OVO Energy - anyone else tried to use these?

OVO_Energy

Hi there Laburnum01 and Office Dibble. We’re sorry to hear this and we would really like to help turn things around for you. Please send us an email with your account number to socialmedia@ovoenergy.com and we’ll be happy to look into this. Thanks, OVO

SnakeDoctor_2

I'm guessing that no one at OVO understands these new-fangled meters!

SnakeDoctor wrote: »

At the end of July OVO had Smart Meters installed at my house. The engineer told me that I could get the total kWh used by pressing the 9 button. When I asked him about my Economy 7 he referred me to OVO. When I contacted OVO they told me that I could get the total kWh used for both Day and Night by pressing the 6 button but didn't tell me which figures to use.

OVO kept referring me to the In Home Device (IHD) and sent me multiple copies of the useless User Guide.

I have emailed OVO numerous times asking them to tell me exactly which figures on the Meter will give me the information that I need; and what figures on the IHD Menu > History > Electricity > kWh > Month actually are, but they have decided to ignore my emails.

The Tariff figures on the IHD are also wrong but I’m not interested in using the IHD to calculate cost as I have a spreadsheet that does that – if I will ever be able to get cumulative kWh figures out of the meter.

Also, my MY OVO account started refusing my login attempts shortly after my not so Smart Meters were installed with error message ‘Really sorry but we're having trouble retrieving your estimated annual usage. Please try again, if the problem persists call 0800 5999 440’. As I am a new customer to OVO and I have my monthly usage figures for the last 10+ years, I am 100% sure that I can provide more accurate estimated annual usage figures than OVO can.


Does anyone out there have any documents that can explain to me what I need to do to get the figures for total electricity that has gone through the meter since it was installed, split into Day and Night usage?

savva0122

I am afraid I have had similar appalling experiences with Ovo. I changed to them in April and was persuaded to have a smart meter installed on 13th June 2014.
Since then, I have not been able to undertake any meter readings (pressing 9 on the meter doesn't give me a reading that is akin to any meter reading previous); able to have an accurate bill; able to reduce my considerable monthly payments or know exactly how much I am in credit by.
I began a conversation with them on 8th August which I have for many times been promised the issue would be sorted in 10 days, that bills would be generated and be sent to me, and that this was unusual.
It seems this is not so.
I am really fed up with this now it's been over three months so have written to them AGAIn today. It's also disappointing as I'd like to support the smaller suppliers but if this is their level of competency, I certainly will not take that risk again.
I will also certainly not be with them at the end of my contract period.
I hope the previous posters have managed to resolve their issues!

[Deleted User]

I also had a smart electricity meter installed by Ovo, about 3 weeks ago. Instantly, I was locked out of my online account, and it only fixed itself last week.

Now, I find that the meter can't actually send readings back yet, and so I'm on "billing suspension", where they keep taking my money, but can't actually generate a bill.

Coupled with that the IHD does everything EXCEPT give you a meter reading - so I still have to move furniture to get readings - I'm not best pleased.

Sandmonster

After 3 months of asking, just received this from OVO:

I’m e-mailing to follow up on your recent query over twitter about the billing issue that has affected your account and to explain it in more depth.



Recently we have experienced a billing issue where a certain amount of customers that signed up over a short time period were being billed incorrectly to a standing charge and unit rate for Gas or Electricity that was different to the rates that were agreed upon signing up. From the point that this issue was noticed all accounts affected have not had statements being produced for the supply affected – in your case only Gas statements were being stopped and Electricity statements were still being produced. In the case where customers like yourself contact us we have been individually starting billing again using the correct rates and producing up to date statements. For the incorrect rates applied to your account for the first month you have been undercharged a total of £9.41, which we won’t be asking for.



As some accounts will have been undercharged and some overcharged we as a business have been deciding how to fix this error, either by re-billing to the correct rates or asking for the difference back/crediting it back to accounts. We want to make sure we apply this fairly for all accounts and don’t put people into debt or unfairly ask for money. Ideally we want to be able to apply the fix to all affected accounts at the same time, though when customers do contact us we have been able to apply the fix on an individual basis. I understand that the issue has been on-going for a while now and that it may seem that we aren’t being pro-active in addressing this, though I want to re-assure you that we are treating this as a business priority.



At this point we have not come to a final decision on how we are going to implement the fix technically or how we are going to contact customers as we really want to make sure we do this the right way. Affected accounts will be contacted as soon as we have decided the best course of action and we are working hard to make this as soon as possible. Going forward with your account you can give readings on the 21st of each month or shortly before and are now being charged the correct rates agreed for both Gas and Electricity.



I hope this has helped and I do apologise that you have been affected by this issue. If you have any questions or want to discuss further you can contact me by replying to feedback@ovoenergy.com or by calling 0800 408 6699 / 01285 771 870.

The MSE Cheap energy club [http://www.msetool.co.uk/redirect/energy_homepage] is now saying I can save more than the £60 penalty so I may switch to the co-op...

mike800966_2

We have been with Ovo for about 18 months, In Jan '14 I renewed on fixed price for another 12 months. apart from issues with the website all seemed ok until in August this year they emailed and offered us Smart meters. They were installed as arranged but since then its all gone wrong and although the Customer Service people are very polite and friendly, nothing seems to happen. You don't get callbacks as promised, you don't get email responses and worst of all since you now have a smart meter, you cannot post your own readings to the website. The pretty booklet that comes with it only applies to prepay customers, the credit version is still not available.
I rang on Saturday and was promised a callback and response today (the Smart Team don't work Saturdays) No response today. After 52mins on the phone this afternoon I am assured that they are getting readings from our meters and I have now been told how to wake up the meters and get some sort of reading ( Press B, 9, and its the first number it displays- the rest is for other purposes).
The IHD has never shown anything useful, no tariff or usage or anything and only shows electric. They now suggest that although we do have two meters its because the gas meter is outside and the signal can't get through the brick wall- didn't the fitter notice that then? So the IHD is again switched off- its just a waste of electric leaving it on and we will perhaps try it again next month or so.
They say the problem is "Industry Data bases" but I suspect its more internal, perhaps something like getting there own computer to put the data onto the correct accounts.

To make matters worse I now understand that these meters might only be readable by the company that arranges them, if you want to switch then you may well have to go back to reading them yourself and submitting readings to the new company.
Keep the chair and the torch handy!
What a mess
Mike

ds123

I signed up with these guys 5 months ago, I'm still waiting for my smart pay as you go meter to be fitted, it's a joke. Only plus side was they are cheaper then E.ON, they cost me an arm and leg. :eek:

soupdragon10

I switched last month and so far so good, customer services polite and helpful which is a change from my previous supplier npower whose customer service was appalling. Fingers crossed I don't have to have a 'smart meter' until they iron out the teething troubles.

thegurk

billbennett wrote: »

I also had a smart electricity meter installed by Ovo, about 3 weeks ago. Instantly, I was locked out of my online account, and it only fixed itself last week.

Now, I find that the meter can't actually send readings back yet, and so I'm on "billing suspension", where they keep taking my money, but can't actually generate a bill.

Coupled with that the IHD does everything EXCEPT give you a meter reading - so I still have to move furniture to get readings - I'm not best pleased.

I'm in the same boat, currently sitting with £750 in my account waiting to make a payment, I've emailed them twice because I'm not happy that this amount of money is sitting in credit. Smart meter installed since August .. Still taking my DD as was set up previous to smart meter installation. Have been with ovo for a few years and was very happy until now !!

johnmd50

Previously delighted with Ovo, Until I got Renewal notification. First, found rates quoted in email different from Web site, representative advised there had been price increase the day renewal sent out. Have since dmailed three times over last two weeks with queries, and apart from usual Auto Reply, no answers. Tried telephoning yesterday, and waited 30 minutes, with message every 5 minutes advising I jog over to the web site. Ovo have now joined the ranks of all the others who simply don't care about the customer now the have a big enough customer base to make a lot of money.