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Smets 2 fitted in a cellar not communicating

  • 19 September 2023
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I am new to OVO having been migrated from my previous supplier. I have found the OVO forum useful already, but does not solve my problem. My meter did have a T2 antenna fitted and was lighting up all the indicators except HAN. (We have no gas)Which I have discovered on this forum means that the meter was not commissioned. Subsequently a technician  changed it back to one without an external antenna. Which of course does not work and SW lights up and the WAN lights every one second. Any ideas. 

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Best answer by Blastoise186 20 September 2023, 23:18

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Blastoise186
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Please post photos. We can’t advise you without them.

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meter with Antenna
Meter installed a few weeks ago

 

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Photos attached

Abby_OVO
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Hey @Raymondo 

 

Thanks for sending those photos! @Blastoise186 what do you think? 

Location: Electric Avenue
Blastoise186
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Sorry for the wait! I volunteer with the fire service these days and I have quite a lot on my schedule this week. I did see your photos but didn’t have chance to reply last night.

By the looks of things, you need an engineer visit to fix this. Try https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com as this usually gathers the necessary data as well as getting the support request sent in.

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Thanks for your quick reply, especially as you are busy yourself. My Smartmeter was installed in September 2019  and has never worked. We have another Smartmeter in an outbuilding about 50 metres or so away it was also installed in 2019 works perfectly and always has. In June 2023 - this year I finally managed to get an appointment for a technician to visit from SSE. The result was he changed the meter and the comms hub although all the lights except gas and HAN seemed to be flashing regularly. He told me it wouldn’t connect and said he would return. He did about 4 weeks ago and replaced the meter and top unit with a similar unit that was fitted originally in 2019 - without an antenna and seemed mystified it didn’t work!  The WAN light on this unit flashes every second. About a couple of weeks ago I was migrated to OVO. The outbuilding was migrated months ago.  I am hopeful that there is a solution, my wife and I are well into retirement and finding difficulty in going to our cellar where the meter is located and trying to read the numbers. 

Blastoise186
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No worries. I kinda mode switch depending on what I’m currently doing (or meant to be doing), so it’s often not practical for me to post here when I’m on duty even though I’m non-operational myself. I find it best to keep focused on that for what I think you can imagine are fairly serious reasons.

I definitely don’t get why the Comms Hub was downgraded - it should have stayed in-place and recommissioned as there was absolutely no need to swap it for an SKU1.

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I have filled in the smartmeter help online questionaire. But my HAN is off and the form only allows on or flashing as an answer - I tried to explain in the limited space, I’ll see what happens.  But after over three years of being totally ignored and then about 10 different people at SSE all very nice and apologising etc. But nothing actually changes on the technical front. I am hoping that OVO can do better.

Blastoise186
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Thanks. That form is pretty powerful and the tooling behind it SHOULD detect the lack of a connection at all. The diagnostics it gathers will likely result in an engineer visit.

It’s a new tool that takes in some of the checks I run you through here as a forum volunteer, and combines them with data that OVO can see into a single report that gets sent directly to the team responsible - it’s much faster this way.

That HAN thing is however, a limitation with the tool. I’ll definitely ask for this to be fed back.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
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I have been away from home for a few days, the SW and WAN light are now flashing together every 5 seconds. No other lights are on. Is this good news!

 

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A few facts before OVO start congratulating themselves on a job well done. It is 4 years since my Smartmeter was installed at SSE’s recommendation. It didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now. By that I mean not communicating. When I was migrated to OVO I was told that I would have to start all over again with my complaint, even though OVO have owned the retail customer base of SSE for at least 2 years. I contacted the OVO forum where I did find helpful information and assistance. Having been asked to fill in an online form that promised help within 47 days!!! approx 35 days ago. Which sounds a bit more kicking the ball into the long grass to me after 4 years of being mostly ignored. Of course I may be entirely wrong and OVO may be as good as their public relations blurb. The next 10 days should tell.

Emmanuelle_OVO
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Hey @Raymondo,

 

If within the 45 working days the meter issues aren’t fixed remotely, an engineering appointment will be arranged with you. 

 

Keep us posted with how you get on.

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Thank you for your quick reply. I will certainly keep you posted.

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My wife and I are many years retired and agreed to have a Smartmeter fitted by SSE because reading the meter where it is installed in our cellar is getting more and more difficult – and that was four years ago.

It has never communicated with the SSE or now the OVO system.

The OVO forum is very useful and certainly provided me with some information that SSE did not. But the fact is the forum seems to be operated by volunteers with the occasional OVO employee intervening to head off any bad news.

When I contacted the forum I received an answer within an hour two, which was very impressive. I was asked to fill out an online form, which would apparently lead within 47 days to me being contacted and my problem investigated and even lead to an engineers visit. The 47 days are up today, no contact, no phone call, no email. In fact, guess what, OVO seem just as unbothered as SSE about customer service and dealing with problems.

Tim_OVO
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Sorry to hear that you filling in the ‘smart meter health check form’ (I assume that’s what you did) didn’t result in contact in the given time frame @Raymondo. 

 

You might consider using web chat here, to chase up contact. Perhaps your internal account has some notes that are helpful for you to know which the advisor can relay. Alternatively the information you sent in that form may just not have reached the team yet. But at least you’ll know it’s still in the queue. 

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Tim thank you for replying but what you must realise is that I have now spent four years speaking to SSE chat lines and hanging on phone lines and sending emails. So to be told to do exactly the same really isn’t very helpful. I filled in your form and was reliably informed I would be contacted with 47 days. That has not happened. I could give you the names of at least 10 people at SSE who have apologised that I had to complain. Im sure most of them have probably been migrated to OVO themselves. What I need now is OVO to actually do something. I don’t know what about sending an experienced engineer along to take a look?

Tim_OVO
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I’ll ask the Forum Support team to send you a private message, @Raymondo - perhaps they can get an update on this for you. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
Jeffus
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@Raymondo keep an eye out here for a message

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview

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