Tycoon’s energy firm Ovo is blasted for poor service

Ovo boss Stephen Fitzpatrick has been slammed by furious customers who have been left without heating, hot water and lighting in freezing temperatures. 

Energy company Boost – part of Fitzpatrick’s Ovo Group – has been inundated with hundreds of complaints from households – many of which are among the least well off and most vulnerable. 

A Facebook page with more than 5,000 members has been flooded with hundreds of irate posts and cries for help. 

Misery: Roxann Richardson, from Manchester, with her daughter Isla

Boost supplies 220,000 households with gas and electricity bought through supposedly ‘smart’ pre-payment meters. Most customers on this kind of arrangement are less well-off. 

But many are furious with Boost. They say they have scrimped and saved to pay the rising cost of heat and light, only to find their accounts are not being topped up when they try to give the company their money, due to technical faults with its app and pre-payment card.

Many complained their power was cut off after their payments were refused due to the gremlins, leaving families in the dark and freezing cold, unable to cook or heat their homes. 

Their frustrations are being compounded because they have been unable to get through to the company’s customer service department by phone or online. 

Mother-of-two Roxann Richardson, from Manchester, said her gas supply became erratic as weather conditions worsened. On one occasion, she was without heating for 30 hours. She has feared that her family’s Christmas will be ruined. Her troubles began after the signal from her meter – which is linked to a pre-payment card topped up at a local shop – became faulty. She was told she needed a new card, but this never arrived. Roxann, 34, said an engineer, supposedly sent to help, failed to turn up. 

‘We have been sitting in the car to keep warm because the house is that cold,’ she said. ‘It has been horrendous. I just sat and cried the other day.’ 

Ovo represents the bulk of Fitzpatrick’s labyrinthine business empire. It was set up in 2009 to challenge the Big Six energy suppliers and has 4.5million customers. 

Boost was launched in 2017. It caters for those who do not want to – or cannot afford to – pay for their energy using monthly direct debits. Poorer customers can be forced on to prepayment meters if they fail to pay their bills on time. 

With many areas covered with snow and ice, angry customers have turned to social media to demand answers from Fitzpatrick. Some have criticised the £27million in loans handed to directors of Ovo’s parent company last year, which were revealed by the MoS in the autumn. The firm has two directors, Fitzpatrick and another individual. 

One Boost customer wrote: ‘Christmas on the doorstep and no heating. God knows how people can top up as my payments are declined again.’ Another wrote: ‘I started the process of leaving Boost today. I’ve never experienced such a sham of a company in my lifetime.’

Watchdog Ofgem said it was unable to comment on individual cases, but confirmed that complaints have been passed on to its compliance teams. 

Under fire: The boss of Ovo, tycoon Stephen Fitzpatrick

Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: ‘In our annual survey of energy firms for 2022, Boost received just two stars for service and that seems to be reflected in the problems customers are experiencing now. It’s hugely concerning to hear reports of vulnerable customers struggling to get through to their energy supplier when much of the country is facing freezing temperatures. 

‘Energy firms must urgently up their game. This includes ensuring that their customer service departments are properly staffed and customers on traditional prepayment meters – who are more likely to be vulnerable – are able to access government support.’ 

Citizens Advice recently ranked Boost and Ovo Energy among its worst-rated suppliers. 

In autumn, Ovo hired 500 workers to deal with a sharp rise in calls from customers. This followed a controversial round of 2,000 redundancies earlier this year. He took £2million out of Ovo in 2013 to pay for a house in the Cotswolds. 

There has been heightened scrutiny of Fitzpatrick as his energy firm grew rapidly after it took over the retail giant SSE in 2020, but has so far failed to achieve consistent profits. 

The MoS previously revealed company losses totalled almost £300million over three years. MPs have quizzed Fitzpatrick about Ovo’s finances and £40million of intercompany loans. 

A Boost spokesman said: ‘A number of customers are having issues with topping up or reaching us due to high demand. 

‘We’re increasing the number of advisers we have available.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk