Hi,
Our smart meter failed over the weekend which resulted in being without gas for nearly 24hrs? Can OVO provide answers to the questions below?
1. Why did the smart meter not proactivly inform me or Ovo that the meter was about to fail ? No warning it just died and left us ( family with 2 children under 5) without gas for heating,Hot water or cooking. Not very SMART ?
2. We thought the battery life of the smart meter was on avergae 10 years? this lasted 3 at best ? engineers that have visited say that on average its 2 -3 years? Why are we being informed its 10 years ? Essentially are we looking at replacements every 3 years? Not very SMART ?
3. Upon discovering we had no gas we tried to contact OVO out of business hours... which is a challenge , number on this site and on the internet are business hours only and it took a lot of searching to actually find an emergency contact. once we did get through we were informed that there was nothing they could do till 9am the following day?? We are in a heat wave but imagine this in the middle of winter with young children and no Gas?? Not very SMART?
4. When the emergency engineer did arrive the following day to replace our SMART meter they replaced it with a pre paid card meter ? Why? We didnt have a pre paid card meter before and didint want one, we want a replacement SMART meter like the one we had before.
5. So we contact OVO again this morning and a new job is raised to replace the incorrect Pre Paid card meter that was installed yesterday. The engineer arrives.... sorry i'm a pre paid card meter engineer and I cant replace the (incorrect) pre paid card meter with a smart meter that you require. Engineer leaves and we contact OVO again... another emergency job logged. Not very SMART !
So in summary its a dreadful customer expiriance and massivly inconveniant that working familes with young kids have to face such disruption to accommodate a process that is anything but SMART !
Why are smart meter batteries failing so fast? Why can we not easily contact OVO out of hours when we have no Gas? Why are we facing potentially havIng to be subjetced the the replacement of 3 meters to get back to the orginal smart meter we need? Why cant a failed smart meter just be replaced with a new smartt meter in one emergency callout ? Engineers onsite today informed me that they carry them but cant install them?
Look forward to OVOs reponse on how this is going to be resolved and how we will be compensated for the massive disruption to a long term customer, who after this experiance will be seriously questioning if they remain with OVO.
Why has my smart gas meter battery failed? I was left off-supply over the weekend!
Best answer by Nancy_OVO
Updated on 26/06/24 by Abby_OVO
First of all, I just want to say sorry for this experience and the inconvenience it's caused you and your family, it’s never nice to hear of issues occurring which leave a family off-supply.
All gas meters (Smart and traditional) have an internal battery that power them. This is designed to last for up to 20 years, with a meter recertification (exchanging the meter to replace it with a new one) scheduled every 10 years, so it’s unusual for this issue to crop up so soon. If your gas smart meter is making a beeping sound, it indicates that the battery is low and the meter will need replacing. If the battery fails this can affect the supply, as in your case, so it’s important to reach out to our Support Team if you do ever notice that your meter is beeping.
It’s really distressing to hear that this happened out-of-hours and you were unable to give us a call - we do have emergency contact details here and would encourage you to use these to report any urgent issues when our phone lines are closed.
Additionally, I'm so sorry that a prepayment meter was installed during your emergency appointment. This isn’t what should have happened and I can only apologise for the hassle you’ve now had to go through to get a pay monthly gas meter replacement. I think the best course of action would be to contact our Support Team to raise this as a complaint - this will make sure we investigate what went wrong and will provide important feedback to any internal processes that might need improving. We’ll also be able to see what we can do to put things right - getting you the right meter as quickly as we can and discussing a fair goodwill gesture to make up for the shortfalls in service you experienced.
+5- Plan Zero Hero
- 2728 replies
Hi
Twitter - https://twitter.com/OVOEnergy
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ovoenergy
Getting no reply on Twitter
Really disappointing
Cant really believe how bad Ovo Customer Service is now compared to a while back
I have recommended Ovo a few times previously but never again
+2- Plan Zero Hero
- 2561 replies
Getting no reply on Twitter
Really disappointing
Cant really believe how bad Ovo Customer Service is now compared to a while back
I have recommended Ovo a few times previously but never again
Having phoned at 8.00 on monday as the website says, the phone message then says 9.00
So i tried the web chat.
Took about 10 minutes for someone to respond. Then went silent for about 40 minutes despite my prompts
So at 9.00 i phoned again and did actually speak to someone fairly promptly and should have an engineer out in about 3 hours
The web chat came back on as i was on the phone, so 1 hour after first trying web chat. They said they hadnt received my replies
So really not a great experience overall but hoping to have it sorted in the next few hours.
To get an engineer within 3 hours of calling is fine. Good in fact. And the contractor has since phoned to confirm.
But the overall experience so far has been very poor and stressful when trying to communicate with machines and getting nowhere and not knowing when an actual person might help you
Hi, our smart gas meter has failed and because it is Saturday we are struggling to talk to anyone in OVO who can help. It is looking like we will have to wait until Monday before anyone will answer the phone so we will have two days with no heating or hot water. I notice from the original post in this conversation from SalamancaRhodes that they managed to find an out of business hours number to call. I was hoping someone on here might know it to pass on? I live in hope!
Thanks!
- Plan Zero Hero
- 1979 replies
… we are struggling to talk to anyone in OVO who can help.
The social media teams operate at the weekends. If you’re without heating, they may be able to arrange an emergency appointment. The Facebook team can be accessed using the blue button at the bottom of this page, while X is here: OVO (@OVOEnergy) / X (twitter.com). They may be the same support agents answering in both places, and they can have access to your account and do most of the stuff that those who answer the phones on weekdays can do. You don’t have to have a Facebook account to use the Messenger chat.
Thanks Firedog, I did get in touch with them via Facebook and did get a reply asking for my name, address, account number and then they would look into it for me. Of course I immediately I supplied the information but have heard nothing back from them. You would think when a Smart meter failed it would immediately notify them as an issue. As my husband says, they can use a smart meter to charge us for use but funnily can’t use it as a notification of failure…..
Just to say, OVO did get back to me and sent out a technician who arrived half an hour ago and fixed the meter! Very impressed, contact via Facebook does work.
- Plan Zero Hero
- 1979 replies
So glad the system worked for you!
🙌
Hey
Sorry to hear you were having some trouble with the smart meter over the weekend, but I’m really glad to hear the team were able to help you out yesterday and get an engineer out quickly.
If you’ve ever any other questions in future, don’t hesitate to pop back.😊
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