Smart meter installation problems - poor signal?

I’ve read the initial post again.

In my opinion as the Forum Volunteer here who specialises in the Smart Meter stuff… There is only one jargon term that wasn’t clearly explained in the email - T3 Aerial. However, it’s been covered many times on the Forum and upstream resources like SmartMe.

I can’t find anything else in there which would be confusing and nor can anyone else around the world who’ve read this thread.

My day job is in IT and I’m an experienced Admin. I can tell you from experience - Wi-Fi sucks, especially when you don’t use the right equipment. In fact, the experience of using anything wireless is often terrible if it’s not done properly. This is partly why there’s checks in place before an engineer even stops by your house. If these fail, the entire appointment is blocked from being booked at all in 99% of cases, but is sometimes caught later.

I’ve literally known cases where you can walk from one end of a room to another and go from full mobile 4G signal to absolutely zero signal at all, even in a high signal area. Or even outside, you can move 1m and totally lose coverage with absolutely nothing obvious blocking it.

Hi Emmanuelle,

Thanks for input.

I don’t disagree with you - I’m sure that Ovo did predict that the signal would be bad.  But it doesn’t actually know.  As Blastoise 186 points out above, a signal can vary within a small area so until someone actually comes out we will never know for sure.  Oh, and it does work for my neighbour, who has an OVO smart meter.

Your second paragraph also makes sense.  But again, I just need someone to come out to actually check to see if a T3 aerial is required or not.  Once this is done we can move forward, but if it isn’t we remain in the world of assumptions.  For now, I am being told it will not work despite the fact that two neighbours have smart meters and no issues.  You can see my dilemma.  

In summary, I just need OVO to move in the direction of showing me that they are trying to make this work rather than coming up with unsubstantiated reasons as to why it will not.

Thanks Jeffus.  Once I hear back from OVO team I will be sure to report back on the outcome.  

I have nothing against OVO, it is simply the frustration, that we all face in today’s world, when you push up against a seemingly impenetrable system and have to fight that little bit harder to get your voice heard and for someone to take action.  It is the same with all utility companies, with insurance everything.  It is just the way of the world but it can use up a lot of time and energy to get to where you want to get to.  However, if all else fails, I will look at Octopus and I thank you for this suggestion.

8 days and counting since Ovo promised to move my request up to the next level and ask a Specialist to call me but still no response from them.  Nothing.  Silence.

Looks like Octopus is the next best option.

Dear Friends in Forum World,

Today, 10 days after being told that I would be contacted by a Dedicated Specialist, I received a call from Susie at Ovo.  A courtesy call, she said, about my “billing query”.  My “Billing Query”??  Yes, dear reader, six months of writing to Ovo to try and have  a smart meter installed, or, as they wrote in a letter to me back in August, “Changing your meter is simple and stress-free”, and the person calling me hadn’t even read my notes.  

And we are no further forward.  The script is still the same - “We are waiting to hear back from the Technical Team”.  Which is what everyone I have spoken to since 10th May has been telling me.  It is a wonderful get out clause that shifts the blame to the Technical Team and suggests that they are the ones that never communicate.  But this has been going on for six months.  And it is likely to go on for another six months as I see no evidence that anyone is actually doing anything.  Every time I get a new person “looking after my complaint” we go back to square one and the same script is passed on.

It can’t be this complicated.  My neighbour has an OVO smart meter, has done for over four years.  Another neighbour has had one installed in the last six months.

I feel that we are in a state of paralysis and no one can actually unblock the system and get someone to come out.  As I think I said in a previous post, the emphasis seems to have switched to excuses as to why this can’t happen as opposed to finding a way to make sure that it can.

I remain positive and hope that, one day, this might get resolved.  More updates as and when I get them from the Dedicated Specialist.

As a final note - I see that the original Heading that I used on this post appears to have been changed and it has SOLVED beside it.  Sadly not.

Hi,

Update from my last post five days ago.

The latest mail from OVO today as follows:

“The reason we know if a customer has a T3 aerial or not is through their Meter Point Administration Number and also through Smart Support. I cannot request an engineers to come round to the property as my request will declint (sic) as you have an aerial type that we cannot connect.”

Now this is interesting.  If you have read my previous posts you will see that I have been trying to get a smart meter installed.  Simples, one would hope.  Anyway, everyone keeps telling me that I can’t have one because I need a T3 aerial (despite the fact that my neighbour has an OVO smart meter and no special aerial), but no one can explain why they think I need a T3 aerial and no one has come out to check if I need a T3 aerial.  But now I get this e-mail shown above.  Well, the way I read that is that they know that I have a T3 aerial and they know that is through the MPAN and Smart Support (I have no idea what that is).  They go on to say that an engineer will not come out as I “have an aerial type that we cannot connect”.  

This has really lost me.  As far as I am aware, I don’t have an aerial as I don't have a smart meter (although apparently OVO can tell that I do have one.  In fact “they know”).  And they are saying that an engineer can’t come out as I have an aerial type (T3) that “we cannot connect”.  When before everyone was saying that they can only connect if I do have a T3 aerial but no one can supply one of those and no one knows if I need one anyway.

I mean really, as an exercise in obfuscation this is hitting new highs.  As before, I just want someone to believe that this can work and try to make it work (I live near Colchester for goodness sake) instead I just get a litany of reasons as to why it won't work but no-one, not one person, can tell me why they have arrived at that conclusion.

I will keep trying..

Hey @rvintner 

Adding onto Jeffus’ ask if you’ve made progress, I’ve had the Forum Support reach out to you again to see if they can help - especially with this email, it sounds like some information isn;t right somewhere, and we’d like to get things set straight so we can get the issue resolved. Keep an eye out here for a Private Message. 

This reads like a Kafka novel, and I feel for you.

I take it you’ve checked that this MPAN that allegedly has a smart meter with a T3 aerial is in fact your MPAN? There have been cases where MPANs have got mixed up.

Just to be sure you know what this means: the MPAN is a unique identifier for the electricity supply to your house. It won’t normally change, even if the house is sold or a new meter is installed, and it’s pretty important that it’s correctly recorded on your account and everywhere else. 

The other vital piece of information is the Meter Serial Number, MSN. Nowadays, this gives an indication of how old the meter is - the first two digits are the year of certification - but this may not be the case for older meters like yours, if it’s due for replacement. 

These two numbers are uniquely tied together, and they should both be shown on your bills. In particular, I find it surprising that OVO support are claiming that you have a smart meter even though its MSN is indicating that its certification has expired (or is about to). Please check that the MSN on your bills matches the number on the meter itself. 

You can find your ‘official’ MPAN by contacting your electricity distributor, the DNO. That is in your area UKPN. You should then know whether your MSN and your MPAN are properly recorded on the national database. 

Since OVO Support ‘know’ that you have a smart meter with a T3 aerial when you know you haven’t, there must be something wrong in the details they’re finding for your supply point. 

It might help our understanding if you could post a clear photo of your meter so we can see its certification stamp and serial number.

Hi Firedog,

Thank you for your reply.  

Indeed, very Kafkaesque.  Or maybe more like Groundhog Day when it comes to going around and around with the same, obscure response.

Anyway, your reply is the first constructive and comprehensive one that I am yet to receive.  Thank you for your info and for the explanations, all of which I understand.

I have checked the numbers as suggested and they do correspond to what's shown on my bills.  So that part is correct.  Yes, it is an old meter (I will look to add a photo if I can), which is why, as you point out, I have been receiving various letters/e-mails from OVO saying that my meter is out of date and needs replacing (oh the irony!!).

I think that Suzie might be getting a little bit confused in her communication (it sometimes reads like a cut and paste reply).  However, she does write “our systems show that you have a T3 aerial”.  That is fairly unequivocal.  If you replaced “have” with “require” then it would make more sense but even when I have talked to Suzie on the phone she has been adamant that the system shows that I have a T3 aerial.

When all this began, back in May (I know, it has sucked up a huge amount in time and energy) the main issue, it seemed, was that The System was showing “predicted technical abort” re my property.  But nobody could explain how or why, other than an apparent engineer report from Scottish Power.  But I have lived here for fifteen years and never seen any engineer.  My guess, following on from your mail above, is that maybe the numbers that show on their System are wrong.  Although if they are showing as correct on my bill then I would be surprised if this is the case.

Anyway, I don’t know how to get to the bottom of this.  We are in a world where everyone is seemingly desperate to roll out smart meters and yet when i try to get one I meet with nothing but resistance.  I wouldn’t care other than the fact that I want to benefit from the hugely improved EV tariff  and also that this type of The Computer Says No drives me mad.

 So, I would welcome any further thoughts.  Maybe I call OVO and ask them to confirm the MPAN and MSN that they are looking at on The System.  And, if they are the same, why that MPAN leads them to believe that I have a smart meter and a T3 aerial when I don’t.  As I say, my guess is that Suzie, my Advanced Resolutions Specialist, is in a muddle and is confusing have with require.  But, even if that is the case, we go back to where we were, namely the question of how my MPAN and MSN indicate that I need a T3 aerial.  How does that work?  Surely a T3 aerial requirement would be based on signal strength etc?  So how does the number determine this?  Am guessing that it locates my property at a point on a map and The System is saying that a Smart Meter will not work here without a T3 aerial.  But, I ask again, then how does it work with my neighbour who, interestingly, is a technical boffin who sat on the steering committee for smart meter roll out (I know, you couldn’t write the script).

My summary of all of this is that it is all being based on what the computer is saying.  I get that, sometimes we need computers to help manage the daily tasks, but despite my best efforts, I can’t seem too engage human override on this to check that what the computer is saying is 100% correct when it relates to my actual property (not a dot on the map) in November 2023.  In my view, this will only be confirmed by a human being coming to the property to do the relevant checks.  But, as I see it, humans are expensive and no one wants to take that risk so it is easier to just fall back on the System says no.

Onwards and upwards.  

Hi Jeffus.

As per all the stuff above, I don’t have a smart meter.  My MSN starts K0.  As I understand it, this is why OVO have been sending me notes saying that my meter is old and needs updating because they can see from the MSN.  As per my note above, I think that my Specialist is confused although she is very specific in saying that The System says that I have a smart meter and a T3 aerial.

Is all slightly doing my head in.

Thanks Jeffus.

I have sent one more mail asking OVO to confirm what MSN and MPAN that they are basing their decisions on. Because, as Firedog notes above, these can sometimes be noted incorrectly.

Failing that, I will do as you suggest.  I would like to think that this will genuinely be looked at by people higher up the chain, even if not the CEO, but I am sceptical.  But I will definitely try.

Thanks for your input.