Unexpected bill from energy company

pjs493

My husband died last year. This week I received a letter addressed to him from Ovo, an energy supplier we've never used, for a period when we were paying bills with another supplier. 

The billing period is for about a month (May-June of 2023) and is only a couple of pounds. It appears to be relating to a void property charge for a prepaid meter (we've never had a prepaid meter and have always paid by direct debit) - it has probably cost them more to print the letter and bill and put them in the post than what the balance is. It appears that no previous correspondence has been sent regarding this and the letter I received with the bill was dated just a week ago.

My suspicion is that this has come out of the woodwork due to me publishing a notification of my husband's death in The Gazette because there is no other explanation as to where it could have come from. It was also sent to my late husband's parents house rather than our home address which is even more odd.

I double checked the Ovo website to make sure that the letter was genuine by cross-checking their phone numbers etc on the letter compared to the website. So I'm confident that this isn't a scam of some kind.

I spent most of today trying to get a coherent and sensible response from Ovo via their online chat but failed. Despite their website and the letter stating the phone lines were open on a Saturday, whenever I called I was told they were closed.

While it is a small amount and I could easily pay it, I have no idea where this has come from and I'm worried that if I do simply pay it without speaking to someone to figure out why the bill was sent, I could end up with more unexplained bills in the future.

When I used their chat function today, after I eventually got beyond AI and spoke to an actual person, the first person was convinced I was trying to set up a repayment plan, despite the tiny balance and when it all became too complicated for them they ended the chat. The second supposedly put me through to collections because they claimed the amount was overdue, but just sent me back to the AI bot menu. The third refused to discuss the matter because I wasn't the account holder and couldn't seem to understand it was impossible to speak to my husband because he is dead. None of the people I spoke to could explain why the bill had been produced, nor did any of them seem to think the best way forward was just to cancel the bill for such a tiny sum and close the account. I still have no idea why an account has been set up in my husband's name in the first place. I asked a couple of times to speak to their bereavement team but they refused to transfer me because I either wasn't the account holder (they couldn't seem to see the complication of this) or because they felt it wasn't a bereavement team issue (despite the letter being addressed to my late husband). I spent two hours trying to resolve the issue before giving up.

Has anyone else had strange experiences of weird bills like this turning up out of the blue? We've never used Ovo and my existing supplier was informed of my husband's death and the bills have since been sent to me alone. The direct debit has continued uneffected because it always came out of our joint account which is now a sole account in my name.

poppystar

Have you tried direct contact with their bereavement team? That way at least you might get someone who understands that deceased account holders can’t speak to them. These general ‘helplines’ are rarely helpful in my experience. 

user1977

Did you confirm with them which address the bill was for? I'd have thought it would be simple to clear up if you have evidence that somebody else was supplying during the relevant period. Have they maybe mixed him up with some other customer of the same name?

badmemory

It is a scam of sorts.  They have found a name match in their debt pile with your late husband & have delved to find an address other than the one they already had.  It seems to be the norm for things in the Gazette unfortunately.

MikeJXE

if it was me and I was 100% certain it is not my bill I would bin it instead of trying to explain to someone who doesn't listen. 

Let them spend money chasing it and when push comes to shove ask for proof. 

Marcon

Just what you need (not) while you're coping with the aftermath of your husband's death.

This looks as if it could be similar to a mistake which has been made before: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/18/how-can-ovo-send-debt-threats-when-i-dont-even-have-an-account 

Suggest you email bereavement@ovoenergy.com and point out that you have never had a prepaid meter; have never used Ovo; have always paid energy bills by direct debit; and complain about the way your attempts to contact them have both wasted two hours of your time and been handled with an extraordinary lack of insight.

pjs493

Thanks to all for the comments. I plan on emailing the bereavement team when I get an opportunity. I doubt anyone will be in that office until after the bank holiday weekend so after wasting two hours of my life today I felt there wasn’t much rush to email them straight away. 

I suspect this is a case of mistaken identity as a couple of people have suggested. My husband wasn’t called John Smith, but he had a not uncommon name and on at least two occasions when he was alive he accidentally received stuff for other people through work when people sent emails to the wrong person by confusing two people with the same name. 

My in-laws have never been supplied by Ovo either so I’ve no idea why it was addressed to my husband and sent to their house. 

My in-laws have asked me several times to change addresses so that no correspondence for either of us goes to their house anymore (as we moved a lot with his job we used their address as our permanent address to save changing everything for each move). I’ve done so but things are bound to fall through the cracks. I now get the impression that they’re getting really annoyed with receiving letters addressed to either of us so I’m at pains to just ignore the Ovo letter. At first I thought that they were just upset when they received post for either of us following his death, but they’ve become quite angry about it now even though I’ve tried to explain multiple times that I’ve done my best to change everything. 

Marcon

pjs493 said:

My in-laws have asked me several times to change addresses so that no correspondence for either of us goes to their house anymore (as we moved a lot with his job we used their address as our permanent address to save changing everything for each move). I’ve done so but things are bound to fall through the cracks. I now get the impression that they’re getting really annoyed with receiving letters addressed to either of us so I’m at pains to just ignore the Ovo letter. At first I thought that they were just upset when they received post for either of us following his death, but they’ve become quite angry about it now even though I’ve tried to explain multiple times that I’ve done my best to change everything. 

If it's causing distress (which is understandable), then perhaps have any mail for you or your husband addressed to the home of your in-laws redirected for at least the next year? https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redirection

A year should enable you to pick up many of the missives which fall through the cracks. 

pjs493

Marcon said:

pjs493 said:

My in-laws have asked me several times to change addresses so that no correspondence for either of us goes to their house anymore (as we moved a lot with his job we used their address as our permanent address to save changing everything for each move). I’ve done so but things are bound to fall through the cracks. I now get the impression that they’re getting really annoyed with receiving letters addressed to either of us so I’m at pains to just ignore the Ovo letter. At first I thought that they were just upset when they received post for either of us following his death, but they’ve become quite angry about it now even though I’ve tried to explain multiple times that I’ve done my best to change everything. 

If it's causing distress (which is understandable), then perhaps have any mail for you or your husband addressed to the home of your in-laws redirected for at least the next year? https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redirection

A year should enable you to pick up many of the missives which fall through the cracks. 

Unfortunately that isn’t possible because of shared names. I’d end up with post destined for my in-laws. That was my first thought a month or so after my husband died when they first raised the issue until I realised I’d end up with post meant for them. 

thegreenone

Does your FiL have the same name as your late husband and that's why you can't do a redirection?  Or you and MiL?

Does this bill for May last year coincide with you selling the property?  Perhaps it's something from way back, your husband was using his parents address as a contact point and one of his tenants used OVO?  Clutching at straws. 

pjs493

thegreenone said:

Does your FiL have the same name as your late husband and that's why you can't do a redirection?  Or you and MiL?

Does this bill for May last year coincide with you selling the property?  Perhaps it's something from way back, your husband was using his parents address as a contact point and one of his tenants used OVO?  Clutching at straws. 

My husband and FIL had the same first name, we all have the same surname, and my MIL and I share the same first initial. So redirecting post would just be a headache. Especially at this point where it’s only the odd thing slipping through the cracks.

To be honest, because most stuff is online nowadays, we rarely received post at that address. But when I started alerting banks etc to my husband’s death, many started corresponding by post which is what sparked my in-laws to ask for the change (receiving mail for my husband was distressing for them and understandably so). Most banks, etc were happy to change the correspondance address when I explained the military situation, although the mortgage company refused claiming ‘security’ reasons. In any case I paid off the mortgage a couple of months ago now so that’s all sorted now. They ended up sending the final repayment paperwork to the rented property anyway, rather than the correspondance address, but luckily the tenant forwarded to me quickly. 

I’ve not yet sold the property and the current tenants do not use Ovo. The previous tenants used EDF and were put on a prepaid meter because they failed to pay their bills. They were evicted for not paying rent, but that was a couple of years ago. That’s the only link to a prepayment account that I can think of is the dodgy tenants we had a couple of years ago, but again, they didn’t use Ovo and we found several EDF bills addressed to them after they were evicted. We called EDF to explain the situation and they then used the reference address the tenant had provided to continue chasing them for unpaid bills. 

The period in question is in the middle of the current tenants’ occupation of the property. It may well pertain to the rental property in error, but until someone from Ovo is willing to speak to me beyond reading from a script, or pushing me back to the initial AI menu, I can’t figure that out for sure. 

My in-laws have lived in the same house since the early 80s and they can’t remember the last time they changed suppliers. The letter used my husband’s middle names which is why we know it hasn’t been confused with my FIL.