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Mixed up meters?

V
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  • Veli
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Ever since OVO took over SSE the meters and the accounts of the property I own have been mixed up.

 

I own a house that is split into 2 flats. OVO (SSE) supply’s the gas to the First floor flat and the electricity to the Ground floor flat, the two flats have been rented to different tenants, who have recently moved out. Ever since OVO took over SSE on OVO’s system/date base the two meters are on the address of the building rather than the individual flats they belong to.

 

The electricity for the First floor flat and the gas for the Ground floor flat are provided by different utility providers.

 

I only find this out in December when tenants moved out and I was trying to inform OVO of the changes. I raised the complaint at the end of December, for the last 3 months I have been trying to resolve this by email and phone with zero success.

 

All I am getting is that they will come back to me or that they are looking at the issue.

 

The latest replay is that they cannot answer/update me because I am writing from an email that is not related to the account, which is not true, as I always write to them from one and the same email and that is my accounts’ email.

 

Can someone please advise on how to approach or deal with the above.

 

 

 

 

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Best answer by Firedog 20 March 2024, 12:21

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Firedog
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This email address business is always a problem when someone other than the OVO account holder is trying to make changes to an OVO account. You do have some say, though, as the landlord of the properties concerned, where there is confusion as in this case.

The first thing to check is how the two flats are distinguished in the Royal Mail database. If they’re not distinguished at all, you might want to contact the street and house names bit of your local authority to ask how you add Flat 1 or 123B or whatever to the addresses for the two apartments. Once that has been done, you can apply for an amendment to the PO address database, which is used to match energy supply designators (MPAN and MPRN) to addresses.

Both of the occupiers of the flats will have to contact OVO independently with clear evidence of which meter is which. This would ideally be a clear photo of each meter showing its serial number (MSN), annotated to say which flat it belongs to. If there isn’t a tenant in residence, then you as landlord are responsible for the supply and its bills. 

You may find it best to use the webchat option to contact Support; you can upload photos during the chat, and you can get a written record (e.g. take a screenshot) of the conversation.

Please ask again if any of this isn’t clear. 

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
V
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Thanks for your time in replying.

The contact is always from the account holder and the same email used.

Pictures have been requested and sent.

Tenants check out forms with check out meter numbers and meter readings have been sent

Burn test requested and confirmed 

Council tax bills to confirm the addresses available 

Tenants contracts with moving in and out dates available 

… and not just that but now the both bills are on our name and OVO is asking me for a payment of the tenants final bill

No , I haven’t tried the web chat as I am struggling to make human understand what is going on, never mind a computer bot

 

You further comment and suggestions will be much appreciated! I saw somewhere there was an email of the OVOs CEO , for cases that no one else can resolve, would you recommend this approach?

 

 

BPLightlog
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I’m a little confused here @Veli

If the accounts are in your name, then why would the supplier try to get payment from anyone else. 
The post office database is what is used for property records, do having council tax bills wouldn’t necessarily mean anything. There’s a defined list of addresses which all suppliers use and that’s why Firedog suggested checking what’s registered. It might be that SSE tried a quick fix to distinguish the separate flats but didn’t follow correct procedures which would follow through to the current issues. 
It’s worth double checking everything before you try to take it further. 

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
V
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Hi BPL

the other 2 utility suppliers have the correct addresses on their bills, accounts and systems. 
the property addresses are

Ground flood flat

X name road

and 

First floor flat 

X name road

I have the gas to Ground floor flat supplied by eOn , and on their bill/Acc says :

Ground floor flat 

x name road

OVO supply’s the electricity for the Ground Floor Flat and on their bill/Acc says:

x name road ( no allocation to a particular flat)

I have the Electricity to First floor flat supplied by British Gas and on their bill/Acc says:

First floor flat

x name road

The gas for the first floor flat is supplied by OVO

on their bill/Acc says:

X name road ( without allocation to a particular flat. ) 

As a result of the above, OVO/SSE consider the two meters to belong to one and the same address ( X name road ) , and not to their particular flats. 
I just don’t know what other evidence to provide and whom to provide them to!? I spoke with 10 different operators on the phone, I have emails from 5 different other people and not a step forward. I need Someone to take my case look at the issue and make the required changes, I don’t care who’s mistake OVOs or SSEs or the transfer , I just want all this resolved and stop spending hours on phone and email.

Thanks

 

BPLightlog
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As painful as it might sound, it might be worth noting that no one here can access your account and so you do need to make direct contact to make progress

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
V
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Thanks BPL

I have been trying this since December 

V
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BPL,

can you please advise where I can escalate this?I have filed a complaint and still nothing. As I said, i are writing from the account’s email and a massage/email comes back saying I need to write from the account’s email ? I am a mentally sane person but all this makes me question that!

BPLightlog
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The only options I’m aware of are listed on their website. 
https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

Several contact points are noted if you scroll through the list

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
Firedog
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As regards webchat - it’s always worked for me, and I never had to make do with a bot. There’s always been an agent available to chat to. 

You can also try the Twitter or Facebook options, too; the agents answering there have the same access to your account as the ones in the in-house webchat. You don’t need a Facebook account to use the Messenger chat (the blue button at the foot of this page), and any exchange of personal information takes place by private message once you’ve convinced them you are who you say you are. That just involves giving your name, date of birth, OVO account no., first line of your address and postcode.

 

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
Shads_OVO
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Userlevel 3

Hi @Veli,

 

I’m really sorry to hear about your experience. I can see that you mentioned that you’ve tried to get in touch on a few occasions to get this sorted.

 

This link may be useful if you are trying to escalate your complaint.

 

 

As mentioned by our volunteers, we don’t have access to your account here, but it does seem that this would need a deeper look to get to the bottom of the issue. I’m going to have our Forum Support team reach out to you so they can help you further with this.

Look out for a private message here soon: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview.

 

Thanks,

Shads

 

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