“Was migrated to OVO from SSE on 14/12/22. They ordered me to change from 3 monthly bills paid by DD in arrears (as I'd done for 20+ years without ever failing to pay a bill on time) to monthly DD in advance or change supplier. DD to be £74 a month.
Then told "Sorry we made a mistake, your DD will be £61" but they've been taking £74.
Then (8/2/23) told they'd reviewed my usage (in Jan / Feb?) and suggested I need to increase my DD to £83 or by the end of the year I'd be £107 in debt.
Today 22/2/23 another letter telling me that as I hadn't increased my DD as "advised" they are increasing it to £87 per month.
They have also not credited me with my October £66 Govt. Support Payment, so I've probably lost that.
They are either so chaotic that they shouldn't be running a major energy company or they're a bunch of crooks.
I'll be contacting the Financial Conduct Authority / Ombudsman about this useless company. They're more like the Mafia and run their company using fear and chaotic "accounting" to get away with robbery and extortion.
BTW. by my calculation using my smart meters' usage readings (in Jan / Feb) my DD actually needs to be £71 per month to end the year without getting into any debt.”
“they are crooks!
i am writing a letter to the ombudsman as we speak. before the energy crisis they seemed ok, but now its just a terrible bunch of crooks. their support is in south africa, wait time 10mins at least and they have no idea what they are saying at all!”
“Only cares about raising your DD amount . Not reliable, dont provide service as agreed, put appointment for meter replacement and never showed up then just kept quiet like nothing happened.”
“Didn’t ask me regarding migrating over from SSE I tried to leave in May 2022 but SSE had deenergised the line on a renovation project that’s empty on a computer system and not literally, 7 months as the office staff are pretty useless, meanwhile they were forcing me to pay their standing charges at their price, when I know the company I wanted to transfer to was less as I transferred another property at the same time back in May…I then get my final bill today so I rang, spoke to someone in South Africa, hung up, rang again wouldn’t let me speak to a manager said they would open a complaint and would take 48hrs but I had to explain above, she didn’t know what deenergised was and then proceed to argue with me saying I have to pay their standing charges, but I explained that’s a monopoly as I’ve tried to leave and OVO cannot fix SSE’s problem they created and inherited, it’s also cheaper elsewhere, I shouldn’t be forced to shop where I don’t want to, everyone has the right to choose and I’m sure the ombudsman will agree, that’s it’s only fair I pay what the other provider are charging.. their offices throughout contacting in 2022 was uk based and now it’s south’s Africa, complete nightmare as they’ve copied where SSE had offices.. and their lacking in courtesy and getting anything done, so glad I’ve changed provider to an England based place..never ever again will I have any properties with OVO”
“RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH, been ringing and ringing and ringing and finally when I got through they promised to send me an email - STILL WAITING
DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY, USE ANY OTHER UTILITY COMPANY OTHER THAN THIS COMPANY”
“My account was in credit up until the winter fuel payment then all of a sudden I ended up owing them money they said that the direct debit I pay monthly £126 was only reducing my bill by £60 as they were refunding me £66 a month”
“Come back EON all is forgiven.
When we moved in to our newbuild house the energy supplier was SSE but within a short time we were transferred to OVO without notice. I thought we would give them a try but they have been a nightmare.
Now looking to switch back to our old supplier EON.”
“First call to OVO having been ‘migrated’ from SSE was simply to pay a bill however, trying to understand the operative on the other end of the line between the clatter and banging, raucous laughter and the threats of ‘reporting to credit reference agencies, debt collectors, bailiffs and disconnection of services’, was not how I envisaged paying an energy bill was all about. I honestly believed that SSE were rebranding themselves under the OVO name, how wrong was I! First all I receive an email, one of three all at the same time….’your latest bill is now ready’ the second one ‘register your account’ third one ‘your password’ followed all this and got an up to date bill £601.90. Tried making a payment. Nothing, tried numerous times, nothing. Decided to call them on the number provided, nothing. Long and the short of it, after over a week trying to get through to them I finally did, however the day before I did get through to them I had received a fourth email to say my bill of £540.19 was overdue. During the telephone conversation with the OVO operator I was then told it was £787.42. Obviously I queried it, his answer was that it included an upto date billing for the current month. I told him that I was on quarterly billing, he told me I was on monthly billing ,I said I’ve always been on monthly billing. Not anymore you’re not you’re with OVO he told me, and then started talking over me, becoming abusive with threats of credit agencies, debt collectors, bailiffs and disconnection of services etc. it takes people power to shame these people and bring them to account. Share your experience on this site, your local MP, Energy Ombudsman, Ofgem etc.”
“I was was with sse for 14yrs till Dec 15th 2222 had never had a problem sent reading in every 3mths then paid full bill by direct debit ovo will not let me do this have to pay monthly in full but just cannot understand how they work bill out every day now says balance +less amount each time we were told everything would stay the same also my migrated bill was estimated yet they had an up to date reading from me l m so fed up with them lm just waiting for my first monthly bill from them because we only have electric have economy 7 not allowed gas as in tower block never been so stressed”
“OVO energy decided that I had moved from my current home last July. I had not moved or told them I would. Since then, despite getting assurances to the contrary my account has not been reinstated. I am in danger of losing my £400 winter fuel payment because of their inaction. Contacted them today via WhatsApp but they have gone strangely quiet.”
“If there was a No Star's I would have picked that! I have been trying to sort out an issue.....no replies to emails for 4 months! I am even writing to the CEO who hasn't replied either (he's certainly not leading by example!)....I'm chasing them but I'm beginning to wonder why I bother! I'm trying to do the right thing....... absolutely useless company!”
“I had been with Atlantic/SSE for over 20 years and have had nothing but problems with OVO. Firstly, without asking, they changed my billing from 3-monthly on receipt of bill to monthly, secondly, I used to pay at the Post Office but they have stopped that, which is very inconvenient. They added my last SSE bill for December 2022 to the December-January one, I rang on 25 January and an agent finally said she would send a revised bill but I've never received that. Emails have been ignored. I had to ring again today and ask for the bill, since my next bill will be due in a couple of days. The agent (had the cheek) to read out a statement saying that a credit company will be notified if my bill is not paid! Dreadful Company.”
“OVO is claiming SSE migrated a 644 pound debit to my account from 27 June. I moved to the UK and rented the address for the account on 16 April. My billing account from 16 April till 30 June shows 122 pounds. OVO/SSE erroneously added 644 pounds to my account. Now they won't resolve it. It is impossible for me to have a migrated bill of 644 because I lived in South Africa and never had used any energy or gas in the UK prior to my very first usage from 16 April - 30 June of 122 pounds. I paid 644 pounds to my account on 30 June as a credit and they added it as a debit and now claim it was from my previous account which I never had!”
“Sent me a welcome letter (never ever contacted them) saying thank you for getting in touch.
Conned DoB and phone on a phonecall (they never had my main details in the first place).
Proceeded to send me a bill for 70 days for 3250 even though living in property for only 24 days at most. Absoulte con artists.
Repeatedly hung up on and information changed.
Scammers”
“this company is out to steal from people.
wont correct my units so have to get ombudsman involved as they owe me a lot and are still charging me £250 a month to sit in the cold”
“During the changeover from sse to ovo all the credit was wiped off my meter. These thieves have robbed me and there is no way to contact them.
The phone number doesn't work, the webchat doesn't work and if I don't keep paying them my energy will be cut off automatically.
Can't even begin to explain what this does to my health.
Avoid if possible, I wasn't given a choice, they took over and robbed me just like that.”
