Switching Energey supplier - Pitfall

Devizes2008

We were with Ovo on an excellent energy tariff, 3 years contract before the energy crisis kicked in. However, the deal eventually came to an end end we had to decide in staying or moving to a new supplier.
The only other one in question was Octopus and this because of their great tariffs for EVs. We had just acquired a new EV and decided to go with the latter because some neighbours and friends liked them too.
As a new customer they put us on a flexible tariff which is understandable but as soon as the smart meter (SMETS2 system) was on 'their system' we could go onto one of those better tariffs.
After a few weeks and not hearing from them I decided to call them about this and was told that Octopus was still not able to communicate with the smart meter.
A few more tests had to be done to try it again...
After a few hours later I was contacted via email saying that the communications problem is a industry-wide problem.
It sounded like a database problem.

Does anyone know what this problem is? Ovo didn't have any problems in receiving the 30 minutes updates by the meter, so the tech is working.

At no point I was told that switching could be a problem because we have the later gen meters.
Now, Octopus cannot even tell me how long we will be waiting and paying around the clock for the high energy prices .

How does the government and media publicise that we should all switch to better deals when this is a nightmare?

Is there really nothing I can do to help?

thankful to any good advice

[Deleted User]

Who are you speaking to at Octopus? My advice is to contact smart.help@octopus.energy

Apprise them of the fact that the meter was working perfectly before the switch. The only reason that I can think of is that Octopus is having problems sending out the bespoke security certificate to your meter. Unless there is a correctly installed security certificate, the supplier cannot access your meter. This is part of the GCHQ-level security built into the system. The meters will only respond to a request for data if the request comes from a known and trusted source.

Devizes2008

their exact words: ... it relates to the information that the national database has and the issue of trying to update its records...

[Deleted User]

Devizes2008 said:

their exact words: ... it relates to the information that the national database has and the issue of trying to update its records...

A key principle of smart metering is one meter: one supplier. It would seem that your problem has nothing to do with smart metering but it is related to the industry processes associated with switching suppliers.