A top executive at a large energy firm outraged customers hurting from massive price increases by sharing images of her colleagues celebrating with free-flowing wine and cake.
Sarah Ball, a manager at Ovo, one of the country’s largest energy suppliers, tweeted images of herself and more than 30 coworkers at a celebration earlier this month.
Images depicted a table filled with many bottles and glasses of wine, another table covered in cupcakes, a specially designed cake to commemorate ‘1,000,000 Customers’ – believed to be in celebration of reaching that milestone – and a joyful and waving bunch.
One enraged reader told MailOnline: ‘Read the room!’ in reference to the post’s timing, which coincides with a period of record energy bill price increases, as customers worry about their ability to meet winter heating bills. During this crisis, it is completely inappropriate to communicate this. It gives the appearance that they are indifferent.
Ball, who represents herself as ‘head of Ovo care at OVO’, which is believed to be a senior sales and customer support position, posted: ‘Could not be more proud of what our incredible Account Management team has accomplished over the past few days.’
Outside looking in, I’m sure many would think we were crazy for running a 70+ person PI planning with 13 brand new scrum teams headed by brand new POs and scrum masters who didn’t even know their jobs until last week.
Ball, who has been with the company for nearly seven years, continued, ‘The outcome was an outstanding strategy for our next increment and the start of our ever evolving and maturing operational model. This is the magic you can create if you embrace the process and have faith in it. However, the post has angered some. A reader who spotted the post to MaliOnlne said: ‘In the midst of an energy affordability crisis, record high prices, and rising fuel poverty, we have OVO Energy – the largest energy provider in the United Kingdom – holding WINE parties for staff and then bragging about it on LinkedIn.
Ovo is a terrible corporation with an exceptional inability to read the room. This is humiliating.
Patricia Roberts from Powys, an Ovo customer, was similarly unhappy by the company’s parties, as she has difficult to receive assistance from them.
Mrs. Roberts, a grandmother, stated, “I first contacted them a month ago to protest that a loyalty discount I was given for staying with them had not been correctly applied.”
A quoted interest award at a fixed rate has not been applied to my account, nor has it been applied to the accounts of many other customers.
It was only a few pounds, but it’s the idea of it, and I think they’ve done it to other people as well – and it could really pile up if the practice is prevalent.
‘However, I’ve contacted them five times by phone or email, and each time they’ve promised to look into it, but nothing has happened. It is shocking to hear that their own customer service department is supposedly organizing parties to honor their performance.’
Paul Clark, 78, from Southend, Essex, is another angry OVO client.
He told MailOnline, “I’ve been quite irritated by them.” Our dilemma stems from the fact that we have solar panels and receive credits for the energy they generate. With SSE, everything ran well; we would register our readings and receive credit within eight days. But now that SSE customers are being transferred to OVO, I will have to wait eight weeks for the same service.
“That does not seem reasonable, so I attempted to contact them but received no response; it’s been so infuriating that I’ve also filed a complaint with the regulator.”
After that experience and with everything else going on, it does not appear to be the right time for them to throw celebrations.’
The company ignored numerous requests for comment.
In January of this year, a subsidiary of OVO advised customers to ‘hug their dogs’ and ‘eat porridge’ to remain warm. This prompted a storm of outrage.
SSE Energy Services clients were provided a link to a blog giving energy-saving recommendations, for which the business later expressed regret and embarrassment.
In 2020, Ovo Energy purchased SSE Energy Services, however the brands remain distinct.
Ovo Energy acknowledged in a statement to the BBC that the blog’s material was “poorly selected and unhelpful.”