Ovo Energy pays £8.9 million after Ofgem probe into wrong bills
The UK’s third-largest energy supplier Ovo Energy has been forced to pay £8.9 million after customers paid the wrong amount for their electricity and gas bills after being issued inaccurate statements.
The firm, number three behind British Gas and E.on Npower, was found by energy regulators Ofgem to have messed up billing statements sent to hundreds of thousands of customers, leaving some overpaying or even underpaying their heating bills.
In the worst instance, 8000 pre-payment meter customers, typically people on low incomes, overpaid after Ovo failed to move them to a new tariff.
It also sent inaccurate annual statements to 500,000 customers, meaning they lost out on the chance to switch to cheaper tariff. In total two million inaccurate documents were sent to customers by the company.
The Bristol-based firm, founded by entrepreneur Stephen Fitzpatrick, has grown quickly since it was founded a decade ago and catapulted into the Big Six after buying SSE’s retail arm last year. It has nearly five million customers.
Ovo blamed IT systems for the faults, saying they contained inaccurate information.
The firm said: “We apologise unreservedly to those affected and would like to reassure you that everyone who was overcharged has been refunded. We absorbed the costs of those who were undercharged, so we didn’t ask them for any further payment.
“We’ve always held ourselves to extremely high standards, so as soon as we discovered these issues we worked tirelessly to put in place improved systems and practices.”
The £8.9 million paid will be used to help vulnerable customers.
Ofgem director of conduct and enforcement Anthony Pygram: “Our enforcement action sends a strong message that suppliers must get basic services right for all their customers.
Ovo Energy has accepted the breaches and put processes in place to comply with the rules in future.”
Ovo made the errors because it did not pay enough attention to complying with regulations, Ofgem said. It also failed to flag up the problem and was slow to act to fix things.
