Charge Anytime and Ohme integration update: important information for our customers

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean by the fact that I “won’t get a 100% guaranteed perfect experience every time” as this doesn’t provide any reassurance any whatsoever?.

I note from your profile that you don’t own an EV yourself so presume you’re not talking from experience

Profiles don’t always tell the full story… What I do have is experience on the Forum (4.5 years, 8,289+ contributions) where I’ve talked to a ton of EV owners and gained their insights - those have become part of my own knowledge, combined with what the Charge Anytime team themselves have told me.

The main limitation with Mercedes right now is that OVO has to set the charge limit to 50% between sessions and then raise it up to your preferred limit during active charging - it’s currently the only way to make a Mercedes EV start/stop the charging.

Other than that, it should work if you let it do its thing.

​@EQA2024Owner welcome to the Forum. I’ve added an EV badge to your profile so that other Forum members can recognise you 😁.

I can see you are aware of the recent Ohme news, and I just want to link you this Forum article about it in case you haven’t seen it:

On top of ​@Blastoise186’s helpful information RE using Charge Anytime through the mercedes itself, you can find out some more info and user experiences in this previous Forum post:

Hope this helps, and sorry that this isn’t ideal.

Rather than share links to other forum posts, and sending customers down a spiralling rabbit hole to research numerous comments and speculation, it would be preferable if OVO simply shared clear and simple instructions with customers in respect of each make of EV that’s has now been affected by its decision.

Given the extent of this issue do OVO have any such plans to provide this information - rather than the “one size fits all” details that were emailed a couple of days ago?

I don’t really want to get deep into the weeds about that matter. I will say this much however…

If one side of an integration doesn’t make required changes to their code to enable the integration to keep working, it will inevitably die eventually. Building this stuff isn’t just about making it work in the first place - it requires regular code maintenance to ensure it continues to work in the long run. Ohme didn’t seem to do that and got left behind...

I’ve received the same email - do I take it you started your fixed contract in March? Seems a really underhand way to go about things to waive the exit fee but back date you to the variable rate and charge you for extra - my fixed tariff was from February so potentially worse

OVO you have previously confirmed you will waive Fixed Rate exit fees, can you also confirm (as per mentioned by other users) that you will not be back dating any billing once transferred back to variable tariff…. this would be the final straw if I’m then having to waste my time and effort in ensuring that any final billing is correct!

I do not have a compatible vehicle so will be looking to tfer to another supplier. My current fixed tariff ends this September. I dont currently spend too much on charging per month, so wouldn’t impact me too much anyway if had to hang around for a few months or leave 53 days before this ends anyway just to aviod any further hassles.

I have only been using Ohme 14 months and had installation all done by yourselves, this was all tbf a great experience. Its a real shame that you are not considering the impact to customers this will have and have not remediated this for at least in short term.  You clearly dont seem to care about the costs to yourselves this will have when you loose 1000’s of customers.

Afternoon,

While monitoring this thread, I’ve noticed some comments about the process of switching suppliers without paying exit fees, so I wanted to clarify a few things.

For customers on tariffs with exit fees who can’t connect to Charge Anytime via their vehicle and wish to switch to another supplier, we’re moving them onto a Standard Variable tariff with no exit fees. This will allow them to switch away without being charged an exit fee.

To confirm, our process is not to backdate the prices of this variable tariff. You’ll only pay our variable prices from the date you agree to move onto this tariff. If you think your prices have been backdated, please let me know, and I can investigate this further for you.

Bradley, would you please address the above points?

It's appalling. They should give at least 3 months notice, so it sounds like OVO and Ohme have fallen out big time.

When I acquired my charger and EV two years ago, OVO said both were compatible. Now OVO say my 2023 Q8 etron isn't, as only models from 2024 onwards are. Why would this be?

Where OVO have installed Ohme’s then why don’t OVO come to an agreement with Hypervolt to get all those replaced at a significant discount. Help’s OVO and help’s Hypervolt. 

More importantly for those customers who’ve had the rug pulled out from them, gives another option rather than direct EV integration or leaving OVO.

I See Ohme suggest moving to Octopus or E.ON. You have to wonder how long it will be before those suppliers standardise integration protocols.

It’s probably worth mentioning that just because OVO and/or folks on the OVO Forum may have recommended particular Chargers, it’s arguably not the same as saying you must buy that particular Charger - there were always others available.

Now that’s a pretty sweet suggestion. I can’t promise it’ll happen, but what I can promise is that I’ll make sure the Forum Moderators get to see it - give me a few minutes and I’ll fling this idea their way.

If both OVO and Hypervolt like the idea, then theoretically at least… It’s not completely beyond the realm of possibility...

What a set of utter jokers Ovo are. I am in the situation I got the Ohme Pro 18 months ago because it worked specifically with Ovo. My wife’s Jeep Avenger is not compatible now with this shambles but my Tesla is. So I have no choice and have to move - I have been with. Ovo did years but this is an absolute joke. If I can get a free release from a fix they agreed with Charge Anytime which now won’t work then it’s a direct complaint to the ombudsman 

Ovo deserve an absolute kicking for this 

Unfortunately due to this a great many people may have to leave. I read about one chap who had an Ohme installed at the recommendation of OVO only to get this update within weeks.

Alternatives exist for example…

***Removed by Moderator***

Referral/affiliate links aren’t allowed on the Forum. I’d suggest you edit that out before the Forum Moderators catch it and remove it themselves.

Blame the spammers and adbots who abuse that stuff like crazy!

 Nice to see that Ovo can’t take criticism either - Thin skinned and incompetent neither is a good look. It’s almost as if they have too many people in Charge Anytime and wanted to contrive a result …. Verdict useless 

Have never used the charge anytime app from early on as it either never worked or didn’t charge good enough - absolutely useless and Ohme’s app whilst not great always worked but now no chance I would migrate to using CA app so will be of. And thanks Ovo for 16 years and being told to effectively FO 

Let’s break this down - 

Firstly, we're sorry if you've heard about what's happening with your charger and Charge Anytime from Ohme before us. That was never the plan - we’d planned for you to hear it from us first.

in other words Ohme dropped us in it because our comms are so bad …..

We’ve recently updated the technology behind Charge Anytime. This is so we can keep making improvements and create new products that reward customers for driving EVs. Ohme hasn’t integrated with this technology. That means that from 15 July 2025, Ohme chargers won’t be able to connect to Charge Anytime.

So basically our IT guys can’t make a system work with Ohme that every other EV energy provider can….

If you have a compatible vehicle, we really hope you’ll follow the steps in our email to connect via your EV. Connecting via your EV shouldn't be any less reliable than connecting via your charger. You’ll then use the Charge Anytime app to manage all of your charging. 

But I would not hold my breath and if it doesn’t connect don’t worry we will just blame you…..

If you don’t have a compatible vehicle, we’ll be sad to see you go, but understand that you may want to switch suppliers so that you can continue to benefit from a lower smart charging rate elsewhere. If you’re on a fixed tariff with exit fees, please contact our team who can waive these for you. Please note, exit fees can only be waived if you don’t have a compatible vehicle.

Finally thanks for nothing and you are in the 25% we don’t give a fig about bye….

truly awful customer service but maybe it’s not just Bradley on ‘Energy Saving Mode’

Absolutely and it does make you think this may have been part of the agenda from day one - I spoke to someone at Octopus yesterday and they could not stop laughing 

It will never happen unless the appalling customer fallout becomes a business car crash issue for them  

All valid ideas shared on the Forum are welcome. However, for me personally, it felt like a valid suggestion and we have ways of feeding those back to OVO. I’ve already triggered that and it’s waiting for a moderator to pick it up. If they like the idea as well, they’ve got ways to get eyes on it.

It’s been sent to the Forum backstage in a way that prevents it getting lost - we’re pretty good at keeping track of them once we’ve done that. The backstage is hidden from public view, but we sometimes brainstorm ideas, draft posts/blogs and prepare our responses there before we make them public - it also proves useful for us to sometimes chat between ourselves to get help from other volunteers or the moderators if one of us gets stuck. Useful trick to avoid jamming up public discussions...

​@Bradley_OVO I’d be grateful if you can help with 2 quick points.  I have gone through the process of connecting car to Ovo Charge Anytime. Things seem to be connected.  But in the Ohme app, do I unpair my car, or leave it paired? Second in the Ohme App, the instructions say nothing about the tariff selection. It still shows Anytime. Should that be deactivated? If so, how?   

On the more general point of Ovo actually preventing us from using the Ovo to Ohme charger link, I want to register my huge frustration.  This seems like a massive own goal.  I am curious as to the background, and I can only assume you’re picking up bigger commissions from the other charger companies you have stayed with. I’d pass onto your partnership and marketing colleagues that rarely is a short term play like that going to work, as you are building a reputation for wooing customers with a deal, then hacking them off hugely.  I am in marketing and I see it all the time. Huge mistake. Short termism. Bad business. In an environment when so many people who could choose EVs, they  don’t because of this compatibility and complexity nonsense, you could have positioned yourself as being in this to help people. Instead you’ve scored an own goal.

The safest option is to delete and rebuild your Ohme account from scratch if you haven’t done this already - this will ensure the former integration with Charge Anytime is properly disabled and won’t interfere with anything going forwards. You can then just set the tariff up manually in the Ohme app.

Once that’s done, I’d suggest you only connect the EV purely to the Charge Anytime app and leave the integration between the EV and Ohme disabled. If you do have both connected, make sure scheduling is done purely via the CA app to avoid clashes.

You guys at Ovo must have drank too much of your own Kool Aid?

‘It’s probably worth mentioning that just because OVO and/or folks on the OVO Forum may have recommendedparticular Chargers, it’s arguably not the same as saying you must buy that particular Charger - there were always others available.’

So let’s look at that - ‘Just because Ovo may have recommended’ - This is confusing area and what now you are saying hey ask us but don’t blame us when Ovo act like a capricious fool - Reinforces what a joke set up this is 

Thanks so much ​@Blastoise186 that’s all very clear.