SEEKA access request?

My interest has certainly piqued, I wrote this yesterday afternoon but got side tracked.

Ive been looking at the phantom loads, the base power my house is using. no interesting fluctuations there. But to do that I couldn't use the OVO page but instead the loop app. Going through the days I noticed they didn't correlate with the OVO sites steadiness during 2024.

I wonder if the meter was reporting correctly in 2024.
in 2023 my usage is very low, I cant show this through OVOs site.

that's from my loop app.
2024 average is way higher than 2023.
2025 has a similar jump, but back down to nearer 2023 levels.

Could 2024 have been over recording?
Could 2025 be under recording?
Could that be the other way round?

Lets look at daily and monthly usage.

I just don't know which year is accurate cos I cant get a comparison through OVOs site for 24/23 which is really my only reliable source.

The usage creeps up over the week according to the bar graphs I posted previously from my OVO online account, is it guessing where it should be by the end of the week maybe?
I use the heating more when Im home. Im home more on weekends, could the boiler be failing drawing extra power? 

Maybe something I have has gone faulty?

My usage seems higher this year than it should be over summer.
I have a text file from July 24 about my Gas, I had an inkling something was wrong with that then too. 
Im not sure why I left it.

I really cant be bothered with OVOs dysfunctionality.

hey ​@Firedog 

thanks, that's what Im starting to think too now.  

the billing history doesn't go that far back but each month is the same as below, the furthest I could go.

But I did find this under  Meter Readings, again this was the limit.
 

"Billing may have wondered why there is a big difference between the estimates they were making and the actual consumption reported by your meter. "

Do you think they'll replace the unit?

looking at bank statements I was still on payg for electric on 2nd July in 2023
I cant see any other payments from either of my banks other than gas ( my gas is still payg) until October 1st 2024. It literally says "First Payment OVO ENERGY" on my bank statement.

That means my DD wasn't going through or even setup until October 24? Thats 15 months from Aug 23-Oct 24 I couldnt pay.
I didn't have access to my account, why didn't OVO contact me instead of letting me rack up a debt?

And don't think I didn't contact them over this period asking for access, I called, I emailed, I online chatted, I have posted and lurked on here over the past 18 months at least. 

Ive kept receipts for everything this time...

Because of the errors handling my accounts I am still here.

Eurgh...

Some time in 2023 I left BOOST PAYG for a PAYM account. Which became an OVO one, I started the application in May 2023. It was supposed to be both gas and electric.

I got this email at the start of July 2023 and the one below a week later

I noticed this today on my online account page at the bottom of the Billing History page

I still didn't gain access to the account until a message to Big ​@Chris_OVO  prompted OVO to fix it around August 2025

Theres pages and pages about others experiences here full of misinformation and fabricated excuses. It just needed the email address to be changed for gods sake!

Above shows a rough timescale. I had problems getting onto PAYM from May 2023 to August 2025. 

Thats 27 months

Prior to that I was fighting the BOOST PAYG overcharge mistake.

The reason I left payg was due to the flood of letters sent out from 2022 in error by BOOST. I was caught up in that with a payg only meter suddenly having a huge 4 figure debt stuck on it. PAYM was supposed to be more accurate and cost effective.

When I received that bill I got onto it straight away, knew it was a simple mistake. And I never had to pay a penny of it during the dispute, but BOOST/ OVO was a stubborn beast. Of course it was all resolved in due time BUT IT WAS AWFUL.

Whats going on now lol?

Im tired.

I would stick to the point -

You NEED to make an appointment and allow Seeka access to inspect the meter.

If you don’t do that then they will be going to court to get an entry warrant.
YOU will be liable for the costs of obtaining that warrant, and the costs of enforcing it.

Right now what may, or may not, have happened in the past is not the important thing to be looking at.

Your current task is to get Seeka off your back.

One hiccup at a time. The MPAN refers to the supply to the premises. It says nothing about what equipment if any is metering that supply. Any bill you have for this supply will show both the MPAN and the relevant Meter Serial Number (MSN). You could be helpful and tell your landlord what your meter’s MSN is so this silly situation doesn’t arise again. 
  

A smart electricity meter’s serial number usually looks something like this:

Hi ​@thereturn, I hope you’re well.

Thanks ​@Firedog, ​@Nukecad and ​@Blastoise186 for your continued help here - much appreciated. ​@Firedog could be right here about previously estimated usage, as estimates will cause the bar graph to look very static in comparison to when it’s based off actual usage.

​@thereturn I really hope this can all be cleared up for you quickly to avoid any further concern on your part. At the end of the day, you’ve complied with everything and have been very proactive in trying to get this resolved. Let us know when you’ve heard back about an appointment date, and keep us updated as to how this goes.

Next hiccup:

When your account moved on to the Orion platform on 22 September 2024, it was clearly configured for monthly reads only. That is an account setting; the meter itself slavishly records every half-hour’s usage every day and stores the numbers for 13 months, so they’re probably still there for the asking. It wasn’t until 22 January 2025 that this changed, which is why you can see daily meter readings from then on. We still can’t see whether the account was then, or is now, configured to request half-hourly usage data for billing. If it isn’t, you may want to have a look at ​@Ben_OVO‘s article:  How to choose how often your smart meters send us readings on your online account or OVO App | The OVO Forum. 

The image you shared of last month’s usage chart showed quite effectively that this year’s consumption (~5kWh/day) is significantly less than last year’s estimates (~8kWh/day). I don’t see any evidence of any metering fault or indeed any reason for the meter to be exchanged. At one stage you asked “How could I ever prove my real usage over the past months?”. Your meter contains the 20,000 actual recorded figures for the past year and a bit, and Loop will pretty much have retrieved them all, so that’s where you’ll see your ‘real usage’.

You won’t find out why Seeka have become interested in you until you manage to engage with OVO’s customer support or collections department. It seems pretty futile to speculate until then. 

Thanks Guys!

​@Firedog Yes, my mistake Im not fully literate in the nomenclature. I did mix up MPAN and serial. Thats was a hiccup on my part.

Apollo → Orion is a little more than a Hiccup on OVOs part.

“ I don’t see any evidence of any metering fault or indeed any reason for the meter to be exchanged. At one stage you asked “How could I ever prove my real usage over the past months?”. Your meter contains the 20,000 actual recorded figures for the past year and a bit, and Loop will pretty much have retrieved them all, so that’s where you’ll see your ‘real usage’.”

Thank you, thats very clear!
 

“You won’t find out why Seeka have become interested in you until you manage to engage with OVO’s customer support or collections department. It seems pretty futile to speculate until then”

It would be futile, if the stakes weren’t (potentially) so high. I dont want to be accused of theft of electric, thats not a civil crime… As the letters are letting me know the worst that could happen, you can surely appreciate why I felt it pertinent to know the full picture :)

I have contacted OVO.
We are waiting for a date from SEEKA.

Hey ​@Ben_OVO nice to meet you!

Firedog touched on my meter reading settings, the intervals at which they record.

afaik its always been half hourly but then I only access to any of this during August. You helped, I cant thank enough btw! 
 

Loop is showing this

 

It sounds like we are all agreeing a little on possibly 2024 having issues, 2025 might have different issues?

Im interested because Its important.
I want to help remedy whatever the sitch is, as you can see theres been a lot going on over a very long period. Good chance its all connected. Ive also been trying quite hard to bring this to OVOs attention over the years so excuse me for making hay whilst the sun shines :)

Of course I will update, as Ive mentioned before hopefully this thread can help people in future. Maybe even a resource for OVO.

Interestingly, whilst posting the above my reading has gone up for yesterday.

I shouldve screenshotted the first reading but it was around 7.4kwh before I got the meter readings screen shot and now is as below.

So maybe the meter isnt communicating every 30 mins, but every 12 hours? the sat and sun now match loop. Give or take .1

Over this next week Im attempting to keep each day the same as the last using minimal devices.

Let’s nail this fast. The meter records usage data for each half-hour slot during the day. It also takes a snapshot of the register(s) at midnight GMT every day. These data are salted away in the meter’s own datastore, usage data for 400 days, meter readings for 31 days. The oldest entries are deleted to make way for new ones.

You have given OVO permission to retrieve half-hourly data; this permission also stretches to the daily register readings. OVO sends (via an intermediary) requests to your meter regularly once a day asking it to send the previous day’s data and readings. In the good old days, this request-response happened soon after midnight. Nowadays, it’s more likely to take place in the afternoon, possibly even the evening. My own have occasionally been delivered 24 hours late.

There’s no ‘communicating every 30 mins’. 

Exactly right ​@Firedog, we just get a snapshot once a day, of the day’s usage.

From the screenshot ​@thereturn it looks like your usage pattern is quite consistent, with the higher usage on the weekend when, presumably, you might be at home for longer periods than you are during the week?

Of course I will update, as Ive mentioned before hopefully this thread can help people in future. Maybe even a resource for OVO.

​@thereturn absolutely this is going to be helpful for other people in the same situation as you, and many thanks for providing such detailed updates. Let’s hope you get a swift closure to all of this, and a full explanation as to why this has all happened.

​@Firedog OK…

Cool, the half hour thing is for what then? To help OVO be accurate… I dont think my meter has been accurate for the past 3 years lol

To help me view my usage better is the only benefit I can think of tbh

But yeah, below shows what youve described in action I would say

7am
 

5pm
 

You can see the correct cost has been adjusted, I wonder if on some of the other days that didnt happen and thats why its so high on say wednesdays and thursdays…

Id actually expect 28th to be higher than 27th, I put the washing machine on and came home slightly later too.

Im currently just using 1 light and the TV as an experiment.

​@Ben_OVO 
​@Nukecad 
​@Blastoise186 

We have had contact….

After I called on Friday to arange a date and was told there is no availability for 2 weeks Seeka were at my door again this morning!
BAFFLING….
Not sure why they lied to me?

They had my LLs number, again its on the front door and I had provided it, and asked if he could come down, he said “ring 20 mins ahead im not far actually” they said they were already at the house.

I dont think the LL was particularly impressed.

They opened the box and checked out the meters and though why is there wires coming out of them, “there are 3 flats” the LL explained…

“oh”

“can we go in that flat?”Ll called me, I just asked why, they said to plug something in. Then they decided if they “cant get into upstairs flat theres no point going into this one, so will just take a reading and report that to OVO and looks like everythings fine. we’re off”

they did a reading, 250kwh Ive used since last period. Ill have tto get the abacus cos OVO bill 22nd-22nd and then show my monthly usage as 1-28/20/31 About £58(ex)
bearing in mind last billing period was 7 days ago, Im not sure thats right.
but also, I wasnt at the premesis. My LL relayed everythng back to me is all.

Luckily, my LL is a fully qualified and certified electrican. I dont know the “level” but hes fully informed on this sort of stuff.

Could we add an option to actually look at the billing period on our accounts?
Can I request the details from todays visit at all?

So yeah, thats where we’re at!
 

It’s already there for each month, and the current ongiong one gets updated daily.
Just scroll down the home page.

If you want to see the daily meter readings there is a Meter readings page for.

Or if you mean on the graphs, i seem to recall that it has beenasked for but they say they can’t do it.

Forgive me, but what a complete eff about tbqh.

OVO SHOULD CONTACT THE CUSTOMER before accusing them of theft, a jailable offence.

Seeka need to sort themselves out as well.

My meter is a mess, or OVOs network, or just the fact that Im up North. At this point, nobody knows lol

Ive recently learnt that the standing charge is universal now and there is no benefit to having a DD account. In fact, having a DD account is why I am now in debt and stuck with this God Awful company.

Ive gone through all my account statements and have a full run down of whats happened. Ill outline some important events below.

Some of my previous timescales were off, a lot. I have been paying. Thank god!
I think the timescale helps explain the errors with my meter, Im not getting on anyones case, Im not nailing OVO to the wall, Im producing the facts, the details, I want this over. For good. All of this.

January 2023 I got my first attempted overcharge from Boost on my PAYG meter, I reported that on the 17th and got everything “sorted” by around June 2023, a month after BOOST announced its closure.
My PAYM account opened in July 2023, Its still connected and confused by my BOOST account.
By September 2023 I still had no access and was paying via Bank Transfer lol
November 2023 I had sorted out a DD by calling them, £40 it was. Which seems very low.
My first payment bounced, I put £300 in on the same day but Im guessing the DD was done early in the morning or something.

January 2024
Then it all goes a bit murky and Im struggling to find OVO DD attempts to take money from any of my accounts for a bit.

March 2024 letter wishing to increase DD to £150,  contacted OVO
April 2024 £158.95 DD payment (wtf!)
September 2024 (from the above picture in a previous post found on my online OVO account Billing page)
migrated to new account already in 291.87 debt OVO app shows data from then, the site will go back to APRIL 2024. September 30th, boost fully closes its doors. (15 months)
October 2024 After speaking with OVO DD goes through at £74.


June 2025 increased again to £130. No warning this time.
August 2025 contacted OVO, also FINALLY got access to my account after contacting this very forum. Not OVO.
September 2025 £148 DD payment (??!!!??!?!)
October 2025 £80 DD payment - Im trying to put this up 10 £100 but the site demands £175. Jog on, I dont care about being in credit just in time for OVO to pay their tax bill in April this year. I am happy to be at 0 by then. 
Its OVOs mismanagement that has caused all this.
Dont increase payments, doing so affects a customers finances drastically. By helping themselves they have put me in debt.

Using their payment thingy, £100 is fine.
 

See, its going down steadily and consistently. Im not refusing to pay by any means.
The site wont let me adjust so it will be an £80 DD and then £20 through the portal/app manually.

​@Nukecad 

yeah, sorry thats not really what I asked….

I can see the Bill that covers the billing period and goes up in “real time” Im asking, as we can view 01-28/30/31 really easily, could we get an option to change that view to 22nd-22nd so we can VIEW OUR USAGE ACCURATELY after the fact?

I think that would help OVO and the customer compare billed and true usage. My IHD, Loop and OVO are all slightly different but usually end up on the same amount, I imagine OVO will only accept their records.

Its just making things as transparent as possible. No?

To be clear, it would be good to be bale to view the below as 22nd-22nd covering your actually billing period and actual usage you are Paying for.

You can spot erros much quicker as a customer then, like underpaying.

Below show what I used in the month of October.

Im charged 1 week of September and the rest is from October on the 1st of every month.

So Im looking at 3/4th of last month and a few days of next month already. So I still have to manually record and work out the Billing Period to make sure OVO isnt struggling with their accuracy, leading to the threat I received last week.

 

To make that even more clear.

I was billed on the 1st October, I paid the £65.87 below. 
My October 1-31st usage is £43.74, Im guessing Ive already paid the majority of that because at the bottom you can see that I have only used £15.95 since the 22nd, around 63kwh. MUCH lower than the dude that read my meter at 230kwh.
 

This sounds like a misunderstanding. When you or anyone else takes a meter reading, you’re looking at the instantaneous value of the counter that started when the meter was certified. It will usually stay at zero until the meter is installed somewhere, but it starts clocking up the kWh the moment it’s connected to the mains. 230 kWh is the total quantity that’s passed through the meter since it was installed. You work out how much energy has been used in a specific period by subtracting the meter reading at the start of it from the reading at the end. That’s what you’ll see on your bills.

No ordinary meter reader can see the stored half-hourly data.

I take it your landlord was able to confirm which meter was yours from its MSN. The reading taken may appear in your online account within a few days, labelled as manual. 

ETA a moment later: 

You wrote “I still have to manually record and work out the Billing Period to make sure OVO isnt struggling with their accuracy”. 

The usage data aren’t used at all (yet) for billing. Your bills are calculated solely on the basis of meter readings at the start and end of the billing period. There will be a good correspondence, but it won’t ever be accurate to the Wh except by accident.

Why do you think there’s a problem with accuracy?

easy

​@Firedog 

Yes, after thinking about this Its clear the LL was told 230kw including last bill. Last bill was 190kwh and im on 40ish now.
230kwh
Im sure the engineer deciphered the reading so we could understand it, we dont need to know the lifespan just the most recent month.
The meter is recording correctly…

Firedog what the helll is an MSN ? an email client doesnt seem relevant here lol
The meter serial number you mean? … Im sure they did yes, I mean everything is matching up and seems fine. Engineer even said so. Bills confirm it.

“ Why do you think there’s a problem with accuracy? “
Erm…. SEEKA?
OVO thought there was a problem, see ​@Blastoise186 very first reply for an explanation of what SEEKA do

Also, I dont think theres a problem with accuracy, I dont think there ever was. (except for all of 2024 which I will address another day, solely with OVO and not on here. Why am I on estimates on a smart meter DD lol) 

With that function I would know there are no issues, OVO would too and it would save the SEEKA lads a wasted trip. Which means saving OVO money.

I cant think of any negative to being able to overlay or even just highlight your actual monthly paid usage (not the calendar month which means nothing) You can overlay last year, last month etc already.

for now the meter saga is over.

Its clear this was ALWAYS about my bill

I owe them money, my DD is too low to what they want and isnt clearing the debt quick enough. They  intimidated me by threatening to take my door off and take me to court for electric theft lmao

This wasnt just routine, theyve been 2-3 times this year. They routne visit once. The other 2 visits including yesterdays were investigatory.

I pay by direct debit and am in credit. For some reason I have without prior warning received a letter from SEEKA saying that unless I make an appointment with OVO for my electricity meter to be inspected they will apply for a warrant of entry. Absolultely no problem from my point of view with letting anyone in but I cannot get an appointment. NOBODY at OVO seems to understand and they keep asking if I need hel[p with paying my bill. I tried the Help  assistant who kept assking over and over again what financial issue I had and I tried telephoning twice and was cut off. What to do?

Letters from SEEKA are not about debt, they are about the meter/wiring.

It's SEEKA that you need to contact. (Not OVO).

(Edited by moderator)

Morning ​@CatherineI and a warm welcome to the OVO Forum.

I’m glad to see you came to the Forum about this and have been answered straight away by ​@Nukecad. Sorry to hear you’ve had confusing conversations with our Support Team - I think that the info regarding Seeka appointments hasn’t been communicated as well as it should have been.

Please let us know when you’ve contacted Seeka, and of course fire any more questions our way.