Blank prepayment meter due to power cut

Hi ​@berwyn4 ,

That sounds like Free Vend Mode, a state where the meter basically “shuts down” and stops doing certain functions if it can’t properly number crunch, which means you temporarily get “Unlimited Credit” and no risk of self-disconnection until the meter is reset or replaced. However, these days the reset option is almost never used anymore - replacement with a Smart Meter is preferred.

Generally speaking the old meter would be taken back to the depot to be examined and the remaining credit extracted there. It’s actually recommended to let the meter swap go ahead anyway as there’s no method to extract and transfer said credit in the field - IIRC it has to be done remotely.

The idea is that once OVO gets the old meter back, they’d pull the remaining credit from it, calculate how much credit and/or debt to transfer and send that over to your new Smart Meter automatically but the removed meter has to go to a service centre in order to do so.

In theory, the engineer programmer devices can potentially be hooked up to the old meter and download that data just before the meter is removed, but that doesn’t work if the engineer who visits you either doesn’t have the right device with them, or the meter fails to respond to attempts to interrogate it. I’ve had my hands on those devices a total of one time - with OVO’s permission - a few years ago, but it was in OVO’s Bristol office and because it was just a test/demo unit, I didn’t actually get to play with it.

In actual fact, OVO were pretty clear they didn’t want me to even take it out of the room it was in either - apparently getting hold of those things is a nightmare these days!

Even if the download is successful on-site however, it still has to go back to the office for processing anyway before the credit can be migrated.

To make this smoother, I’d suggest letting the next attempt go ahead anyway because otherwise eventually you’ll start racking up a debt - and that’s not ideal.

Right ok that makes sense. It was the engineer who suggested rearranging the fitting because he could only put a temporary £20 on the new meter as emergency credit in the interim. 

It's my mum's meter who is down with Ovo as a vulnerable person, so wether the engineer did it for that reason i don't know.

There is more than enough (around £170) credit in the old meter so it wouldn't be in debit for a long time with £8 or so p/w usage

Yeah, that sounds normal to me - the £20 would have been purely to get it going and is pretty standard stuff.

Thanks for your advice on this, much appreciated 

The meter has been replaced now, but they say there was nothing on it! That would mean that my mother, a single disabled person with mental health issues, living alone in a one bed flat, changed from using £8 p/w to £25p/w, emptying the meter! How can this be challenged? Proof of remaining credit we dont have as the meter was blank due to vend mode!!

Thanks. Based on previous usage there should have been around £160 left on the meter but they said there was nothing. On complaining and being referred to the 'resolution team', they apologised and transferred £128 to the new meter. Seems too specific a number to be a compensation amount. Did they find the credit but only after i complained? Seems fishy.

It’s possible they may have managed to extract something out of the old meter. But I can only use my Crystal Ball to make wild guesses and I’m not sure I trust this thing. I bought it at a junk store and the other day it said VHS was making a comeback.

All I know is that in some cases, the unit has to be recalled from the field to crack it open and interrogate it that way - which you can’t do while it’s on the wall.

Hi ​@berwyn4 

I’m sorry to hear about the issues you’ve had trying to get this sorted for your mum, but I’m glad to hear the team were able to transfer that to the new meter, it does sound like they were maybe able to locate that like Blastoise186 said, but we don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum so we couldn’t say for sure.

Let us know if you have any other questions or feel free to pop back any time.

Thank you. My biggest gripe is the initial customer rep saying there was nothing on the meter and being very condescending 'what do you think was used as credit over the period the meter wasn't working' . It was only my persistence and knowledge of customer care that i wanted to put a complaint in, that they moved me to the resolution department, who pretty much with the first sentence said they were sorry and that the credit would be transferred. Were they initially trying to fob me off in the hope id just accept the first answer? It's left a bad taste to be honest.