Smart meters are working but not communicating with OVO - why?

Hey @AliWilson,

It sounds like we're not communicating with the meter, so we'll need to get to the bottom of this to figure out what's going on.

Send us a message on Facebook, Twitter or webchat via the Help Centre so we can look into your account and find out exactly what’s going on, and see if we can get a time frame of when this will be fitted. 

Thanks,
Eva

My smart meter has stopped reporting since 21st January. It previously has been working fine since April. Is anyone else in SE Hampshire similarly affected?

Looks like it’s just me then. So why will it take OVO 2 weeks before it can tell me what it is going to do about it?

We’ll need to do a smart meter health check to determine the issue, @PeteW, the team will then decide the best course of action. You can message the team on webchat via the Help Centre.

So how long does it take to do a meter check?. 2 weeks are up now and still no further contact! Why do I get the impression that nobody at OVO cares?

Hi @PeteW 

I suggest getting in touch through webchat via the Help Centre.

I’m having difficulty in communicating with Ovo. I had a SMETS2 meter fitted on Dec 9th. Works great for electric but not at all for gas. I entered into e-mail communication in early Feb and was told I need a further engineers visit because the meter wasn’t commissioned. I don’t really mind that I have to take more time off work to sort out my gas meter and I can accept that Coronavirus may have delayed this being sorted out as I am not vulnerable and that’s where Ovo’s priorities rightly lie.

I am not sure however whether or not any record has been made by Ovo that the issue is unresolved. I have registered for e-mail reminders to send monthly readings but these have now stopped coming. I have been updating readings manually over the Ovo website but on my latest visit I find the website has changed and I can no longer input a manual reading (the buttons shown in the tutorial don’t appear on my screen). I emailed a request latest readings on 2 July and asked for contact by email or phone. Automated email by return advised I’d get a response in 48 hrs. I’m still waiting and my usage has usage has not been updated. I just want to keep my readings up to date and to make sure I am up to date in paying for what I use. What else can I do? 

Hi @BrendanC and welcome to the Forum.

You are one of many customers who are experiencing “issues” with Smart Meters and some unusual patterns of readings not being delivered to their In Home Device (IHD), or their My OVO page, or both.

Two factors have conspired against us to make it more difficult to resolve these problems:

• the introduction of a new Billing System to comply with Ofgem requirements
• the pandemic restrictions, which make it difficult for installation engineers to visit enough properties

Your situation does at least have a clear cause at the root of it. As the meter commands are actually generated by the Billing System, it simply won’t know how to handle a site which it is aware of, but receives no responses from!

For your peace of mind, I suggest that you continue to read the meters manually once each month. That gives you a time/date-stamped copy of what you’ve written. From their side, unless there’s something unusual about those readings, I’m sure that OVO will be able to use them as the basis of your monthly statements until matters can be put right.

If you’d like to discuss particular issues concerning your meters, then please post here again. The Forum is a good place to share these experiences because it helps to provide better feedback to OVO as to where problems exist.