Switched supplier: Economy 7 smart meter not sending reads and IHD needs re-configuring?

It’s probably the payment method at work again. Good boys who pay by DD get treats. Urchins paying On demand only get bread and scrape.

Sorry nope….she pays on demand as well after being treated appallingly by Ovo about a year ago

She is a pensioner living in a (very pleasant) sheltered housing maisonette

At the time she was £900+ in credit and they wanted to increase her DD to £210pm due to a wholy ridiculous usage forecast. They refused to reconsider over the phone, so sent a rec delivery letter and allowed 30 days for a response.

Got nothing, not even an acknowledgement so cancelled DD. Over the next year not a single bill was over £110 and as of this summer was down to £90 odd. She sets aside each month £100 currently and has only in the last three months actually had to pay them anything.

Even if I advised her to, theres no way she would allow them a DD….the trust is totally gone

Plans is back up, and this is what I found for a bogus postcode in Southern region:

  
So you’re being charged E10 rates without getting the extra cheaper three hours. As you say, it’s not right, and I would press for getting the meter switching times re-configured. You might have to submit a complaint to get them to spark, because the complaint handler should pass it straight on to the metering people for them to fix. Email to complaints@ovoenergy.com from the account email address, head it COMPLAINT and include as much detail as they need to identify both you and your meter (name, address, postcode, date of birth, account number, MPAN and MSN). Tell them you’re paying E10 prices for E7 service when you expect to get E10 service.

Best of British!

Thanks for that and for confirming the current state of play

Just one thing - theres no mention of “Warmer Homes Plan” on mums Plan page just Simple Energy E7

Dont suppose theres any difference the prices appear the same

Im going to give them until end of week to sensibly answer the email reply i sent back last week, then I will indeed be heading down the complaint path. Ive told myself not to stress about this now….the differences are there but small, and nowhere near as bad as when tariffs were inverted

Once again thanks for responding

I absolutely give up with this level of incompetence:

In response to my third email to customer care, they have replied:

“We have checked your meter and it is submitting readings half-hourly as it should”...and

“Your account is currently £*** in credit

Yet again (3rd time) they have completely failed to make any comment re the E10 tariff being charged for E7 timings

Do I really have to expend more time with a formal complaint?

This is the email I have sent back….please be honest with me - am I not making myself clear?

- - - - - - - - - -

Dear ****

I am trying to remain polite, but your email is the third I have received which completely ignores the issue I have reported to Ovo

I am perfectly well aware that my meter is submitting half-hourly readings and my account is in credit

**THAT IS NOT THE PROBLEM**

I am supposed to be Economy 10, but my meter is changing tariff times based on Economy 7 (8am and 1am only)

Please do not send another standard response which ignores the above point. I have kept all my emails to/from Ovo and these will be used in a formal complaint if my problem is not resolved soon

Have you made any progress @MikeMilf 

Hi Jeffus

Well last Wednesday a very charming lady rang and said she had confirmed my problem and made the necessary changes to update my meter remotely

Whilst she was very charming and helpful, I have actually gone backwards since then lol

My tariff timings are still E7, only now my usage stats on the website have stopped working again, from the very day she made her changes. They have only worked for about ten days since I switched from SSE in August

I keep telling myself this is very much a first world problem, so have just fired off another email and refrained from venting on the phone.  This time I have added the fact I want some financial recompense for the hours wasted on hold, sending emails that get me nowhere and not once since the beginning of August, being on the correct tariff and timings

Im beginning to think all leccy companies are just useless. SSE were useless and rude, I guess Ovo are at least polite lol

Hey @MikeMilf,

I’m going to ask Forum_Support to reach out to you, please keep an eye on your private messages. 

@MikeMilf et al - apologies for a long silence, it's taken a while to get to the stage of having an update worth posting.

I now have an open and active case with the Ombudsman service and they are currently investigating.  The issue remains unresolved and despite initially challenging my complaint with the ombudsman and claiming the issue was resolved a long time ago, the internal case notes that ova have added to my complaint clearly show this is not the case and that they are fully aware of what the issue is.  The following is an exact copy of two concurrent case notes added to my customer file, as supplied to the ombudsman service and made visible to me:  (all details identifying the case handler have been removed and I regard this information as being free to share as it has been supplied to me by Ovo and it directly related to me alone).

10/10/23 by [CASE HANDLER]

“SSE were billing R1 as off-peak and R2 as peak but after the migration we are billing R1 as peak and R2 as off-peak. We have reads confirming that R1 is the off-peak reading and R2 is the peak:

10th Oct 2023 10:13:26 Adhoc

-Redacted Reading-

-Redacted Reading-

10th Oct 2023 10:25:32 Adhoc

-Redacted Reading-

-Redacted Reading-

R2 advanced during the peak hours, therefore it is the peak rate. Please register R1 as off-peak with TPR 374 and R2 as peak with TPR 375'Don't think it could be much more clear”

27/10/23 by [THE SAME CASE HANDLER]

"Action have checked with metering still not done"

There is the smoking gun right there!

Ombudsman have asked for a set of test reads (submitted today) and these show that the issue is still not resolved and they will now pursue with Ovo.  I will add back any further info that I can, as and when I know more.