OVO has agreed to pay £2.37 million after Ofgem found shortcomings in how the company managed customer complaints.
Ofgem first engaged with OVO in 2023 following concerns raised by Citizens Advice Scotland’s Extra Help Unit.
The energy regulator’s investigation identified issues such as significant delays in addressing complaints, with some lasting up to 18 months.
Additionally, there were delays in implementing decisions made by the Energy Ombudsman.
As part of the settlement, OVO will pay £378,512 directly to the affected customers.
An additional £2 million will be contributed to the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme to account for consumer impact.
OVO will contact affected customers, who do not need to take further action.
Ofgem has said that Following Ofgem’s involvement, OVO has increased its resources for handling complaints, improved its complaints management system, and enhanced case management oversight.
Jacqui Gehrmann, Deputy Director of retail compliance at Ofgem, said: “Energy is an essential service. When things go wrong, it can cause consumers a lot of distress.
“In this case, OVO failed to adequately protect and respond to their customers when it was needed most. This is not acceptable.
“Consumers deserve a clear and timely response when they make a complaint, and that’s why we stepped in quickly when we identified that OVO’s performance was falling below acceptable standards.”
An OVO spokesperson told Energy Live News: “At OVO we want to make sure we give our customers the best experience we can at every turn.
“We’re now third in the Citizen Advice energy supplier rankings for service.
“However, we recognise that a particular group of our customers in 2023 waited longer than we’d like for a resolution and were overdue a response from us, so we’ve sent them a letter of apology and compensation to help.”
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