My mum died in February and her energy supplier Ovo is refusing to return the £2,000 credit on her account. Ovo has admitted errors on her account, which date back to 2019, when a four-digit meter reading was substituted for the five-digit actual reading and used as a basis for subsequent bills. We provided meter readings and photographs, and an agent read the meter in 2021. We were assured that the account would be rectified, but that never happened and the issue is delaying probate. I’ve been told it may take up to 12 weeks to resolve. That £2,000 could have been used for mum’s funeral to give her a better send-off. The issue is causing great distress.
ZW, London
This makes painful reading. You have had to chase while coping with an inquest into your mother’s death, and ploughing through four years of energy bills. Notes scribbled on the bills by your mother suggest that she spent the last 14 months of her life, if not more, struggling to get her account recalibrated using correct meter readings. Her memos show that during repeated calls she was sometimes kept on hold for more than half an hour, and was passed fruitlessly between departments. At one point she records her distress at receiving a letter in intimidating red ink from Ovo demanding readings that she had already submitted.
