Ovo worst ever suppliers

whitejoefish · 13 June 2018 at 11:53AM

So where do I start ? I was on Ovo enery for more than a year paying £74 a Month. I received a letter from them saying next Month they will be taking £156 a Month from my bank account starting next Month to cover next years bills.
I went to the Ovo website where I could previously adjust my Monthly payments and found that the minimum amount I could enter was £156.
I phoned them ( I have a recorded copy of the phone call )they could not explain why the increase was so high but offered me a new contract for £91 a month, which was still a increase of 24%.A few weeks later they sent me the yearly readings for that year and I found that I was only £4 in debt.
I put the yearly readings in a comparison website and found a deal on octopus for £84 a month saying it would save me £250 a year, so I switched with Uswitch.
After the switch I was charged another £91 twice by Ovo and £84 twice by Octopus, plus Ovo wanted another £25 after that because they said I left before my contract had ended also they charged me another £60 for that.As you can see switching cost me more than the website said I would save.
The contract I was offered by Ovo was forced upon me because if I had not accepted it they was going to take £156 out of my account( they did not offer to reduce the payments of the tarif I was already on ) this is a very underhanded way by Ovo to pressure sell new contracts.

System · 13 June 2018 at 3:51PM

whitejoefish wrote: »

So where do I start ? I was on Ovo enery for more than a year paying £74 a Month. I received a letter from them saying next Month they will be taking £156 a Month from my bank account starting next Month to cover next years bills.
I went to the Ovo website where I could previously adjust my Monthly payments and found that the minimum amount I could enter was £156.
I phoned them ( I have a recorded copy of the phone call )they could not explain why the increase was so high but offered me a new contract for £91 a month, which was still a increase of 24%.A few weeks later they sent me the yearly readings for that year and I found that I was only £4 in debt.
I put the yearly readings in a comparison website and found a deal on octopus for £84 a month saying it would save me £250 a year, so I switched with Uswitch.
After the switch I was charged another £91 twice by Ovo and £84 twice by Octopus, plus Ovo wanted another £25 after that because they said I left before my contract had ended also they charged me another £60 for that.As you can see switching cost me more than the website said I would save.
The contract I was offered by Ovo was forced upon me because if I had not accepted it they was going to take £156 out of my account( they did not offer to reduce the payments of the tarif I was already on ) this is a very underhanded way by Ovo to pressure sell new contracts.

Without more information about tariffs and usage, it is impossible to provide specific advice. Some general thoughts though:

1. If you are on a fixed term tariff with less than 49/42 days to run, you are liable for exit fees if they are a part of the contract.

2. Ofgem has a 12 month cost methodology. It follows that an assumption has to be made about what consumers might do at the end of a fixed term contract. The assumption is !!!8216;do nothing!!!8217;. The !!!8216;do nothing!!!8217; option assumes that you will default to the high cost standard variable tariff. This might account for the high DD amount that was quoted. It was reduced when you discussed another Ovo fixed tariff.

3. The methodology at point 2 can lead to a situation where a switch to another fixed tariff can cost you more but also appear to generate a saving. Savings should therefore be ignored if consumers are on a fixed term tariff with less than 12 months to run.

4. Energy prices have risen over the past 12 months so savings are difficult to find when moving from one fixed term contract to another.

Smodlet · 13 June 2018 at 5:56PM

"Ovo worst ever suppliers"? You may be right, OP but I think they have a helluva lot of competition for that title and the Energy board bears me out. You might be well served by spending some time reading on here and learning how to take what little control any of us can over how much you pay for energy.

Comparison sites' only real use is to advise unit prices and standing order charges; anything else they claim is to be disregarded if you want real information as all they can do is guess. Send meter readings to your supplier every month, refer to your online account(s) at least that often and work out your energy usage and expenditure for yourself; it really is not difficult and there is plenty of help on here if you need it.

whitejoefish · 20 June 2018 at 12:56PM

I sent my readings in every month so how can they assume that I would use three times more energy?
It was either a mistake or another corporate ploy. When it happens to you you will think differently

System · 20 June 2018 at 2:04PM

whitejoefish wrote: »

I sent my readings in every month so how can they assume that I would use three times more energy?
It was either a mistake or another corporate ploy. When it happens to you you will think differently

If you are unhappy, then report your concerns to:

coinsumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk

Given that there is an ongoing investigation, they might well be interested in hearing what you have to say:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/investigation-ovo-and-its-compliance-its-obligations-under-gas-and-electricity-supply-licences-standard-licence-conditions-31a-and-25c-slc-0-october-2017

Ovo worst ever suppliers

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free