OVO SMETS2 (S2) Smart Meter installation - Member Guide

@Blastoise186 I have no idea why you think I’m asking for this “overnight”. I’m certainly not describing an “idea” or “new feature”. A working queue that doesn’t randomly kick out some users isn’t a new feature. It’s a bug or design flaw.

I’m talking about getting it fixed. IE: Pass it back to the tech team, tell them how horrible this is for customers and let them prioritise it, cost it, and hopefully fix it in due course.

This was a very bad part of the customer experience. I lost around 4 hours of my time because of this.  It should never happen this way to customers. This is a crucial part of their customer services infrastructure. There’s so many companies that manage get this right, there really is zero excuse for just accepting it the way it is.

As you’ve realised I am a software engineer and I really don’t accept excuses like “our technology doesn’t support giving good customer experience”. My answer will always be the same: fix or swap the technology otherwise risk losing me as a customer.

I give most companies three strikes before leaving and never coming back.  The experience I describe above counts for two. First for not actively monitoring the smart metering for anomalies.  Second for wasting hours of my time just to make a relatively simple support request.

Thanks @Couling we value feedback and we agree that technology should be customer focused. If it doesn’t work for our customers, it should be changed. 

I’ve had some advice that you may consider Whatsapp as an option (which you can select when calling us on: 0330 303 5063) as an alternative to online chat, which will circumvent the notification issues.

Also, we’re working on delivering Chat in the OVO app.... I believe we are on track for April-June period (Q2).

Hi just wondering if anyone has had a new smart meter fitted recently,  what I should expect, if there is anything I should do beforehand etc

Sorry, meant to say that I am having one fitted on Friday 12th May

Hello, on Tuesday I had an engineer out to swap my smart meter to a newer version, number 2 I believe he said. Before this happened we were normally prepayment customers and top up online. But since the swap, the meter and the new screen is counting up and showing how much we’ve used rather than how much credit we have. Any quick fixes to this please?

Hi @Sophiejoe and welcome to this customer forum. 
Someone may be able to help but could you explain a little more about which meter you have .. a photo is always good, just no personal details as it’s a public forum

I think I can answer this one straight away actually.

It’s standard practice and a safeguard to make all newly installed Smart Meters initially run in Credit Mode during the Commissioning process, regardless of how you actually pay. This means that if Commissioning fails to complete, you’ll never be left off-supply with no possible way to top-up. This may take up to six weeks to complete.

I’d recommend putting that money aside for now and keep an eye on things so you can be ready for when the meter switches over.

I phoned Ovo this morning - was on the phone for 27 minutes getting it sorted. More or less got through straight away and it was on a credit mode. They’ve switched it over and it’s showing on the meter what I have in credit rather than what I had used. All sorted, quite swiftly. Thank you for your reply though. 

We had our electric smart meter changed this week to smet 2 and given a new ihd3 reader - 3 days later it still says waiting for info ?

when will the new meter details show on the ovo app and on the ihd3 ? The time is correct and a solid wireless symbol in top corner but it sats waiting for supplier details and current data?

Hi @markjeast , a new smart meter can take a few weeks to fully sync. The data goes to a data centre (DCC) and then on to the supplier so there’s a bit of to-and-fro to get it set up. 

Thank you 👍

It’s worth keeping and eye on it and sending readings every so often if they don’t get through. That’ll prevent them setting some estimates which could be more than actuals

Think the last smart reading on old meter was on weds - having knee replacement next week so will be unable to take reading for a few weeks so hopefully it will update by then 🤞sadly he only changed the electric meter so now have to get gas changed on July 4 too 

Hey @markjeast,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community,

I can see @BPLightlog has already given some really helpful advice here. Just wanted to add if your meter has communication issues, you could get added to the Priority Services Register if you are unable to take meter readings yourself. We can then book in meter readers free of charge.

Hope this helps. 

Hi I am on the priorities register now - the new smart meter serial number is now showing  on my ovo account app and I’ve been told that it has been paired to the new meter today - it’s now showing as connection lost so I’m hoping this will sort itself in the next couple of days 

Hey @markjeast,

I’d advise to keep an eye on it over the next few weeks, it’s good news the meter serial number has  updated. 

• Identifying Smart Meter Issues on your online account or OVO app Tutorial

If there is any issues please complete a smart meter health check:

BPLightlog wrote:

Hi @markjeast , a new smart meter can take a few weeks to fully sync. The data goes to a data centre (DCC) and then on to the supplier so there’s a bit of to-and-fro to get it set up. 
There’s a bit more about it here

• OVO SMETS2 (S2) Smart Meter installation - Member Guide Tutorial

 

New topic sonce the last one was marked as solved / a best answer by someone, even though it was still ongoing.

Early this month my smart meters stopped communicating with the DCC. After just over a week I contacted OVO and they booked a meter exchange appointment. Two days later this was cancelled by the contractor due to ‘engineer unavailability’ and so was was re-booked. He turned up today to ‘recommission’ my exisiting meters. That is, get them reconnected to the DCC. Now, as it turns out they had already reconnected about a week and half ago (they were offline for about 2.5 weeks I think). So, he was not booked for a meter exchange, just basically to give them a good look over, despite me being told it was a meter excahnge appointment. 

He was online with OVO tech chat and claims they still authorised the exchange, although he wasn’t able to do it today since it wasn’t on his job list as an exchange. So the upshot is, he’s told OVO to clear the meters from the DCC network, so I guess they’ll go ‘dumb’ again. He claims this will speed up the appointment for the next engineer who comes to ACTUALLY do the exchange. So I’m now stuck with dumb meters, have to send manual readings for who knows how long, and try to get OVO to give me another appointment ASAP. And hopefully they’ll still agree they can be exchanged otherwise I’ll be trying to get them to actually recommission them onto the network again. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. Not a happy bunny today.

Oh, and I have an Ivie Bud IHD that I was informed to fully reset before the installer comes to swap the meters so now I have no IHD and no way to track daily usage other than by kWh directly off the meters.  :( 

@GrumpyTrucker

You could try claiming compensation as it sounds like to me someone somewhere hasn't made sure the engineer has was they need. It may need to go as far as the Ombudsman, but then the compensation would be at least £60 if upheld. Depends if you are looking to get compensation. 

Engineer appointments

We'll pay you £30 compensation if:

• An engineer misses an appointment.
• An engineer arrives outside of the scheduled 4-hour time slot.
• We cancel an appointment giving you less than 24-hours notice.
• An engineer is unable to do the job because they arrive with the wrong equipment.

@Jeffus Cheers for that. Honestly, I just want the meters exchanged as originally planned as soon as practicable. If they can't do it this week, it'll need to be a weekend or we're looking at October before we can fit it in again. Long time to be giving manual readings due to their booboo. I was told to get in touch tomorrow, give it time for his write up to make it onto the system.

As an update, I’m now sat in the chat window for a third time this afternoon. First one got cut off after an hour just as someone finally responded, second attempt got closed after saying you’re number 2 in the queue. So here we go again. And they say use chat cos it’s quicker than phoning :/ 

You could try a direct message via the ovo Facebook or Twitter page. Both are official ovo support channels and the ovo staff there can access your account and do reply. 

https://www.facebook.com/ovoenergy

https://twitter.com/ovoenergy

Include your name, address, account number and date of birth to get pass  security along with your message. Obvious not in a public post, only via a direct message. 

Replies are not instant but it may help. 

Hi @GrumpyTrucker 

Really sorry to hear about the issues you’ve been having with the smart meter.

Have you been able to speak with the Support Team about this yet to get rebooked? 

If you’ve spoken with them, did they mention the Guaranteed Standard of Practice payment that you may be entitled to? This is the payment that Jeffus spoke about above.

Hi Abby. It’s been rebooked. For the end of July 😭. So now we’re without smart meters for another month. Sending manual readings is SO 1990s LOL. |Hopefully it’ll go smoothly this time. And no, the Guaranteed Standard of Practice payment wasn’t mentioned. 🙄

In my experience of reading posts on the forum it is very rarely mentioned unfortunately. 

The ofgem rules are that it should be automatic if deemed eligible. 

And if not paid within 30 days of the event automatically, then you can ask for an additional £30.

I suspect the ovo process could do with a review. 

Had a new installation of a smart meter on Friday 21 July.

I sent a reading of my gas from when the meter was installed. (Which was accepted).

I did the same with my electric but OVO said it was to low.

The new meter has started from 00000 so I sent 00062 but OVO said its to low do another reading. 

I left it for a day and just done another reading which is now 00070 and submitted that to OVO but OVO had again said its to low.

What am I doing wrong?