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My mother has to wait until she is off supply before Boost Energy will replace the meter?

  • 10 November 2022
  • 4 replies
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Has anyone had the below happen to them? And will this ever be resolved? 

(it feels like this will never be resolved from what I’ve seen so far)

 

The Beginning:

This situation all began almost a month ago (my app hasn’t updated since 11/10/2022) because I could not top up the electric and gas meters, I have tried several times (on different cards) and each time my payments were declined, however my money was taken for 5-7 working days each time before being returned to my bank account. And because of the poor customer service and dropped calls over the last 2 weeks (to avoid an emergency situation), my vulnerable mother was left without electricity on Monday (07/11/2022), which caused her ‘lifeline’ to send out an emergency alert.

 

This Week’s Highlights (there is so much more I could say):

  • Dropped calls by the Complaints & Resolution Team (overall, I’ve had my call dropped by the majority of advisers I’ve spoken to, even when I’ve asked to be called back)
  • Every adviser / call has told me there’s a different problem, requires different info, different teams involved; with lengthening apparent solution timescales in each call; 24-48 hours, then 3-5 days, then 5 days
  • 9+ hours on the phone (not including time spent in web chat, on twitter, emails sent); and I’ve already sent emails to complaints@ovoenergy.com and complaints@boostpower.co.uk with no response.
  • Engineer sent out to change meters, but apparently these still cannot connect to the system so I cannot top-up her meters and was told we must wait for them to run below £1 for another engineer to fix them

All I want to be able to do is top up the meters and see the credit on my app so I can ensure my mum is safe (her lifeline is working) and warm; is that too much to ask?

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Best answer by Blastoise186 10 November 2022, 12:55

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Blastoise186
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Updated on 20/10/23 by Abby_OVO

To be honest… I would strongly recommend asking the Boost Support Team to move the account to OVO Pay Monthly as well as set it up for the Priority Service Register. You should NEVER place a vulnerable adult on PAYG and both OVO and Boost also strongly advise against it.

Your best bet is to migrate her over to OVO PAYM so that the supply never cuts out and you don’t have to worry about running out of credit. Boost can make the arrangements so you don’t have to do anything other than request a transfer.

You can contact BOOST here: https://www.boostpower.co.uk/help/

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
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@Blastoise186 Thanks for your reply, though I wouldn’t class that as an adequate response to my issue considering I’m still being ignored by Boost / OVO.

Also, if that’s something they apparently recommend; why haven’t they recommended or offered that to me? 
 

And I do not consider this ‘solved’ so I don’t know what admin changed the status of my question… sounds like another way to ignore my issue…

Blastoise186
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That advice can’t be given if OVO and Boost aren’t aware that a vulnerable person is present at the address. It’s not possible to pro-actively identify that sort of thing if people never get in touch, so the best way to ensure it’s known is via the Priority Services Register.

If OVO has reason to believe that a customer might be vulnerable, there are processes that they’ve told me about to help get the customer registered for PSR and other measures. But if they never speak to OVO directly, it’s very difficult to pick up on that.

This forum is also volunteer led and I don’t work for OVO or Boost myself. I can’t access the account, so my reply is the best I can offer.

Threads may be marked as solved if there’s a good answer that helps the wider community or the original user in some way. It doesn’t have a relation to the actual issue being resolved because we rarely find out whether it got resolved or not.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Emmanuelle_OVO
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Hello @VulnerableMumAtRisk,

 

I’m really sorry to hear of the issues you’re having.

 

It sounds like they’re waiting for your meter to go off supply so Boost can book an emergency meter exchange. It sounds very frustrating and I can understand your concern. Unfortunately unless a customer is off supply or the meter is posing a risk then they can’t book in an emergency exchange. Id advise you contact Boost when your mother goes off supply and ask for a pay monthly smart meter to be installed. If they’re unable to do that, they can install a payg smart meter, and remotely change the functionality to pay monthly. 

 

It advises on the website; If there’s an emergency with your meter, call us on 0800 358 3523.

 

I agree it’s not appropriate that someone vulnerable would need to top up.

 

I’d also advise getting your mother added to the Priority Services Register. This means that if there are ever any works being done in her area by the Distribution Network Operator, or planned outages she’d be advised and treated as a priority. 

 

Hope this helps. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

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