Traditional PAYG meter with blank screen

The existing one will stay, yes. It’ll just be rebooted so that it works again.

Why is it you don’t want a Smart Meter though?

UPDATE 09/10/24

Turns out the stance has changed since I last looked at it. Traditional Prepay Meters that go into Free Vend Mode are no longer reset or rebooted - they’re now replaced by default with Smart Meters.

Hi @Seanmcdonagh,

I’m sorry to hear that this has happened. 

Our forum volunteer has already given some good advice here. Did you manage to get in touch with the Support team to get this sorted?

These threads might also be useful:

• Pay As You Go - Help and Support F.A.Q.

• Pay As You Go - Topic Hub & How to get in touch Hub

• Help, I think my traditional meter's faulty: Your guide to what could go wrong with your meter and how to get it fixed! Tutorial

there was a power cut last night, and now my meter screen is blank, Google says to call, i tired got an automated service and got told to try speak to someone online, the chat bot was useless 

Is this a PAYG meter? Do you still have power?

Sometimes following a power cut PAYG meters can’t restart themselves and so have a blank screen but they will go into a ‘Free Vend’ mode.

That means that they will continue to supply energy until they can be reset, that usage will still have to be paid for later of course, but you won’t suddenly run out of credit and lose power.

That gives you plenty of time to contact support on Monday and arrange for the meter to be reset, (it usually takes an engineer visit to reset it).

If you have no power or want a quicker contact then try the Social Media team (Facebook, X, or Instagram) who work weekends and should still be open,
See the green ‘Emergency contact’ banner at the top of the page, or click this link:

• Emergency contact info and our planned PAYG outages coming up - (Mar 2025) F.A.Q.

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.

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

Whatsapp - 0330 175 9695

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.

• Faulty smart or traditional meters: Blank display, inaccurate, broken, noisy meters - DIY tutorial series Tutorial

• Help, I think my traditional meter's faulty: Your guide to what could go wrong with your meter and how to get it fixed! Tutorial

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?

• Help, I think my traditional meter's faulty: Your guide to what could go wrong with your meter and how to get it fixed! Tutorial