Hi ​@dgould ,

Sounds like a dead meter to me. There’s not much you can do to clear that fault I’m afraid.

I also can’t tell you what may have caused it - Call Help is a generic error intended to make it easy for you to alert the supplier without overwhelming you. The real reason could be one of 20+ things if memory serves.

Please reach out to OVO in the morning - they should get this sorted for you.

Hi - thanks for taking the time to reply to this thread.  Yeah ive been trying to look into the reasons for it.  From dusty card readers to a valve not opening and beyond.  Thought might have been a work around but clearly not - Looks like ill need to get the fan heater out tonight then.    I tried tonight about 5 to 8 and they said oh we dont wanna know now we have homes to go to ( that may not be verbatim lol )

Thanks again

Hmm… They really shouldn’t be saying that…

The idea is that if you get through during opening hours, I would expect OVO to serve you. I am disappointed to hear this.

While I’m usually highly positive about OVO, I cannot defend them in a situation like this and I reserve the right to hold them accountable if I feel the need to do so.

This incident will be flagged to the Forum Moderators. Thanks for letting me know about it.

Hey ​@dgould,

I’m really sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with your meter! If you're without power, our friendly Support Team can quickly arrange for an emergency engineer to come to your property within three hours. Just reach out to them through the link below, and they'll be happy to help!

​@dgould you’ve mentioned:

I tried tonight about 5 to 8 and they said oh we dont wanna know now we have homes to go to

I appreciate this may not have been the exact wording used, but please can you confirm if this was during a conversation with OVO? If so we can get calls listened to and get this dealt with internally - I’ve never heard of this sort of service during a metering emergency.

Please let us know when you’ve got an emergency appointment booked in. As ​@Chris_OVO says - we can arrive within three hours to put a new meter in place.

Good afternoon.

That was not their words at all.  The web agent i spoke to said - oh we will be closing there will be no one working just us agents.  It was sometimes hard to understand as the sentences were often broken and didnt always make sense.  Maybe English is not their first language.   I asked several times and also said look its not 8 o clock yet.  I am going to be without gas can i not get an appointment or emergency appointment as i am off supply and also on the priority register.  Once again was told no and they could call me first thing tomorrow or i can get back in touch then.  Was advised maybe to call 105.  

I dont wish to raise a complaint about it.  Did find it odd that they were not closed yet and i was advised to call back tomorrow.  Then again i dont know how they have been trained up or their SOP’s .  

Anyhow - I had to call back like 3 times today BUT finally got an appointment arranged and i am currently waiting on the engineer to come out and fix or replace my gas meter.  They did at one point try to get me to go onto smart meter and could get me an appointment for the 27th but i advised no this is urgent i need my meter fixed now. 

hope this helps 

I have just said goodbye to the SGN engineer -  really nice guy really helpful really respectful.  Sorted the problem and helped me out.  I am however down £15 which i used to top up that the old meter cant use now.  So i need to try sort that out but we do have a nice and working gas meter!  for that i am grateful

Nice!

Yeah, if ya have a word with OVO Support, they can attempt to recover any lost credit. You’ll usually get back whatever can be recovered in either cash or transferred to the new Meter as PAYG Credit. OVO will let you know which option they intend to use once they’re ready.

If you’re still up for Smart Meters, you can request that too during the same call (if you’re not already booked in). Should make life easier in the future. :)

Hey ​@dgould,

Thanks so much for keeping us in the loop! I’m really happy to hear that the engineer did a fantastic job getting things back on track for you.

As Blastoise mentioned, just reach out to our Support Team when you get a chance. Let them know about your meter replacement and that you’d like to transfer the credit from your old meter to the new one. They’ll be more than happy to help you with that!

im in the process at this second talking to them.  I had to go into my trash to recover the receipt for the top up !! great times but i suppose no one expects your meter to go boom lol . 

thanks guys :D  

I’m glad to hear it’s all sorted for you ​@dgould!

Whether you’ve got a new traditional key/card meter, or a smart meter, you’ll be able to find some really helpful articles in our Pay As You Go Library section here: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/help-with-my-meter-195

If you’ve had a smart meter fitted, you’ll be able to top up via the OVO Top Up app, which makes things a bit easier than going to the Paypoint.

Cheers!

Hi

​@dgould 

Just something extra I though that I’d mention.

As you say that you are on the PSR then you will have a phone number noted at OVO, possibly more than one. I have both my Landline and Mobile numbers registered.

If/when you call from a registered number then if at all possible you will be put through without waiting, and to a UK call centre.

Of course an agent in a UK call centre may not have English as their first language either.
At least one of the call centres is in Glasgow and broad Glaswegian can be difficult to understand if you are not used to it.

Great point ​@Nukecad thank you!!!

I can endorse the above though!

OVO’s PSR Team is incredibly good at looking after me (Autism) and I can 100% recommend getting on the Priority Services Register if you qualify.

My average call wait times tend to be seconds rather than minutes - I sometimes get answered in under 5 seconds for example (ignoring the setup time with the bot).

That’s really great to know ​@Blastoise186. There’s a lot of work going on in the vulnerability space in OVO at the moment as well which is great to see.

i had similar with prepayment gas meter, im also on the priority list,  my meter wouldn't top up i had credit on card, it was a Sunday had less than £1.00 on it, and knew it wouldn't last, after getting the speil about HAVING TO HAVE A SMART METER INSTALLED, which I refused, I was told wouldn't do anything till under £1.00, so rang again when under £1.00, was told an engineer would be out, no one showed up after 4hr, was down to 38p, rang and got message place wass closed, rang back in morning to be told that no appointment had been sent to engineer on Sunday, yet I was told an engineer would be out? so told call centre again i now had no gas and on priority list, she said she would sort a call out, got call back from engineer to say they would be here in few hours, he turned up but the card he uses had run out, fortunately another engineer was nearby so he arranged for him to drop by so he could use his card, that worked, and my credit restored,  and I topped it up with my card, but I went all day and night with no heating or able to cook, because someone never put the call through to engineer on my two calls on Sunday even when told I was on the priority list, so much for customer service, no apology or anything, all because it wasn't requested for an engineer to come out, bang out of order for people over the weekends 

​@weedug I’m so sorry to hear that you had this experience - I know how stressful I would have found it if I were in your position.

I hope nothing like that happens again to you.

Just to confirm, the reason you would have been offered a smart meter is because, for a long time now, smart meters are the only type of meter that are manufactured now. 

I’d recommend giving it some thought - the appointment is free of charge, and would mean that you’d be able to top up your meters via an app, rather than going to the PayPoint. They’re also much less likely to go wrong, as happens with keys / cards. I’ve added some useful links below. At some point, your traditional meters will reach the end of their certification / lifespan t which point we’re regulated to switch them over to smart meters.

I hope you have a good weekend!

Hello, 

Ive just got home from topping up my card and put it in pay as go meter and it says CALL HELP. They are closed, what do I do as I have a baby. Is it classed as an emergency or not? 

Try sending a private message to one of Ovo’s social media team: Facebook, Instagram or X. 

Hey ​@Amicharlotte 

Sorry to hear about this, though I’m glad to see juliamc did stop by with some really helpful advice to reach out to the Support Team.

If you’ve not done so already, please do reach out to the team so they can arrange an appointment to get this sorted. 

I’ve linked a similar topic below:

Do let us know how you get on.

I tried topping my metre up but when I put the card in a message comes up saying Ring Help 

Hi ​@Tina Ashforth ,

The meter has detected a fault, please call OVO ASAP about that one and they’ll take a look.

Hey ​@Tina Ashforth 

I’m sorry to hear this, though I’m glad to see Blastoise186 has already stopped by over the weekend with some really helpful advice here.

Have you been able to reach out to the team yet as suggested? If not, please do contact the Support Team as soon as possible. 

Do keep us updated with how you get on.