“Tried to raise our direct debit for gas & electric from £45 to £105. When we complained we received a very short reply which was very unsatisfactory. I then switched to another company & they then phoned me & said I was on the wrong tariff & all sorts of discounts. Needless to say "to bloody late".”
“As a customer in receipt of disability benefit my income is quite rightly: the minimum the government has assessed is needed for me to live on.
Therein, obtaining maximum value for money on my utility bills is vital.
After joining OVO Energy on the recommendation of freinds & family & the 'Which?' Award, I signed up to their lowest tariff.
A year later this expired without my knowledge & OVO failed to tell me.
My account had switched to the standard rate & subsequently began to accrue a debt.
OVO allowed this to continue in this state for nearly 8 months by which time the account became £160 in the red. I only became aware of this when I applied for a Smart Meter to be installed.
OVO reviewed the account & without notice, put my monthly direct debit up 60%!!
So that is twice they breached regulations & thirdly, they lied to me on the phone by telling me the new amount reflected my increased usage.
In fact, their computer had factored the debt into the equation aswell.
I explained to them that I was unable to afford the new payments & that I had applied for the 'Warm Home Discount' - (the Winter Fuel Allowance equivalent) for people on low incomes & that this would help pay off the majority of the debt.
They then threatened me with installing a pre-paid meter & referred me to a scheme they run in conjunction with the Citizens Advice Bureau, which checks your eligibility before awarding their charitable funds to clear the debt.
I duly applied & was told OVO were taking longer than usual to approve applications.
Unbelievably, the government approved my Warm Home Discount in the meantime & OVO illegally applied it to the debt!
2 months later & surprise, surprise - there is still no word of their fund award & I now have nothing to help me with my winter fuel costs.
AVOID OVO AT ALL COSTS!!”
“Ovo is useless I asked citizens advice for help they emailed me a from to fill in for ovo at the end of the form it asked u when u would like to be contacted I said Tuesday afternoon that was a month ago I got told someone was gonna call me and talk about the form I filled I month later im still waiting and they have the cheek to still send me emails and letters about my bill that I told them I needed sorted what is worse another company wanted to basically pay the off and they didn't even except that so I'm literally stuck with them”
“The OVO website is awful and so confusing. I am website developer and this is one of the worst I have ever seen. At one point I couldn't even make a card payment for 3 weeks. No one at OVO seemed to know about it when I called them. I am sure there is something wrong in their bill calculations also. The previous company was so much better in every way.”
“TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE
AS A LANDLORD TAKING OVER A VACANT FLAT I MAY AS WELL TALK TO THE WALL, HAVE TO SET UP A ACCOUNT WITH THEM BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING AS ITS ON PAPER BILLS IT STANDING CHARGE ONLY BUT GETTING NOWHERE SO SIMPLY MOVED TO A DECENT SUPPIER”
“The standard evergreen tariff plan you yourselves would of been on with SSE who themselves now who have full control at OVO energy themselves for using their own gas & electric from themselves.
from midnight last night on the standing charge fees themselves who have being set by ofgem themselves to these by telling themselves the standing charge fees are to go up on on both sets of metres from today for using the gas & for using the electric to in your own home and businesses from today by £19.50p per calendar month just for energy & for using the gas to at £10.50p per calendar month to on it own for standing charges for not using anything at all inside your own property from today. 👀 😡
(C)”
“Worst company I've ever dealt with . still waiting on a resolution after a year .no further forward, wasting time on fone calls and no replies.im not alone reading all the other similar complaints”
“Smart meter wouldn't work. Customer service refused to send someone round to fix it, very unhelpful on the phone. The top up app is also basically unable, so full of glitches”
“First day as an OVO customer and I am absolutely disgusted with them. Apparently my tiny two up two down house, uses over DOUBLE than my previous large 5 bedroom house did.... A large house that I spent more time in and had an extra 3 occupants..... I am furious and cannot wait to get rid of these thieving scumbags as a provider”
“Avoid like the plague. Incompetent customer service. Overcharged. Ombudsman intervention required ... twice!
I had a leak after my meter, as SGN confirmed. This resulted in my being charged four figures worth of gas which was not in fact used. Ovo flatly denied this, despite my and SGN's evidence to the contrary. Around 8 months of incompetent customer service followed, culminating in my having to make a formal complaint and going to the Ombudsman. Predictably, the Ombudsman was appauled and found in my favour on all points, required Ovo to apologise, compensate and refund. Of course, I've now spend 16 days trying to get that refund and Ovo's customer service is get again wholly incompetent (e.g. offering to refund the credit in my account, which is my money, rather than actually giving me the money they agreed with the Ombudsman they'd pay me). Ever email which comes back from customer service appears to willfully misunderstand the situation and fails to move anything forward. So I'm back off to the Ombudsman again ...
I don't know what's going on - whether the staff are overworked, incompetent, or there's a deliberate policy of ignoring the substance of customers complaints and/or gaslighting them, in the hope that they'll give up. I'm not such a customer, but I've wasted days and days of my life on this, which has not been adequately compensated for.
I will of course be leaving them.”
“Terrible customer service, rude staff based in South Africa where the phone lines are so bad you can't hear them over the phone. Staff tell lies and don't know the law.
Awful company avoid at all cost.”
“I have had ongoing problems with OVO for months and i am no closer to a resolution.Their customer service is not fit for purpose and i honestly feel like someone there has a personal vendetta against me because i want to change providers.They have hampered me every step of the way.Every single thing they have said they will do they have messed up and often blame computer systems.Each member of staff i have had the displeasure of dealing with has given me different information and almost always entirely wrong.I do not believe their staff have even close to an adequate amount of training.
My treatment has been utterly disgraceful , cost me money and more importantly a massive amount of time.I do not believe anything anyone there says with them often pretending to be on holiday just to avoid dealing with the problems.
A joke of a company and i will talk to anyone who wants to listen about my awful experience with this joke of a company.”
“Absalute rubbish company leave ya with no power for 24 hours with a child in house and can't phone them after 6pm something needs to change or get an emergency contact for errors”
“The worst company left me on numerous occasions off supply with the promise and engineer is on way but isn’t. Awful customer service you just get passed from one department to the other with no answers. Avoid avoid avoid!!!!”
“I used to be a customer of SSE for 28 years for my gas & electric up & untill OVO energy bought out SSE electric & gas back from them back in 2019 for a whopping 5 million lb 😡 plus a further 8.6 million lb for any unpaid debts to with SSE to themselves too from SSE to themselves at fxxing OVO who are your new suppliers for gas and electric from SSE to themselves at OVO energy from last August time of 2023.
OVO energy for using their own services that I myself did not ask to use full stop
for using their own electric & gas are ruining my life since the handover they have taken last July time of 2023 from SSE to themselves ready for the switch over last August time of 2023 to themselves at OVO energy from SSE last July time of 2023 ready for August time of 2023 at OVO energy. 😡
(C)”
“This company is absolutely awful,,they charge you what they want, they have been taking large amounts of money,and say they have not,, don't ever phone them up,, you will just get fobbed off,,they are a joke,,,not with them now,,my anxiety has gone and I can sleep at night,,OVO should be in jail,,thieves and liars”
“Don't ever go with OVO, in my whole life never have I ever gone through stress like OVO causes me.
Absolutely none of there staff are on the same page every call you do they will advise you something completely different and constantly conflict your previous advice. Then threaten to charge you even more money.
I pay OVO £290 a month which cover my usage and usually enough to pay them £150 towards my arrears as they were charging me £87 when I moved in and after 11 months they did a reading and apparently I owed them £2600 even though my account was positive prior to that they just went off 'estimated readings' but I had no idea so instead they hit me with a huge bill and then asked for over £600 per month back and as a single mum to two young children I couldn't physically afford that, found a comprise of £290 for them to change there mind every month and demand more money.
Honestly it's the worst, it's ridiculous and I'm sure they overcharge. My electric never makes any sense, a few months ago I was on holiday but apparently still managed to use the most electric while on holiday.
Avoid save yourselves the grief”
