Traditional PAYG meter with blank screen

So, fun fact I've had to change company because OVO are refusing to send out and engineer as there is still power so its not an emergency, so no one is coming out until January, and when I asked how its fair that i'll be billed for three months of electricity pretty much their response was "its not out fault there was a powercut" so good luck getting answers from them 

Changing supplier won’t make that any faster right now. Pretty much every Engineer in the country is tied up with RTS → Smart Meter upgrades which are considered Maximum Priority over everything except Emergency jobs. The fact you still have a working supply means your request doesn’t qualify as an Emergency regardless of who your supplier is - never has, never will - unless the power goes off because of it. Comes under industry rules stuff.

It is not worth dragging an Engineer off of those critical jobs for something like a reset at this time. I’m sorry if you don’t like to hear this, but alas there’s not much the industry can do right now - the RTS → Smart Meter Migration project must take priority.

Either way, you’ve just slowed it down even more because now you won’t get anyone until at least February since you have to wait six weeks after the switch before the meter can be swapped out (save for an Emergency Meter Exchange).

I asked on the phone when I enquired with the supplier if they would be able to fix the issue, and they said they could send someone out as soon as I was over with them. They also aren't gonna transfer over to a smart metre unless it's 100% necessary. What irked me with Ovo, is when I called the first time I Was told "when it runs out, call us and it'll be put through as an emergency" the second call I made the woman candidly said it wouldn't run out so I was just going to be left to run up a bill and be expected to pay? No thanks 

Resets won’t be possible forever - there will come a point when those are no longer available. And besides, you’d have the option to pay it back slowly anyway - you don’t have to pay it all at once but the option is always there. Given you’d have to repay what you used anyway, we always recommend you just put the top-up money aside so it’s ready to go when the meter is back up and you’d be able to use the fast option.

As I said, the infrastructure for Trad PAYG is slowing being wound down. You won’t see much impact just yet, but eventually you’ll see more signs of being nudged over more aggressively.

I’m sorry to hear that you weren’t offered an emergency meter exchange. We do at OVO consider an emergency to be a loss of supply or some kind of danger. But I’m glad you’ve managed to find a supplier who’ll get this sorted as soon as you switch to them.

Please keep us posted with how you get on ​@Stevenmilligan.

The issue I have with ovo is that I’ve learned from previous experiences that the customer service department is not fit for purpose. I.e. very long call wait times to talk to people who have either had no training or maybe just don’t want to help. You have to go through this process several times until you can make a formal complaint.  When the complaints team get involved I’ve found that the issue is dealt with speedily and efficiently.   
To avoid this, I’m going to ignore the blank meter, keep the money I would spend on electricity aside and wait for them to contact me.  It’s a nuisance having to do this but I’m organised enough to do it this way.  Unfortunately the saddest part of dealing with this company is that they don’t have an efficient customer support department.  
 

Does anyone know if ovo will know their meter is faulty (will they know when it hasn’t been topped up for months?) 

Hey ​@Sean123, 

I’m sorry to hear that you’re having issues with your meter and the blank display. Have you informed our Support Team yet about the issues as they’ll be able to book you an appointment to get the meter exchanged. As mentioned previously on this thread it’ll likely be the new year for appointments now as your meter is still supplying power it’s not an emergency appointment. 

You can reach our Support Team below on any of the contact options: 

Phone: 0330 175 9669

Opening hours:

• Mon-Fri 8am to 8pm

• Sat-Sun 9am to 5pm

Social links -
https://www.facebook.com/ovoenergy/

https://x.com/ovoenergy?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/ovoenergy/?hl=en

Keep us updated on how you get on 😊

Please answer the question I asked 

It is monitored and things will happen if detected. Be advised however, that you may not always like what happens in those cases. I can’t say for sure though, but either way it’s not recommended to deliberately trigger that process.

Hi 

my electric meter display is showing blank but still illuminated ,it’s not a smart meter it’s the older style one ,there’s been no power cut,I have had no issues with the electricity going off it’s too late too phone ovo ,has this happened too anyone else and what do I have too do about it thanks in advance 

Hi ​@Cantona71 ,

Please let OVO know about this ASAP - sounds like a possible total/critical meter failure to me. I suspect you’ll need to get it replaced so please contact OVO in the morning - details at https://www.ovoenergy.com/help

Hi Blastoise 186 

firstly thank you for your quick response is this dangerous with it being a critical error and will the electric go off ? And yes I will be phoning them at 9am thanks 

You should be in Friendly Credit hours right now, meaning the Meter should NOT Disconnect as long as you had at least 1p left on it when you entered this period - and I suspect you probably did - so you should be good.

It will remain this way until 8am on Monday. If you still have normal credit at that point, the power stays on and the same applies if you dump enough credit onto it before the grace period runs out to swing you back into the black. It’d ONLY Disconnect if you were still in the red after the grace period ran out.

The reason I say “Critical” is because whatever state it’s currently in means it’s not doing primary functions properly - I cannot be sure of anything beyond that.

Thank you have been very helpful 

Hi ​@Sean123 

Some faults can be detected without actually looking at the meter itself, but this is very limited and there are many meter faults we wouldn’t know about unless we actually saw the meter itself or the fault was reported to us. If you think there’s a problem with the meter, you should tell us by contacting our Support Team.

If the meter display is blank, you’ll need to have the meter replaced. If you’ve been billed incorrectly while the meter was faulty, the bills will be corrected when after the meter has been replaced and we’re able to take the reading from the meter when it’s removed from the wall.

We’d suggest continuing to pay the bills in the meantime to avoid a large catch up bill later, even if the bills are estimated in the mean time. If the usage goes unpaid, a bill for correct usage will be produced when the meter is replaced.

Hey ​@Cantona71 

Sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve been having.

I’m really glad to see one of our volunteers, Blastoise186, has already stopped by with some really helpful advice here. 

How did you get on with this?

Hi Abby 

firstly thank you for your comment and yes Blastoise186 was very kind in giving me the information and put my mind at ease I have spoke too a colleague yesterday and I am booked in for an appointment on the 23rd for a new meter I also received a message from another colleague (Shaun)this morning just too confirm my appointment and gave me information if the electricity runs out in the mean time so all good 🤞🏻🤣thank you both very much 😊🍺

We have recently moved to a flat supplied by OVO, with a traditional PayG meter.

Currently it is blank and unresponsive, however our electric is working.

Is there anything we can do? We are conscious of creating lots of debt as we are unable to see what it is currently at from the previous tenant/landlords usage. Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you

Evening ​@Hdallan !

The name’s186, Blastoise186. Good to meet you! Just a heads up, I don’t work for OVO myself so I can’t action anything directly. Firstly, congrats on the new place! Hopefully everything else is working OK for you?

The good news is that I do have a solution for you that will definitely get this fixed. The bad news is that I can’t make it happen myself and OVO’s office just closed for the day about an hour ago.

Your meter is in Free Vend Mode due to a recent power cut. You won’t lose supply at this time, but you can’t do anything with the meter either. I’d say call 0330 175 9669 in the morning to get registered with a new account and please let the agent know about this! They’ll arrange an engineer to swing by to fix this ASAP.

If you wish, you can also discuss moving to Pay Monthly during the same call or you can just stick with PAYG. Totally up to you - I won’t judge! You can also ask about a Smart Meter at the same time, which is probably worth doing either way.

If you’ve got any other questions, I’m all ears. Just let me know in this thread and I’ll swing by again.

Hey ​@Hdallan 

Welcome to the Forum. I’m glad to see one of our volunteers has already stopped by to help out here, I hope you’ve been able to look through their advice and find it useful.

As they’ve mentioned, it sounds like the meter is in ‘free-vend mode’, this means the supply is still running in the background, but the meter will need replaced. I’ve linked below to a few similar topics which may be helpful:

If you’ve not done so already, please do get in touch with the Support Team so they can get this sorted for you. Keep us updated with how you get on.

Thank you both for your advice. 

We contacted the support team and they said as we are ‘on grid’ they cannot do anything about it.

Would you know if there is a designated time for the power to go out, or should we try raise the issue again?

You’ll definitely want to raise this again - you’ll never go off-supply whilst in Free Vend Mode.

Make sure to tell the agent that the meter is in Free Vend Mode and is in a broken state where an emergency engineer visit is mandatory to resolve regardless of supply status.

If you still don’t get lucky, let me know here as I have a magic trick I can try if needed.

Thank you, we’ll try that.

The lines are shut now, we’ll keep you posted

Lines should be open again now!

If you still don’t get lucky, try the Social Media Team on Facebook/Twitter - they’re pretty good at fixing this stuff.

At very least, please make sure you’ve registered an account in your name - that team can’t help you until you have one.

Hey ​@Hdallan 

Did you go back to the Support Team about this? If the meter display is blank and unresponsive, the meter will need to be replaced so we can work out your usage and charge you accurately. 

Let us know how you’re getting on.