Failed smart meter installation, what next?

my first appointment no one turned up and i got £30.00 compensation next appointment was fine gas and electric metres fitted . just got my first billed since fitted electric ok but not charged for gas from the smart metre only the old metre

Interesting, thanks for flagging, @taxijim33. Usually the account goes on a ‘billing suspension’ whilst the details about your old meter and the new meter are swapped over on the account. Then when this is complete (usually within 6 weeks of the meter exchange), the billing suspension is lifted. What may have happened in your case is that the info for the electricity smart meter is all updated, and the billing suspension was incorrectly lifted for both gas and electricity. We actually might still be waiting for all the details of the gas meter exchange. 

Our Support team can make a request for your gas bill to be removed and put back on a billing suspension whilst we get everything we need to update your account. You can see when your gas account is up to date from the meter serial number details showing in the My Plan section matching that of your new gas meter: https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

Has anyone else experienced the incompetent Ovo customer service. Had cause to contact them  re electricity  smart meter not sending readings. Had numerous emails from Ovo but every one was from a different person…...no continuity. Eventually Boost ( who are incredibly more incompetent than Ovo  with a webchat that hasn’t anybody available to solve my problem; NEVER reply to an email AND it takes an age to get through by phone) did contact me via email and SMS to say an engineer would arrive between 08.00 ans 12.00  on 04/01/23 to replace my GAS yes GAS meter. Again despite numerous attempts at contacting Boost/Ovo, I received a call at 08.40 on 04/01/23 from an engineer to say he was 20 minutes  away and would be there to replace my GAS meter. Explained to him that it was the electric meter that was the problem and he said he would contact the office to see if he could change the job. He rang back a few minutes later stating that he could not change the order and advised me to contact my supplier to re-arrange engineer appointment. This I duly did and after a detailed description of my problem, all I got was maybe the smart meter team MIGHT be able to fix the problem in house and he escalated my complaint to the Advanced Resolution Team. This is all very well but I still have had no contact from this team and my problem remains…….can anyone offer advise/support/valium plEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEase

I have an elderly friend who is an OVO customer and is becoming increasingly anxious about the very poor service she is experiencing. I am writing on her behalf. In brief, my friend had gas and electric smart meters installed on 26.7.21 when she was a customer with SSE. They were both working when installed. However, since switching to OVO the gas meter has not worked and despite numerous attempts to get an engineer out and, apparently being on an ‘escalated list’ there have been four failed appointments made, but then cancelled or no show from an engineer. I understand if you are on an escalated list the work should be completed within 45 days. The latest appointment is for February 6th but we have little faith that she will see an engineer.

My friend has been in touch with Customer Service numerous times, spoken to operatives who have arranged appointments, but then has been let down by engineers.

I have sent two complaints by email and received no acknowledgement of either one.

Could you please advise me who we should contact to discuss this other than Customer Services.

Thank you.

Not a good experience you’ve described here, @yozzer. I’m really sorry to hear about it. 

From the sounds of it, you’re a Boost Power prepayment customer. I can see why a non-communicating smart meter is a problem that needs a quick solution in your case. I’m not sure of the model of smart meter but if it’s either of these, you might be able to self-diagnose the issue:

Either way with your complaint now escalated, you should have a dedicated complaint handler, who will reach out to you directly. 

Hi Tim

You are wrong in your assumption that I am a Boost pre payment customer. I pay £138 per month on dd to Ovo, so your info does not seem to be of much use. Thank you anyway….at least it is a response.

As for a dedicated complaint handler, again I have to disagree…..each time that i do receive an email from Ovo, it is from a different person.

Hi @JudyP and thanks for flagging this experience on behalf of your friend. 

A really bad experience that I’m sorry to learn about. Please make sure they’re aware that if they weren’t given at least 24 hours notice of the appointment not going ahead, they’ll be owed £30 compensation, that would then get doubled if it’s not paid promptly. 

As well as that, if the gas meter isn’t faulty other than the remote communication issues, they’re able to manually submit a meter reading via their online account, just like the pre-smart meter days: https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings

With regards to your complaint emails, it may not be replied to if you contact the Support team inbetween sending the email and it getting picked up by an agent. Or if the email is sent from an address that’s not related to the account (I’d still expect a reply though). Due to data protection (unless you’re a named contact on your friend’s account) we may need the account holder to give verbal permission to discuss the account: 0330 303 5063. 

Hi Tim_OVO , thank you for your quick response.

Can you give details for how my friend goes about claiming the £30 compensation please. From her notes I can see that only the last appointment was cancelled.

As for the gas meter, there are no signs of life, so she is unable to submit a reading. My husband wonders if the battery is dead. We have read that although the batteries have a ten year life span, there are reports of some batteries lasting for a much shorter period.

I appreciate the reasons given for why I may not have received a reply about my complaint emails. However, neither of us have been in touch with the Support team since I sent the emails and I would have hoped that even if they couldn’t speak to me, I would have received an email explaining that. I included my friend’s account number in my letters of complaint; I had hoped that would have prompted OVO to get in touch with her, offering apologies, explanations and action!

Photographs showing the meter were sent to OVO on August 10th 2022 and the response was that there was no guarantee that the problem would be solved in 7 days but should be within 45 days. Customer Services have reported that the photographs are in her account.

My friend is in her mid eighties and is getting weary of this battle which is why I have got involved. The next appointment for an engineer to come out is on February 6th. My last question is, can she have a guarantee that someone will actually come out?

Many thanks for your help.

Judy

@yozzer it does sound like you’ve been round the houses, Boost are a separate arm of OVO so I don’t know why they emailed you at all. Those ‘health checks’ Tim’s linked to are a first step in diagnosing the problem. Have you run one?

Thanks for the reply, @JudyP.

My advice for you is to ask the account holder to call up, and:

1. Get you added as a non-financially-liable contact
2. (optional) Request compensation for each missed appointment where they weren’t given 24 hours+ notice (they’ll raise a back-office case for this to be investigated)
3. (optional) Ask for the agents to speak to the back-office to check the booking is live with our meter operators. 

Once you’re added, you can do action 2 or 3, via a much more convenient channels such as web messaging.