Eon "smart" pp meter not accepting top ups

Arthur_Ear

I've almost used up my £20 emergency credit and EON won't accept online payments.......and it's cold!!
I see I can get a voucher at the post office, what do I need to do that?

System

Arthur_Ear wrote: »

I've almost used up my £20 emergency credit and EON won't accept online payments.......and it's cold!!
I see I can get a voucher at the post office, what do I need to do that?

Have you contacted E.oN for advice. You might get a faster response.

House_Martin

Arthur_Ear wrote: »

I've almost used up my £20 emergency credit and EON won't accept online payments.......and it's cold!!
I see I can get a voucher at the post office, what do I need to do that?

If you are using Eons new Secure Liberty prepayment meters there should be a very long number on that voucher to imput via the keypad.
Be aware it could be an extremely long number as long as 40 digits or more and it has to be imputted at the correct speed, not too fast, not too slow or it will fail.Make one mistake or pause too long and you have to start again.Just try inputting 40 digits or more crouched down in the corner of the pantry with a torch in your mouth with the meter near the floor.Abysmal design. Wrap up well with an overcoat on if the meter is outside, you could be there for some time !
Secure Liberty meters are very user unfriendly in the extreme, but Eon never considered that when they bought these cut price rubbish meters to foist on an unsuspected public
Anyone elderly or infirm or with poor eyesight has no chance of a manual top-up when an auto top-up fails.
My advice is to switch supplier or ask Eon to change the meter to rid yourself of Eons bad choice of a smart prepay to save themselves a few quid.This is the only way you will get shut of this meter.
Only a few smaller suppliers like Ovo ,Utilita have been fooled enough to use this meter, I m surprised that one of the respected big 6 was daft enough to buy these cut price meters.
They won t be putting one of these meters in my property thats for sure

Arthur_Ear

House Martin, thanks, I've never bought one of these tokens before, I presume I don't need anything but money to buy one and all vouchers will work on all meters?
I agree with just about everything you said about the meters, the portable smart meter was absolute rubbish and went in the bin shortly after it arrived in the post, it's costing me a small fortune to heat a 1 bedroom flat and if I had any faith in any of the energy suppliers, I would change today. Sadly, over the last few years I've become completely disillusioned with the ethics and tactics of suppliers and feel that changing supplier would make little difference.

House_Martin

Arthur_Ear wrote: »

House Martin, thanks, I've never bought one of these tokens before, I presume I don't need anything but money to buy one and all vouchers will work on all meters?
I agree with just about everything you said about the meters, the portable smart meter was absolute rubbish and went in the bin shortly after it arrived in the post, it's costing me a small fortune to heat a 1 bedroom flat and if I had any faith in any of the energy suppliers, I would change today. Sadly, over the last few years I've become completely disillusioned with the ethics and tactics of suppliers and feel that changing supplier would make little difference.

I have just checked with Ovos website who give instructions on a manual top up if the smart meter does not communicate with an auto top up.They have changed the numbers to tap in to a 20 digit code, ( it used to be as long as 60 ! but it is a long winded affair and I ran out of patience trying to understand it lol.
Ideally you would be much better off on a credit meter on the best tariffs you can find on a one year fixed deal tariff..You could be as much as 25% better off.
I presume Eon now use the same set-up. Find the instructions online.
I googled "Ovo smart meter manual top up advice "to get their instructions

Arthur_Ear

Thanks again, Ovo did seem to be the least crooked of all the suppliers when I checked for my Dad after EDF were giving him a hard time... so I'll look into it again for myself.......and I'll have to take a walk up to the post office and stand in a long queue so I can top up my "smart" meter.......it's laughable!

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Morning Arthur Ear,

It may be worth just giving us a ring first, as we're going to need to understand what's going wrong with the online top up for you.

You can also buy vouchers from any Post Office or retail outlets offering ePay, as you know.

But I would say to call, if you can.

I can't post the number on here, but if you look on the website, you'll see it, or email me and I'll send it to you.

Thank you

Helena

Arthur_Ear

Hi Helena, I've literally just got off the phone with one of your advisers. I tried the voucher method and looked up the nearest shops that deal with them from the EON website. Neither shop, (one a PO), had a clue what I was talking about. I'm guessing that's because anyone with a Smart PAYG meter will be using online payments and not vouchers.
The EON rep I spoke to on the phone thinks that my particular problem may be caused at EONs end by the system "tripping over" my bank details with them being constantly used and she advised me to delete the card details and re-enter them tomorrow. There's no point in doing it now because, as I had tried to pay online more than 5 times and thus "locked out", (only 5 payments per day, per account) it won't register.
I'm not having to sleep with my socks on tonight though as EON have added an extra £20 limit to my emergency which will see me through until tomorrow when, all going well, recycling my cards details will sort out the problem and I can continue to pay online.
It's a bit of a pain.......... but pales into insignificance compared to the worrying expense of energy bills in general at the moment.