Products dont work + aggressive and unhelpful customer support
You can check on their website that the Ivie Bud meter works at your home. Turns out it doesn't work. Ivie blamed everyone bar themselves. Argued like mad rather than provide any form of assistance or refund. Had to threaten legal action to get them to do anything. Nasty people to deal with. Shout out to 'Alex' at the Ivie team, would wouldn't recognise a customer if he fell over one. Definitely avoid this company - not a recommended experience.
AND A COMMENT ON IVIE'S DISHONEST REPLY
Your web site confirmed that the meter at my address would work fine with the Ivie Bud. It didn't. It's down to Ivie to organise with the energy suppliers you work with the interface with the meter - it has nothing to do with your customers. As established, the unit failed within the 12 month warranty period. I contacted you and you refused to do anything whatsoever to help. It was only when I threatened to take you the the small claims court that you made any progress, because yes third parties including the Ombudsman were indeed holding you to account! As you correctly state, this is an excellent result for me as a customer, however it was brought about entirely buy my threats of legal action to get you to address your legal responsibilities. Shame on you for your dishonesty but at least everyone gets to see your deluded response and the type of company you are when it comes to dealing with customers. BUYER BEWARE!!!
Reply from ivie
Good Morning,
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review. We are very sorry that you feel on this occasion that you did not receive the customer service you would expect. We will clarify a few points in the interest of transparency and to assist with your understanding of our responses on this occasion.
Like all products and services, the ivie Bud comes with a warranty period, which you the customer agree to in the T's and C's signed at the time of purchase. You contacted us over a year after purchase, having never got in touch previously to highlight any issues, and asked for a refund for your ivie Bud.
We asked the appropriate questions for a refund request outside of warranty, to establish whether the display had any kind of fault or if we had acted in error in any way. It was established from your answers that the display was not faulty, but that there was an issue with the application of the tariff information on your smart meters on the wall. This is a process managed by your energy supplier, and we repeatedly explained this, whilst also offering to escalate your case with your energy supplier directly in the hopes of a swift resolution.
Your threats of legal action and emails from the ombudsman unfortunately meant that we had to go back and forth with you more than we would have liked, as your claims that third parties were holding us accountable had to be evidenced and understood before we could address them.
You agreed to give us until the end of February to resolve the problem with your energy supplier, after which you would go to the small claims court. We took this seriously and escalated directly with your energy supplier at a senior level to ask for movement on your case.
We are aware (via your energy supplier) that based on the above, they have now contacted you to apologize, admit fault for the tariff issues you were having and have themselves refunded you in full for the purchase of the ivie Bud.
This is an excellent result for you as a customer, brought about by our dedicated and efficient customer service and willingness to take action to try and resolve issues for consumers even when the ivie Bud is not at fault. The lengthy explanation that you received from your energy supplier, and the refund, would not have happened without our intervention and we are very sorry that you have felt the need to omit the above from your review.
Thanks,
The Team at ivie