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Hi, I’ve received a text message from Ovo saying they have arranged a “SMART appointment”. Can any one explain what a SMART appointment is please?

Hi @Jware, this sounds to me as though you've been booked in for an engineer to assess the possibility of fitting a Smart Meter in your home.  If you’ve recently changed to OVO there’s an expectation that new customers will be provided with a smart meter. You won’t be charged any money, and it normally takes an hour or so to install (slightly longer perhaps if you also have a gas supply that’s suitable for a smart meter), 


Hi waltyboy, thanks for your reply. I now suspect it’s to do with a phantom non existant second supply supply they think I have at my holiday property, where I’m with Octopus, that the Ombudsman cleared up over two years ago, that I’ve been re harassed by Ovo about again for the past 5 months. It’s possibly their way to gain entry? Phoning Ovo doesn’t work as they insist I answer security questions that obviously I can’t answer because I’m not with them, so they put the pone down on me. 
thanks Jan


Hi @Jware, doesn’t sound good at all!  All I can suggest is possibly matching the account number quoted in the appointment email (if indeed an account number is quoted? If there isn’t an A/C number, I would ask for one) with either the one in your holiday home or in your main home.  It would indeed be odd if one energy supplier is trying to install a smart meter for someone who is with another supplier!  But sometimes these appointments take ages to come around, and that may indeed be what’s happening.

 

Good luck with sorting it…I find the customer service with OVO is fine, but see if you can establish either an A/C number from the email, or, even better, a MPAN (the meter’s unique identifying serial number) if you have the patience to ‘phone again.   As the email has found its way to you when all’s said and done, hopefully the customer service people will have no problem about explaining its contents. Hopefully! 


Hello again @Jware, I’ve just learned that I need to be more precise when talking about meter serial numbers (thank you Noel for the useful information). Yes, every meter does indeed have its own Meter Serial Number (MSN), but what is perhaps more relevant to you the customer is the Meter Point Administration Number (MPAN), which can be thought of as the identifier for the grid supply to the property.  
 

Whatever meter is subsequently fitted to your supply, and whichever supplier sells you electricity, it is the MPAN which stays fixed so to speak, and which is therefore a reference for both you and the supplier to identify which precise property is in question. As Noel @Firedog kindly pointed out to me, once a meter has been installed and is up and running, it is recorded centrally as tied to a specific MPAN, which is why both identifiers appear on any subsequent bills.  This may be extremely pertinent in your case, where you suspect some kind of cross-purposes between two suppliers, with you caught in the middle!

 

I’m hopeful that if you ‘phone OVO customer services for clarification on which MPAN is the subject of the mysterious smart appointment email you have received (and, if possible, as a further check maybe, which MSN) they surely should be able to clarify things for you? I hope so, very good luck to you, please do let us know what transpires!

 

 


Hey @Jware,

 

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

 

I’m wondering if this is perhaps a scam message? If you don’t have an account with OVO energy and haven’t booked an appointment? It sounds like previously there may have been an erroneous transfer on your account, if this has happened again it might be an issue with the address listed on your property. 

 

 

My advice would be to contact the support team, they’ll be able to search your mobile number and find out why there is an account with your details listed. 


Thank you everyone.  I’ve managed to speak to someone today. They will cancel the “SMART appointment”, they say was their intention  to fit a smart meter …..not mentioned in the text…..to a supply that isn’t theirs. Also, they are still trying to resolve their issue with believing that there is a second supply to the property and will let me know more next week. Hopefully resolved. 


Hey @Jware,

 

Sorry to hear that OVO still believes there is an elusive second supply.

 

I wonder if the removed supply was never removed from the national database? Do you have a job report from the removal you could send in? Was the supply capped or removed? 

 

 


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