Skip to main content

Hello all.

I only joined OVO in March, so I’ve only had 4 monthly statements so far & every 1 of them have been wrong.

As a new customer I’ve been keeping an eye on my account, just to make sure my direct debit payment covers my actual usage costs.

I’m guessing I have a different setup to most, as in the fact that we have 2 gas meters & 1 electric. only 1 gas, 1 elec are smart meters.

The normal view on the illustrative statement is correct up until my monthly statement has been produced, so the billing on all 3 meters is in sync. Albeit as long as a manually supply my dumb meter reading.

But my actual bill so far every month has only incorporated any 1 of the meters, or 2 of the meters or even once after a phone call to OVO to let them know, it had been amended to show a combination of 2 different meters.

Every month I place a call to OVO to let them know my monthly statement is wrong again & eventually OVO produces a correct statement.

I’m almost certain it’s the 3 meters & not the usual 2 that are the problem.

I did have the smart meters turn dumb for 6 weeks in May- June with the IHD also showing no data, a power cut during the night restored the service, I lost the daily smart meter readings for a week the end of June so yet another phone call to OVO, but OVO we’re still receiving readings, my OVO account is now showing smart meter readings OK but is not showing any usage data for July.

I've had more conversations with OVO in 3 months than I’ve had with any energy supplier over the last 10 yrs.

How hard can it be to get my actual monthly statement correct.

 

Tom...

@TomThumbwrote:

after pulling the main fuse to force a shutdown / reboot, all checks came back good & all communications have been restored, inc my iHD.

 

I think there must be more to it than that, Tom.

My DNO pulled the power to my house this morning, but my IHD is still sulking and displaying 18:55.

I suspect @Tim_OVO will be quite pleased to hear that…

otherwise we’d have a load of customers pulling their Service Fuses to reset the Comms Hub:scream:


@Transparent   I cannot put my finger on a previous post relating to both my smart meters turning dumb from earlier this year.

In summary, Both my smart meters turned dumb for a 6 weeks period over the months of May-June, 

Full functionality to my smart meters & IHD had been only been restored due to a short over night power outage.

A none instigated power down / reboot of the comms unit back then, but with the same result as today.

 

Tom...

 


My Bad: found projected usage stats for corresponding meters on previous statements.:nerd:

 

Tom....


I’ve had two sets of SMETS2 meters “go dumb”. On both occasions it was necessary to replace everything. The Resetting of the Comms Hub was to no avail. (But I have read the SMETS Spec, and understand how this is done and why.)

I’ve just had my second (planned) grid-outage of the day.

The Comms Hub and meters have rebooted as they should, but my IHD still hasn’t been picked up by the HAN being re-initialised. It hasn’t been synced for about 2 months now.

I’m unsure whether a SMETS_reset command being sent by OVO is at a deeper level than resetting a Comms Hub on site. But I think you’ve been particularly fortunate to have had systems recover as a result of a power-outage.

@Tim_OVO I have another couple of scheduled power-outages within the next four weeks. So it would be useful if you could have the S2 Engineers check what Tom and I have just discussed. I might be able to make good use of these two forthcoming events to try something.


I’ve had two sets of SMETS2 meters “go dumb”. On both occasions it was necessary to replace everything. The Resetting of the Comms Hub was to no avail.

If that's true it's unbelievable that my smart meter losing the connection with my energy provider means a new meter has to be fitted.

 

I think I will manage without smart meters and just give monthly meter readings, much less hassle.


Update 

I spoke to customer service at ovo today as my IHD is still reporting only 10% of my actual gas usage in ££.

So ovo are sending out the latest ihd to hopefully fix this issue.

Also on reading my account notes & my ongoing billing / statement issues over the last 6 months, the cs agent said he would flag my issues as urgent & bounce it back to the the billing team again, as there is still no sign of my Oct 11th statement.


While on the line, I did enquirer about adding a separate account just for my 3rd (none smart gas meter) as this would greatly improve my account management & hopefully resolve my billing issues that I suspect are due to having 3 meters on a single account.

The cs agent did have to make inquiries to this, but the answer came back as a NO, it’s not possible.

So much for my wishful thinking.

 

Tom...

 

 


@MikeEwrote:

If that's true it's unbelievable that my smart meter losing the connection with my energy provider means a new meter has to be fitted.

This won’t always be the case, Mike.

I was one of the first sites to get a SMETS2 installation and there were lots of technical problems to resolve. As I was interested to be more involved, I offered my site to OVO to use for testing software updates.

That was very useful for both parties. I obviously learned a lot about Smart Meters and the overall Demand Side Response strategy of which they are the foundation. You can see the results of those experiences when you read my posts here on the Forum!

The downside of having beta-code sent to my Comms Hub is a high risk that an update might place it in a state where it loses external communications. At that point, of course, you can’t send any more code to fix the problem. :confounded:

We still don’t know why your Wide Area Network channel has gone down, but there remains the possibility that it could still be sent a SMETS_reset command and spring back to life. There are at least two ways to achieve this, one of which requires a site visit.

 

Right, it’s 7pm; I need to go outside and feed the hedgehogs :slight_smile:


@MikeEwrote:

If that's true it's unbelievable that my smart meter losing the connection with my energy provider means a new meter has to be fitted.

This won’t always be the case, Mike.

I was one of the first sites to get a SMETS2 installation and there were lots of technical problems to resolve. As I was interested to be more involved, I offered my site to OVO to use for testing software updates.

That was very useful for both parties. I obviously learned a lot about Smart Meters and the overall Demand Side Response strategy of which they are the foundation. You can see the results of those experiences when you read my posts here on the Forum!

The downside of having beta-code sent to my Comms Hub is a high risk that an update might place it in a state where it loses external communications. At that point, of course, you can’t send any more code to fix the problem. :confounded:

I didn't know you were a beta tester. That explains it !

 

Right, it’s 7pm; I need to go outside and feed the hedgehogs :slight_smile:

😆

Seriously I have never heard of anyone keeping hedgehogs as pets !


We still don’t know why your Wide Area Network channel has gone down, but there remains the possibility that it could still be sent a SMETS_reset command

It can't be that easy or OVO would have issued the command while I was with them.

 

I don't know whether it's true or not but E.ON have said that they can't do anything until ownership of the meters is transferred to them and that can only happen once OVO has sent me my final bill (takes up to 6 weeks as you know)

 

E.ON did say that they were willing to carry out a site visit if they can't get the meters working with a remote command.

I will have to wait and see if they keep their promise but I am not holding my breath as I have no faith in customer services any more.

 


I don’t think I could claim to be a Beta-tester, @MikeE. My input to the process was limited to telling OVO what the indicator LEDs were doing. But, yes, I’m always happy to receive beta-level code because I’m not concerned about things going wrong.

 

As for the hedgehogs, they’re not pets! They are completely wild and free.

But it’s risky having juveniles around at this time of year. They need to reach 600g in order to survive winter hibernation. So I’m providing a base level of nutrition with kibbles in addition to the numerous woodlice, earwigs and earthworms which they have to search for.

 

 


@MikeE your new supplier should take over control of the smart meters from your supply start date….

 

@Transparent feed them up quick! I wonder if they will return in the spring to expect their 7pm kibble dinners… :chipmunk:


@MikeE your new supplier should take over control of the smart meters from your supply start date….

Quote:

"2020-10-15 11:20:30 Pallab : Yes, we'll get the remote meter readings from the smart meter. ☺️

2020-10-15 11:24:09 Pallab : We're still in the process of completing the switching formality with the old supplier. Once this is done. The smart meter will work as normal ☺️

2020-10-15 11:28:36 Pallab : Yes, the smart meter will start to work by the end of this month.☺️"


I will just have to wait and see if it does happen.
 


https://click.email.vimeo.com/u/?qs=036bd01c77fa3c6116ee20f09d03d207bcd1c1fdb9eb5fbfe2bd0aacc288cdd6ded62c0d06a0d85739d643df9cad0c828ab3ee7b1f0fd4e51a60dab7159d58f7

 

My smart meter is working again 😎 

 

I only just woke up and it's quite dark.

 

Just one query, why couldn't OVO have done this reset my meter remotely ?

 

If they had I would still be with them now and renewed my contract next July. 


And is today the formal “switch day” that E.On gave you?

 

why couldn't OVO have done this reset my meter remotely ?

It sounds like they could’ve done!


And is today the formal “switch day” that E.On gave you?

No 1st October was the switch date although I was told that I would have to wait until the end of the month for the reset attempt so they did it a fortnight early !


And what does the E.On portal give you by way of Usage statistics?

Did you see any usage prior to the meter suddenly going live? (Presumably not)


And what does the E.On portal give you by way of Usage statistics?

Did you see any usage prior to the meter suddenly going live? (Presumably not)

I just checked and although my IHD has a connection to both meters, I am still on OVO's tariffs and it still says that OVO is my energy supplier.

 

So presumably the new tariff data is going to be downloaded at some point in the near future ?

 

I will just wait I think.


@MikeE I’m happy to hear this is working, but slightly peeved it’s now cost us your custom, when it seems to have been simple. Any idea what they did?

 

Hopefully you’ll join the ranks of former OVO customers who still visit the OVO community. For one thing, you’ll want to keep up to date on the latest for when you switch back at the end of your current contract, as well as the weekly hedgehog blogs :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:


Update

 I’ve just had my latest statement & I’m happy to report, that I have again been billed against all 3 of my meters & across the same billing period :grinning: (automated or manual ???)
My electric meter turning smart & a correct statement in the week it is due:grinning:

I just need ovo to go for the hat-trick & get my IHD displaying the correct ££ cost for gas instead of the 10% it report’s at the moment & I’m good to go.


 

@Tim_OVO  the calorific value on my statement / gas table is still showing 0

 

Tom....

 


Ah yes…

more predictable than a SMETS2  :)

 


@MikeE I’m happy to hear this is working, but slightly peeved it’s now cost us your custom, when it seems to have been simple. Any idea what they did?

No idea sorry.

I have turned off my IHD as there's no point in it displaying OVO's tariffs when I am no longer with them !

I will wait a while to see if an E.ON tariff download is attempted. 

I have taken off my enclosure box that was surrounding my electric smart meter and removed the lid around my gas smart meter in an attempt to get a better signal and for my meters to continually be in 'dumb' mode would mean that this effort would have gone to waste.

I will, of course, continue to be a regular contributor on the forum even though I am no longer an OVO customer as I will be honest with you that I am still feeling welcome with no bad feeling towards me.

I don't think E.ON has it's own forum and if so I find it strange as it is one of the big 6 energy companies ?

 

 

 


I will, of course, continue to be a regular contributor on the forum even though I am no longer an OVO customer as I will be honest with you that I am still feeling welcome with no bad feeling towards me.

I don't think E.ON has it's own forum and if so I find it strange as it is one of the big 6 energy companies ?

 

Good to hear this, @MikeE  - you’ve joined the ranks of former customers who still get some value from visiting this online community - glad to have you here still! :blush: 

 

Keen to hear if/when the IHD info changes on your meter once this switch is complete with confirmed bills (I still think the cost info should be changed from the supply start date), and I’m keen to hear when this IHD and calorific value changes, @TomThumb - make sure both are in our Support team’s queue…..


@Tim_OVO  As I have previously only reported my IHD displaying 10% of my actual gas costs by phone, I have this morning sent an email into Ovo outlining the actual Vs displayed figures, more so to have a record than chasing up a response.

I also included a note & screenshot of the recurring 0 (zero) figure showing on my statements for the gas conversion table  against the calorific value.


I will update here when I receive a reply  back from Ovo.

 

Tom...


Update: 

I’ve finally had a response by email from the smart team & they are going to look into why my IHD is only reporting 10% of actual  gas costs.

It also seems my account is now being migrated onto the the new billing system, the ovo app is now showing the new graph layout of new platform, but with no data to display, but my preferred view via the web has not changed, although the web is displaying the usage stats, there is a lot of other missing data.

 Hopefully in the coming hrs or days, both options will populate with the relevant data.

 

Tom....


Update

Ive just had a response from ovo regarding my IHD only showing 10% of actual gas costs.

:We have spoken to our smart ops team who have ran some processes on your smart platform which in turn should hopefully update your IHD with the correct gas data. These can take a while to update so if you are still seeing incorrect data by Friday, please give us a call on 0330 303 5063:

My thoughts were that any data push from ovo is instantly applied ? but I will give it until Friday.

 

If @Tim_OVO or @Transparent could offer there insight in to my previous post

Update: 

I’ve finally had a response by email from the smart team & they are going to look into why my IHD is only reporting 10% of actual  gas costs.

It also seems my account is now being migrated onto the the new billing system, the ovo app is now showing the new graph layout of new platform, but with no data to display, but my preferred view via the web has not changed, although the web is displaying the usage stats, there is a lot of other missing data.

 Hopefully in the coming hrs or days, both options will populate with the relevant data.

 

Tom....


My initial thoughts of my account migrating to the new billing system last week were short lived.

Over the next couple of days from my previous post, both the app & web interface reverted back to their previous view of the old billing platform with all data points available, 


Could it actually be the system tried & failed to migrate me onto the new platform ?
Or were other issues at play ?

 

Tom...


Reply