Victoria Coren Mitchell 'driven to despair' after paying Ovo 'thousands they weren't owed'

Victoria Coren Mitchell has lashed out at Ovo Energy, claiming she had paid the supplier has "thousands of pounds they were not owed". The 51-year-old took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday afternoon to share her frustration with her 707,000 followers.

She said: "I've reached the end of the road with @OvoEnergy, the most terrible service provider I've ever encountered (and I've been served in a casino by a croupier who killed someone).

"Nothing but legal action will do for them now. Sadly, we still need electricity. So I need advice." The BBC star, who is married to comedian David Mitchell, went on to share how she felt and asked her followers for advice on which supplier she should switch to.

She continued: "No company could possibly be worse than @OvoEnergy who, quite apart from the money they've wrongly taken, have driven me personally to despair.

"But I've heard @OctopusEnergy are trustworthy and communicative? Please do this poll! And/or tell me which provider you've found good," she said before putting up a poll for her readers to vote on.

One of her followers responded: "Can I recommend @ecotricity. All renewable and profits go on research and building new generators.

"A bit more expensive but hardly went up in price while everyone else was cashing in last year."

Victoria replied: "I doubt they can be more expensive than Ovo, who have taken thousands of pounds that they were not owed."

After being inundated with votes on her poll, the writer wrote: "Amazing results so far for @OctopusEnergy - more than 25,000 votes cast and *87 percent* approval rating!

"Poll is open for one more day but they do appear to be the sunny uplands. Today will be (once more) about trying to claw some of our money back from the grim vale of Ovo."

Ovo Energy responded to Victoria's complaints and said: "We're sorry about your recent experience with us. One of our senior complaint handlers has reached out via email to address this situation for you as a matter of urgency. We hope we can fully resolve this for you quickly."

Victoria has since issued a clarification, adding: "There's been a lot of press coverage and I should clarify, because some headlines are wrong: Ovo didn’t take money directly from my bank account.

"They sent big, incorrect bills, which I kept (protestingly) paying, and once I found the error, it proved *impossible* to put right."