Economy 7 Meters, but want a standard tariff with Outfox

spot1034

Bungle73 said:

spot1034 said:

Bungle73 said:

I'm actually going through this right now. I inherited the house from my parents, and we've been on E7 since forever, but now I'm not sure why, as I worked out a single rate would be cheaper. I signed up with OTFM in July, but the move didn't happen until August, to fit in with the ending of my previous fix with my old supplier. I just got onto them and said I wanted to move onto the single rate and they said ok. But I've got to wait until meter is fully connected to their system, however, which for some reason takes weeks...........

That doesn't make any sense at all when all that's involved is adding two readings together and charging the total at one price.

But it takes weeks to connect to the meter.

Ah, I see, well as long as they do it eventually. However I just changed suppliers overnight, and my IHD is already showing new supplier and updated unit rates, so that didn't even take 24 hours.

Ildhund

Gerry1 said: 

I've just called Ovo and they've confirmed they can't bill a conventional E7 meter at single rate.

OK. Sorry that one of us has been misled. I was going by personal experience and hadn't initially considered that the situation might be different for non-smart meters. However, I looked it up at the OVO site and found this (revised and updated) 2019 article:
  

Although we're unable to physically change the functionality of meters right now, we can offer an Economy 7 to Single Rate plan! This means you’ll be paying the same rate for each register.

So either the documentation is wrong or the support agent wasn't aware of the possibility of charging night and day usage at the same rate. The tariffs are all available for examination here under the 'multi-rate' filter.

Scot_39

Clear as mud then it seems, however if link the two paragraphs in that updated article 

"Unfortunately, we don't currently have the functionality to change Smart Meters from Single Rate to Economy 7, or vice versa. This is something we are looking to make possible in the future and we’ll keep you posted with any further updates here on the Forum! 

Although we're unable to physically change the functionality of meters right now. We can offer an Economy 7 to Single Rate plan! This means you’ll be paying the same rate for each register."
 

You might well conclude that it refers to smart meters only.

Clear as mud.

And definitely one to get in writing so as have a record to back out if they don't comply if important to you.

Ildhund

Scot_39 said:

Clear as mud then it seems, ...

I'm not sure I agree. There are all sorts of E7 meters, but as far as the customer is concerned, it's the tariff that counts however the meter behaves. If OVO are able to apply a tariff that looks like an E7 one with the only difference being that the night and day rates are the same, then the type of meter - smart or non-smart - is immaterial. 

I suppose we won't know for certain until an OVO customer with a non-smart meter that's not out of certification tries to switch to a single-rate tariff and then comes here to tell us how it went.  

Gerry1

I agree that Ovo's E7/Single Rate info is clear as mud !

It seems to be on a forum mostly written by volunteers, so it may not be official or fully up to date.  For example, it shows the wrong E7 hours for my region.

Ovo certainly used to offer single rate with conventional E7 meters; I had that arrangement back in the day when we all changed suppliers like there was no tomorrow, as we were encouraged to do.

However, Ovo stopped offering to bill at single rate a few years ago.  It's hard to understand why, given that they don't even have to change the switchover times or add the readings together: they can just offer a two-rate tariff where both rates are the same.

It's even more confusing when they say they can can't even change a smart meter from Single Rate to E7 and vice versa.  Aren't smart meters supposed to be smart? 🙄

Gerry1

Ildhund said:

Gerry1 said: 

I've just called Ovo and they've confirmed they can't bill a conventional E7 meter at single rate.

OK. Sorry that one of us has been misled.

No need to apologise, even Ovo don't seem to understand what they're saying.

At https://forum.ovoenergy.com/my-account-140/everything-you-need-to-know-about-an-economy-7-eco-7-energy-plan-6455, Ovo say they 'don't currently have the functionality to change Smart Meters from Single Rate to Economy 7, or vice versa'.  However, on the same page they contradict themselves by saying 'We can offer an Economy 7 to Single Rate plan! This means you’ll be paying the same rate for each register'.

No wonder Ovo don't have a Crystal Mark for Plain English...

Ildhund

... on the same page they contradict themselves ...

To be fair, there is a big difference between changing a meter from A to B and changing a tariff from A to B, so no contradiction. There are lots of settings for smart meters that can be changed, mostly remotely, but SR <> E7 is clearly one that can't. And they keep telling me that while the billing system can swallow a change from E7 to SR, it chokes on SR to E7. I don't understand why it's so difficult.