A Glasgow student was left desperate after her pay-as-you-go meter suddenly stated she was over £300 of debt.
Viktoria Elohegyi, 37, went to top up her meter when she noticed that her meter was reading that she owed her energy company OVO more than £300. She said she regularly tops up her meter and had never noticed these charges before, leaving her baffled when they appeared out of the blue.
Viktoria immediately tried to get in touch with the energy company but faced several issues.
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She told Glasgow Live: "On November 26, I went to top up my meter with £40, thinking that would cover my emergency credit and leave me with enough left over for gas until I get paid on the eighth of the month.
"Instead, £28 went for debt and £12 for gas, zero for emergency credit. After this I've checked my meter and it said I still owe £16.53 and on the back screen gas debt remaining said £255.60.
"I went on the webchat straight away, as I knew I couldn't owe them that much. Even if the standing charge is accumulated, it would have taken over 800 days without me topping up for it to add up to that much!"
After waiting over three hours on the company's webchat, Viktoria received a message on her screen stating that OVO would now only be dealing with emergencies and so she was thrown out of the queue.
The next day she tried again and called the emergency line. An adviser told her an engineer had been out to look at her meter on October 27 and that this is where the debt was added as she had not been paying for her gas.
However, Viktoria's gas meter is inside of her home and she said she has received no visits from an engineer.
She said: "There is absolutely no way an engineer has been at my home. I spent the full day crying as I was just so stressed and confused as to how they had decided to give me this debt. I've been a customer with them for 10 years and the way they've treated me has been awful, I have already started the process to move company.
"My standing charge is £0.375 and the adviser I spoke to kept insisting that it was £0.53, when it definitely isn't.
"The way I was spoken to on the phone and the fact they had no answers or solutions was horrible - I work two jobs as well as being a full-time student so all of my spare time should be put into studying, not stressing about issues that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
"I had to borrow money to survive and to heat my home and the whole experience has been awful for my mental health. Their advisers are unprofessional with no real manners or knowledge."
After Glasgow Live got in touch with OVO for comment, Viktoria was contacted by a more senior employee at the energy company and her issue was quickly resolved.
She added: "I explained my issue and the new adviser apologised and told me I was right. I don't owe that money, and he said he will try to sort this and give me a call back.
"When he called me back he said with my next top up my debt will disappear, he also offered a direct debit payment to pay back the money I already payed for the debt and £44 extra as a compensation.
"He was very nice, helpful, and knowledgeable. It's really all I was asking for in the first place and I'm so relieved this has now been sorted. I do think without the threat of publicity I would have been stuck dealing with this for much longer."
An OVO spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry to Miss Elohegi for the time taken to resolve her case and have offered compensation for the shortfalls in service.”
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