Traditional PAYG meter with blank screen

There’s whispers flying around that a Trad Prepay Meter in Free Vend Mode will still respond to being interrogated by a Portable Support Unit - it’s possible the engineer pulled a reading that way, but I can’t say for sure.

That’s fair enough, and the card that the engineer left could possibly confirm if that was the case and he did get a reading.

It’s just that to me the usage billed looks suspiciously close to what an estimated avearge would be.
Which is not what would be expected for an unoccupied property.

Thank you for the information Nukecad. Interesting. The figures do seem to be an uneducated guess at best.

I also don’t recall the engineer leaving any information at all. Let’s see what the complaints team come back with.

They usually leave a card like this one, near the meter and usually pinned/taped to the backboard:

Even if the engineer couldn’t get a reading from the old meter I would still expect that fact to be noted for the record on such a card?

Keep us posted with how you get on ​@wb93.

Yes, I’ll update on progress.

I’ll also check for any information left by the new meter.

For reference it was an Engage engineer who fitted the new meter on behalf of OVO. I just called Engage to ask about any final reading for the old meter but they said that they don’t keep any records on this .

Enage? That says a lot - they probably don’t have the Portable Support Units required to pull a meter reading from a Trad Prepay Meter that they swap out, so it makes me wonder how they got a reading at all...

A quick update for those interested.

There was indeed a note left by Engage as below. Seems the engineer did not / could not take a final reading. This was confirmed during a very helpful conversation with the OVO Resolution Specialist who said that the balance to pay had indeed used an estimated final reading. She also found some actual meter readings recorded before the meter failed and will request a recalculation based on these.

Let’s see what the final outcome is but at least there now seems to be recognition that the initial figures don’t reflect reality.

I guess the OVO logic to use estimates based on past usage when no actual readings are available is generally OK however, this only works if nothing much has changed. For circumstances where there is a significant change in use a different logic and process are needed and this seems to be missing. I’m also wondering how many other such cases are out there!

Anyway, thanks again to ​@Blastoise186 and ​@Nukecad for the pointers and advise.

Thanks for the update ​@wb93 

Hopefully a new billing will now be produced that is more realistic.

Remember that even when a property is empty and there is no use at all then the daily standing charges will still apply.

As it is you say that the new smart meter is clocking 1.2 kWh/day so if the property is still unoccupied as it was before it would seen reasonable to assume that was also the daily usage before the meter exchange.
Although if some old readings from before the meter failure have been found then the new estimates may be based on those readings.

I guess it’s a case of waiting for a new estimated billing and seeing if you then agree if it’s reasonable or not.

All now resolved and so quickly too!

The OVO Resolution Specialist triggered a re-calculation based on meter readings pre-blank screen and this gave a much more realistic usage figure and cost.

Full credit to the lady concerned as she not only totally understood the circumstances but also knew how to get the figures updated and keep the process moving.

Credit to Forum members also for the advice.

Thanks again.