How does the Warm Home Discount Pay As You Go voucher work?

I don’t run on PAYG myself. All I can suggest is you try it both ways. One will work, the other might not.

But at the end of the day… Do what the letter says. If your local Post Office or Paypoint acts like a dodo and won’t touch it, that’s on them.

That is not possible - Smart Meters do NOT over/undercharge you. They are just Meters like any other and merely record how many kWh pass through them. Nothing more, nothing less - it’s the billing system that does the rest.

Even a Non-Communicating one can still give LOCAL readings that you can just submit manually. Provided it’s doing that, then the Meter IS working and performing its Primary Function - everything else is Secondary. And in the case of a Non-Communicating Smart Meter running on PAYG? Well, you can just get a Voucher in the form of a UTRN Code sent to you that you then just punch into the Meter and redeem the credit immediately - no messing with the Post Office/Paypoint/Payzone required.

I also need to manage your expectations a bit here. It’s 10:30pm right now - I can’t magic up a response from OVO at this hour because everyone is asleep.

You obviously don't watch the news where people have been undercharged and then ended up with a massive bill owing thousands of pounds through faulty smart meters and some have to pay for a new one, it should be a choice for the customer which way they want to pay and not be pushed into getting one especially if it's going to cause problems either with mess or faults, my mother was pushed into getting one and regretted it. The reason I posted my review here was to let everyone know how difficult it was trying to get my warm home discount from the post office and not to be going on a rant. Firstly you said not all post offices accept the voucher then you said you can take it anywhere to get it. Maybe you need to get the facts before you try and give advice, this forum is not meant to get personal, it's supposed to help customers, maybe you need to think before you answer 

My contacts were Postmasters. You can't get closer to the source than that.

I am also not just some random user here. There aren't many folks on this Forum with 6k+ contributions...

Just as I thought would happen!! Woman from the post office said let me check your key 1st to see if it will work... She came back and said I'm sorry but your key doesn't work!! She even said our system's are not supposed for those keys!! I'm sorry to say but ovo with a ** strategy!! Now what do I do ????

So I don't think you should be calling them dodo's, which I think is very offensive language when they provide us with great service all year 

If you have a smart Pay As You Go meter

We'll send a credit directly to your meter. If we are unable to send the credit directly to your meter we will send you a Post Office Energy Voucher instead. We will write to you with instructions on how to redeem the Energy Voucher at your nearest Post Office

If you have a traditional Pay As You Go meter

In previous years we would send a signal to your nearest paypoint and you would be required to top up a minimum of 3-5 times. This year we will send you a Post Office Energy Voucher. We will write to you with instructions on how to redeem the Energy Voucher at your nearest Post Office.

The Post Office have assured us that customers can redeem their vouchers at the post office and indeed we can see several thousand customers have done this successfully. We have however identified a small number customers that have been issued a voucher that have certain older key models so they need a replacement key and there is currently a team contacting these customers. When a customer first receives a brand new key it has to be configured in a PayPoint terminal (by making a purchase) before you can redeem your voucher onto your key in the Post Office.

This is a reply to "Emmanuelle_OVO" I'm sorry to say this to you but you are wrong and I will explain why! 1st of all I couldn't redeem my voucher(which I knew this would happen) My post office in the main high street in Perth, Scotland! The woman said to me "our system's can't take that key, our system is payzone and can ONLY take cards!" If OVO want to come to my house to replace my electric meter and for it to take a card then they are welcome to it! A paypoint is the only place I can go to get my electricity topped up as they have the system to top up my key, PAYZONE DON'T! But thankfully after been on the phone to OVO for an hour I managed to get it sorted and how they are going to sort it out is by canceling my £150 home warm discount and then to send me a code(worth of £150) so then I can take that to a paypoint to get my electric put on to my key! Last thing I am going to say is, if OVO don't change my electric meter so it will be a card to use in the future instead of a key, then I suggest for next year's home warm discount is to put on the letter either to redeem at a post office(as it's payzone and only accepts cards) or redeem at a paypoint(which only accepts keys) 

Hopefully OVO can take this message as constructive and not hateful because I'm not being hateful.

Card based Trad Prepay Electric Meters ceased to exist over a decade ago and it’s been Keys only for donkeys years. If you want a Card for your PAYG Electric Meter, you’ve got only one option - migrate to Smart Meters… Which would eliminate the issue anyway because OVO can just dump WHD Credits directly onto Smart Meters by remote control without you doing anything.

When it comes to Trad Prepay, Cards are only used for Gas now.

I’ve spoken to many Payzone outlets over the years - Post Offices included - they can all process Electric Keys. If your outlet can’t, that’s their problem rather than OVO’s. Take it up with Payzone if you feel strongly about that, as IIRC it’s far beyond OVO’s control.

As for Post Office Payout, it is supposed to be able to dump top-ups onto just about ANY PAYG Meter whether Trad or Smart, Key or Card, but alas clearly the Post Office systems are still in the dark ages like Horizon is. If POP can’t do that, then the Post Office shouldn’t be advertising that it can and is arguably mis-selling its services/capabilities.

It is more efficient to use POP and do one visit to the store than it is to use the previous Paypoint method that required three to five visits to the shop to do the same thing.

Long story short, they run different systems for dumping credits - the Vouchers only work at whichever one it says on the letter.