I really need to evaluate other options as my situation with Ovo is concerning me. I have also lost all faith in their management / customer services.

If I was to apply to switch to another supplier (say Octopus) would that spur them in to sorting out my joke of an account, or would they just not process it, as they have failed to act on all my queries and complaints thus far?

The people on this forum are wonderfully helpful, its just that I need to see tangible results on my actual account. I will happily fight Ovo on incorrect billing, its just I would prefer to be doing it when they are not actually supplying my electricity

Strangely enough, one of the letters to Telegraph Money today was about an Ovo customer being chased for a bill she didnt owe. That was bad enough, but when you read the comments section below the article you begin to realise just how bad Ovo CS is regarded currently by many people

If you switch away, most complaints get closed automatically as there’d no longer be a way to do anything - iirc you’d have to route everything via the new supplier.

Well the fact is im showing as being around £600 in credit when I know that is patent nonsense given that my last five bills havent been more than £20 (only billed for standing charges)

I was hoping that an application to switch supplier might spur them to look at my credit balance / billings and realise what a mess they had made.

I think the problem lies in the apparent disconnect between the people on the other end of the phone and those who should be in a position to do something about the problem. First-line support is apparently too often incapable of dealing adequately with customer concerns, so that’s when the complaints mechanism is supposed to come into its own. Sadly, though, it seems that those in the complaints department are not much better at finding the right people to do the job.

It’s got to the stage where it might be best if each of the technical teams - metering or billing, for example - had their own problem solvers, properly trained to be knowledgeable about at least the basics nuts and bolts of the department’s work. We often hear customer complaints that the support staff just didn’t understand the problem. 

However, in your case - and the other apparently intractable ones in this and similar threads - I’m reasonably confident that a solution is on the horizon. I fully realize that it’s probably not just as simple as it looks, but at least we know that it ought to be possible. I’d say watch this space for another couple of weeks, hoping that @Tim_OVO is holding the experts’ feet to the flames meanwhile. 

On the other hand, if you were to switch supplier, it would be very interesting to learn whether the new one - assuming OVO don’t object to the switch, of course - could get your meter working properly with E10 when OVO haven’t been able to for so long. I couldn’t find an Octopus E10 tariff, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

@Firedog when I see a post like that coming from such a helpful person as you, my optimism shrinks even further.

Yes of course you are right. I will stick this out until at least the end of the eight week complaint window on 01.02.24 to see if anyone can work some magic. It just really rattlled my cage yesterday that Ovo are aware of the E10 problems and are making zero effort to communicate with affected customers

In the meantime Ive reminded complaints@ovo that we are over half way through the time allowed and have made no progress. All I got was an instanr automated email response from feedback@ovo worded exactly as before.

I honestly think the only thing that will spur them into action is sufficient bad publicity…..this is why I previously suggested the Money column of the Sunday Telegraph. The woman there Kate Morley seems to get results.

Oh well back into wait mode lol

@Firedog 

Sorry just seen the last para of your post

Yes I could only find an Octopus E7 tariff as well. However at this stage I would happily settle for a competitive E7 tariff as long as it was backed by competent customer service. They do seem to score well on that from what I have read

Well my chase up email re the formal complaint seems to have hit the spot.

Had a lengthy phone conversation with a member of the complaints team (who I wont name) and it certainly appears he is competent and has a desire to get this sorted.

Whilst he wouldnt be drawn on the whole Ovo/E10 issue, he was most apologetic, and was pretty appalled when I mentioned that I had been told several times that my account had been inspected and all was okay.

It also appears that he had access to just about every email and fault report that I have made…..so Ovos failure to act on any of them is pretty damning.

I shall reserve judgement until things actually happen to sort this mess out. I did say that on no account would I accept ‘adjustments’ being made to my invoices. I want the original invoices cancelled, and then proper bills with proper verifiable readings to be issued

Then we can discuss incorrect tariffs and timings lol……

PS - Sorry if im clogging up thuis discussion thread. I only post because others are in the same boat

Hi all, 

I’m here with some insight from OVO’s smart metering team. 

I’ve shared a link to this topic and the JSON screenshots that have been grabbed from the Kaluza Orion billing platform. I have been advised that the data showing in those JSON files doesn't necessarily equate to how the meter is configured. But if you’re happy to private message me your MPAN we would be able to check this for you. his is a view from Billing and not how the meters are set up... 

@Tim_OVO 

1. Why does the OVO IT system sometimes contain different information to the actual meter configuration? 

2. How is verification done and the data synced, how often is the data synced?

2. Should we ignore the data we are pulling from the JSON files?

Sick of being jerked around with pseudo technical language, We have just send another email to CS and Complains Resolution Team,

'This has now gone on long enough. Despite being promised that our IHD and meter would be reprogrammed nothing has happened. We still have a setup that locally switches us at E10 timings, but charges us at E7 rates! This means that we are being charged for 5 hours extra peak rate power per day.

Our contract clearly states that we should be on E10. We want compensation for the extra cost to us. And a proper E10 contract to be put in place, or continuing compensation until you can put us on an E10 contract. We estimate the extra cost is c £50 per month.

You migrated us from SSE on these terms, there was no mention of any problems with you not being able to fulfill the contract.

If you are unable to do this we will refer this sorry saga to The Regulator.'

I'll let you know if I get any sense out of them!

I think we established a long time ago that some of the data in these files don’t reflect the actual situation. But we have several concrete examples now of what they look like when things are working and when they’re not, specifically whether the lowest tier is recording peak or offpeak usage. If it is, the system works. If it isn’t, it doesn’t.

My own shiny new Aclara SGM 1416-B started life not working. I grumbled, pointing out that the meter was recording offpeak on the Rate 1 register and peak on Rate 2. This is also what the JSON file showed. Metering sparked, reversed the registers, the meter started working properly and the JSON file showed the change in TPR.

We have examples above of four more of these meters, which may or may not have been configured in the same way on installation or on migration from SSE. However, the corresponding JSON files their owners have kindly shared show a one-to-one correspondence between the TPRs reported there and the meters’ working/not-working state. If Tier 1 is offpeak, no good. If Tier 1 is peak, good. 

My own experience shows that this change does the trick. Can you find out why the metering team are so dubious? 

Certainly seem that I have the same problem, why can't 0vo see this? Where do we go from here?

Needless to say, no further contact since the helpful call last week….but fair enough I will allow them the time to do what he said. Complaint window ends on 01.02.24

Is anyone willing to share their current E10 tariff rates here? I was comparing mine to Joanx’s from 16 days ago and noted that my rates in West London are higher by:

Standing Charge - 13.5%

Peak - 6.2%

Off Peak 17%

Yes I know there are regional variations, and tariffs went up on 01.01.24 but my rates for SC and Off Peak seem excessive. Are they within acceptable margin of error?

ISTR, Mike, that you told us sometime last year that you were paying On demand, i.e. on receipt of bill. Joan is, I think, paying by Direct Debit. There’s a big difference, as you’ll see on Ofgem’s price cap page:

Ofgem doesn’t lay down the individual peak/offpeak rates; that’s up to the supplier, so long as the result for the average consumer is within the price cap*. So, there’s no real ‘margin of error’ - just different tariffs. And remember: the rates on the Plan page are ex VAT, while the ones given by Ofgem include VAT.

If you compare the Southern region rates with the GB average, you’ll see that the standing charge is quite a bit lower, but the unit rate is a little bit higher, unless I’ve gone cross-eyed staring at those tables.
  
  

*   A rule of thumb: I think that 42% of the offpeak rate + 58% of the peak rate shouldn’t be higher than the Ofgem unit rate shown above.

@Firedog As usual you are correct….I was rather clutching at straws and forgot the DD discount

Guess I will have to suck it up though, as given family history with Ovo DDs (elderly mum) and my personal issues with the billing team, I would sooner walk on hot coals that allow Ovo access to my bank account

However thanks as always for your rapid and helpful responose

Happy new year to you all!

Here is an extract of my latest eMail to OVO FYI. I think it sums up what appears to be happening to many people. We shall see how much notice they take. Next stop OFGEM!

“We still have a setup that locally switches us at E10 timings, but charges us at E7 rates! This means that we are being charged for 6 hours extra peak rate power per day, not the 3 hours that you calculated. We should be on Off-peak 01.00 to 05.00, 13.00 to 16.00 and 20.00 to 23.00. 10 Hours. E10. This is what our Meter is switching. What we appear to have is 00.00 to 07.00, 7 hours, E7. This means our storage heating is on from 13.00 to 16.00 & 20.00 to 23.00 AT PEAK RATE! 

We are not even on a proper E7 schedule!

I have recently done some load calculations on our usage pre and post migrating our account. This appears to show that, as I've said before, you have not only messed up on not putting us on E10 as our contract clearly states that we should be, but you have reversed the Peak and Off-peak readings. 

SSE usage from March 2023 to August 2023, when smart meter fitted E10 tariff;

Off-Peak  1419 kWh  31%

Peak          627 kWh   69%

OVO usage from August 2023 when you took over,  to January 2024 E7 tariff??.

Off-peak      953 kWh    31%

Peak          2135  kWh    69% 

We are on storage radiators which are power hungry, the split between OP & Peak should be 70% OP and 30% Peak.

This problem has clearly been identified on your your forums by many people more technical than myself!;

 "the TPRs are set on the wrong meter tiers. This matters because DCC apparently assumes that the first tier is for peak usage. I find it difficult to believe that it’s beyond the wit of OVO’s metering team to correct the TPRs"

"E10 isn’t supported, they say. Yet here we have an account with an E10 plan (Simpler Energy - Economy 10 - 01/10/2023) and a meter set to switch registers according to an E10 calendar (TPR 374/375). It looks to the layman as if this should be easy to fix,"

Ofgem don't deal with individual customers.

The only process is an official complaint to ovo

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

Then if this doesn't sort it escalate to the Energy Ombudsman after 8 weeks or a deadlock letter

https://www.energyombudsman.org/

It doesn't do any harm copying in Ofgem even though they don't deal with individual complaints.

consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk

It can sometimes prompt action if you post on Trustpilot 

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.ovoenergy.com

What a right royal mess Ovo have made of us ex-SSE E10 customers!

Pegem - your last post sums up the situation perfectly and I would say 100% mirrors my own predicament. I cant remember if you have actually been receiving bills including usgae (albeit incorrect)? I will soon be coming up to six monthly invoices that include zero usage, only the standing charge.

These clowns have my readings - I can see them on the website!

I mistakenly got my hopes up following the seemingly helpful phone call I received, but needless to say, nothing has happened. Since I was migrated to Ovo, Ive been ignored, fobbed off and outright lied to

All of this looks like its going to the ombudsman. The eight weeks is up next Friday but I will give them an extra week owing to Christmas

What a way to run a company…...

Yes, and yes, they migrated us and lied by omission, and had us not only on the wrong plan but reversed the readings! AND my heaters are on E10 timings whilst there charging me E7 £££!

So incompetent!

Have you copied Ofgem in on your correspondence @pegem ? Did you get a response from them ?

 I wonder if the Ombudsman would consider a sort of ‘class action’, where several customers in similar circumstances submit a joint complaint? Is any one of you prepared to investigate this?  (@MikeMilf, @JessicaRose I’m not  looking at you, honest ) The Ombudsman’s Terms of Reference don’t specifically allow it, but they don’t disallow it either. So long as the principal (like the subject of a test case whose outcome will apply to all the other suitors) has a legitimate complaint, it might save everyone a lot of time and effort and set a precedent for any other affected customers we haven’t heard from.

Although the details of each of your cases varies, the basic faults are common to all.

• Located in Southern Region (20, _H). This may not be relevant.
• Equipped with smart meters, apparently all of type Aclara SGM 1416B, installed by SSE prior to being:
• Migrated from SSE to OVO in the past two years;
• Originally on an SSE Economy 10 tariff, which OVO undertook to perpetuate unchanged;
• With different account settings apparently applied randomly (so presumably manually), with variations in plan terms, switching calendars and meter reading registration;
• With billing either placed on hold or downright incorrect.
• Made contact with support staff who fail to understand the problems or, even if they do, are incapable of solving them. 

We have a smoking gun in joanx’s evidence, so the notion that OVO knew they couldn’t support this type of arrangement doesn’t hold water. They can, and they should. 

 What say you?   

Well Im not happy this evening (even less than usual when it comes to Ovo lol)

Logged on to pay them some money to cover January and immediately noticed my credit balance was around £300 less than yesterday.

When I started checking it appears they have altered my bills, but especially the ones dated 08.09.23 and 08.10.23. I know this because I dont trust Ovo an inch and made a point of downloading all the original bills. When I look at my bill dated 08.11.23 the opening credit balance has been reduced by the missing amount. The real thing that pees me off is that the two missing bills for September and October are not available to view either at the bottom of the home page or under billing history

What this means is they are retrospectively altering my previous bills which is something I specificailly I told them not to do until I had an explanation of what has gone on, and what they were going to do in order to compensate me for the tariff errors

God this makes me angry as its something I frequently see bad accounts departments do to cover their tracks….well Im not having it! Certainly not going to pay them any more money until this matter is properly resolved

Might I suggest that anyone who has ongoing billing problems download their original bills before Ovo change them and take away your ability to view the original numbers

Arrrggh!

I don’t know if this will help, but … 
https://smartpaymapi.ovoenergy.com/bast/bill/nnnnnnn?from=2023-08-08&to=2023-09-07

should access the PDF for your Aug/Sep bill, once you’ve changed nnnnnnn to your own account number. You’d have to be signed into your account for this to work, of course. If you get an error, try changing the dates by one day (I’m lucky that my billing period is the calendar month, so no guesswork involved).  
  

Nope that did not work…..yes im logged in and yes i tried altering the dates to match the original bill

Jeez H Christ are they deliberatelly making this as difficult as possible? Why dont these two particular invoices show up under “View Full Billing History”?

I am rapidly losing my ability to be polite with Ovo. If they think they can just alter the invoices and then look to collect any debit balance that conveniently drops out at the end they are mistaken

If they are altering invoices I am entitle to see the meter readings and tariffs on which they make their alterations

Hey @pegem,

I’m sorry for the issues you’ve had, it sounds very frustrating.

I’ll ask Forum_Support to get in touch, please keep an eye on your private messages.