[luckys]

OP said "Ovo Energy made a clerical error and sent me a bill, leading to a dispute." I don't see what a company in that situation hopes they can accomplish without a contract for providing the service. Even if they knew OP's meter number.

[nevercat]

> I don't see what a company in that situation hopes they can accomplish

If you replace the word "company" in your sentence with "employee", do you come to a different conclusion?

A "company" is merely an amalgamation of the employees under it. When it comes to customer service you're often left feeling the impact of individual employees and the motivators that influence them. For example, metrics about times spent on calls, number of tickets worked on, new accounts created, resolutions that end in the company's favour etc.

You're absolutely right that Ovo energy has no legal basis to charge money to OP, and he would very likely win his dispute. But the _employee_ gets the ticket put in front of them and is heavily incentivised to close the ticket quickly and in the company's favour. The employee won't be the one going to court, and might not even be the person who picks the ticket up next when OP indignantly responds.

So if OP's meter number is as easily accessible as OP's address and the question for the employee quickly comes down to either: - Update OPs bill with the "correct" meter number. Meter number now matches address, bill is now valid. Submit response and bill. Move on to next ticket.

- Update ticket with "correct" address, send bill to other address. (new addressee may pay or may make same claim as OP). Submit response and send bill. Move on to next ticket.

The support employee doesn't know which option is actually the correct one unless they spend time digging into the issue to actually solve it well. But everything in the customer support world is almost always set up to disincentivise this. The result is the employee making the quickest choice that matches with their incentives of closing ticket and the company getting money.

Whether the employee acted rightly or wrongly doesn't really matter much, they're not the ones going to court over it. They might not even end up being reprimanded.

(If you can't tell I've been through the wringer on this multiple times and finding leverage to get the customer support employees to solve your case well is increasingly a nightmare.

Sorry for the long response).

[luckys]

You make a good point. Getting decent customer/tax payer service is becoming increasingly rare in the name of metrics/efficiency/profit.

I feel fortunate I did not yet have to deal with the particular brand of madness you describe.