Bad advice from ovo regarding drive tariff - cost me money - is there anything I can do*

woolythoughts

I'll try to summarise the issue using bullet points so I don't end up with a long winded story that bores people to death.  

Background is I've taken a fix above the market rate to protect myself for two years as we are high users of energy.   15000kwH of electricity and 11000 kpH gas.  We also have 8000kwH solar panels.

1. Planned to get an electric vehicle so phoned up to ask what was involved.  WAs told that I needed to get a compatible charger and once installed, one of their engineers would come out to get the meter talking to the charger.

2. Arranged to get one of the two models they dealt with installed which was about £500 more than I could have got one installed for but I was ok with that since it would enable me to get the car rate

3. Phone up once I had an install date and asked to book said engineer.  Lady on the phone was clueless but did her best to find out.  After about 45 minutes on and off to different departments she said it should just work once its installed, that's what our technical department are telling me.  So get it installed and if it doesn't work call us back

4. Got it installed - it worked but at the household rate so I called them back.  WAs told that in order to get the drive tariff I had to pay £60 exit fee from my current tariff and I can only fix for one year.  I was a bit shocked so terminated the call to think.

5. Called back an hour later and got a helpful person.  Explained all the above and that if I had known about having to change the tariff, I would have gotten any old charger installed which would have been £500 cheaper.  I was happy to move tariffs but only if I could fix it for the two years.  She took all the info and raised a complaint and assured me someone would be back within five working days.  These expired yesterday.

6. Called back this morning and spoke to someone in the "Advanced Resolutions Department" and went through all of the above again.  Turns out:
- to go onto the drive tariff you have to have a two rate meter
- I only have a one rate meter and they can't replace the meter as its working 
- even if they could manage to get permission to replace it, they are unlikely to be able to fix the tariff for two years
- she's going to go away and see if there is any good will they can offer but I might be better seeing if another company could help

Frankly I'm highly annoyed and am anticipating some insulting £50 off my bill (when we're paying £632 a month) as a gesture.  Is there anything I can do to take this further as I've only followed their instructions so far.

MWT

The advice you have been given, as you have described it, is a bit confused in places but essentially not wrong...

It sounds like your first conversation was in regards to the 'Anytime' smart charging option that can go with their 'Drive' tariff.

That does require one of two specific chargers and does require that once installed, your smart meter is changed to a two-rate meter.

The site visit probably has more to do with ensuring the charger is set up correctly as the smart meter can be changed to a 2 rate meter remotely.

So you have the correct charger installed to take advantage of the lowest price EV tariff they offer and any smart meter can be made into a 2 rate meter without being changed as long as your supplier has proper access to it...

The part that seems to have been missed is that you would have to change tariff to get the EV pricing and I'm somewhat surprised that wasn't obvious during the first call you had...

I am not aware of any supplier offering an EV tariff that has a fix for more than one year, so that isn't something you can do much about.

Which smart meter do you have and are OVO currently properly retrieving half-hour data from it?

woolythoughts

I believe its a SMETS 1 meter as we were early adopters and yes we are getting half hour data read.

The woman in the advance resolutions department seemed very certain that I had to have my meter changed.

Trust me, I'm not stupid and it was not at all clear from any conversation up to last week that the tariff had to change.  It was described more as an add on to an existing tariff

MWT

Then there should be nothing stopping you from moving onto the Drive + Anytime tariff as long as the OVO smart metering team can change the meter to use 2 rates which is something they should be able to do without problems, but may take a little work to get through to the correct team.

You cannot get a 2 year fix though.

woolythoughts

Thanks - I just went through the motions on the ovo website and for to the bit where it says does your Smets 1 meter have "SECURE" written on the front of it.

When I clicked yes, it said it can't be added yet but they do have a specialist drive tariff which I need to call them about.  I suspect I'd only end up back where I am now!

Petriix

It's probably not much help now but... I have found that all the imitations of Octopus Go have some serious catches like extortionate peak rates, forcing you to take an expensive gas fix and/or extremely high exit fees. I'd highly recommend just going with Octopus Go (or Go Faster/Intelligent). You get £50 credit for using a referral code and there's no exit fees.

woolythoughts

Petriix said:

It's probably not much help now but... I have found that all the imitations of Octopus Go have some serious catches like extortionate peak rates, forcing you to take an expensive gas fix and/or extremely high exit fees. I'd highly recommend just going with Octopus Go (or Go Faster/Intelligent). You get £50 credit for using a referral code and there's no exit fees.

Except if you want to switch to them you have to phone them up as they are telling you not to!  

MWT

woolythoughts said:

Petriix said:

It's probably not much help now but... I have found that all the imitations of Octopus Go have some serious catches like extortionate peak rates, forcing you to take an expensive gas fix and/or extremely high exit fees. I'd highly recommend just going with Octopus Go (or Go Faster/Intelligent). You get £50 credit for using a referral code and there's no exit fees.

Except if you want to switch to them you have to phone them up as they are telling you not to!  

Make the call, they want to make sure you understand what you are doing , as you will initially switch onto a more expensive tariff while they get access to your smart meter and they don't want people doing that and then complaining the price went up.

I've been at Octopus for several years now and while they are not perfect, they are so much better with the innovative tariffs than the others that I've never regretted it...

Petriix

woolythoughts said:

Petriix said:

It's probably not much help now but... I have found that all the imitations of Octopus Go have some serious catches like extortionate peak rates, forcing you to take an expensive gas fix and/or extremely high exit fees. I'd highly recommend just going with Octopus Go (or Go Faster/Intelligent). You get £50 credit for using a referral code and there's no exit fees.

Except if you want to switch to them you have to phone them up as they are telling you not to!  

I get that some people are anxious about making telephone calls. I actually have a bit of a pathological aversion to picking up the phone if it's at all possible to achieve my desired outcome in another way. However, in this particular case, it's the only path to resolution and it's well worth the effort.

MWT

Which car do you have?

If it is compatible with the Octopus 'Intelligent' tariff then that would give you the closest match to the OVO 'Anytime' product.

Otherwise 'Go' & 'Go Faster' still remain available for now.

woolythoughts

MWT said:

Which car do you have?

If it is compatible with the Octopus 'Intelligent' tariff then that would give you the closest match to the OVO 'Anytime' product.

Otherwise 'Go' & 'Go Faster' still remain available for now.

BMW I3 120 AmH (2022 plate) 
Ohme pro charger port

I've actually spoken to Octopus and their tariff seems to be ok.  And actually cheaper than OVO.  Its just giving up the 2 year fix.

I'd fixed at 39p kWH for electricity and 11p for gas which I know is expensive but I was happy to have the security of knowing my top line for the next two years.  Even though the octopus tariff is cheaper (35.78p and 7.48p respectively) I worry about what happens Next June when the fix ends.