IHD has Emergency Credit on the main screen

Hi @Jules1270 ,

That’s weird but shouldn’t be a problem. Please can you check the credit balances on the meters themselves and show us photos of those too?

Hmm… Curious…

So the electric meter is reporting healthy credit and in a normal state and the gas meter reports healthy credit, Non-Disconnect hours and a message is waitng for you…

You might want to read that message on the gas meter. Enter the menu with C and you’ll find the option to read it in there. Please tell me what it says.

If it’s the same message that showed on the IHD it says Gas Meter Initialised, but will go look at the actual meter now….

As a I suspected exactly the same message that showed on my IHD 

Yes I will do  thankyou

Hey @Jules1270 

Sorry to hear about this issue with the IHD.

You’ve had some great help from Blastoise186 on this. Let us know how things are this morning and what the Support Team say.

Does anyone else have problems with the online chat?

I had an issue with my IHD, not being able to access the emergency credit function. Despite explaining several times what the problem was I was told that emergency credit could only be accessed through the meter and only when the balance was below £2. I explained that I have previously been able to activate the credit on the IHD when it goes below £5. I was then sent info on how to activate emergency credit on the meter. I told the advisor that I am at my mum as my dad passed away this week and my 21year old was at home and unable to access the meter.  I was offered “friendly credit “ but declined as I didn’t want the debt as I can top up tomorrow I just wanted the IHD to work properly. I gave up after 50 with no solution and being asked irrelevant questions such as should be make a note on your account that your dad has died. I found the whole experience upsetting and stressful.
why are OVO advisors not helpful?

According to the OVO website If your balance falls below £2, your smart meter will offer you the option to use emergency credit.

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/activate-emergency-credit

Hi ​@Missrd 

I’m sorry to hear about the experience you had over webchat.

It does sound like they offered to do everything they could at the time, they can’t activate emergency credit remotely, this has to be done in person through the meter or IHD. 

On the point of the balance required to activate emergency credit, I checked in with the PAYG team about this just to be sure as the amount does differ per meter type. They have said for smart meters it should allow you to activate below £5. From some parts you mention, was this not appearing on the IHD yet at the time? Could you please let me know where the meter is located? Is it located somewhere inaccessible to access the emergency credit?

I am really sorry for the situation you were also dealing with during the interaction, but as mentioned the team did everything they could to support where they could. You can always raise a complaint if you feel this wasn’t dealt with correctly. 

I have taken this away to have the web article updated, as well as try and get this fed back to agent teams.

It was the issue with the IHD I wanted resolved and I know this can be done remotely. It showing emergency credit was available but it could not be activated when he pressed yes.

The meter is easily accessible but I had the key with my house keys so he wasn’t able to open the meter box.

yes OVO did try and support me but did nothing to resolve the issue that I had raised.

 I have since turned my IHD off for 24 hours and this did not resolve the problem.

 Can’t face wasting nearly an hour of my time again not being listened to by an advisor 

Hey ​@Missrd,

As @Abby_OVO mentioned earlier, it sounds like our Support Team has been really proactive in trying to help you. They even offered some friendly credit to keep your power on until you could top up next time. I totally understand that you decided against that, but it could have been an easy temporary solution until you were ready to add more credit.

I also have some advice regarding the meter box key. When I had a top-up meter, I kept my key attached to my shed keys in a kitchen drawer. That way, I always knew where it was and never had to worry about losing it. If you do something similar, it could make it easier for someone else in your home to top up when you’re not around.

And about the in-home display—it’s mainly a display that lets you see your balance and keeps you informed about your meter’s activity. It will even give you a heads-up when your balance is low, and some displays will allow you to use emergency credit. If you’re having any issues with it, reach out to our Support Team. They can raise a case to investigate or try and get the display unit reset if needed.

​@Chris_OVO I actually find your response quite patronising. If I had wanted friendly credit that I would be paying back on a daily basis I would have been in touch to ask for that.

I asked for help regarding my IHD which I should be confident in it working as it should do.
As previously mentioned my father was dying at the time of me leaving my house and the meter key was the last thing on my mind.

If the equipment supplied by OVO was working as it should be there wouldn’t be an issue in the first place.