OVO Issue - Any Advice Welcome

jonahbroadurst

Hi all - new to the forums but just after some advice. Did our first switch of energy supplier that didn't involve a house move - and its been a bit of a pain! Thought it best to break down the issues below - hoping someone may have gone through this pain as well!!

• We are with OVO - but was set to switch (no issues with OVO at that point - simply wanted to save money!) on 11th Jan. We had been with OVO since Dec 2018 and they installed 2nd Gen Smart Meters early in 2019
  
  
• Our gas supply went on 1st Jan so lost all heating - initially believed it was boiler fault as no clear issues with the 2nd gen smart meter but British Gas callout (at cost of £60) identified the issue was with the supply on 3rd Jan. Only way to contact OVO at that point was via twitter - but were unable to send anyone out at that point
  
  
• OVO got a callout from SMS meter repair on 4th Jan and they installed a meter, but it was PAYG not a credit meter and left me with £10 credit (this went pretty quickly as was heating up a house from 10C). The engineer advised the supply stopped at 2 seconds past midnight on 1st Jan - which is odd as it suggests some sort of software error
  
  
• Tried to get a replacement for a credit meter and was advised one would be put in the next day - but this SMS engineer advised they couldn't install a credit meter as we had a 2nd Gen Elec Meter, which are incompatible with the 1st Gen meters that SMS were contracted to install - he kindly topped up a further £10
  
  
• We then received two top up cards from both SSE and boost energy -  no idea which to use and neither boost or OVO were much help - both claiming that they had no control over our gas supply and to speak to the other
  
  
• At this point, we also discovered our new supplier was unable to take us on as we had a PAYG meter - so our switch had to be cancelled and we had to rearrange once we had a credit meter in place. So I was stuck with a supplier I wished to leave through no fault of my own.
  
  
• We finally got a Smart Meter installed in week beginning 12th Jan and supply was back - we will finally be switching supplier on 27th Jan (for electricity) and 2nd Feb (for gas)
  

This has left me out of pocket as the monthly direct debit for the rearranged switch to a new supplier was £18 a month higher than my initial offer pre Christmas. So £192 worse off over the next 12 months. On top of that, I was without heating for 3.5 days (luckily we got our 2 and 4 year old out to grandparents quickly) was really poorly dealt with being passed around departments and I'm still paying out of contract rates for gas and electric to OVO

I've gone through the OVO complaints process and they have offered to credit my account with £60 (for the supply cut off only it seems). They have advised they cannot take into account the fact I am paying more for my new supplier than initially offered - but again, not my fault the meter they installed in 2019 failed. They are going away to review again - but after that it would go to the ombudsman (OVO have advised that the offer they have made of £60 is based on ombudsman guidance.

I was expecting far closer to the £192 at least in compensation - is it worth pursuing this with the ombudsman or not? Or do I just chalk it up as bad luck - I'm unsure if the ombudsman would follow guidelines or take into account the delayed switch - which is my main gripe.

Thanks for any advice!

Gerry1

Ah, the wonderful benefits of smart meters that can cut you off...

jonahbroadurst

a reasonably common issue I take it?

jonahbroadurst

just giving this a bump - hoping someone may be able to help