Ovo Energy - www.ovoenergy.com

Dire Customer Service - almost impossible to contact - use Overseas Call Centres to not resolve your problems

I was forcibly migrated to Ovo when they bought out SSE and had my Economy 10 account transferred to Ovo. Since September lat year they have had my meter set to Economy 7 off peak times but switching my devices based on Economy 10 times, meaning I am missing 3 hours a day of cheap electricity, being overcharged for my electricity and could not use my heating correctly all winter.

This has been through the Ombudsman service and still they refuse to resolve the issue. They have lied (I have proof) to me, the ombudsman service and to other customer sin the same position (I am currently aware of 100+ with this exact issue).

Customer service is non existent, emails go unanswered, phone calls are not returned and the buck is just passed to someone else with a different job title each time without anything actually being done.

It is so bad that I am now taking legal action against Ovo for breach of contract, as advised by my solicitor.

Ovo have been aware of this issue for HALF A YEAR and deliberately choose to do nothing about it despite over 50 emails, phone calls and letters from myself, an Ombudsman ruling that they are at fault and legal action commencing.

If you were considering becoming a customer of this company for any reason, DO NOT! Go and read the Ovo forums if you wish to corroborate what is written here and see for yourself what kind of 'company' this is.

Absolutely terrible customer support. I lived in one address from 15/01/2023 until 30/09/2023. During this time I was paying regularly for what I believed was my account with Ovo.

When I called to let them know I was leaving this address they informed me that I had a remaining balance of >£1000. It turned out they had made 2 different accounts under my name for this address and had been charging me for both. I notified them of this mistake on 30/09/2023 and sent proof of my payments throughout the year, with my sort code/account number etc. to prove that it was my account. They assured me that an investigation would be made and the case would be high priority.

Well it's now 4 months later and nothing has changed.

I have left the UK and I can only contact Ovo through WhatsApp. The customer service I have received has been at best incompetent and at worst downright rude, dismissive and disrespectful. Each time I speak with them I need to repeat the same information and send proof of payment and each time I am told that there will be an investigation. each time NOTHING is done about this.

My account has now been passed to a debt collection agency which Ovo can't contact, apparently. This is destroying my credit score and also putting me at risk of legal ramifications.

If you are looking for an Energy Company who know what they are doing, choose absolutely anyone else. Ovo will try to sham you with their confusing customer service set up and lack of professional and trained employees.

I would give 0 stars if I could

Avoid Ovo like the plague! I have had nothing but trouble from them, & plan to move to another supplier as soon as possible, but they are using delaying tactics on my billing to even make that difficult!

They failed to charge me for gas consumption for a year, until i queried it... then suddenly hit me with a bill for over £600, which as a 71 year old pensioner, I will really struggle to pay. The gas consumption side of my smart meter stopped working, but as I'd recently installed solar, & had a woodburner.. I, in my naivity, & also as well recently processing the death of my mother, assumed that was because my consumption was negligible. After hours spent waiting on the phone to eventually get through to agents in South Africa, who, though helpful within the limitations imposed on them by this unscrupulous company, have indiginous African/South African accents & are very difficult to understand, so communication is very difficult, one wonders if this is intentional. Their email complaints system is equally opaque. It's virtually impossible to get any response at all. However, after my last negative Trustpilot review, I did eventually get a phone reply by a British customer agent who offered me a paultry £50 compensation for all my worry & inconvenience, plus waiving of their £75 per energy supply exit fee (£150 total) when I moved to another supplier. I had requested a postal final bill, but after a month, that hasn't arrived. I looked on their app, & they have added the 2 exit fees, so I was lied to. Why should I trust the reading & charging from an App & system that didn't even realise it wasn't charging me for my gas consumption! They are obviously delaying my postal bill with the full & comprehensive details to be charged, of their own mixup... to scupper my switching to a better supplier. I have even suggested they email me the breakdown of charges, but no sign of that either. This must essentially be business malpractice. I am investigating going to the Ombudsman... but I believe there is a huge queue. This Company should not be trading!

What an absolute JOKE I didn't even choose OVO energy but because SSE migrated me beings as they went bust don't do residential property's anymore only big businesses ... the whatsapp chat is a joke if no response after 5 mins they end the chat COMPLAINTS department take weeks without acknowledgement of your complaint they say will be 5 working days but yet I waiting weeks still no acknowledgement BUT as soon as my issue RESOLVED I'm out of there no professionalism at all customer service is on another level of skilless non whatsoever DO NOT SWAP TO OVO unless your ready for your mental health to deteriorate and if nothing else to do all day everyday except call the customer service to get nowhere AVOID

Atrocious customer service. Ovo trying to bill me for a period after I moved out because new tenant gave wrong date. Customer services were point blank refusing to budge.

There final message was 'don't for we supply data to Experian'.

Lovely veiled threat.

Absolutely useless as a company, I left a property and continue to get bills even after explaining I have left, letters from the landlord saying I left, might be ok on prices but by aware if you some sensible conversations with someone you will not get it. lets hope the energy ombudsman can help because nothing i do seems to work

Absolutely appalling service. Moved out in August - ~£500 in credit. Called multiple times to try and get a refund and they are still holding on to the money with no explanation of why. Customer service team cannot do anything and do not know anything, and I cannot speak to those who can/do. It's now almost Christmas - I could use the money. Shockingly bad!

Never known any company like it, mess my account up for over 2 years then inform me I owe them over £900 without any explanation, constantly lied to & wont accept responsibilty for their incompetence, they hashed things up so they should bite the bullet & pay for their mistakes like anyone else, figure constantly changing,told to not believe what other members of their own staff are saying.

They notified me in July & still not got things sorted it will now go to the ombudsman.

OVO People:

Complaint- 21902969 and Account number 24257845

After 7 years of loyalty to your company and sympathies for being a Bristol based organisation, and due to some of your corporate responsibility policies, I want you to close my account with IMMEDIATE effect. I have now cleared my outstanding balance that you unlawfully charged me.

It all started with the change in your old system.

You were unlawfully chasing me for yet another account your system opened “ by accident”. This mistake form your incompetent system made me incur in financial losses. Although these losses were minor and for less /about £300.00, it was a virtual nightmare to deal with customer services representatives and your system so I had to contact the energy ombudsman which had resolved in my favour under the claim/case: EG066196-23.

This was not the first time you made a mess with my billing. This is actually the 4th time I experience issues with your company.

The property is actually only occupied for about 10 days every 5 to 7 weeks and it has been a nightmare to resolve issues with your more than incompetent and inefficient staff and system.

As I have spent significant amount of time and experienced significant amount of headaches dealing with your very poor standards I will not go through the entire nightmare that has been dealing with you.

This is the 4th, and last time I am asking you to completely close my account so I can switch to another provider which at the moment it is not possible as you have blocked my account.

I have been dealing with your incompetence for the last 6 months!

Needless to say I will be a fierce ambassador of your failure to deliver at the right standard and ethical expectation that customers deserve.

Should you not close and unblock my account with immediate effect, I will be presenting a formal complaint to the parliament and to the media/press and about your really cannibalistic practices that violate all codes of commercial conduct.