Smart Meter - OVO

[Deleted User]

stylus360 wrote: »

Just had a new digital meter installed, even he stated he would never have a SMART meter, the amount of call outs is them is 50% of his work.

Absolute rubbish..BG have been fitting smart meters for years in my area. We have extremely few call outs to sort out and change the sim on the electric meter and I ve only seen one duff smart gas meter in the seven years BG have been fitting them. OK maybe a few don"t transmit properly but they all operate fine as meters in their own right far more reliably than the fault ridden little Ampy meter which is fitted routinely. I am talking about mk1 and 2 Landys Gyr smart electric and the Landys Gyr gas not the Liberty Secure prepay meters
More B.S. from your meter fitter as meters are ok up to 25 years

stylus360

Only stating what he told me, he had it fitted withing 10 minutes, tiny little thing.

[Deleted User]

stylus360 wrote: »

Only stating what he told me, he had it fitted withing 10 minutes, tiny little thing.

Sounds like the dreaded "Ampy " meter. Keep an eye on it..it will go blank at the drop of a hat ( or lightning anywhere near ) then the reading is lost and you can use as much lecky as you fancy , suppliers will estimate until its replaced. I have a few people who ve gone out of their way to keep their blank Ampys , not being in when a replcement meter is sent out etc

Hammer_Time

I had a phone call and an email from OVO asking me it I want a free smart meter. On their email it said I have a legal requirement to have it installed is this true? pros & cons please. My meter is about 12 years old.

amibovvered

Yes, I've just had the email too (although it didn't say anything to suggest I had to have one, just that I could apply for one if I wanted. I thought I did want one (my friend, not with OVO, has one and likes it) but this thread is making me unsure now. Are people still having problems accessing online accounts etc?

orrery

amibovvered wrote: »

Yes, I've just had the email too (although it didn't say anything to suggest I had to have one, just that I could apply for one if I wanted. I thought I did want one (my friend, not with OVO, has one and likes it) but this thread is making me unsure now. Are people still having problems accessing online accounts etc?

No, I don't - it was a short term thing during the transfer, itis just that the meter isn't worth the effort.

It is difficult to read and the remote display is a waste of space.

windup

the ovo smart meter fiasco causes various temporary glitches with logging on, billing suspension happens from the moment you get the do you want a smartmeter call which can be months before getting it. That causes growing account credits and an inability to login or manage the account.

There are problems with getting the in home device to display the correct figures, getting a post install bill, getting instructions on how to read the meter (press 9) because the ihd cant display the gas m3 amazingly, and none of the instructions tell you that you have to press 9 on the meters (which have almost unreadable quick scrolling displays) in order for you to supply a reading until the time it does it automatically etc etc.

It all resolves itself in a month or so, but the communication from beginning to end is awful, and if this thread is anything to go by, it doesn't matter how many people have problems, they don't seem bothered and won't change a single procedure to make the change smooth and inform the customer what is going on before it happens

They are starting to offer a device to plug into the router to do some advanced ihd functions (maybe it will even read the meter properly?) provided you let it do a little bit of "monitoring" and leave it powered up and plugged into the router constantly. Just like the normal ihd, there are no details anywhere on what this is, what it can do, what information it is reporting back etc, it's all far too vague and big brotherish from a customer pov

the normal ihd is bordering on useless, usb power plug design makes it difficult to stand up on a flat surface, it resets its display to a default after a few minutes so you can't monitor whats coming on or what the current power drain is by glancing, comes without the batteries mentioned in the manual (wonder where they went).

The one positive, is you don't need to supply readings ever again and you get accurate bills, once it actually starts working that is.

most of the frustrations could have been prevented with a simple list of bulletpoints about what is going to happen and when, in the you're getting a smartmeter email or something on the website perhaps. Instead I suspect everyone will be constantly calling them up to ask the same questions.

Terry98

windup wrote: »

it all resolves itself in a month or so

It was 16 weeks for me and the 'My Usage' part of my account is still completely wrong although they said they would sort it out three months ago!

windup

the estimated bill thing never seems to reset to zero either, so it's the estimated bill since the day dot, and doesn't include the £60 online don't ring us up discount in it's calculation, and the conversion factors don't match the actual bill.

atlord

Further to my previous comments re the IHD it has now got worse as I have now lost the hourly data and only get 2 days (always a Monday & Tuesday) and cumulative to date. :-(