“We have been with Southern Electric for over 30 years not one..not one complaint…
Ovo energy comes in..
& doubles our direct Debit from £290-to £489..
We have always been in credit for over £30 years
I will be changing providers ASAP”
“Recently received an electric bill for over £37000+ for a 6-month period for two-bed cottage with one occupant (our son) who hardly uses any power. After numerous phone-calls by my wife, a day later we were reassured that the bill was incorrect and we were, in fact, in credit, only to then receive further demands for this obviously incorrect original amount. This outrageous farce is still on-going. Total and absolute incompetence; or is it deliberate? One has to wonder. Imagine an elderly or vulnerable person receiving this treatment. And, to cap it all, we were transferred to OVO without warning or agreement. An absolutely appalling company.”
“Poor customer service, could not find/locate my account even though I have been with them 11 years,time wasting when their site says direct debit details can be managed from online account and cannot. Terrible call quality with agent, accent I found hard to understand, ignored my questions and took and excessively long time to complete simple task of verifying bank details that had not changed. SSE use to be good but since OVO have come in their service is exceptionally poor”
“Have you read the May 2023 Private Eyes report on how an 83 year old customer was bullied for five years simply because they had the incorrect address on their system?”
“Absolutely horrible energy company. Impossible to reconcile bills, and extremely rude costumer service. Please do yourself a favour and avoid these crooks like the plague.”
“Absolutely awful company!!!! Can't understand half they say when I finally get through on the phone! Don't use them. Put my monthly payments up from £200 to £257 even though I'm £162 in credit!!! Just appalling. No UK phone number - it goes to call centre abroad - sounds like India!!!!!!! The most annoying and frustrating phone calls ever!
Abysmal.”
“On the 19/01/2023 I was contacted via email telling me I owed money to OVO Energy and that my monthly bill had increased from £40 to £71. I had never heard of OVO Energy before and believed I was with SSE as I had been for 4 years, no change to my contract was communicated to me. I was not given 10 days notice as per a legal requirement of the financial trade union.
I called up OVO Energy to request some details of the change and why my account had gone into debt and they couldn't give me a straight answer, saying sorry 'cuz' that's just how it is.
On the 18/04/2023 I was notified via email telling me I should increase my monthly payments to £111 otherwise I would go further into debt. I looked up on my online account, very difficult to look at but worked out I was only using £43.16 a month so didn't need to increase my electricity bill to the new requested inflated rate.
On the 28/04/2023 I was emailed telling me my direct debit had increased to £111 with no notice of the change (As the previous email was a request for ME to change my monthly quantity). I called up OVO Energy to notify them I would be leaving them on this basis, the first customer assistant I called up said wait a minute and left me on hold for 30 minutes. I then called back and the person said no no you can't on this number with me, I requested them to give me the correct number and they gave me the number I had called them on then hung up. I then called up for a third time and told the person that due to the illegality of my account and direct debit change I was going to leave them that very same day, twice they put me on hold and said we can reduce your direct debit to your actual usage? This confused me as I was told by email that my rate was being increased in line with my average usage, even though it was only £43.
After being on the phone for 4 hours I was able to leave this company and would recommend noone to ever go with this company based on my experience.”
“This company are a disgrace. I have been trying to cancel my mums OVO Energy duel fuel account for over a month. My mum has vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s. Initially they wanted Living Power of Attorney proof. I sent them copies to their customer service I did so phoned back same day and they told all was ok, nothing heard then phoned back the next day and was told I sent them to the wrong email address, sent the docs to the correct address? They owe my mum hundreds of pounds. Ten days later phoned again only to be told their admin department hadn’t approved a legal document LPA and until they had I could not close the account then yesterday 27 April they wanted to talk to my mum, who in her medical condition does not know what day it is. I have sent the company meter readings to no avail. This company should not be trading.”
“This company deserve 0 star review. No matter how much I increase my monthly direct debit amount, I end up with more debt, despite I use less and less energy. I have no choose but to do what this company wants. I switched my supplier and now my monthly direct debit is over £160 less. So my advice is avoid OVO at any cost and switch to another supplier.”
“I was a long standing SSE customer who paid by direct debit and received my bills quarterly, with an annual review. I never had a problem, an argument or a cross word with SSE.
The attitude of the people workign for OVO stinks - that's the politest way I can describe the arrogant attitudes. I'm disabled and have mobility difficulties. OVO staff wanted to know what disability I had before they would send someone round to replace the smart meters that SSE installed that can not communicate with the OVO in home smart meter reader. Talk about an invasion of privacy! The person I spoke with refused to book in an engineer appointment and hung up the phone eventhough I told him my disability was none of his business. I thought the reason for disclosing I had a disability was so that additional assistance could be given but he continued to badger me to tell him details about one of the meters which forced me to go to the meter and when I told him that what he was asking about just wasn't there on the meter he just hung up the phone. Incidently, I had already sent in photos and a video (twice - once in whtasapp and another time in an email) to OVO representatives - clearly, as I told him there does not appear to be any internal communications and even worse attitudes to customer care.
I've called and wasted hours of my time since the handover in January with OVO representatives who did nothing to resolve the issues I was experiencing. I keep being antogonised by the staff's attitudes when I ring up and today I think I've found out why - it's because if OVO's system show you as not having a clear balance you are put directly through to collections no matter the reason you called. Of course my account is in debt, not by a lot because I pay by direct debit, OVO have been estimating my bills since day 1.
Don't even think about trying to be reasonable with an OVO representative - it only ends up in a you v them situation with the OVO rep keeping the upper hand - they must be being trained to approach every customer with suspicion and as debt avoiders. eventually the OVO customer care rep did call back and book an appointment and when I expalined I was disabled and distresed at the way I was being treated his only answer was that if I answer his questions he would be able to help. I told him the questions he was asking about my disability were none of his business and I refused to answer him, telling him in the end I didn't have a disability so that he could allerviate his sense of guilt before moving on to actually book an appointment. I asked for details to write to a complaints department. I was told there was none only a head office customer services department and when I was told the address and telephone number it turns out it's the same telephone number as the number I called to beign with. Talk about marking their own homework.
I could go on and on but it won't make a difference. My advice, forget about a life because OVO staff seem to think you're there to do their bidding. You must check your balance and keep it totally clear on the exact date each month otherwise don't ring OVO because you won't be helped - that's my experience. Even when I first called OVO to tell them the in house meter display wasn't working, something any organised comapny would have anticipated and replaced prior to the swapover from SSE, I was attacked by reps who kept telling me my account was in arrears and that I was responsible for ensuring it was kept clear.
One thing I will tell any of you who are upset at having their bills doubled and are trying to contact OVO - persevere - you can object to the increases in direct debits and OVO will reduce them - they have to. After all the whole reason I and millions others signed up to direct debit payments is to spread the cost of energy usage. Considering I pay more for energy than a small mortgage I certaintly don't have to spend as much time on the phone with the bank. These are greedy, money grabbing companies who have people with the same attitudes working for them. They don't care about a war in Ukraine or the cost of living crisis, all they care about is profit. Green energy etc., is just a smokescreen for a company that is making profits off the back of other people's misery. The energy regulators should be ashamed that so much profit is being made when people are not even able to put food on the table or keep a roof over their heads.
I will definately be leaving OVO. It makes no difference which energy provider I go to - they all make huge profits - but at least I won't be made to feel like my disability is a problem and that I'm just a bad debtor.
Oh, as a parting shot the last OVO rep told me that they report to credit reference agencies, so that if my bill isn't paid on time (direct debit??) my credit score is my responsibility....don't even think about going up against a bully like OVO, they haven't missed a trick, and invented some - or so it would seem.”
“Absolutely shocking customer service functions with seemingly none of the system back up to enable clients to have proper service. My account was switched to OVO from SSE ( another OVO Company) after I requested a final account which immediately meant that all my account went into lockdown. Trying to use their automatic customer login never works and on average each futile attempt at speaking to a customer service agent takes over an hour!!! Avoid at all costs. OVO continued to take money from my account after the account was terminated. Crooks and wastrels !”
“I was passed to OVO from SSE with the sale, without prior warning or information. I received glowing emails from OVO expressing the excellent points of their company. Then the truth emerged -
I emailed in meter readings, and waited for a emailed bill. (silly me) I complained - a person rang me, I discovered that I was expected to read meters EVERY MONTH! and keep logging on the site to get bills. I have only ever paid quarterly. I explained this and the person did not say I couldn't, and said my next reading would by June 8.
Logging on I saw that estimated debits were being created based on last year's higher usage. I sent meter readings and paid to that date. There is still a debit amount showing that makes no sense at all.
I tried the on-line chat (silly me) queues of 34, 54 (!) and 25 mins. I tried ringing- queue of 12 mins. I wrote a letter and posted it just before Easter - no reply. Today I received a letter asking me to pay my bill!
I am moving elsewhere!”
“The Manipulate the gas meter reading
I did not choose this company. I was with SSE for ten years and never had problems until this OVO took over SSE. This company manipulate the gas meter based on smart meter on the 21th of March the reading was 9239 then on 22 of March they changed the reading to 8324 then they meter jumped the the end of the day to 9268. So based on this they charged me on one day more than £1017. I never saw such theft. I called OVO 5/04/2023 and they promised to fix it within ten days which never happened. I called again on Tuesday 18/4/2023 and requested escalation to a manager.I will cancel their direct debit after five days if not solved. I am asking all the clients who were with SSE to check there meters reading especially the day when they moved them to OVO to protect their money.I wish that I can upload the photos of the smart meter reading to show everyone what they are doing.”
“This is the worst company and they have the worst customer service very rude. I was with SSE I have direct debit my bill have never gone past £300 a month. And in January OVO took over SSE, I was away could not send meter readings for January and February and this company estimated my bill and charge me more than 700 pounds by march even thought I have direct debit my account was over 900 pounds in arrears. I have been calling them for the past month to query my bill but all I am getting is the rudest customer service I have ever experienced I am not exaggerating I had to be the one to de escalate the arguments. And what makes it worst in march I sent them a meter reading and my bill for that month went back to around 300 pounds that should tell every sensible person that they over charged me in January and February but no they won't hear that as I am here frustrated with them my account is still over 700 pounds in arrears despite my monthly direct debit and they keep saying to me my smart meter sent them meter reading and I keep saying to them I don't have a smart meter but every time I call is the same issue and now I have given up. Its sad that the government does not protect the ordinary people from companies like this, they scam us any how and get away with it because they know they can get away with it. Am here to say to people to stay far far away from OVO. They are bad news”
“This company transferred my electricity account from Energy Australia without my permission. I hadn't even heard of them until I went onto my online EE account and it said inactive. I hadn't made even a call or enquiry with OVO, received a call from them, have no correspondence from them, haven't signed a contract - nothing. Not sure how this is even possible.”
“Having waited almost 12 weeks for action on a request, I've more or less given up. 4 telephone calls and several e-mails and they still haven't acceded to my request for documents. Disgraceful! ZERO STAR for this company. Refund on my overpayment still pending. Moving to another supplier”
