Traditional PAYG meter with blank screen

Hey @Stevenmilligan 

Sorry to hear about this, I’m glad one of our volunteers Nukecad has already stopped by with some really helpful advice.

If you’re still having trouble please do let us know, answering Nukecad’s questions would also be really helpful if you’re still having issues.

If so, you’ll be able to contact the Support Team about this, let us know how you’re getting on.

I’ve also got a blank screen traditional pre pay meter following a power cut a few days ago.    I believe the meter is now in “free vend” mode.   My concern is that I had approximately £70 of credit on it.    Will this credit continue being used and will the engineer know what credit is left on it? Hopefully my meter can be reset but if it gets replaced will the credit be transferred to the new meter?  
thanks in advance. 

Hi ​@Sean123 ,

At this point it’s more likely that the Meter will just be replaced with a Smart Meter. Your credit will be recovered either way, but some of it will be taken to pay for what you use in the meantime.

Thanks for your fast reply.   Do I have to have a smart meter?   I don’t have confidence in ovo due to having had a lot of problems with ovo when I moved in 5 years ago, and want to keep things as simple as possible.   

The legacy Traditional PAYG Meters are slowly being phased out across the market. Word on the street is that upgrades are now favoured over resets regardless of supplier, not least because it eliminates this Free Vend Mode issue.

Which reminds me… Probably also worth noting that the supporting infrastructure that runs Trad PAYG is also getting pretty old and there’s a desire from the industry to slowly wind it down and sunset it.

I doubt there’ll be any future investment in it when Smart Meters can replace it. Arguably, it’s best interest stuff to migrate just for that reason alone tbh.

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.