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Changed to smart meter and gas on bill about 3 times actual consumption

  • 28 November 2023
  • 14 replies
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T
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I had smart meters installed on 16/10/2023 and electric meter was changed in account straight away. However the gas meter was only changed yesterday 27/11/2023. On checking my bills I find that the gas is about three times what I would expect.

To convert metric gas meter readings to kWh:
Take a meter reading.
Subtract the new meter reading from the previous reading to work out the volume of gas used.
Multiply by the volume correction factor (1.02264).
Multiply by calorific value (40.0).
Divide by kWh conversion factor (3.6).

Old meter 17.06kWh
New meter start 0.0000
14/11/2023 reading 61.601
27/11/2023 reading 95.323

Calculate using above:
61.601
(61.601 x 1.02264) = 62.99564664
(62.99564664 x 40.1) = 2519.8258656
(2519.8258656 / 3.6) = 699.9516293333333

Cost 699.9516293333333 x £06.49p = £45.4268848

This is billed at £138.86

95.323 - 61.601 = 33.722
(33.722 x 1.02264) = 34.48546608
(34.48546608 x 40.1) = 1,379.4186432
(1,379.4186432 / 3.6) = 383.1718453333333

Cost 383.1718453333333 x £06.49p = £24.86780987621333.

This is billed at £70.82

I think that my account has not been changed from an imperial to a metric in the calculation.

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Best answer by Abby_OVO 25 January 2024, 14:41

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14 replies

Firedog
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Thanks for showing your working. We’ve seen at least one other case where this happened, and I seem to remember that Support were able to get it fixed.

 

[EDIT a few minutes later]

I found the earlier case: 
 

This customer had to go through a complex and time-consuming complaints procedure to get it fixed, but she ended up £1000 better off. It shouldn’t be that difficult, so try Support for a start.

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
BPLightlog
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That discrepancy is very close to the imperial factor of x2.83

You might want to take pictures of the meter with the m3 symbol in shot to pass on to the support team

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
T
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Sent this three times to different advisors.

Emmanuelle_OVO
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Hey @tiredteddy,

 

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

 

If it helps you can send this topic to an advisor on web chat. This just needs to be raised to our back end team to amend, they should be able to advise when this has been raised and put you on a billing suspension until it is resolved. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
T
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Just spoke to Daniel a customer advisor who checked at my request if the smart meter was setup as Imperial or Metric and it was setup as Imperial. The same as the old meter.

He changed it to Metric and it is now showing on the meter readings webpage as five digits whereas it was previously only four. He has also requested my billing be revised for the whole period from the install date. Job well done.😊😊😊

T
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Userlevel 1

Hey @tiredteddy,

 

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

 

If it helps you can send this topic to an advisor on web chat. This just needs to be raised to our back end team to amend, they should be able to advise when this has been raised and put you on a billing suspension until it is resolved. 

Thanks for this, however I tried web chat yesterday for about 90 minutes.

The advisor did not tell me who they were and did not seem to understand the problem, passed me onto collections.

The collections advisor did not tell me who they were despite me asking.

Both advisors seemed to be very slow and wasted my time.

Via telephone and email over November I have dealt with the following advisors:

*Edited by Mod* Telephone, Tried to change meter but unsuccessful ****

*Edited by Mod*, web chat, Pleasant but just gave the “it takes 6 weeks, call back on 27/11/2023. ***

Telephone, I did not catch the given name lady on 27/11/2023, Manually changed gas meter details. ****

Web chat advisor, 28/11/2023 no stars.

Collections advisor, 28/11/2023 no stars.

*Edited by Mod*, Telephone, 28/11/2023 recognised there was a problems and raised a support ticket for the meter reading problem. *****

*Edited by Mod*Telephone, 29/11/2023, Checked on my request as to how the meter was configured. Found to be Imperial and changed to Metric. Raised a ticket for the gas account to be reassessed. *****

 

Some good staff and some in need of training. Just waiting for the bill to be reassessed.

Emmanuelle_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hey @tiredteddy,

 

I’m glad that this stressful ordeal is over and you managed to get the support you needed! 

 

Thank you for keeping us posted, this information may help other Community Members with a similar issue. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
Jeffus
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Hey @tiredteddy,

 

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

 

If it helps you can send this topic to an advisor on web chat. This just needs to be raised to our back end team to amend, they should be able to advise when this has been raised and put you on a billing suspension until it is resolved. 

Thanks for this, however I tried web chat yesterday for about 90 minutes.

The advisor did not tell me who they were and did not seem to understand the problem, passed me onto collections.

The collections advisor did not tell me who they were despite me asking.

Both advisors seemed to be very slow and wasted my time.

Via telephone and email over November I have dealt with the following advisors:

*Edited by Mod* Telephone, Tried to change meter but unsuccessful ****

*Edited by Mod*, web chat, Pleasant but just gave the “it takes 6 weeks, call back on 27/11/2023. ***

Telephone, I did not catch the given name lady on 27/11/2023, Manually changed gas meter details. ****

Web chat advisor, 28/11/2023 no stars.

Collections advisor, 28/11/2023 no stars.

*Edited by Mod*, Telephone, 28/11/2023 recognised there was a problems and raised a support ticket for the meter reading problem. *****

*Edited by Mod*Telephone, 29/11/2023, Checked on my request as to how the meter was configured. Found to be Imperial and changed to Metric. Raised a ticket for the gas account to be reassessed. *****

 

Some good staff and some in need of training. Just waiting for the bill to be reassessed.

@Tim_OVO are you going to follow up to ask for these staff to be given some more training?

Be a great way of reducing calls to the support team.

T
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Userlevel 1

@Tim_OVO are you going to follow up to ask for these staff to be given some more training?

Be a great way of reducing calls to the support team.

 

Hello Tim,

I have sent a longer version of my final to Raman-feedback@ovoenergy.com.

Just one small issue with the telephone advisor from 28/11/2023, he did follow up with a revised bill and email where he stated that it was correct as my calculation should be multipled by 2.83 to get the actual charges that had been applied. This was because the meter was an imperial one.

He also said that the meter was not properly registered on OVO’s systems and he would raise a ticket for this to happen. In addition the time taken was too long in his opinion.

 

However he failed to recognise that in fact my meter was not an imperial one but rather a metric one. This was the error in the system from which the excessive charges stemmed from.

 

The advisor from the 29/11/2-23 told me that checking the version was not on his meter check list but he would be adding it for the future. He did also say that he thought that all new gas smart meters were metric only.

Thanks for your help.

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @tiredteddy,

 

You can private message me the details of the advisors and I can pass this information on, you aren’t able to share any personal information (including your own) on the public Forum.

 

But I am happy for us to discuss this further via private message 🙂

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
T
Rank
Userlevel 1

Bad news Gas meter still not yet correctly identified on my account.

Despite being changed twice it keeps reverting to imperial.

Must be an issue in the system that is more difficult to remedy.

 

Implemented a complaint this morning see what happens next. 8-((

Abby_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 6

Hey @tiredteddy 

 

Sorry to hear about all of this, and sorry it’s now lead to a complaint.

 

It sounds like there might be something going on in the system if that’s the case. Hopefully the team can get a final fix on this for you soon!

 

Keep us updated with how the complaint goes.

Location: Electric Avenue
E
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Hello,

Last April my gas smart meter stopped sending usage data to Ovo, and it took them 6 months to replace it. During this time I had no idea if it was communicating, because on my account I had usage data on and off. The estimate bills were too high considering it was the summer but I was not concerned because I was sure once the meter is replaced, it will all be corrected.

The screen of the meter was also not working so I had no way to do manual readings. 

After the meter was replaced everything was okay, but last week Ovo informed me they did not apply the final reading to my account correctly, which they have now did, and they now thing I used ~14,500 kWh in the six months the gas meter was not communicating. To put this into perspective, our six months usage for the 6 months before, for the winter period was ~11,000 kWh. 

During the months between April and October, we did little heating, and mostly just used the gas for hot water. The previous year we used ~4500 kWh in the same period (and it was a cooler start of the autumn, while this autumn was super mild).

Does anyone has advice what can I do in this situation? I cannot believe the final reading is correct. It is suspicious that our gas usage is regular, and it only became irregular when the smart meter stopped working.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Abby_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 6

Hey @edmee 

 

I’m sorry to hear about this.

 

We don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum so you’ll need to get in touch with the Support Team about this.

 

We can offer some advice, and we’ve seen a few other topics similar to this in some ways. The topics below link to a calculating error that had to be fixed for other customer:

 

 

Can you see on the bill page whether the metered volume is given in metric or imperial units? Let us know, or even discuss this with the team.

 

 

After the meter was replaced everything was okay, but last week Ovo informed me they did not apply the final reading to my account correctly, which they have now 

 

Does anyone has advice what can I do in this situation? I cannot believe the final reading is correct. 

 

 

If the final reading for the old meter had been entered incorrectly and later adjusted, the team should be able to check the job report for the meter exchange, where the engineer will have recorded this reading as well as the opening new meter reading. 

 

If the meter was changed recently, then they may not have the report available on the system yet, but they will want to open a case to look into this matter. If you do believe that it is still incorrect, you can contact the Support Team to discuss this and make sure they’ve used the reading from the job report. 

 

I hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

Location: Electric Avenue

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