OVO are creating fictitious accounts

ExasperatedBloke

I recently had a dispute with OVO and successfully took the to the ombudsman for them creating a fake account for my new house. The process of getting any sense out of their woeful customer service and their aggressive legal letters was quite traumatic. 
My daughter has now got a similar problem.  This can't be an isolated incident.
She and her friend have started renting a flat part of the contract was they signed up to pay electricity with OVO. The account is in her flatmates name.
Suddenly OVO have decided to randomly attach my daughters name to another flats account. They are hassling her and threatening her with court, bad credit score etc. There is no basis for their claim  each time we speaks to OVO they apologise admit it is not her account but the legal letters keep coming. It is shocking. They have literally made it all up.
What can we do? How can OVO get away with this?

silvercar

I don't understand how a landlord can insist that you have utilities with a specific supplier, sounds like an unfair contract term to me. Unless the flat was originally supplied by OVO and was taken over when they moved in and so is a deemed supply, but then they could move away.

Secondly, how is OVO even aware of your daughter's name?

EssexHebridean

Your daughter needs to raise this as a formal complaint with OVO. Once 8 weeks have passed, if things are till ongoing, she can take it to the Ombudsman - it sounds like you will be able to help her with this having done the same thing yourself! 

ExasperatedBloke

As far as I can see their business practices are based on breaches of data protection. When applying to rent the flat she has probably given permission to the landlord to share data with Ovo but Ovo have failed to keep proper records.

JudeHT

Thank you for adding this and I hope you and your daughter’s nightmare with Ovo is behind you now. 
I thought I was going mad as I have never been in contact with Ovo at all, and have not changed my energy supplier, but yesterday received a letter with all my details and an account number, asking me to set up an online account and start paying them!
A quick search of this forum has reassurred me that this issue lies with them, rather than something I have done in my sleep!
I await their response to my email, but I hope it can easily be sorted. I do intend to report it to the Information Commissioner’s Office though, for what it’s worth. 

WBCPB

JudeHT said:

Thank you for adding this and I hope you and your daughter’s nightmare with Ovo is behind you now. 
I thought I was going mad as I have never been in contact with Ovo at all, and have not changed my energy supplier, but yesterday received a letter with all my details and an account number, asking me to set up an online account and start paying them!
A quick search of this forum has reassurred me that this issue lies with them, rather than something I have done in my sleep!
I await their response to my email, but I hope it can easily be sorted. I do intend to report it to the Information Commissioner’s Office though, for what it’s worth. 

I hope your email was in the form of an OFFICIAL COMPLAINT, this seems to be the only course of action nowadays as it hits their bottom line.

molerat

It may be something to do with the address as held on various databases.  Flats are notorious for having mixed up addresses across the RM and council tax databases as well as mixed up meters.

PRAISETHESUN

ExasperatedBloke said:

I recently had a dispute with OVO and successfully took the to the ombudsman for them creating a fake account for my new house. The process of getting any sense out of their woeful customer service and their aggressive legal letters was quite traumatic. 
My daughter has now got a similar problem.  This can't be an isolated incident.
She and her friend have started renting a flat part of the contract was they signed up to pay electricity with OVO. The account is in her flatmates name.
Suddenly OVO have decided to randomly attach my daughters name to another flats account. They are hassling her and threatening her with court, bad credit score etc. There is no basis for their claim  each time we speaks to OVO they apologise admit it is not her account but the legal letters keep coming. It is shocking. They have literally made it all up.
What can we do? How can OVO get away with this?

WRT the rental utilities, it's fairly standard for the electricity/gas to be in the tenants name, although being locked into a specific supplier is odd. If she is responsible for the bills then she usually has the freedom to change suppliers if she wishes. I'd suggest she checks her tenancy agreement for the specifics.

As for the account at the random flat she needs to put in a formal complaint as outlined above. If after 8 weeks it has not been resolved to her satisfaction she can escalate it to the ombudsman. In the meantime if she is getting debt collection letters in her name for a debt that is not hers, then I suggest she challenges it by responding with a "prove it" letter as detailed on the DFW boards: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6027800/debt-free-wannabe-sticky-provit-statute-barred-letters-defaults-help-and-guidance-all-here

Daisydodah

I have had the same issue - moved into a house, paid the bills which were addressed “unkown occupier” but after 2 months they set up a fake account in MY DAUGHTER’s name and charged it the full amount !!! Beyond exasperated with their rubbish customer service and the bailiff letters keep coming. Any advice as to how to stop my daughter’s credit rating being affected by this would be most welcome!