It's bad enough that we have not been automatically put on the better rate after the Government intervention let alone being charged for being proactive.

ariarnia

the email we had from ovo with the info of the guarantee said if we wanted to switch to the variable rate they wouldn't charge fees. it was right down at the bottom of quite a long email. i pasted it into a message on a different thread somewhere here if you think it would help to quote it. 

erin94

As a wee update to this, I got through on the online chat earlier today and was told they're going to credit the £60 to my online account within 24 hours. Look forward to seeing that in reality but it was relatively easy to sort in the end

ariarnia

thank you for coming back with an update