If you’re off-supply, it’s considered an emergency matter with a massively faster response time - usually four hours.

If you’re on supply with tons of credit, you could be waiting several weeks.

It’s ridiculous I’ve just been switched over to ovo and the first time I top up it creates a fault on the meter. 

Over an hour on the phone only to result in 
the web page stating that I should get an engineer before I run out of credit, by one member of staff that I have to have 99p or less credit, and by another that I have to have zero credit before they will book an engineer.

To add insult to the already conflicting information I was told that if there is the wrong amount of credit in the meter when an engineer calls I would be charged a £20 call out fee.  

How is it right that the people on pre payment meters (usually because of a tight budget) are the ones that have to use all there credit before they can have an issue resolved? 

If  this is the customer service I can expect I think it’s gonna be bumpy ride. 

Not all issues are handled in this way. There are ones that get handled faster regardless, all depends on the scenario. However, you will NOT be charged the callout fee if the issue is identified as NOT being your fault.

CALL HELP on a gas meter usually means the meter has suffered a serious fault that it is unable to recover from by itself - this often (but not always) means the meter has to be replaced. It can be caused by various things like tampering, card slot failure, meter damage, valve failure and various other triggers. Just because you switch supplier is not enough to trigger that message.

Hi @Traceyryan Did your issue get sorted? 

This morning my metre shows ‘call help’ message. Credit 0, I topped up but nothing happens. Call help but all lines are closed. I am a vulnerable customer. What sould I do?

Hi @Koolkat66 ,

You’ll need to either call OVO in the morning, or use the blue button on this page to speak to OVO today.

The chat is closed today

At the moment I have an old PAYG meter and I really would like to keep it, would that be an option?

Not guaranteed at all. All meters only last for a maximum service life of about 10 years after which they must be replaced. The next one you get will almost certainly be Smart.

Traditional PAYG also relies on support still being in place for top-up keys/cards. Right now, it’s a supported method with the caveat that it’s considered legacy - support for which will probably get slowly phased out over the next decade or so.

@Koolkat66 

Try this as the customer got an emergency appointment quickly via social media just this morning 

Unfortunately you are not alone saying the blue button isn't great out of hours although I think it gets to the same team.

Thank you. I  did get a reply but was the same as before, wait till tomorrow

Hi @Koolkat66 

I’m sorry to heat about this.

All Support Channels are now open, please do get in touch with the team to get an engineer out.

How to get in contact about my OVO Pay As You Go account
 

• The best way to get in touch with us is via chat here. Just click the green chat icon on the bottom right of your screen. We’re here to help anytime from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 2pm on Saturday.
• Or call us on 0330 175 9669 during the same times.

 
If you’re with Boost

• Find answers or chat with Boost at boostpower.co.uk/help
• Or call them on 0330 102 7517.

Let us know how you get on.

I have called this morning and given a 3h emergency appointment. So far no one has arrived yet, still 40 minutes to go :)

Hey @Koolkat66,

Is this resolved now?

No. No one has turned up and I am on a call waiting to speak to somebody

Hey @Koolkat66,

I’m so sorry to hear this,

Have you managed to get a replacement now? It sounds like your meter is an older, faulty model. 

Once you have a smart meter installed you’ll have more options to top up, also it may be advisable for you to change to pay monthly as you advised you are a vulnerable customer. This will mean you don’t have to worry about going off supply. 

I have actually got it replaced to my old model, many thanks to all

Good evening

I had a traditional PAYG gas meter that broke down at the weekend (it shut off the gas and blinked “CALL HELP” at me).  I contacted OVO via webchat and they kindly arranged for an emergency engineer to replace it.  The engineer replaced it with another traditional PAYG meter and topped it up with £30.00 emergency credit.  They advised me a new card was needed.

OVO webchat advised me that I needed to wait until Tuesday (today) before contacting them to order a new PAYG card. I did this and initially received a ‘Tag Code’ only to find out that my chosen location did not have any suitable PAYG cards.  I therefore contacted OVO webchat again and found another location that states they will have suitable cards.  A new ‘Tag Code’ was issued as this location uses PayZone instead of PayPoint.  One of the OVO advisors on webchat stated that locations could use a competitor’s PAYG card if they do not have the right branding but I did not like the sound of that.

So, as it stands I will visit the location tomorrow (14 May) and see if they have suitable cards.  However what I am worried about is whether OVO actually have the right meter details on file.  The new gas meter was only installed on Saturday 10 May and I am worried they may be giving me a Tag Code for the old meter in error. 

Would OVO have already received information about the new tradional PAYG meter already in this time period, or should I check with them in the morning to make sure the new gas meter details are actually on my file before going any further?

Many thanks in advance. 

Hi ​@rjay63 ,

Usually, yes. The records get updated pretty fast so the codes should be for the new meter.

However, I’d highly recommend you migrate to a Smart Meter sooner or later to avoid this problem.

Hey ​@rjay63,

Welcome to the community 🎉

How did you get on yesterday with collecting your new card? Hopefully you’ve now picked it up and can top up your shiny new meter. I’ve left a couple of articles below that you might find helpful:

Thank you for your replies.  The card collection itself went fine as I managed to find a location that stocked OVO Gas Meter cards and the shopkeeper knew what they were doing with the Tag Code.  The card synched to my meter when I put it in and accepted the subsequent £5.00 top-up I bought afterwards.  However from this point, things veered off course slightly.  Due to the emergency credit being activated (£30.00 from the engineer), most of that £5.00 went towards clearing the Emergency credit and the debt/penal rate charge.  I still had a previous £5.00 top up on my old gas card that I could not redeem on my old meter (since it broke down) or now my new meter.  Therefore the agent provided me with a RTI code for £5.00 that I could redeem at a shop.  However the shop in question made some errors and managed to put £10.00 on my gas card without redeeming the £5.00 RTI.  I therefore gave the shop £5.00 for one of the top-ups and they said they will try to redeem the code via their management/accounts.  Anyway I didn't loose out financially as far as those top ups were concerned.  The £10.00 top up then cleared the emergency credit and I went into credit.

However I then received a loud knock on the door this morning, asked who it was and got a muffled response in return.  I saw through the glass it was a courier.  They didn't want to wait around and just shoved a package through my letterbox and went away.  The packagae was addressed to me and when I opened it, there was a new gas card inside.  I do not remember being told that I would be receiving a gas card by the post so now I have two of them for my meter.

Overall I am a couple of pounds down from the experience (due to being stuck on emergency credit for 3/4 days with no means to top up the new meter) but I can live with that.  

I was rather surprised that the engineer replaced my broken meter with exactly the same traditional PAYG model I had before (no Smart meter).  Not that I'm complaining as I've been using these meters types for the past 26 years and they suit my needs fine.  Apparently my traditonal PAYG gas meter was refurbished in 2023; here's a picture of the sticker.  

Just to note here that there is no such “penal rate”; you don’t pay any extra for using emergency credit.

What you saw was the way that emergency credit works with the daily Standing Charge.

When you are using emergency credit the meter only charges for what you actually use and does not charge the daily Standing Charge.
Instead it defers (saves up) the daily Standing Charges to be paid later when you put enough paid-for credit on.
That’s simply because emergency credit is needed for usage, and you don’t want your emergency credit to be gobbled up by Standing Charges.

Of course that means that when you do top up by enough the meter will take those ‘deferred’ Standing Charges for however may days you have been on the emergrncy credit.

(PAYG electricty meters do the same when on emergency credit - they don’t apply the daily SCs and ony take them when you top up enough).

Hey ​@rjay63,

It sounds like your issue has been resolved, and I'm glad to hear you're now in credit. You should be able to continue topping up your working card without problems. For the second card, I recommend keeping it aside in a safe place for now.

It's good that your new meter is like your old one, as this will be familiar to you. Your previous meter was likely removed due to a dead battery and taken away for a replacement. Our engineers have recently started replacing batteries on certain meters, but often the meters are taken to a safe location for this process.

Please let us know if you have any further questions

Hi there - This week I was low on credit for my gas pre payment meter -  I stuck my card in and knocked on the emergency credit.  Ive been busy so I was using the emergency credit - it ran out so the meter has closed a valve or something to stop the gas as no money in.  I put £30 on my card tonight and when i tried to top up my meter beeped 3 times and then showed “ Call Help”.  I have tried to do everything i can think of - which is not much - I called ovo they said they cant help until tomorrow.  With this error code is there anything i can do ? what causes this code? i had it once before around 7 years ago - they gave me a replacement meter - i dont think it was a new one just one they had fixed before or something like that.  any help would be useful . thanks