RTS Meter replaced successfully with new smart meter!

​@Chris_OVO I hadn't chased yet because I was wondering if anyone had any insights on what I'd been told, in case it helped me explain to the advisor, but I have now emailed again so we'll see what the outcome is.

Please keep us posted ​@ClaireL 🙂

I still don’t have usage data. A web chat today says that “it could be down to the meter set up previously, where there was a heating meter before, the meter details for that meter, need to be removed fully, in order for the usage graphs to work now.” and that this will take a couple of days. 

My account on the. website now shows this

with something similar on the App.

Shouldn’t this have been a process within the ‘6 weeks before everything is working’?

And I've been advised: 

"This email is regarding your old meter query. I've looked into this and found that the secondary meter has been fully disconnected and de-activated from the national database. The previous advisor had raised a case and the relevant team has resolved this for you. The billing team will now amend the contract to ensure that the smart meter is correctly registered as a 2 rate meter. Once the account is updated, you will start receiving accurate bill and you will also be able to see your consumption data on your online account."

Trouble is, I'm on an E10 fix already and (after a bit of initial hassle getting billing to allocate the right units to the right rate) my billing is correct... Fingers crossed!

Hi ​@ClaireL ad ​@awills61,

I’m sorry to see how long it’s taken for everything to settle down. The general rule of thumb is that everything is updated within six weeks, however there can be delays to this, especially in circumstances such as yours when customers have been changed over from more complex setups. It all relies on details being changed on your account, and the National Database, and also the correct data flows being sent / received by the two parties.

​@ClaireL please let us know when you hear back from our Support Team, hopefully they’ll get back to you soon if they haven’t already.

​@awills61, what you are now seeing is the ‘onboarding timeline’, which you’d see if you had just begun the process of switching to OVO. I would imagine that, if you can see this timeline, this must mean that a lot of work is currently going on with your account. Hopefully this will be fixed soon - these sort of changes can be very complicated on our side and require a lot of manual work to be done on your account. For any updates you’ll need to get back in touch with our Support Team. As this has taken over six weeks, you’d also be within your rights to request a complaint be logged, which would mean you’d then be speaking to one complaints handler, rather than a different advisor each time you contact.

Just to let you know, once this is all updated you may not see historic data on the ‘Usage’ tab, and it may only start from the day everything is fixed meaning that, for a time, you’d only see usage recorded on the ‘Day’ tab.

Keep us updated on your progress.

Hi ​@Ben_OVO , thank you. I have had a couple of responses, including a lovely phone call from an agent who did seem to realise this wasn't a standard problem. She asked for screenshots of the messages on the webpage and the app and I emailed them over, but unfortunately it was a different agent who replied.

If I'm reading the latest reply correctly, that agent thinks it is temporary and will resolve itself because OVO is receiving the half hourly readings ok. As you know, this is a permanent issue that someone will actively need to fix (at least, it hasn't fixed itself so far!)

I've replied again asking for it to be passed to the appropriate team to investigate so we'll see how it goes! If there are any strings you can pull in the background, that would be lovely! :)

​@ClaireL thanks for the info. I think you’ve done the right thing getting in contact via email in this way, and I hope this is fixed soon.

I’ve sent you a private message, have a read and get back to me when you can.

Cheers!

Thank you, I've replied. 

I do realise this isn't core functionality - at least I'm being billed right! But it would be very handy as I fiddle with the heat pump settings :)

Morning ​@ClaireL, I hope you’re well.

​@ClaireL I can confirm that the reason you’re not seeing any online / app usage is because you have two supply points (MPANs) listed on your account. One of these is being billed under the new meter, and one of them is sitting as ‘de-energised’ and is not being billed.

There is a workaround to get this fixed, however it would mean that you’ll have a new OVO account. The process is that you’d need to contact our Support Team and request that they close your account as if you’d moved out, and then set you up a new account straight away, as if you’d moved in. We call this process a change of tenancy (COT). 

Once the COT is processed, you’ll have a new account with just one MPAN (your live meter), and this will mean you’ll have usage data. Please bare in mind, you won’t have any historic usage data, and it will begin from when the account is set up. Any credit on your account will be refunded to you, and the account final billed. Once the new account is live you could then log into your new account and make a card payment for whatever was refunded (or whatever you’d like). The Direct Debit would also need to be re-set up.

I would personally say that the best way to request this process be carried out would be to either email hello@ovoenergy.com, or call 0330 303 5063. I know this all sounds long-winded, however I did used to work in OVO complaints and have carried out this procedure, and can confirm it isn’t too complex for an advisor to do. Apologies - I can’t do this for you myself as I no longer have access to customer accounts on the Forum.

If you decide to go down this route let us know, and ​@awills61 - I’m wondering whether this may already have been done for you, given that you’re seeing the ‘onboarding’ new customer message on your online account.

I hope this helps 😁.

​@Ben_OVO I assume that this may have been done for me. I’m still seeing the on boarding message on the web and in the app so, 3 days now, so won’t know until the process is finally complete. Whenever that is!

​@Ben_OVO thanks for looking into it. I'm on a fixed tariff at the moment so would that process be possible or advisable while it's in place?

​@ClaireL under normal circumstances you wouldn’t be able to move out of your home and then set a new account up with the same fixed plan in a new home. However, this isn’t normal circumstances. When you contact in ask if we can set up the new account with the same rates fixed until the same date. You won’t be charged any sort of exit penalty either.

Let us know how you get on!

​@Ben_OVO Just had a very frustrating web chat with support. I get asked all the same questions as before, get told everything looks alright and that a ticket will need to be raised. At least I was given a reference number this time. I have no confidence that anything will be done this time. There seems to be no joined up process in support that follows issues through from start to finish. I’m currently in limbo can’t access my account and nobody seems to know what to do or when it may be fixed. 

Hey ​@awills61 

Sorry to hear you’re having issues.

Keep us updated this week if you hear anything on that ticket. Hopefully you do sooner rather than later, if you’re still no further forward with no word, I’ll see what I can do to take it offline and assist further if possible/necessary.

​@Abby_OVO I haven’t heard anything yet on the status of my account, still showing on boarding message - it has now been 6 days in this state. I do have a question though; If my account was going through the COT process, as described by ​@Ben_OVO in a previous message, would you expect my Direct Debit to go out this month? It went out today as normal.

Yes a DD should still be taken, you are still using energy so if nothing else taking the payment helps prevent racking up a large debit on your account.

I had a similar ‘onboarding’ block, just as you describe yours, following a (not RTS) meter exchange last year where there was a problem with meter serial numbers and the national database.
It took a few months to resolve because things can grind slowly at the database. Especially at the moment, there are lots of more complicated RTS meter exchanges going on.

In such cases problems can arise that OVO support can’t handle themselves, it needs a higher computer access level.
So it is good that support have raised a ticket and given you a number.
That means things have been escalated and will (eventually) get to a ‘Digital Resolver’ who will be able to sort things out for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just for interest this is taken from an email I received when I had my own ‘onboarding’ issue last year, guess who it’s from?
 

Yes, that is the same Ben who is now one of the forum moderators here, he knows exactly what he is talking about above because he used to do it himself.
Once on the case he sorted out my account quickly.

 ​@Abby_OVO 

It is a week since the last tech ticket was raised and I have not heard anything. So a brief web chat reveals that there is no update!

Hijacking again briefly to reply to this - I managed to get hold of a Bright CAD/IHT which allows me to get live data in the Bright app. I decided to leave it at that for the moment to keep my historical billing info intact for the first year of having the heat pump, for comparison's sake. When the fixed rate ends next June I'll consider asking for the COT to be done. Thanks for your help! 

I hope that the process worked in the end for ​@awills61 

​@ClaireL Five days after my last post I still hadn’t heard anything so I raised a complaint. After not hearing back from the complaints department after a further week. I switched to Ecotricity (I had been considering doing this regardless) and now I am awaiting my final bill.

Morning ​@ClaireL, I hope you’re doing well.

I’m happy to hear that you’ve found a workaround for this and have at least some visibility of what’s being used now, but it’s a shame that a workaround was necessary. Please let us know in future if you decide to go down the CoT route. I just want to link you to a fantastic guide ​@BPLightlog wrote up about using third party apps - you might find it useful!

​@awills61 I’m really sorry to hear that this remained unresolved for you - that’s very disappointing to hear, especially as it’s resulted in you switching supplier. I wish you all the best with the Ecotricity, and I hope you have a trouble-free time as their customer. To confirm, if you do decide to switch back to OVO at any point then everything should work fine, as you’d have a new account set up. Apologies again for how this all panned out. 

By all means continue to use our Forum if you’d like to, it’s an open platform for all, even if you’re with a different supplier.

​@Ben_OVO I just popped into the OVO app to check something and suddenly I have usage graphs going back to when the smart meter was put in last December! I'm not sure what happened but I'm very pleased to have it without having to go through the CoT process. :)

Hey ​@ClaireL,

​@Ben_OVO is away on annual leave, so I’ve sent him this link so he can see it next week when he returns. Thank you so much for the update, and I’m glad to hear things are now sorted and you can see your usage graphs 😃

An update on my current situation having moved from OVO to Ecotricity.

The move itself went seamlessly and no issues with Ecotricity so far. 

I have now got access back for my OVO account and this is where I have some more issues.

My final bill should be being produced soon according to the timelines I was given when I left, the problem is that all of my previous bills since I was migrated to OVO back I August 2023 have been recalculated using an incorrect tariff. This has resulted in an approx. £300 charge on my account. 

Why has this been done? Surely my last bill from June and the energy used between then and when I left is all that’s needed to work out my final bill.

Hey ​@awills61 

Sorry to hear this, although I don’t see why the bill history would have changed retrospectively to a new tariff and recalculated. 

Any new tariff should only have been applied from the date it was confirmed to begin, so unless the wrong tariff details were historically used on those old bills, this doesn’t sound like something I’d expect to see.

I think it’ll be worth checking in with the Support Team here to double check these bills and get that corrected if needed. We do have a helpful topic on the Forum about the back-billing process which might also be helpful here, I’ve linked that below:

Do let us know how you get on here

​@Abby_OVO I rang support this morning to try to explain what appears to be wrong but I was cut off and they did not ring back. From my investigations it appears that all my bills between 202308 and 202505 have been recalculated using one rate and not using the heating rate that applied when I was on the THTC tariff. Going through the old bills I have, I downloaded them when they were produced, this amounts to and extra £362.18 being added to my bill. I switched to a single rate when I had my smart meter installed and this may have caused the miscalculation. I still cannot see why this had to be done in the first place.

What is the easiest/quickest way to get this resolved as a phone cal seems to have failed?