Thanks for this update, @TomThumb 

I had an hour meeting with lots of the S2 and ’smart support’ team yesterday. As well as letting me know how the customer and agent can help them to diagnose issues (with a clear picture of the thing that is wrong, and a summary of the info the customer feels should be showing), we also discussed improving resources available. Common faults, screenshots, workflows etc. We’re getting somewhere!

I was surprised to hear of your account upgrade, due to the multiple gas supplies. 

We actually confirmed with the billing platform developers that this wasn’t possible at present. I am not sure what happened in your case, Tom, what you saw and why this changed and changed back. 

One thing’s for sure, it’s never plain sailing with your account is it… Friday update if you can. 

@Tim_OVO  

No need to wait until Friday. 
At present both my smart meters are working well & my gas tariff has now been amended to correctly display my actual gas costs via my IHD.

Even my original thread subject of constantly only being billed on 2 out of my 3 meters has seen a big improvement recently. Hopefully if next weeks bill / statement is correct & on time, I can mark that specific chapter as closed.

As ovo are aware of the limitations of the new billing platform, hopefully system changes can be incorporated in due course.

For reference tho Tim & more for ovo’s attention, 

1:The calorific value on my statements is still showing zero!

2:The ovo app is still showing spurious data usage for the year & what is the data for the remaining months of 2020, Nov-Dec?  (Jan & Feb is correct @ zero, as I didn’t join ovo until March!)

Tom...
 

That old Billing System is licensed from a 3rd-party, @TomThumb  I guess there’s now minimal interaction between them and OVO and little interest in solving bugs.

The Gas Regulations specify that if a Calorific Value is not available, then the Energy Supplier must assume 37MJ/m³ (a low value).

That begs the question as to why the 3rd-party owners of that Billing Software don’t have a default value of 37 in that field. No wonder OVO had to ditch them after an Ofgem investigation.

You can actually view your CV for any range of date/times by visiting Data Item Explorer.

Many Thanks for that info  @Transparent Much appreciated. 
 

Tom...

@Blastoise186  Just to save going off topic with my other post.

• Blastoise186

Haha, so you’re just like me then. Brilliant at breaking absolutely everything!

I’ll tell you what would really help a ton here if you’re able to do it @TomThumb . If you’re able to figure out exactly what steps cause the app to go kaboom and post them here on the forums, that could help a lot. Here’s an example to help you out:

Short Summary - In one sentence, what is the bug you’ve found?

The OVO Energy App on Android can’t old handle accounts with three meters

Steps to reproduce

1. Have an account on the old system with an unusual setup like three meters
2. Log into the app
3. Tap Usage
4. Tap Gas

Expected result - What is it that should happen when you do this?

I can see all the usage readings for both my gas meters

Actual result - What is it that actually happens instead?

App goes kaboom and explodes because it can’t cope

Device and app info - What device(s) have you tried this on, and what are they running (with the version if you can!) Also, what version of the app are you using?

If you’re able to do something like that, it would definitely be helpful in case anyone else wanted to try to test this too…....

For clarification I’m still on the old billing platform & it’s my thinking that my 3 meters are why my account has not been migrated over to the new billing system.

In short, although the ovo app dose reference my 3rd meter, there is no usage history / meter readings shown for this supply.

The usage history that is shown for 2 of my meters is all spurious since the changes to the new billing system a few weeks back.

Ovo via the web  fairs a little better, with no usage history for the 3dr meter,  but meter readings are available across all 3 meters.

 Confirmation from ovo states, that when my account migrates on to the new billing platform, there is still no facility for the app to show any usage data from the 3rd meter.

If or when I change to the new billing platform, I will update my actual data view accordingly.

So at present, the ovo app is not useful in the slightest.

Tom...

Ahh ok. So far, that’s the kind of vibe I’m getting here. And it’s possible my example steps are exactly what you’ve found causes the bug.

I think something else that probably doesn’t help, is the fact that the MyOVO website and app assume you only have the following setup:

• ONE Electricity Meter of some kind (Smart/Dumb, Economy 7/10/Single Rate etc)
• ONE Gas Meter of some kind

Chances are that’s how almost all systems at energy suppliers are built to work off, since it’s the most common setup. I think what’s happened with your own account will probably also help to prevent it happening again though.

As for bugs in the platform, I will admit that there’s always going to be one somewhere. I’ve found quite a few myself too! I’ve put a few bug reports in and hopefully I can hunt down a whole bunch more over time so that they don’t cause more havoc.

If you spot any others, definitely feel free to flag them up. :)

@Blastoise186wrote:

the MyOVO website and app assume you only have the following setup:

No. That’s a temporary constraint whilst the Orion software suite is under active development.

The Development Team in London are very aware of the reasons why some users can’t yet be migrated from the older Accounts software. However, it was the subject of an investigation by Ofgem in 2018 and OVO are understandably keen to move away from it.

That’s why I tend to report “issues” in a positive style rather than berating them for something that’s not right. We’re actually all on the same side when it comes to the Orion strategy.

So true, the pitfalls of having 3 meters.

I know the account can handle 3 meters on paper ( well sort of)  but in practice, some of their systems are clearly not as geared up.
I’m just awaiting what the new billing system has in store for me now.

or not as the case maybe.

Tom...

It’s monthly statement time for me, so here’s an update.

Being in contact with Ovo in regard to non related issues, I couldn’t confirm that my previous  monthly  statement incorporating all of my 3 meters wasn’t the result of a manual adjustment as my account notes had this issue as an ongoing case.

Well I can now confirm that the automated system is broke.

I have again only been billed on 2 out of my 3 meters,  it is my dumb gas meter that has been omitted this month, but as this supply is not needed or used over the winter, the impact is less severe as this meter would only incur the standing charge costs.

On the plus side the statement is now showing the correct figures for the calorific value 

                                                     ………………………………....

(1 account & 3 meters)

Given the old billing platform has limitations with regards to my account, ie billing / no usage history on my dumb gas meter. (Zero chance of any improvement)

What are your thoughts @Tim_OVO on pushing my account onto the new platform to stress test it so to speak.
I previously reported the ovo app was showing a view compliant with the new platform, but then rolled back, last week my account via the web showed a similar snapshot.

If it is my account stopping the migration over to the new system, now is the ideal time to iron out any issues..

                                                    …………………………………………...

The recommended direct debit payments over a few days went from +26% to -1% that can’t be normal.

                                                     ……………………………………….…

I can confirm that my electric smart meter is still in full communication with ovo & that my IHD is continuing to have full functionality, so at least it’s case closed on that front

Tom…

Thanks for the update @TomThumb !

Hopefully you’ll be able to get all three meters caught up and paid off once this gets fixed. You definitely sound like someone who likes to play fair with the system. 

It sounds like there’s at least some form of progress at least. Thanks for hanging in there with us! I honestly wish I had a magic button that could instantly flip your account between the two platforms to see how each one behaves. But unfortunately, that’s not something I have in my toolkit…

But I definitely think that if any account is going to make the new platform implode, it’s almost certainly going to be one like yours! In the meantime, I’d probably suggest leaving the direct debit as-is so that you don’t accidentally break the platform even more.

The more info you’re sharing with us on the forum, the easier it is to help get these issues tracked down and fixed. I really love the new platform myself and I’m pretty sure you will too once you get to try it out.

Yep thanks for this update, @TomThumb 

It’s frustrating to hear our Autumn fix to your account billing has failed. Please raise this with our Support team if you haven’t already. It’s essential that we get this right for you. 

I did confirm earlier this year that elements of the new billing platform isn’t compatible with a 3-fuel set up. However if you wanted to make sure, put in a request for more info when you reach out to us.  I’d be keen to hear if we can progress with the upgrade if the customer is aware of some features (such as usage section) not working. Or if there’s something more fundamental that is preventing this. 

Your Direct Debit recommended amount seems to be effected by the COVID hardship fund, although I’m lacking details on this. It’s a steep change in recommend figures though, but this can happen with new bills (with charges different to what was expected) and subsequent changes to projections to getting you to £0 at contract end dates. More info on the process here. 

……...The hardship scheme aside, £205 < £259 > £202 represents a 26% increase to a 1% decrease over a 3 day period, not the single monthly adjustment that is referred to by ovo.

(Just to reference that following ovo’s recommendation on payments on any given day, could result on a unjustified increased payment)

….I did also ask for an answer as to why ovo had previously point blank refused to put my 3rd meter on a separate account & if that reasoning was still valid, I await ovo’s response on that question.

From a customer point of view, having 2 accounts should resolve all my present issues, but where would the fun be in that, plus as the new platform is currently in development! Cough cough.

I’m still up for stress testing the new system so to speak  @Tim_OVO 

Tom...

It’s worth a try at very least.

When you have a chat with the support team, please provide a link to this thread and ask them to have a read through so they can catch up with the story so far. Given the length of this thread, it might take a while but hopefully they’ll be up to speed after that.

From a customer point of view, having 2 accounts should resolve all my present issues, but where would the fun be in that, plus as the new platform is currently in development! Cough cough.

Great minds think alike Tom. If you’re going to make it implode anyway, might as well make it implode early!

As for splitting up the second gas meter, my guess is that it’s because OVO doesn’t offer Gas-Only accounts and that might break something even more.

Great minds think alike Tom. If you’re going to make it implode anyway, might as well make it implode early!

As for splitting up the second gas meter, my guess is that it’s because OVO doesn’t offer Gas-Only accounts and that might break something even more.

 

It could very well be @Blastoise186 
I’ll see what I can discover on that one & I’ll post back when I receive a response from ovo.

@Transparent if any body can answer me this it is you, Google has drawn a blank so I presume not!

Are there any rules or regulations in place for energy companies to make usage history available to the end user?  My curiosity has got the better of me!

Tom...

Hi @TomThumb 

We need to get your billing and charges correct and clear for you. It’s a requirement and it’s fundamental. Usage visibility such as online usage graphs are something we desperately want to get right so our members have the info at hand to reduce their usage.  

We’ll get there with our new billing platform. But in the meantime we have the means to get it right for you now. Very much hoping this gets done.

How about you share with me your account details once you’ve raised the automated billing issue with our Support team (via a PM) so I can make sure the team working it understand the context and history? 

Cheers @Tim_OVO.  A short summary on unresolved issues.

I have 1 account with 3 meters, 1 smart electric / 1  smart gas / 1 traditional gas

Since joining Ovo in March 2020, I have constantly been receiving bill’s for a random combination of only 2 meters out of 3.

Upon contact with ovo & reporting this issue, a new bill / statement is manually generated to bring my account up to date. 
This billing issue then returns the following month with the same action required to resolve.

Not being able to view any usage history whatsoever for my traditional gas meter also flags the limitations of how the old billing system handles my account & 3 meters, a trend that is possibly carried over to the new billing platform.

PM incoming @Tim_OVO 

As my monthly bill & statement are due at this time, I’m back with an update.

As per all previous statements, I have yet again only been billed on 2 out of my 3 meters, 

I’ve been with ovo 9 months & over that time frame not once has ovo got it right without my reaching out to them to let them know of the error.

The only plus point is that it is my traditional gas meter that has been omitted from the bill again, so due to it’s seasonal use, it’s only the standing charge cost.

@Tim_OVO  Given the timeframe from our last pm, I had been hanging on until my latest statement had been produced before reaching out again.

 I’ve had NO contact whatsoever from ovo since you gave them a poke with a big stick,

1: so my  billing issue is still unresolved,

2: I have NO usage history available  whatsoever for my traditional gas meter.

3: I’m still on the old billing platform.

4: not a huge problem, but my statement for my smart meters is reporting the meter readings for the billing period as estimated! But they are indeed actual smart meter readings.

5: again not a problem unless the status changes from suggested to a forced increase,

My annual & monthly forecast is grossly over estimated resulting in a suggested DD payment increase of 40% this month, but as my seasonal usage is nowhere near what you would class as normal, the only way of keeping on top of my expected Vs actual usage is to keep a close eye on my account & my bills, but as ovo can’t get there end right & produce an accurate monthly statement / bill, I’m at a disadvantage.

Can I leave it in your hands for now Tim?

Tom...

Hi @TomThumb and thanks for the update on what is a miserably broken account. 

I can’t do much, so leaving it in my hands isn’t the best option. However I am trying. I’ll reach out to see if we can get the ‘case’ for your 3 supply billing issue fixed, but I can’t promise anything. 

I’ll try and pull some strings, but plan A should always be to report it to Support directly. In this case I think you’ve earned me putting in the effort on your behalf first. 

 @Tim_OVO I had been reporting this billing issue every month to ovo’s customer services, 

A call to ovo & a new statement is manually generated, 

That has resulted in random billing dates / different bill period for different meters,

Also in the beginning it was a random set of 2 out of my 3 meters that were actually billed,

so trying to keep an eye on my account was a hell of a lot harder than it should have been.

Then the following month is exactly the same, I reach out to ovo customer service, a new bill is manually generated, but it seems that nobody is looking at the root cause of why the account & billing system is unable to cope with my 3 meters & apply a fix.

After 9 months of reporting my billing issues to ovo with no improvement, a new approach is needed as I’m at a loss now.

Any help for the billing / statement issue,

The fact that I have no usage history whatsoever for my traditional gas meter,

The constant over estimated usage predictions resulting in a none justified recommended increase in DD payments. 

Would be most welcome 

Tom...

 

Updated on 18/10/23 by Abby_OVO

 

Sorry to hear of the difficulties you’ve had with the billing on your account since switching to OVO with multiple meters.

 

Usually, even with more that one gas meter associated to your account you should receive a monthly summary covering the combined usage on both meters. The easiest way to view these monthly summaries is via the ‘Billing history’ page of your online account of OVO app (download for Android or iOS).

 

 

If you notice any errors or missing usage on these monthly summaries, reach out to our Support Team who can take a look in to the details of your account and raise this to our technical team if it’s not something they are able to resolve immediately. 

In this example the combination of a smart and non-smart gas meter caused an unexpected technical bug. See the comment below for the action taken to resolve this unusual issue.
 

 Having given OVO 9 months to resolve my billing issues to no avail, I changed  my approach this month & I decided to raise an official complaint on this matter.

This resulted with an informative chat with the technical department & fingers crossed a full resolution.

 Previously I had requested that my traditional gas meter be moved to a separate new account, leaving my 2 smart meters in place, but after the customer service agent consulted with management, the answer came back as a NO.

This time however, ovo have agreed to this & a new account has been setup for the sole use of my dumb gas meter.

From a customer point of view, it’s the best possible outcome.

If all goes well?

I will gain accurate monthly bill’s,

I will see usage history across all 3 meters, 

It will make my energy usage / costs / bill’s & statements a hell of a lot easier to manage,

Im guessing my traditional gas meter will still have a conflict with it’s projected Vs actual kWh’s usage & costs, given the fact this meter is heavily used during the summer & has zero usage over the winter months,  I will be in a better position to identify any mismatch as this meter is no longer grouped with the remaining 2 smart meters. I’m also hoping that ovo’s backend system will see this as a trend & adjust it’s estimates accordingly for this supply?

I won’t have to call ovo every month to complain about my account & bills,

The only drawback is I’ll have to click to switch between accounts on a drop down tab

(I can cope, bring it on)

What I did ascertain from the call with the technical department, 

The only error found on my account was a validation error for my traditional gas meter for this month?

The old billing system can’t cope with 3 meters!

The new billing platform can’t cope with 3 meters ? (I never got to test it!)

Ovo had no clue of what was broken, so didn’t know what to fix?

Ovo should have listened to my suggestion of 2 account months ago! (wishful thinking)

Hopefully after next months bill / statement, if all goes well, I can post an update & finally mark this as case closed? 

Tom...

That sounds like you’ve got some progress there @TomThumb , thanks for keeping us posted!

I’d agree with you that splitting off that second gas meter is probably the best workaround for the time being. A bit of a bodge in some ways, but as long as it works, I guess that’ll be the main thing.

Somehow I get the feeling that trying to replace that meter with a smart gas meter will probably cause something else to implode as I’m not sure the HAN on any existing smart meters can handle two gas meters at once? That’s probably something which will have to be figured out eventually - ideally before the certification on the current one expires - but I think it’s best to at least get the current one fixed up for now. How to handle such an upgrade is something for another time.

@Blastoise186  If or when a booster / range extender is made available for the smets2 gas link, I would swap it for a smart meter, but with zero use for at least 6 months of the year, at present I just enter the same meter reading as the previous month, so it’s an easy time of the year regarding meter readings,

but the warning messages do vary from supplier tho, from,

This reading is the same as last month? ARE YOU SURE IT’S CORRECT?

This reading is the same as the previous month, YOUR METER APPEARS NOT TO BE WORKING CORRECTLY, WE NEED TO SEND AN ENGINEER OUT.

I wonder how many months it would take of zero usage by a smart meter to trigger a fault somewhere?

Going back to my original smart meter install (npower) the engineer did have to make 3 phone calls to 3 different departments to confirm that YES he could link the 2 gas meters to the 1 electric comms hub, but unfortunately due to the large distance involved & no workable  link, this was never put to the test,

Again thinking ahead a little, come tariff renewal time, I wonder if my now single traditional gas meter account will be eligible for the cheapest tariff alongside those normally reserved for smart meters accounts? Only time will tell…

Tom…

PS: I’ve just had a look at the ovo app, as the linked account only comprises of my 2 smart meters now, it looks like full functionality & actual usage history is working as Intended now

Well it’s a sad day when the only thing which seems to work is a complaint!

I can confirm that a Communications Hub can talk with multiple meters. It also has tariff registers which can be assigned to different rates.

In the long term I think you’re going to need a new Comms Hub with one of the longer-distance solutions being developed and tested by the Alternative HAN Company. I suspect the use of 868MHz will achieve what you require.

Of course there will also need to be a matching SMETS2 gas meter approved with 868MHz ZigBee channels.

As for the cheapest tariff at end of your contract:… You’ll now be offered a tariff subject to an Ofgem Price Cap  automatically because the Government and Ofgem say so! This regulation is to be reviewed again in April 2021… most likely in favour of the consumer.

Another update

After the agreed approach of moving my traditional gas meter to a new account, 

Things are not exactly going smoothly at the moment again with ovo,

After I received my welcome to ovo email with my new account details, I had a couple of concerns with the tariff & start / end date.

Altho the new account mirrors the better energy plan I’m already on,  the tariff dose not, 

I understand that today’s cost might have increased from when I first joined ovo, but seeking clarification of not being penalised by adding an additional account, I feel any increase however small is unjustified!

The email notes  this is a new 12 month plan, with a start date of 10th December, but also states the tariff & price guarantee No end date.

As this needed clarification, I placed a call to ovo, who informed me that my new account is live but it holds no data, so they are unable to check anything.

My original account now shows my 2 smart meters, so my traditional meter has moved somewhere?

Have ovo lost my new account down a black hole already?

If you guys can help with.

The email I received shows a new account # (as expected)

But also shows a new ovo id #,  can anybody confirm the status of the ovo id?

 Personally I would have thought my ovo Id would remain the same across both my accounts, to link back to a single account holder / login etc ? Is that not the case?

Tia 

Tom...

Some curious behaviours there Tom!

If I was to take a lucky guess, I’d say it might be a case of your second account having only just been created with the basics for now, and that someone will need to go in there later and manually force a few things through in order to complete the setup process.

The legacy billing platform is a bit strange and OVO don’t have as much control over it as they do with the new one. It’s quite possible that the account was activated with the usual default settings for now which make things seem wrong, which can be a side-effect of trying to handle edge cases like this.

Hopefully the second account should be updated with the correct details soon, but please keep an eye on it just in case.

@Tim_OVO can you double check this one by any chance?