UK electricity and gas supplier reviews – Ovo Energy
Published: 1 December 2010
By MoneyHighStreet Staff 18 Comments
Updated: 1 December 2010
Ovo Energy is one of the UK’s newest energy suppliers and is already making its mark with cheap energy plans across many regions and its focus on green, renewable energy.
It claims to offer the greenest dual fuel tariff which consumers are attracted to, coupled with fixed price energy plans and paperless billing.
Ovo Energy aims to be carbon neutral in offering fuel in the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly way. It has 2 energy plans, the Ovo new energy plan and the Ovo green energy plan to meet these needs, offering either just electricity or dual fuel.
Ovo New Energy Plan
- Great value – using the latest technologies
- Fixed price – the prices you pay per unit of energy will not go up even if market prices do
- 15% renewable electricity – Go green without having to pay a green premium
- Paperless billing – save £20 – bills are sent through email to save trees and energy
- Direct Debit – no extra costs that are usually associated with old fashioned bills
- Earn from energy – if your account is in credit, earn 3% interest equivalent on what’s in there.
Ovo Green Energy Plan
Have all the benefits of the OVO new energy plan and 100% green electricity.
Ovo Energy gets their gas from the UK grid while the electricity comes from renewable and non-renewable resources, largely from the national grid. Their standard tariff is considered to be the greenest standard dual fuel tariff in the UK. Their green energy comes mainly from local wind farms and landfill gas.
Ovo Energy is small compared to the ‘Big 6’ energy companies but is now one of the main UK energy suppliers, delivering great value electricity, gas and outstanding customer service.
Ovo Energy aims to make affordable renewable energy available for everyone.
If you are looking for a way to save money then why not reduce the amount of energy that you use and switch to an economically friendly energy supplier?
Use an energy comparison service such as that provided by Confused.com or uSwitch to see exactly which energy plans are available in your area and best meet your needs.
One to be avoided – unclear regarding payment dates they only offer two per month 15th or 1st. Not customer orientated in any sense their operators are polite and friendly and acknowledge that they are not perfect. The communications between departments is weak. This company is only interested in parting you from your cash. They look OK at first glimpse but I found that they were all too ready to quote their policies, which do not consider the best interests of their customers. Be Warned Keep Away from this lot.
Totally agree with what Katherine has to say about OVO.
No concept of what is fair and will attempt to grab as much money from you each month via your DD payment on the pretext of “calculating” your probable increased energy consumption during the winter months.
Try to tell them that you don’t want your DD increased and they demand a large lump sum up front to cover the extra energy consumption they calculate you will use.
The strange thing is that they ask you to supply your previous year’s consumption figure when you first sign up so they can set up a DD payment calculated to spread the cost over 12 months and then they come along 6 months later and put the squeeze on you for more money.
Seems to me they are fearful of cash flow problems during the winter and want a loan from their customers to make things easier for OVO’s finances!
Can only agree with the comments above. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. whilst the energy unit costs shown on u-switch may appear cheaper than others, what they actually take out of your bank account is not, and bears no relation to what you have used. Also they are less than happy to discuss this with you with a reiew to resolving it.
I can echo the above comments. Their communication is appalling. Heard nothing from them until I realised they had started taking money from my bank account at the same time as my previous supplier. No apologies & ,according to Ovo, it is up to me to sort it all out. Their much vaunted “customer service” is as bad as British Gas – a horrible couldn’t care less attitude.
Moved over to Ovo 15 months ago. Found them to be great, helpful, polite and available. Like the fact I am talking to UK person and not Canada, South Africa, Pakistan and the rest of the world. Pricing clear (try and compare prices for any other company – so many tariffs) very helpful when it comes to setting the DD. Did not find problems that other commentators claim to have but which I had with nPower and EDF. Now all I have to do is find the same service from broadband firm….
I switched my energy company to OVO last October. I offered to pay more monthly DD payment than they suggested because of the winter months, in good faith. I found out that I was in credit for over £200 last month. So I asked for a refund and the reduction on my DD payment. I was assured the refund was on the way and the DD amount would be reduced straight away. To my horror, they haven’t changed the DD amount and the refund hasn’t come through, either. When I rang them again, I was told they couldn’t change the DD until next month and the refund I can have now is much less despite the fact I have over £300 in credit with them now.
Rubbish company, I’ll definitely change the energy company when the contract runs out.
So so disappointed. Don’t go with them.
Re Roger’s comment in Oct 2010 regarding possible OVO cashflow issues this is something that had occurred to me. In the last few months
I have a 4 month issue with OVO regarding my tarriff which is incorrect. I was set up on a fixed rate and I did not want a fixed rate I wanted E7. I made this absolutely clear when I signed on.
OVO admit their mistake but in spite of several reminders seem unable to correct this and adjust my account. This should be a very simple matter.
In the meantime they continue to debit my account incorrectly at an alarming rate. It is all most unsettling.
Just moved to OVO from the nightmare of First Utility with their multiple tariffs, mid year increases and “loyalty” discounts to lock you in.
OVO look good so far. I’ve got a reasonable price, fixed for a year, with DD at the level I would expect.
I changed to Ovo almost 1 year ago. The changeover from my previous supplier was very easy and trouble-free. The monthly payment was reasonable compared to what I was paying before and I have found their customer service excellent on the rare occaision I have had a query. The only negative is that they cannot be contactedby phone at weekends although they do respond quickly to emails sent over the weekend. My years fixed contract is coming to an end and true to their word they advised my by email. I amshopping around again and I an quite disappointed that they are no longer competitive on price.So I will probably by switching (BG to be the least expensive at the moment). I am fairly confident that the high level of customer service I have experienced so far also applies to outgoing customers. If not I will let you all know.
We contacted OVO 2 months ago and advised them that they were the supplier of our new house and that we wanted a temporary contract until we switched supplier. Our new supplier have contacted them 3 times over the past 2 months only to be told that OVI won’t let us switch. When we phoned to ask why, they said that our account wasn’t live yet. They finally put our account live last week. I went to the bank only to find that they have taken £220 out of our account without letting us know. We have received no letters from them and only one e-mail that doesn’t say when they’re taking the money out. I am disgusted with their customer service. We were not even asked to set up a monthly direct debit when we phoned them!
We will be changing our supplier as soon as possibe.
Thanks for your comment.
It is interesting to see the mixed bag of experiences that OVO customers have received from their customer service department.
Its a shame that OVO are letting some of their customers down like this as otherwise they would be a great alternative to the Big Six energy companies.
We need more energy companies like OVO to help break the stranglehold that the Big Six exert on the market, but they must learn to serve their customers better if they are to make a significant impact.
I have found OVO to be the best UK energy supplier by a very long way. Their Customer Services Team are excellent (UK based and all speak understandable English!), their prices are competitive, the fixed 12 month contract is easy to understand and they pay 3% per annum on credit balances. Having tried E-On, Scottish and Southern, Southern Electric, EDF and British Gas over the years I can put my hand on my heart and say that I won’t be using any of the Big 6 ever again. My bills have dropped dramatically over the last two years I have been with OVO. My previous supplier, EDF took £132 a month by Direct Debit and I was constantly on the phone to them asking them to revise my DD and pay back some of the excess balance, only to be told I would have to wait untul after winter to see how things balanced out. My current DD with OVO is £20 less per month, and the level of payments works out pretty spot on over a billing year…plus I make a couple of quid on my credit balances during the summer. I can’t praise them highly enough.
Moved to OVO a few months ago from one of the big companies. I have a small 2 bedroomed house and am a modest electricity only user. I have Economy 7 and make full use of it.
I expected a useful saving of about £10 per month as predicted on one of thecomparison sites. This has not proved to be the case. My bills have been substantially more than I paid before and, even taking into account the cold winter weather, have been outrageous. OVO customer services have proved hopeless and clearly are not interested. Have paid up anyway and will cancel and move back to my previous provider who are have always proved helpful and reliable over the 6 years I have been with them. Should have left well alone. You live and learn.
I was considering using OVO as they have come up top of my comparison list. Having read the numerous reviews on here and even more elsewhere, I have decided this money grabbing company that draw you in with wonderous low prices and ecofriendly attitute should be avoided at all costs. Yet another ‘too good to be true’ money saving farce. They should be ashamed.
Ovo apologises and says sorry for their extremely poor service Just lip service Their Ovo web customer account site has been down down for 6 weeks , resulting in no access to account Made numerous telephone calls and e mails with negative results.. They say just phone us and send your cash. Referring them to the arbitration board Dont go near them stick to the big 6
I switched to OVO a couple of years ago and for the first 3 months paid almost £20 per month more than my previous supplier. This requirement was explained as being a ‘trial period’ to ensure my useage wasn’t more than I had advised. Sure enough after 3 months, when asked, they dropped my monthly direct debit down by £20. When in credit interest is paid – definitely a plus! Customer service has always been good with swift responses. When they wanted to increase my direct debit payment I requested it stayed as was. They have left it as it was and I’m still in credit. I advised that should the electricity useage put me in the position of owing them more then I would be happy to increase the monthly direct debit sum. So I have no adverse comments whatsoever.
I inherited OVO when I moved into a new flat and have had absolute nightmares with them. Despite telling them I’d moved into the property they kept sending me letters addressed to the occupier with hugely overinflated estimated bills. If I’d been a vulnerable person the amounts were enough to give me a heart attack. 3 months later when I’d called them for the 5th time they admitted they still had my details but had had a backlog changing address details on accounts – 3 months!!!!
Their customer service advisors were always rude and uninterested which just added to my frustration so I decided to move back to my old supplier EDF energy who had always been great.
I then received a letter from EDF saying OVO had put a block on me moving as there was no name on the account! As I was travelling abroad for 3 months I decided to stay with OVO for the short term until I came back.
I came home to find the switch had finally gone through – though I wasn’t notified of this by either company until it had been done and had a bill from OVO to an estimated reading which was so far overinflated that 2 months after the changeover date was still over £100 higher than the actual reading. I informed OVO of this and apparently despite having no knowledge that the changeover was taking place it was my fault they had changed over on an estimate as I hadn’t provided a reading (another OVO minus point – they don’t read meters EVER). I argued that their reading was wrong -they refused to change it – I refused to pay the bill.
Today I received a letter from a collection agency -on calling them they again said it was my responsibility to give them a reading (despite having no knowledge of the changeover happening) it turns out EDF have started my account based on OVOs estimated readings so they have basically ripped EDF out of hundreds of pounds by ridiculously overestimating the readings.
Never never use them – absolutely incompetent service and will rip you off at every opportunity.
Awful!
I even had an incorrect bill from them that at first they denied but then apologized for it.