Bastarding Ovo, advice please

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We moved home a month ago. I took meter readings and phoned them in to Ovo, and was advised that there would be 4-week wait to be credited back the amount they owed us (over £800).

The Ovo chap on the phone advised us to leave our direct debit open so we could receive the refund. Of course they have now taken the September direct debit as well, so they now owe us over £1200.

I called Ovo today. Apparently there is a billing hold on our account and we will “just have to wait for it to be sorted.” Can I speak to the relevant team? - no, not possible to speak to them. Can I speak to a supervisor or manager? - no, not possible.

Can I cancel the direct debit so we don’t pay in October as well? Yes, but then we won’t be able to refund you….

So I asked the chap on the phone to raise a complaint. Apparently someone will phone me within 24 hours.

What’s the betting that someone will actually phone me? And is there anything else I can do to get our money back? It’s TWELVE HUNDRED POUNDS.

I've posted this advice many times before and someone always comes along to say don't talk daft.... anyway, when i get nowhere with customer support after one try, I write directly to the CEO. They won't answer themselves but their executive assistant will and you will get a fast refund. Start off by pointing out that you have tried the usual process, it hasn't worked and you want the CEO to own the action. Point out what you want to happen and by when. It had never failed me. As an MD myself until early retirement, these are things that a CEO / MD wants out of the way - they are minor irritants that will be given to someone to sort immediately. I expect someone will come along and say I'm talking rubbish - that's as may be but it does work. You need to email: [email protected] - Mr Raman Bhatia. Good luck.

Also just to add to the advice above, they will have a Twitter customer service and you can usually get somewhere by tweeting them.

Ooh thank you. I have just emailed Mr Bhatia. I have to be careful due to my job, but will see if I can set up a new email address and create a twitter account from that as well.

I’ll post back here if I hear anything from Ovo!

OVO - the worst company in the universe .

I was in a similar position although my DD wasn't as high. For some reason they place hold and don't tell you. I don't know if it is to hold on to money for as long as possible. Keep rining and asking for being taken off hold.

Can you give them a deadline and say otherwise you will be taking it up with the Energy Ombudsman. The problem being you phoned ovo rather than did this by email or online. You might struggle proving you told them you are moving.

Always do stuff like this by email.

Good luck, I've had (thankfully only £50) needing refunded since April for our old rented house we sold and all they say is they is an issue on the account that they are working out, but there's apparently nothing I can do to help said issue. I haven't bothered to hassle them much as it's not much money but I can't say I'm impressed with their customer service. Not sure what the 'issue' could be as it's all very straightforward!

Thanks all.

Here is an update:

1. my email to the CEO received an automated reply and then someone called me yesterday when I was in a meeting; they emailed me, asking me to close the complaint, so I emailed back and said No, where’s my money
2. Someone else called me today when I was in a meeting (!) and emailed me, telling me that there was a billing hold on my account, this was with their operations team, and they couldn’t give any timescales at all for resolution.
3. They also gave me a link to their complaints procedure, which I’ve read, and I’ve now forwarded (today) the email chain to the CEO, Ovo’s dedicated Complaints email address AND the energy Ombudsman. In my email I’ve said that I consider this to be theft and that I will report Ovo to the police if I don’t get the money back asap.
4. Today’s email to Ovo Complaints has received an automated response - there’s a minimum 8-day wait for a reply as they are so busy with an unprecedented number of complaints (no sh*t!!).
5. Bastards
6. As advised by Ovo today, I have cancelled my direct debit (they’d previously told me to leave it open so that they could refund me <hollow laugh>). Apparently they will still be able to refund me although it’s more likely that we will have a white Christmas tbh (I live on the south coast. If never snows here)
7. Bastards

P.S. Does anyone know how long the Energy Ombudsman takes to respond? I’d imagine they’re snowed under with complaints from Ovo customers right now…

P.P.S. In case it wasn’t obvious, our new house is not and never will be supplied by Ovo

Just joined to ask if you ever got this resolved? Idly browsing Google while OVO coloured steam came out of my ears, I came across your post.

Similar but not identical situation here. I was an SSE customer until the beginning of September and on leaving to join British Gas they owed me nearly £950. SSE no longer exist because OVO took over so when I call/text/WhatsApp/email/shout loudly they have absolutely no record of me and I go through this endless cycle of out of service numbers and disinterested customer service agents.

Anyhoo, latest attempt involved me emailing [email protected] but I may try his main address too if I get no response. Which I haven't had so far.

Ooo!

Just got this after forwarding my original email to his main address

Dear Member,
Thanks for getting in touch with Raman Bhatia. I’m really sorry to hear you’re unhappy. Our priority is to try and help resolve this for you and put things right.
Please be assured we are doing all we can to get back to you as quickly as possible..
Thank you for your patience.
Kristi-Anne Constable
Head of Complaints - OVO Group

Tenner says the next response will be "You're not with OVO" 🙄

The energy ombudsman were quite quick when I used them, though also turned out to be pretty useless so don't pin any hopes on them. In my case, they found in my favour and agreed my energy company owed me £800. Shortly after, the energy company said they "made a mistake" when calculating the amount they owed me and actually, they owed me nothing at all. I went back to the ombudsman who basically shrugged their shoulders and did nothing. Then, the energy company went bust and I never got my money and that was that. All that said, I hope you have better luck and get your money back ASAP!

We are with Ovo and I just sorted it all out on their website - they refunded me after I asked online, said it would be five working days but it was back in my account two days later!

You should buy a lottery ticket!

Hi @rich1068 Yes, I finally received the refund about 2-3 weeks after I emailed the CEO…. I was called every second day by someone in the complaints team who listened to me ranting about how long their processes took….Apparently there is literally nothing they can do to speed up their operations team, and apparently they cannot contact them by phone, but when I told them that I’d started a Mumsnet thread about their appalling slowness I received my money the next working day!!

( I also received the same automated response from Raman Bhatia as you did!).

Thanks for the reply and good to hear you got your money back.

For me things started moving very quickly as soon as I sent my complaint to the two Raman Bhatia addresses. Had a couple of emails late yesterday along with screenshots of the final bill which I previously couldn't access. It appears to be accurate and I'm promised my refund by the 31st. We'll see.

Have to say there was still a "tone" to the replies I received but so long as I get my refund I don't really care. I certainly won't be using OVO any time soon.

They're awful! My usage over the last 12 months is about £1350 - they want me to pay £450 per month on dd - when I explained that's 3 times my use age they weren't interested

I emailed the CEO of Wickes with a detailed complaint and have to say they were on it quickly, a senior person responded and owned the issue.

@rich1068 any sign of your money yet? I know we’ve got a couple of days to go until 31st but a woman can hope…!

Ah, nothing yet. But the electricity account (which they managed to not cock up) that ended 05/09 too had a slight debit and they took that 30/09. Maybe the last day of the month is their day for this sort of thing.

That's what I'm telling myself anyway 🙄

We had a godawful mess created by a combination of SSE and Ovo in the flat we rent out. It seemed pretty clear that no-one understood how the billing system worked. Utter nightmare. And then out of nowhere last week (this all happened over a year ago) Ovo sent us a cheque for 42p, which apparently we had 'requested'. You better believe we banked that cheque. Bastards.

Well, not holding my breath.

Like most with internet banking I can see pending and upcoming debits and credits on my account. Nothing is showing up from SSE/OVO for tomorrow. The direct debit is still active so unless they're doing an instant transfer (unlikely ) I doubt I'll get it.

Bastards.

Well, looks like I'm getting it tomorrow according to my upcoming transactions. I think they just added a day on to mess with my head.

My joy was short lived though. After last month's payment I moved the date of my British Gas direct debit from 1st to 21st of the month. Better for salaries going into our account. Guess what? They're taking £327 out tomorrow and the 21st.

They're all an absolute shower.

I have been reading this thread with interest. We moved into our current house on 1 August 2023. It is rented and originally the OVO account was in the name of our landlord. We informed OVO and our landlord about this and the landlord’s name was removed from the account.

However, despite persistent efforts, we have been unable to set up an account in our names.

I have called the customer help team on countless occasions and keep being told there is some kind of technical issue, but that it is being looked into and that I will hear back within 2 weeks. I have never once been contacted back about the issue.

On one call I was given a number that I could use to send WhatsApp messages, but those messages also go unanswered.

In the meantime, bills keep being sent to the house addressed to “The Occupier”. We have also now been sent a letter saying that we have defaulted on our account and that debt recovery action will be taken in 10 days.

We cannot pay the outstanding amount online via an account because we can’t set up an account in our names. Additionally, as we don’t have an account in our names, we are concerned about whether any money we pay over the phone or via bank transfer would actually be correctly attributed to us.

I have spent hours and hours trying to sort out this issue and it has also caused us a lot of worry and stress.

Inspired by this account I have now emailed Raman Bhatia, so will see if I get a response!

@Chilternway
Can I ask if you got a reply from the ceo?
I have had a problem with Ovo since March 23, got the ombudsman involved in November 23 and it’s still not solved. Getting letters from bailiffs for bills for a meter that is not mine!