Ovo Energy Reviews: Give your feedback

phiso60 · 30 September 2019 at 8:36PM

Received a phone call today from OVO (although I was at work) and an email apologising for the correspondence sent to me.

Hopefully that's the end of the matter

vinylc · 2 October 2019 at 9:14PM

Hi - just a note to say that Ovo Energy are appearing in the 'gas only' results list, yet they do not offer a gas only tariff, only in conjunction with electricity.

jpderby · 11 October 2019 at 9:04AM

Having been a satisfied customer of OVO for 2 years I am now very unhappy because of incompetence or deliberate obstructiveness with the switch and now they are making it difficult for me to get a refund of the credit in my account (over £500). The switch over to a new supplier took place on 24th September. I got an email on 04 Oct saying that I was on a new plan and it seems they had terminated the gas but not electricity. I have still not had any refund. They appear to be ignoring the case that I raised with them about this. In addition they have tried to take an additional direct debit yesterday of £175 which was refused because fortunately I had cancelled the direct debit. Apparently I owe £7 which they can deduct from my credit.

Consumerist · 11 October 2019 at 1:39PM

jpderby wrote: »

Having been a satisfied customer of OVO for 2 years I am now very unhappy because of incompetence or deliberate obstructiveness with the switch and now they are making it difficult for me to get a refund of the credit in my account (over £500). The switch over to a new supplier took place on 24th September. I got an email on 04 Oct saying that I was on a new plan and it seems they had terminated the gas but not electricity. I have still not had any refund. They appear to be ignoring the case that I raised with them about this. In addition they have tried to take an additional direct debit yesterday of £175 which was refused because fortunately I had cancelled the direct debit. Apparently I owe £7 which they can deduct from my credit.

If you switched (1) within the 49-day switching window or (2) they were notified of the switch by your new supplier before 20 days after the end of your contract then Ovo are required to keep you on your original tariff until the switch completes "within a reasonable time".

It has been reported on these forums that Ovo ignores the above requirement so you can start their complaints procedure and let the Ombudsman sort it out. But there is a catch which Ovo exploits.

Energy suppliers must refund credit balances within 10 working days of your final bill unless the bill is queried. They have 6 weeks from the switch date to provide a final bill.

So it's a Catch22 situation unless you wait until you've got your refund before starting their complaints procedure, which you must do before referring the matter to the Ombudsman.

Good luck.

Cardew · 17 October 2019 at 9:23PM

See posts #554 and#555 above.

I have just switched away from the Ovo 2 year dual fuel tariff. Their service has been exemplary and the only reason for switching was that their latest tariffs were simply not competitive.

The switch(to BG thro' this forum)) took place on 04 Oct. I got my final, and accurate bill a couple of days ago and a sizeable refund approx. £250 appeared in my bank this morning. I had received a number of messages that my DD could be reduced if I wished.

EmJay · 7 November 2019 at 11:21AM

Nearly 9 weeks since I switched away from OVO and they still haven't closed my gas account--luckily I only left enough in to cover the bill and cancelled my DD. I shouldn't really be surprised as it took them 6 months to sort out my gas account when I joined them!

Boxman · 7 November 2019 at 12:36PM

Cardew wrote: »

See posts #554 and#555 above.

I have just switched away from the Ovo 2 year dual fuel tariff. Their service has been exemplary and the only reason for switching was that their latest tariffs were simply not competitive.

The switch(to BG thro' this forum)) took place on 04 Oct. I got my final, and accurate bill a couple of days ago and a sizeable refund approx. £250 appeared in my bank this morning. I had received a number of messages that my DD could be reduced if I wished.

This mirrors my experience - I too switched from OVO to one of the small suppliers in early October. I had accurate final bills within 10 days and my admittedly small credit balance of £13 was in my bank 5 days after that.

The only downside was that for the short period of supply after my original tariff expired they charged usage at much higher rates but given that we're only talking a couple of days it was obviously pointless to take it up with them although I would have done had we have been talking a significant sum.

In short I would be happy to use them again if their rates were competitive.

victor2 · 7 November 2019 at 5:38PM

Boxman wrote: »

...
The only downside was that for the short period of supply after my original tariff expired they charged usage at much higher rates but given that we're only talking a couple of days it was obviously pointless to take it up with them although I would have done had we have been talking a significant sum....

It appears that suppliers are no longer obliged to keep you on your tariff once it has ended, even if you are in the process of switching away. Avro Energy did the same to me. I complained out of principle, as it wasn't a lot of money, and they said my interpretation of the licence conditions was different to theirs. I had to agree that they don't state that under those circumstance the rate should remain in place until the switch is complete, and pursued it no further.

MrsTsavesmoney · 11 December 2019 at 2:45PM

I see a couple of other people have noted final bill problems. I've had the same thing. They tell you not to cancel your DD until you've had your final bill, but this means I've been paying twice for gas and electricity for the last couple of months. So I cancelled the DD. I immediately received a slightly threatening letter saying I needed to carry on paying! I rang them and the service agent was very helpful and immediately will give me a partial refund. Apparently, my final bill is held up because I'd been moved onto a variable rate just before switching (this was why I was switching), and this causes an issue with Ovo's system, which means it has to be referred to their tech team. Apparently, the standard time for a final bill to be issued is 6 weeks, and the customer service team has been told to add 3 weeks onto this. The agent is issuing me with an incident number so that it can be re-opened if I have to call again. So if I don't have a final bill by mid-January, I shall raise a formal complaint, and then go to the Ombudsman. I was very happy with Ovo before all this happened, and the agent was well-informed, patient and friendly. But I've done several energy switches in the past, and this experience puts me off going back to Ovo when my current tariff with Eon runs out.

dunroving · 28 June 2020 at 2:54PM

Bad experience with trying to switch from Ovo to Pure Planet. Ovo blocked the switch due to a negative balance. Seems reasonable, except it was only a small balance, and there was a direct debit payment of £104 due two days later! I didn't realise the block resulted in my switch being cancelled, so two weeks later I had to get a new quote and start the switch over again. This is a very cynical way to prevent people from switching suppliers, in my opinion - or at least delay the switch in order (a) that the customer gives up on the switch, and/or (b) that due to the delay, they put you into a standard (more expensive) tariff. They didn't even give me a day's notice to pay the balance, they just blocked the switch!

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