I appreciate you typing that response @Blastoise186 but it might has well been in martian due to all those industry abbreviations

Im in Westi London and my smart mater was installed by SEB around November 22 - surely it cant be out of date or be so unique it cant be replaced?

For a brief moment after reading @JessicaRose ‘s recent post I dared to get optimistic. Now Im just exepecting more negatives to come galloping over the hill

Similar with me, many eMails and screenshots from me in support of our case, three pages from OVO,  two of usage data in kWh and ££, (in case we don't understand!) and a screenshot of my plan including the words ‘Economy 10’. No mention of the fact that our meter is running at E10 and our tariff is E7. If anything their ‘evidence’ supports our case! 

@pegem yes I got the screenshots of readings, but these make no allowance for peak/off-peak being incorrectly recorded. They just issue bills based on what their system is showing

Im going to keep a low profile this week whilst the Ombudsman does his deliberations. I would sum up my status as follows:

1. Regarding the originak inverted tariffs, Ovo have reversed ALL my readings to date, not just the period from migration to early October when the problem was resolved. This results in lots more peak usage
2. No acknowledgement (as yet) that E10 and E7 are getting mixed up due to current configuration
3. They have revised my revised bills and I have no clue for what reason.
4. They have offered a ‘goodwill gesture’ which I do not consider sufficient given all that has gone on.

I genuinely hope that my case handler can see through the wall of bumph Ovo have supplied and he can see that Im not a fool and get to the crux of the case. We shall see.

I may be wrong but I believe the problem is not reversal off the peak off-peak readings but the 6 hrs at peak rate that we should be charged Off-peak, that causes the ratio between peak and off-peak to change from 30% P to 70% OP to 70%P to 30% OP. My load reading over a few days seems to support this.

Onwards and upwards! Illegitimos nil carbonundum!!

Hey @MikeMilf,

Keep us posted with what the Ombudsman advises, this may help others in a similar situation. 

@pegem I can only specifically comment on my own circumstances but certainly in the period from 09.08.23 to early October, my tariff timings were definitely reversed. Eventually I found a helpful/competent guy on the phone who confirmed it and seemed to correct it

I distinctly remember checking my IHD at times like 2am and seeing peak rates being applied when my water cylinder was heating up for instance.

It was only after a couple of weeks of the problem being solved, that I noticed that meter timing changes were only happening in accordance with E7. I fully concur that this now the main issue, but certainly in my case it was not the only one.

@Emmanuelle_OVO  Yes I will certainly do that. I just hope the ombudsman truly sees the issues here and doesnt fall for the guff that Ovo have submitted. I submitted 30+ carefully annotated emails whereas Ovo simply uploaded some screenshots and a remedy that they presented as a fait accomplie (They will apologise….well whoopie do!)

All Ovo are doing is saying that their bills are generated from the peak/offpeak readings on their system. They seem utterly oblivious to the fact that if the readings are incorrectly recorded in the first place, their subsequent billing cannot be correct

For the benefit of others here and having not heard anything from the Ombudsman, I figured I would get my Ovo-fix from doing some spreadsheeting

From the original (ridiculous) bills together with versions 1 and 2 of those suppiled to the Ombudsman, Ive pulled together all the £ costs and usage data from the 6 bills I have to date

The data ive worked on has been reversed by Ovo from start to finish. Incorrectly in my view as the reversed tariffs were corrected in early October 2023

On this basis we get:

1. For the first two bills where tariffs were reversed and correctly adjusted, I have peak/off-peak at an almost exact match  of 1:1 as per my SEB history prior to migrating
2. On the subsequent four bills which have been incorrectly adjusted, the usage ratio jumps to around 1.4x peak to off-peak. This is exactly the opposite of what I would expect given that the major change in this period would be me using the night storage heaters

Im going to send my data to the ombudsman, but before I do can anyone see gaping holes in my logic? To my mind it clearly highlights that Ovo are wrong to have reversed all the data rather than up to 08.10.23.  This leaves me having to seek an extra adjustment for the afternoon/evening off peak hours still being charged at peak

Thoughts?

That’s my go-to solution for avoiding doing what I’m supposed to be doing  You might like to take a rest for a moment to answer some questions.

• Do you have a complete meter readings history, going back to when it was installed? 
• If so, are there any hiccups in the lists, e.g. when Peak suddenly becomes Offpeak and vice versa?
• Which TOU Rate on the meter do the Peak readings in your account’s readings history match?
• Are the Peak readings accurately passed to Billing? I.e:
    

  

    

• What are the peak and offpeak timings given on your Plan page?

That’ll do for now. 

PS I didn’t see the last part of your post (after 1.) until after I’d submitted this. 

@firedog guilty as charged lol…..I have a crappy client to deal with today which I have delayed until this afternoon.

In response (will have to get back to you on a couple

1. Only from their website which now reflects the readings adjusted by Ovo. In their evidence they sayall readings have been reversed. Unfortunately the readings on the site only go back to 11.11.23.
2. I smell a rat because there are several days where the method of data recording goes from smart to manual. On those days the usage seems much higher than usual. There is also nearly a whole month in January/February where its shown as manual and the readings are round numbers
3. Cant see any hiccups but some individual days data looks erm...iffy
4. Peak is TOU Rate 1, Off Peak is Rate 2
5. At 13:04 active rate is 32.62p which my IHD shows as peak rate. According to E10 timings it should be off peak
6. I dont dispute that billings match to readings but rather that readings are being recorded wrongly at certain times in the first place
7. I swear my plan timings have been buggerred about with recently as they now look the wronmg way round again. According to what Im seeing as of now Peak is 00:00 to 05:00, 13:00 to 16:00 and 20:00 to 22:00. Yes im getting more off-peak hours but every time I use heating or the water cylinder its at full rate…..and those heaters are deadly on usage

Is there any way to get a file export in say CSV format of the meter readings so I could get Excel to do the donkey work and spot the anomalies?

All the best

Mike

YESS! I knew I was right…

Luckily I took a screenshot of my plan page on 31.01.24 to show I was E10 (supposedly) and the timings are correct

The timings shown on my plan page right now are the exact opposite of that screenshot and wholly the wromg way round again!

Ovo are playing silly beggars with me and im getting very annoyed now

I’ve also seen some creative readings. They are labelled CorrectionReadActual, and have been invented by someone on (I suspect) the billing team.

I don’t know how to get a CSV of meter readings, but you should be able to get (some of) them in JSON, then use common Excel techniques (find & replace, text to columns, filter) to get what you want out of them. Same procedure as last year: sign in to your account, then in a new tab visit https://smartpaymapi.ovoenergy.com/orex/api/meter-readings/nnnnnnn where nnnnnnn is your account no.  For me, this listing goes from today at the top to the date the meter was installed at the bottom. Here’s one creative reading of many:
  

Of course, you have to check your SupplyPoints file to be sure which tier is which:
  

From https://smartpaymapi.ovoenergy.com/orex/api/supply-points/account/nnnnnnn

Well I just checked on my meter and its showing same peak rate even though weve gone past 4pm and should be off peak now

Meter is defo on Economy 7 timings and so doesnt even match to the (reversed) timings shown my Plan page

I need to get this sorted for the sake of my sanity lol. I have a feeling the overall difference wont even be £100 on the billing but its the principle of the thing. Plus it needs to be right going forward/

Last post from me today promise

I found my tariff on the Ovo site under Simpler Energy - Economy 10 (funny how they dont support it) but I cant find any mention of Economy 7?

Has it been replaced with something else?

Seeing as my meter thinks its on E7 Id rather like to do the math to see if ive been overcharged, regardless of outcome

Here’s how to get in touch with them:

• Phone: 0330 440 1624 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, and Saturday, 9am to 1pm)
• Email: enquiry@energyombudsman.org
• Website: www.energyombudsman.org
• Post: Energy Ombudsman, PO Box 966, Warrington WA4 9DF

Have just had a call from my Ombudsman guy who is only just beginning his investigation (wish Id known)

So much of my problem seems to be around a misconfigured meter and incorrect tariffs that I asked him directly (but nicely) what his technical expertise was like. My heart sank a bit when he said that wasnt really his area of expertise, other than 20 years+ in the electricity industry. I guess we shall see….he does sound a very fair man though

From scrabbling around in my meter cupboard at various times yesterday I can confirm that:

(i) The tariff is only changing at 00:00 and 07:00 so no way is that E10

(i) Of the two readings I get, the higher one finds its way onto the website as off-peak, but when I look at my six bills the higher readings are peak! Rather important dontya think regardless of E10 or E7

He did ask me what I want as a resolution. Aside from a monetary adjustment on billing and for the aggro suffered, I do wonder whether sticking with E10 will rather tie me to Ovo (even if they can sort it out). Few suppliers now offer it and the ombudsman guy said it wont be long before E10 is considered obsolete to customers

Anyway he jovially said he has until Monday to sort things out…..I laughed and said he might want to extend that :)

I feel your pain! I am a couple of days behind you. I’ve hit them with everything, ECAUL ,TPR, forums, eMails, etc. etc. Their response? three pages copied from my account, £80 goodwill, an apology and a commitment to correct ‘gap in charges’ this was not even an issue! No mention of the wrongly applied tariffs! I don't think they read anything we write, and I don't believe they take us seriously! 

I hope the Ombudsman takes them to the cleaners.

PS. I don’t know what a  ‘gap in charges’ means, but I can guarantee it will cost us money!

Sounds like they submit the same cobbled together ‘evidence’ in response to every complaint

How dare us peasants disturb them with a verifiable set of errors that need correcting!

I could barely read the blurry screenshots they submitted….token gesture doesent even begin to describe it

I had an email from Ovo today regarding the complaint I have with them / the ombudsman service (below) and having completed a series of load tests, I can confirm that the meter has finally be configured correctly!

-- From Ovo --

I appreciate your patience and the time you've given us to delve into the concerns regarding your Economy 10 meter.

Upon thorough investigation, our technical engineers identified an issue with your meter not reflecting the correct Economy 10 timings. This led us to recommend exchanging the meter to a traditional one. While we had accurately updated your meter details and tariff on our system, the discrepancy lay in billing you at the correct rates but not during the correct times.

I am pleased to inform you that the meter is now configured as Economy 10. Could you kindly confirm if this is accurately reflected on your meter?

The meter times, as per the TPR's agreed upon, are as follows:

00374 (00:00-05:00, 13:00-16:00, 20:00-22:00)

00375 (05:00-13:00, 16:00-20:00, 22:00-24:00)

Once we receive confirmation that your meter is now correctly updated, we will conduct a detailed review of your charges to ensure accurate billing based on the Economy 10 timings mentioned above.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,

-REDACTED-

Ombudsman Team Manager

I’m so relieved to hear you’ve finally had some success @JessicaRose!

I am getting very concerned that my case maybe being swept under the carpet by the Ombudsman agent handling my case

Last week he said would speak to me at length then conclude his investigation. He hasnt contacted me at all and this eveing i get a message from him apologising and saying he will conclude his investigation in the next few days

I honestly dont think he is understanding all the technical issues about meter mis-configuration, and incorrect tariffs being applied. Over the weekend I worked out that the offpeak readings on the billing history part of the website were turning into peak readings on my actual bills. I also took pictures of my meter at various times showing that tariffs were changing in accordance with E7 and not E10

If all this gets disregarded I will not have had a fair hearing and I need to know what the steps are if I am not satisfied. Christ….if Ovo can get away with this level of inefficiecy then I just give up

Even if he does make recommendations that Ovo have to sort all this out, am I left on my own to chase Ovo for a result? I cant face Customer Services and the Advanced Complaint Resolution Team again. They were useless first time round, why would they be any better this time?

Sorry…..really peed off tonight

Hey @MikeMilf,

Sorry to hear you’re having such a frustrating experience,

There is a process in place if you don’t accept the Ombudsman decision, I believe either @BPLightlog or @Firedog have discussed this previously?

When Ombudsman make a decision, we have to accept it. The Ombudsman team we have internally will liase with the Ombudsman directly, you shouldn’t need to chase this up. 

@MikeMilf - if the ombudsman finds in your favour, they will contact you to discuss what the resolution should be.  It did take a while for me to get that call, maybe a week or so after they started looking at all the evidence.  

From personal experience, I would say, be careful with the wording of the resolution that is agreed.  Ovo pretty much went the malicious compliance route with me as the wording on mine shipley said that they had to update the TPRs, nothing about the timings - so they dumped me on the E& one and the ombudsman saw this as an acceptable resolution! There is no appeal process to speak of, the ombudsman service is basically staffed with volunteers (So they told me) so if you appeal it just goes back to the same person who has already decided the case is closed.  It's worth reading the proposed resolution that they drafted and looking at it from this point of view and try to close down some of the loopholes that could be used to ‘get out of’ actually fixing the issue.

That said, we now have proof that they *can* fix the issue if they want to so if the Ombudsman service doest work, I would seriously consider the legal route for breach of contract

Thank you for the response @Emmanuelle_OVO 

My problem is he openinly said he wasnt an very technical guy, yet most of my case relates to technical matters such as meter misconfiguration resulting in wrong tariffs and incorrect billing

To say I have to accept his decision when he possibly hasnt understood the fundamental problem would be VERY frustrating. I have messaged him saying I just want him to ring me….nothing doing so far

Not sure about that .. but given that @JessicaRose has been successful in getting an E10 setup put in place, I wondered why OVO can’t simply copy that configuration for all those expecting E10 tariffs. 
I realise the billing would be a whole other difficulty but something would be a step in the right direction surely?