Can't get a refund due to faulty smart meter?

I have never called OVO to try to resolve any problem. My first point of contact with them has always been the Messenger option on OVO’s Facebook page. It is not instant, BUT you do get the time, on that initial contact, to explain completely what your problem is, including the opportunity to add pictures of, for instance, your non-working smart gas meter. How do you pay for your energy? I do not understand why, if you have been told that your meter has not been sending readings for 2 years, they have not suggested that it needs replacing. Have you been able to use gas for all of this time? Have you been billed for that use?

Hi, 

Thanks for reply, I'll try that this morning. Our payments have always came off direct debit, so the past 2 years must be estimated usage. We have no issues receiving our gas supply whatsoever.

Regards

I would assume then that your gas bill has been estimated for that time. If that was done to me, it would cost me a fortune if they used what would be the average usage for a house of our size and occupation. According to OFGEM, the typical annual gas usage for us would be 11500 kWh. My actual usage for the past year is 5610 kWh. Your bills should show if estimates have been used since your meter stopped sending data. Do you still have bills from before the meter stopped working? When they come to remove/replace your meter, in theory, the readings for the last 13 months should be stored in the meter. The new meter will start from 0000 and the closing reading from your old meter is needed to make sure that you are billed correctly up to the time of its removal. This is what my gas bill details looked like for the month my old meter was replaced with my new one. (September 2023). 

Thank you for that, tbh I don't know if it's the actual meter or the smart meter that isn't working  as a digital smart meter is installed over the gas meter, so only they can determine what us faulty. I'll check back my bills, as concerned over if they owe me a fortune or I owe them.

There is no split of balances like that for a dual fuel customer.
There’s just one balance for both and one Direct Debit for both.

(I did used to have seperate bills for each fuel, and seperate DD’s for each when I was with SSE, but that changed when it moved to OVO and now it’s all on one bill and just one payment).

Reading your post again I believe that the real issue here is that your gas smart meter is not sending data (and you havent sent any meter readings) and so you have not been being billed for any gas used  at all.

Is that correct, that you are not being billed for gas use at all?

You are now looking for a refund of your credit.

And so you have calculated yourself what you estimate you owe for gas?
I also have to ask just how you have done that when you say that the meter display is blank and so no meter reading is available?

If I’m correct and that is what you mean here then unfortunately that is never going to work, OVO are not going to accept your estimate.

OVO will not agree to a refund until they can calculate/agree what you owe for gas usage.

PS. How long has the display on the meter been broken?
Or is the display on the meter working and it’s just your In Home Device that is blank?

Reading your latest post I now believe that you are meaning that it’s the In Home Device that is blank.

Go to the gas meter itself - it will be fixed to a wall or in a box in the garden.
Can you see numbers on the display panel?

Your meter reading will usually be on the screen and will have “M3” after it, similar to this:

see also this link for ‘How to read a gas Smart Meter”

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/meter-readings

If you post a photo of the meter (preferably with the display panel on) then we can advise further. 

Thanks for replies. The display to the gas smart meter is totally blank, nothing happens pushing buttons A or B, so I can't give a reading. I have been charged every month and paid through DD, so must be estimated bills. It's over £150 every month, so should adequately cover usage and more than likely more in credit than estimated.

Reading your latest post I now believe that you are meaning that it’s the In Home Device that is blank.

Go to the gas meter itself - it will be fixed to a wall or in a box in the garden.
Can you see numbers on the display panel?

Your meter reading will usually be on the screen and will have “M3” after it, similar to this:

see also this link for ‘How to read a gas Smart Meter”

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/meter-readings

If you post a photo of the meter (preferably with the display panel on) then we can advise further. 

Sorry, not long in from work, I will take a pic of display, but shows nothing whatsoever on it.

Gas and electricity, are they from the same supplier? As Nukucad said, there is no split of balances for a dual fuel customer. If there is, I would assume that they are supplied by different companies. In that case, it won’t be possible to transfer your balance. The only way would be to request a refund from one and pay that money to another account.

Morning, both are supplied by Ovo, they have always been split bills in all the years, maybe at least 10, probably more. I used messenger to contact OVO, they said complaints will call yesterday. It's like groundhog day, I did receive a call, confirming all details, put on hold, receive a call while I'm on the call saying she cut me off while I was still on hold, waited another 30 minutes to be told lines are really busy, the same thing every time for 3 weeks. I got an email saying they are looking to see when an engineer can be arranged, I will get a response within the next 7 days. That will now go into week 4, which I think is poor service. All I want is their faulty smart meter to get repaired or replaced, my refund if still entitled to it. They are quick enough to take £205 out of my bank last night, I should have cancelled direct debits until rectified.

Thanks for the further information.

You still haven’t explained just how you are seeing ‘split billing’ with a credit for gas and a debit for electricity?
That just isn’t the way that OVO bills are laid out.
Whilst my bills do ahev a “Cost for Electricity” and a “Cost for Gas” there is not a seperate balance for each.

Were you previously an SSE customer that got transferred to OVO?
(Note for others - I’m wondering if this could be one of those ‘problem’ SSE accounts that still hasn’t been fully transferred?)

However putting that to one side for now.
If if it is your actual gas meter that has a blank display then it needs to be replaced before any refund will be issued.

No energy supplier will issue any refund when the billing is estimated.
WAnd wthout actual meter readings being in place then billing can only ever be estimated.

My best advice would be to take a step back and stop trying to get multiple things done at once, it’s just confusing things.

Do things in order, and one at once. Get one issue fixed before moving on to the next ones,

If your meter is not sending readings, and you have no dispay so cannot send your own readings, that that is your starting point.

Nothing else can be sorted out until that display/reading problem has been fixed, which means that the meter needs to be replaced before anything else that you want to happen can happen.

I suggest that you stop talking about credits/debits/refunds, because that is only confusing things.
Stick to the one thing and only the one thing - that you need the meter replacing ASAP.

Tthanks for your reply,  I don't get how you don't understand my electricity and gas are 2 different bills, do you work for Ovo? I will kindly provide evidence of a different bill every month for both gas and electricity with 2 different account numbers to the same house. I am not trying to do everything at once, think it's pretty simple tbh, give meter reading, if entitled to refund, send money. Smart meter doesn't work, fix smart, get meter reading and sort refund if entitled to, is that too much to ask?

It isn’t that we don’t understand you, it’s just that it would be very, very, unusual - and that is why we are queriying it.

You are insistent so I believe you that for some reason your particular bills are still seperate for each fuel.

Looking back through my own bills from OVO they have always been combined into one - except for the very first ones after I was moved from SSE to OVO in January 2023.
Those January 2023 bills were seperate and both said “SSE part of the OVO family” at the top.
 

Every bill that I’ve had since then has been one OVO bill for both Electricity and Gas, with one overall  balance for both fuels, and one DD payment for both fuels.

Apart from those problematic old accounts that I mentioned above I can’t think of any reason why yours should still be split billing.*
However if it is one of those problematic accounts then that could also explain some of the other problems that you are having.

PS. No I am not employed by OVO, I am one of the “Power Zero Hero” Forum Volunteers here.
Being in that group does give us some extra insights into how things operate at OVO, and extra access ‘backstage’ as it were.
*I will ask ‘backstage’ if there could be another reason for your billing being split like it is.

Ah ! ​@unhappychappy that helps enormously, you have two account numbers - one for each of gas and electric!! That’s what you meant by split bills. That is unusual but obviously not impossible. Maybe just contact the customer service and only quote the gas account number to get an engineer to replace the meter, and not even mention the other subject.

Hey ​@unhappychappy,

I'm really sorry to hear that you're having trouble with your meter and that it's affecting your refund. It’s quite rare for someone to have two account numbers, and I totally understand how that's already caused some confusion! This can sometimes happen depending on how we source supply from different providers or if you’ve switched from an older platform, which can lead to these kinds of mix-ups.

There is an easy solution, but it’s up to you if you'd like to go for it. We’d need to carry out a process similar to moving you out and then back in again. This would wipe any usage history but would allow us to combine your accounts into one. Thankfully, your two accounts may already be linked internally, so the current setup shouldn’t cause too many issues besides just having the two numbers.

As for your meter, since it’s operating and you’re not off supply, we can certainly arrange to change it out for you. Just a heads-up, you might have to wait a bit for an appointment since winter is a busy season for our engineering team. We’re also working on a project to replace meters affected by the RTS (Radio Teleswitch Service) shutdown. We’ll do our best to get you an appointment as soon as we can!

After we switch out your meter, we'll need to do a billing recalculation to ensure everything is up to date. Once that’s taken care of, we can issue your refund!

We just want to make sure everything is done right and there are no hiccups along the way. Have you heard back from the Support Team about any available appointment slots yet?

It isn’t that we don’t understand you, it’s just that it would be very, very, unusual - and that is why we are queriying it.

You are insistent so I believe you that for some reason your particular bills are still seperate for each fuel.

Looking back through my own bills from OVO they have always been combined into one - except for the very first ones after I was moved from SSE to OVO in January 2023.
Those January 2023 bills were seperate and both said “SSE part of the OVO family” at the top.
 

Every bill that I’ve had since then has been one OVO bill for both Electricity and Gas, with one overall  balance for both fuels, and one DD payment for both fuels.

 

Apart from those problematic old accounts that I mentioned above I can’t think of any reason why yours should still be split billing.*
However if it is one of those problematic accounts then that could also explain some of the other problems that you are having.

 

PS. No I am not employed by OVO, I am one of the “Power Zero Hero” Forum Volunteers here.
Being in that group does give us some extra insights into how things operate at OVO, and extra access ‘backstage’ as it were.
*I will ask ‘backstage’ if there could be another reason for your billing being split like it is.

HI, thanks for that, don't know why, but this has always been the way we've been billed  so have never queried it.

It isn’t that we don’t understand you, it’s just that it would be very, very, unusual - and that is why we are queriying it.

You are insistent so I believe you that for some reason your particular bills are still seperate for each fuel.

Looking back through my own bills from OVO they have always been combined into one - except for the very first ones after I was moved from SSE to OVO in January 2023.
Those January 2023 bills were seperate and both said “SSE part of the OVO family” at the top.
 

Every bill that I’ve had since then has been one OVO bill for both Electricity and Gas, with one overall  balance for both fuels, and one DD payment for both fuels.

 

Apart from those problematic old accounts that I mentioned above I can’t think of any reason why yours should still be split billing.*
However if it is one of those problematic accounts then that could also explain some of the other problems that you are having.

 

PS. No I am not employed by OVO, I am one of the “Power Zero Hero” Forum Volunteers here.
Being in that group does give us some extra insights into how things operate at OVO, and extra access ‘backstage’ as it were.
*I will ask ‘backstage’ if there could be another reason for your billing being split like it is.

HI, thanks for that, don't know why, but this has always been the way we've been billed  so have never queried it.

Thanks Chris, no I still haven't heard back, just concerned about the length of time this may now take.

Thanks Julia, yeah u haven't mentioned the electricity at all, just my gas account number.

Tthank you, will give anything a try tbh. If it's week 3 and I still don't have an appointment to get my smart meter fixed, scared of how long the timescale will be for all.

Hi ​@unhappychappy good morning.

Have you heard back from Support yet? Did you try using Facebook Messenger as was suggested?

I appreciate your worry hear, but there’s a chance that these issues won’t take a long time to be fixed - fingers crossed. 

Let me know how you’re getting on, hopefully we can get to the bottom of this for you soon.

HI Ben,

MMessenger are a lot quicker to respond, but they refer you back to custom service/complaints unfortunately. The last contact I had was the beginning of the week to say they would arrange a meter appointment within 7 days, but not attend with 7 days. Was going to try and research myself who does repairs and try and contact myself. Next week will be week 4, with no movement whatsoever.

Regards

Chris

Morning ​@unhappychappy, I hope you had a good weekend.

Have you had any luck getting am appointment booked in yet?

Hi Ben,

Unfortunately still nothing.

​@unhappychappy sorry to hear this. If you’ve raised a complaint then the complaint handler should be in regular contact with you.

I’d recommend emailing Support at hello@ovoenergy and requesting your complaints reference number, and ask for an update as to when you can expect to be contacted by the Complaints department.

Let us know how you get on. If you haven’t been receiving answers something must have gone wrong with the communication - it’s generally 48 working hours to hear back from Complaints.