Why are there large estimated usage and charges on my bill just before my recent smart meters installation?

IF by any chance the engineer who did the swap was able to get a meter reading from the old meter, it will be noted, along with the serial numbers of both the old and new meters, on the meter exchange card left by/on the new electricity smart meter - and even if the engineer did get a meter reading, it is unlikely that it will have worked its way through OVO’s admin yet. … if I remember correctly from the other day your account hasn’t even been updated with the details of your new meter yet.

I’d go with @Firedog’s advice - if the engineer couldn’t get a reading but it is still possible for technicians to recover any useful data, then hopefully they can pull whatever strings are necessary.

I also agree with lots of the advice above, @Jammintunes - the meter readings (rather than the usage graphs for the blank meter screen period) are the important factor here. If the engineer wasn’t able to take a reading when the meter was exchanged, an estimate based on your average annual consumption will be used. If that appears out of line, we can monitor your usage with the smart meter to get a revised meter reading on the date of the exchange. You can request this via our Support team, but by the sounds of it this has already been requested. 

Just looking back on this @Jammintunes and you should have a ‘meter swap’ card by your current install. This would have been completed by the engineer at the time and recorded your final old meter reading and your starting new meter read. 
If this was not available due to the fault, I would have expected the meter and account to be tagged for review after the engineers back at base were able to examine the faulty hardware

@BPLightlog This jogged my memory (thank you)so i checked the meter box and found the below card.

As you can see final reading is blank

@Tim_OVO Thank you for taking the time to reply , on our online account our meter usage shows the below.

Prior to this i have had to obtain the usage from bills , it looks like from June our meter was faulty and estimated usage has been calculated by OVO.

Will dig out all our historical manual readings prior to June 22 and post accordingly , will keep on with the support team and follow all their instructions , they have asked for photos of the serial number of the smart meter , videos of the lights flashing and a photo of the position of the smart meter  … pretty sure the issue is with the old meter readings or lack there of.

Hi @Jammintunes 

Just wanted to empathise with you about this issue.

We have been waiting for the recalculation of our bills since the installation of the new smart meter after exchange of the old faulty one last July. We thought it would be recalculated from the last few months consumption but it just happened that the billing team didn’t use any of it and left the bills as it was, so we still owe £900, and they sent us to debt agency which might affect our credit rating on top of that, which is outrageous!

This week, we managed to talk to another accounting agent who understood our case, and acknowledge the billing problem, raised a complaint on our account and put a hold.

Even though this might be helping our case, it feels like every other agents we’ve been talking to on the phone the last few months all acknowledge the nature of the complex issue and promise us to follow up on the case/call back but none actually did.

This put us in a very stressful and desperate situation, we have spent hours on the phone and repeated ourselves countless of times but it doesn’t seem like anyone can properly help which is really frustrating because we moved from EDF thinking OVO would be able to sort our case.

Really hope you manage to sort your case!

Hello I got a smart meter fitted 19th Jan to a property I purchased in November. My charges were estimated up to the point the meter became live and as the property was empty with no power being used I'm due to be refunded the usage charge. This refund hasn't happened yet!!

Is this normal & will it arrive in due course?

Appreciate any information 

Thanks

Alan

Hi @Vamatex ,

It can take a bit longer to arrange a refund of this type. If it doesn’t come through, please let Support know and they can chase up.

Hey @Vamatex,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community,

You should get a statement within 6 weeks of the new meter being installed. When the engineer came to fit your new meter they would have taken a final reading from the old meter, which you’ll be billed to, if this reading is lower than our estimates your bill will  reflect this. 

Hope this helps.