Yep very strange, was this not escalated when a complaint was raised, @TomThumb? No problem if not, but if it got to the Complaints team, you will have a dedicated agent who would be best placed to check on this. 

For now, a few things I can suggest and advise:

I am certain your tariff will be unchanged, with the same prices and end date. When this gets implemented is unclear, but you won’t be effected by different contract terms from this cosmetic change. 

If you’re on the legacy billing platform you will have an OVO ID, and if you’re on the new platform you won’t. This might explain it, does it look like your account has changed over (again) for both smart meters?

@Tim_OVO   @Transparent & @Blastoise186 I wouldn’t want you guys to miss this update.

After ovo were unable to provide clarification on my new account yesterday & I never received the promised callback later in the day.

I again placed a call to ovo this morning to seek some answers for my newly created account, namely the inconsistent end date & as to why ovo can justify an increase on my tariff,

The condensed response from ovo,

My account has broken ovo’s system yet again,

The system created a new account but it failed to populate correctly,

Ovo were unable or (unwilling) to refresh the creation of a new account,

Ovo have now reinstated my 3 meters back on a single account.

So in short I’m back where I started, back on a system that is unable & not in a position to handle my account,

Tim, from the the calls to ovo they did confirm the new account had a fixed tariff end date of

10th December 2021 (my main account end date March 2021)

Altho both accounts were on the better energy plan, the newly created account incurred & higher kWh cost & standing charge.

But due to the account error, they couldn’t delve deeper or resolve!

Both accounts were on the old legacy platform,

I got the feeling again that ovo were unable to identify the error(s) with my account & therefore unable to apply a fix.

Tim! the best answer need changing again  

I just need my traditional gas meter to reappear alongside my smart meters on my account & will be totally back to where I started, 

So where do I go from here? any suggestions?

Tia

Tom...

At this point, I will have to admit that I’m stumped by this one.

In a way, I think this is probably one of the few extreme edge cases that probably warrants Tim intervening directly, before this gets even more tangled up in another infinite loop.

It’s very rare that I’d ask Tim to do this sort of thing, but I have concerns that it’s going to otherwise get trapped indefinitely.

Thanks for this update, @TomThumb and I have already asked for some support on this account. Just chased up today. 

I’ll update you, likely in the first week of January, depending on annual leave being taken this week. 

For now, festive cheer and a toast to all on today, Winter Solstice 

An update

After last weeks account change & subsequent rollback, the short lived full functionality of the ovo app has again lost any usability for me now that all of my 3 meters are back on a single account.

I have had some promising feedback via @Tim_OVO tho & hopefully it’s a step in the right direction.

Due to my traditional gas meter having zero usage over the winter months, the normal higher estimated usage figures during the colder months are the complete opposite of any energy companies predictions.

This results in a grossly over estimated usage forecast & an unjustified increase in monthly payments..

Ovo have now flagged this meter as zero usage for the time being

So as an end user, any computer generated estimated annual usage figures should now be more balanced,

also the recent red flag on my account (a validation error) indicating a possible fault with this meter / account due to it’s not clocking any usage, is also suspended for now.

Ovo have also confirmed again that all 3 meters are aligned on the same billing / statement cycle, so hopefully my January statement will have no issues !

All being well, I shouldn’t have any updates until mid Jan when my next statement is due,

so I will take this opportunity to thank @Tim_OVO  / this forum & it’s members for the help & support this last year.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas & a happy new year…

Tom...

Another update,  I might have broken ovo again

 I’ve just been on my ovo account & I had a pop up stating I have not provided a meter read?

Very strange as my account had been up to date with all meter readings this morning.

Now however the complete meter reading history for my smart gas meter has vanished from my account.

I know ovo were poking around in my account yesterday, could the change to a zero usage flag on my traditional gas meter be to blame?

On the plus side, the zero usage flag has now put the projected usage for next month’s statement back to real world figures 

Tom...

Wow, @TomThumb you really seem to be very good at breaking OVO’s systems!

I think your diagnosis is probably also correct. Since I’m pretty sure hardly any billing systems/platforms are designed to properly handle your meter setup, applying a zero-usage flag to your second gas meter probably got interpreted as a zero-usage flag on both gas meters.

I hope this gets solved soon. The ultimate best outcome in my opinion would be having the Orion platform add support for edge cases like yours and have your account migrated over. I can foresee a few potential snags during such a migration and it probably wouldn’t be a smooth transfer, but hopefully once that’s done you should be sorted.

Update 

After previously reporting the the system changes made by ovo had wiped my smart gas meter reading history, my ovo is now reporting readings as normal, albeit  only 3 days of them.

As the usage history had been unaffected by this change, it has subsequently had a knock on affect on the ovo app, 

The app has always displayed meaningless data as is still the case with the electric tab!

but now the gas tab is reporting actual usable data,  day / month / year / ££ / kWh  

If ovo can replicate the process on my electric usage, they might be moving in the right direction

If they manage to get my traditional gas meter usage history as well, that truly will be a Christmas miracle

Tom…

A very Merry Christmas to you all...

 

 

 

It really is interesting to hear the changes happening, seemingly weekly, to what you can see on your online account, and how this correlates to what is happening behind the scenes. 

I’m not able to offer any support or advice for these usage section issues, @TomThumb - as it’s on the legacy billing platform we will struggle to get the root cause added into a list for developer fixing. 

The key thing for me here is your billing. That needs to be correct, it needs to be automated and monthly. 

And same to you! Any plans for new years eve in tier 2, 3, or 4? No, didn’t think so 

As it’s my monthly statement time again, I’m back to provide an update,

Ovo have yet again failed to bill me correctly this month. 

I’ve been with Ovo 10 months & over that time I’ve had 10 monthly statements that have been incorrect, so 10 out of 10 to Ovo for there failure.

Ovo have still only managed to bill 2 out of my 3 meters this month, but they have decided to mix it up a little & bill just my smart electric & dumb gas meter.

The other observations of note on my Ovo account this month is that the Ovo app has reverted back to being totally useless, with the usage tab once again showing meaningless data against my gas usage alongside the electric data.

Also the illustrative statement makes interesting reading, as this statement is merely a guide & not an actual statement, it for fun only.

Given I have already been billed correctly up to the 10th Dec,

And Ovo have deleted all meter readings from my Ovo account  prior to 22nd Dec, so I can’t actually check the readings, 

Could this bill be correct?   Who knows? 

As a customer I am definitely not up for cryptic guessing games when a straightforward bill will do.

Tom...

Cost of gas used = minus £89.53  @TomThumb ?

What’s the calorific value of the gas you’re exporting?

If only @Transparent, add in to the mix the time I’ve spent on the phone to Ovo sorting there issues out, they should paying me lol.

Im on hold now to them yet again,  

According to ovo customer services it had been me who requested that my 3 meters be put back on a single account? The fact that that it was reverted back by Ovo themselves is an insult to me. 
OVO had closed my official complaint last month without notifying me, so another official complaint is now in progress!.

Ovo have again stated a new account for the sole use of my traditional gas meter is the way forward & are setting that up as I type,

They are insistent on my new complaint should now be closed but no way am I doing that.

Just finished my monthly call into Ovo, 

As per last month’s short lived resolution, I again have 2 Ovo accounts, 1 for both smart meters & 1 for my traditional gas meters.

Ovo blaming the wrong account type being setup last month for the failure in Dec.

I have insisted that my complaint be kept open, at least until my Feb bill / statements have been produced & are correct.

The fact that Ovo closed my official complaint last month without a resolution or response is high on the list of this month’s complaint.

This time Ovo have stated that both accounts have had all previous statements cleared & that a new single statement for each account has been generated from when I first joined Ovo back in March 2020,

Hopefully I have a saved email with my opening meter readings so I can check the figures & actual costs, (do I trust Ovo to get my account & billing correct? Lol)  as my smart gas meter readings on my Ovo only go back to 22nd Dec.

Then do the same when my newly created account is made available to me.

Having 3 meters has caused slight issues with previous energy suppliers, but nothing comes close to how Ovo have managed sry mismanaged my account.

Can I now put an end to this thread?

Only time will tell?

Tom...

Another  update, 

Having just been back in touch with Ovo to clarify a seemingly minor glitch on the changes made to my account this morning,  I’m now not holding out any hope of the new account for the sole use of my traditional gas meter going live after all.

Although the customer service rep could see the newly created account, he couldn’t access it’s data,  add in the fact that Ovo do not actually offer a gas only supply, his opinion was that this newly created account was already set to crash & burn.

The complaints department should be in touch with me in the next few days, that will give the Ovo servers a few days to pull the data through or fail yet again in the creation of this new account. 

On the plus side, I’m somewhat confident that the new single statement generated by Ovo for March 2020 to January 2021 for my 2 smart meters is correct. 

The fact that Ovo had deleted all my meter readings prior to December 22nd for my gas smart meter made this a challenge, but credit to my previous energy supplier for keeping my old account / data / meter readings available to me online.

With the changes made to my account by Ovo this morning, I was expecting the my Ovo app to once again show some meaningful data & I was not left disappointed, I have again a working usage tab with a day / month / year view,

The unexpected part was that I could not login to my account with my email & password,

Ovo via the web asks for either my email or Ovo id & password !

The Ovo app asks for my email & password !

Both only accept my Ovo id & password, 

Something tells me this thread is far from being closed.

Tom...

Thanks for this update, @TomThumb.

I’m sorry to hear that the fix we put in place last month doesn’t seem to have fixed anything. I would have gone back to my colleague who was convinced all corrections had been made to allow the billing of all 3 supplies. However as your account now sits with the Complaints team, I’m staying clear. They are best placed to own this till it’s resolved. 

Feel free to share this thread with the complaint handler! 

@Tim_OVOwrote:

Feel free to share this thread with the complaint handler! 

and feel free to share this thread with the Development Team for the new Billing System.

It shouldn’t be possible to have an export figure for gas!

If a negative figure needs to be inserted due to a previous incorrect calculation, then I feel it should actually be marked in the bill as an Adjustment or a Correction.

We have to make these Bills understandable by the ordinary customer… not someone with the higher-IQ which you’d expect of a software programmer.

And that’s another reason why OVO/Kaluza needs to think seriously about the use of a “Consumer Taste Panel” who are shown a prototype product before a Project Manager gets his team to spend another 50 hours programming it!

@Tim_OVO  Last month the agreed resolution of the newly created account for my traditional gas meter lasted all of 1 day, before being cancelled by Ovo.

But after my initial doubts of this months changes, I now have access to my newly created account & I am able to login.

Following the same path as my original account, all bills have been wiped / reset & a single statement has been produced for the period March 2020 to January 2021, 

No increase to my tariff & no new 12mth fixed term this time so it’s all looking as it should.

The only slight concern is that the meter location address / ident is the same for both of my gas meters now, as this data dose not match the 2 entries on the national database, this could cause issues if I were to switch supplier, 

@Transparent i totally agree with your comment re billing.

Since joining Ovo I don’t think any of my statements have been as straightforward as they should have been, 

random billing dates / random meters being billed / actual smart meter readings shown as estimated / smart meters turning dumb / Ovo deleting my meter reading history / a zero calorific value on the conversion table.

My screenshot is Ovo taking it to the extreme !

What should be a quick glance to check I have actually been billed correctly turns into a marathon event sometimes.

For clarity, all of my statements have been found to be correctly charged. but unless I can check! how would I know!

At the end of the day, nothing is infallible, I like to keep an eye on my finances inc my utility bills. 
 

Tom…

Just to keep this thread up to date.

I have now had the promised callback from the complaints department.

The main bulk of the conversation had been reviewing the changes made by Ovo a few day’s back, mingled with a brief synopsis of the troubles I’ve encountered with Ovo & the existence & location of this thread & the expected apologies from Ovo.

As all the major changes & reworking of my accounts had been done prior to the call, the positives I gained were,

A gas only account although not offered by Ovo, is the preferred way forward & is acceptable.

My official complaint will remain open at least until my February statements have been produced.

The only minor concerns I put forward had been that the meter address shown on both of my accounts is now identical, however neither match the 2 separate gas meter entries on the national database.

I have seen posts of switching energy provider fail because of such a mismatch, so hopefully that is now being looked into.

The only annoyance of all the changes that have been made is that I am still unable to log into my Ovo with my email address, it will only accept my Ovo id,

A quote from Ovo reads,

Here’s a nice simple one, you’ve got two accounts, and want to switch between the two. You couldn’t do this before, but step aside old system, there’s a new system in town!

Simply click ‘Account’ at the top, then ‘Select account’, and you’ll be able to choose which account to view.

The reality was: 

1 account listed / log out / re login  / login failed / please login with your Ovo I’d / what’s my Ovo I’d? I have not got a clue? / where is my Ovo id, it’s probably listed in my Ovo account! / can I log into my account to find it? NO / place a call into Ovo to ask why I can’t access my account with my email address? & ask for my Ovo Id to try & regain access to my account! / login with Ovo id / job done.

I would expect to regain full & unfettered access to both my accounts by changing the associated email address of at least 1 account, but nothing is taken for granted,

do Ovo intentionally try to make things complicated or am I just unlucky ?

Or is it that Skynet has a sense of humour ?

Tom...

Thanks for keeping us do speed on this saga @TomThumb. This has the makings of a comedy sketch.

Have a look at what @Tim_OVO has posted here about a conversation earlier today between myself and Stephen Fitzpatrick.

Since Feb’20 there has been a growing tide of useful information being communicated on the Forum regarding “issues” with the new Billing System. The feedback is extremely valuable, and yet OVO have thus far failed to capitalise on it.

This is set to change.

We need to find ways in which accurate reports of software and system failures (like you’ve provided) can be given a high level of visibility to the relevant product/program managers. This is likely to involve the use of Forum areas with restricted access, to which customers can be invited. That will enable rapid assessment of high-quality evidence without first having to battle though 3 layers of Customer Services!

The use of restricted access areas also alleviates many of the constraints imposed by GDPR on what can be discussed of customer details on the open Forum.

Using your comments on this Topic as an example, some of what you say requires changes to the way in which staff in the Billing Dept implement the systems. In making those changes they must ensure that they still comply with the Ofgem Regulatory structure…. which needs checking by the Compliance Team.

Other parts of your feedback need action to be taken by software team developing the Billing System. But they are based in London, not Bristol, and are employed by Kaluza, not OVO!

The main reason I think we can now arrive at a solution is because both OVO and Kaluza are companies within OVO Group Ltd. And Stephen is the CEO.

Let’s give him a few days to think how we can move things forward.

Any announcements will come though @Tim_OVO as the senior Moderator. So as a fellow customer, I can’t speculate on how the companies might act as a result of Stephen’s intervention.

@Tim_OVO  @Transparent  @Blastoise186 

It’s been a while, but this thread deserves one last update, 

Success, Ovo have finally got my accounts & billing correct
It’s taken just short of 12 months to get to this point, but both of my accounts  are now confirmed as running without any issues.

In a short summary

I have 3 meters, but Ovo constantly only ever billed 2 of them.

It’s taken numerous phone calls & emails, an official complaint / a resolution / Ovo reversing the resolution / a new official complaint made, that also included how my first official complaint had been handled / a resolution ( from a single > 2 accounts) / success  / official complaint now closed.

It’s definitely not been the smoothest of journeys, but a big thank you to the forum & it’s contributing members for the help & advice along the way.

Tom…

How are you finding our inhouse billing platform, @TomThumb - 6 months on since this was sorted for you?

Hi @Tim_OVO My current setup is still 2 separate ovo accounts, with a different email address for login purposes. 
Both accounts are behaving nicely since they were split, no more billing issues & for the 1st time since being with ovo, I have gained a usage chart for my traditional gas meter.

Even the predicted usage & associated dd payments for my traditional gas meter are inline with a zero usage forecast over the winter

I had been informed that this account had been set as under user management rather than the automated process, but that was on the legacy platform, I’m unsure if the meter / account profile had been carried over to the Orion platform or it is Orion itself following a trend rather than an expected forecast, either way it’s both welcomed & unexpected.
As the daily usage graph on my smart meters is still reporting gmt rather than bst(+1) my money is on a user managed account rather than how smart Orion is 🤭

Come contract renewal, having a 3rd meter has caused issues in the past, this time round was no exception, but nothing less than I’m use to.

All in all it’s definitely working well for me now

Tom…

After waiting a shocking amount of time to migrate (over two years..) I have now been greeted with the ability to login - this update was only apparent as I received an email advising me to fix my variable tariff in. I thought to myself, if this involves me having to actually login to my account then this email would be as pointless as the last comms from Ovo. Then I was left shocked as I was advised to renew my password and hey presto I’m in. So much for the comms around letting us know when we were migrated. My account portal tells me I was successfully migrated in June, June to October to gain access? 
 

I have a three phased meter, and a gas meter. I start looking around the account and click the submit meter readings and I’m greeted with this.

is it really that complex? After two years? I am close to a nervous breakdown if I have continually manually submit readings over the phone for them to be continually messed up. I login via the online account to be greeted by a gas meter and two of my three electric meters. Great. I often wonder why I held out for this long with Ovo, the whole migration and wait has been shocking to say the least. 

Hi @SLloyd,

I’m really sorry to hear this. This is definitely not the experience we want for our customers. 

I’ll ask team about this to see if there’s anything we can do, I’ll get back to you once I get a response.

Hi @SLloyd,

I’ve sent you a private message.