OVO energy nightmare, worth escalating to the ombudsman?

lorddazronk

So just had an absolute nightmare with OVO. 

Long story short, was going to switch to them, but cancelled after we got a better offer from our current supplier. This was the beginning of June.

They then took payment via DD after I cancelled. It took several hours long phone calls for them to refund, which they would only do via cheque, as the first phone advisor messed up (cancelled the account but not the direct debit). They offered a small amount of compensation, but then proceeded to send the cheque to the wrong address (for whatever reason they had an address on file for my email address that was several years ago), so escalated internally as a complaint. This was roughly mid June. I then got a complaints advisor who assured me that they were personally looking after my complaint (I've never heard from them again), offered another small amount of compensation and then proceeded to send this in a cheque to, you guessed it, the wrong address.

This was after clarifying address etc. This cheque obviously never arrived, so emailed again, was told it had been issued by yet another advisor (complaints advisor has never picked up any emails after assuring me they would) and that it could take ten working days. I left it until after this time had elapsed, then emailed again, at which point I subsequently received another call from a completely different person to say that the cheque had been issued, but was sent to the wrong address. Went through all the rigmarole again, and was assured cheque would be reissued. This was at the beginning of this week.

Sat last night going through emails, and on off chance, checked spam folder and saw an email from Paypoint on behalf of OVO with a refund of the cheque amount. The payment has now cleared which is fine, but I'm fuming. 

Firstly, there was zero notification they were going to do this. All I was aware of and told, was they were sending a cheque out. Spam folders get emptied automatically every 30 days (not their fault, but if I don't know they are doing something, and it's dodgy enough to get flagged as spam then they actually need to say something?) so if I'd have missed that email, I'd have never known about it. 

At this point, I've supposedly got an open complaint, but never had confirmation of it, and I simply don't trust them to actually do their jobs. It's without doubt, one of the worst service experiences I've ever had (and I cancelled virgin media last year so I know bad service), and even when it's escalated, they still don't do what they say.

Do you think this is now in the realms of escalation to Ofgem? It's not the money that's the point, but now the principle. 

WiserMiser

It would be the Ombudsman, not Ofgem.