Help / advice for getting RTS meters changed after failed and cancelled appointments?

Bear with me! I'm thinking about this and I'll respond later today 

Hey ​@khr,

We’ve heard from engineers that installing meters for customers affected by the RTS shutdown has been a complex process involving a lot of trial and error. I’m sorry if working towards a fix takes some time. The teams are working hard to resolve things for everyone affected.

I’ll try my best to give some answers to the points you raised above: 

1. There are some pilots at the moment for a 4G communications hub, but to my knowledge, this isn’t currently available to engineers, and it’s still being tested for long-term viability. Part of the DCC’s network evolution plan is having this replacement last at least 15 years, and you can read more about the evolution plan here.
2. There are circumstances when all the troubleshooting steps don’t work for specific setups. In that scenario, with the upcoming RTS shutdown, a newer meter would be installed in dumb mode until a longer-term fix can be applied. We don’t know what impact the RTS shutdown will have on existing meters, so simply leaving you to whatever fate this would be isn’t an option. 

Hopefully, this helps.

Don’t confuse the smart meter WAN with the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS). RTS makes it possible for electricity distributors to send a signal to your meter telling it when to switch offpeak power on and off and how to record it. With a smart meter and a plan like Economy 10, these switching instructions are stored in the meter itself on installation. They will not normally change later, but if it is necessary to do so, it can often be done remotely over the WAN. The WAN is also the channel through which your meter readings and usage data are sent to OVO. So should the WAN connection fail at some stage, there will be no difference to the way your heating equipment behaves. If it turns out to be a persistent problem, the worst that would happen is that you’d have to submit your monthly meter readings manually just as before.

It's difficult to keep emotion out of it when customers are no longer treated as the client but as  a commodity. The retail electricity industry is no longer designed to suit consumers but consumers have to suit the system. We have come to accept an appallingly inefficient service as normal. In the near past paying the quarterly bills and occasionally checking readings was the only call on my time. Now dealing with electricity companies takes up a major portion of it. At least one thing Ovo have improved on is the previous three quarter hour wait for anyone at SSE to answer the phone.

I now learn that commercial property should not be with Ovo. This is another interesting example of the confusion in the industry. SSE passed most of my accounts to Ovo, retaining those they considered commercial, I had no say in the matter.

These were the properties I referred to in my post as already having SSE fitted smart meters.

Yes, those were the exact words of the agent "I've checked & we know that smart meters don't work in your area" of course this was in the context of communication and remote control, that's what we were discussing. It didn't occur to me that  they might fit ones that didn't measure consumption. The Ovo  agent instructing the engineer knew exactly what heat appliances were in each property. They needed to in order to suggest the tariff. The first engineer knew he had to replace  RTS meters, I have no idea why he failed. I'm not sure that the second one had even been told that the old meters were RTS.

Why make appointments and send out engineers with inadequate instructions and when the policy is still in flux. It must

be very frustrating for them as well as a complete waste of money.

 Hardly worth mentioning that the letters confirming the last appointments arrived the day after the visit. It typifies the callous inefficient indifference of the industry. Many years ago I was proud to work for the CEGB. Today I would be ashamed to work in the retail electricity industry.

What is the point of a special phone number if it goes to the general call centre?

I wrote this 4 weeks ago without posting . Today 1/9/25 an SMS  engineer turned up to replace 2 meters (actually 3 were booked, but no one had told me the 3rd appointment had been cancelled). My 3rd day wasted for appointment.  It is beyond belief, but despite a previous engineer visit to the same property in May, and assurances from the RTS team that they knew smart meters did not work, this engineer did not have a dumb meter. Together we rang the RTS team (20 minute wait, and they have disconnected the WhatsApp contact) & spoke to a pretty unsympathetic operator. Apparently the reason the 3rd property cancelled was that this engineer (it seems 2 were coming on the same day, expecting me to be in 2 places simultaneously) had cancelled as he did not have a dumb meter. These appointments were made 3 weeks previously.

Whilst on to Ovo I tried cancelling a further 2 appointments for tomorrow. She hung up. The utter callous incompetence is mind blowing. It’s the waste of days of my time both on the phone & abortive appointments that hurts me most.

PS on reflection, every supplier I have had to date from the Scottish Hydro Board onwards has classed the properties I refer to as domestic (they are holiday cottages and residential lets) and not business/commercial. I do have other commercial property and SSE used to supply both and made the distinction. Do Ovo have a different distinction?

I would suggest  that your trying to arrange multiple meter exchanges at multiple properties shouts that something unusual, and possibly commercial, is going on.

Holiday lettings I'm not sure about the status of, however in residential lettings the supply and metering is usually the tenants responsibility and not the landlords. (With an exceptiion being  all-inclusive rents, multiples of which in the same property may again indicate a commercial arrangement is needed for supply).

I'd suggest that your situation is not a usual customer-supplier situation, so you cannot expect the usual customer-supplier advice to apply

You do the industry a disservice by any attempt to justify this incompetence. Ovo are perfectly well aware of the number of properties I am responsible for. If anything it should be easier combining visits.

​@Glenprosen I’m sorry to hear of another failed appointment. If you weren’t given at least 24 hours’ notice of the cancellation please log this with our Support Team who’ll raise a Guaranteed Standards of Performance case to see if you’re entitled to compensation.

Compensation almost certainly means more time input. What I’d like is the managers of this business (and our MPs/MSPs) to see how disjointed and incompetent it is and the resultant wasted time, for their company as well as for us donkeys. There are, I’m told thousands with this same problem (no signal) and the solution, a dumb meter, is not technically difficult. Some in the team appear to be aware of it, most appear not to be. I am naively hoping for improvement in the slide to industrialised mediocrity.

For tax purposes, holiday lets are considered a business. I would personally argue that you should also be on a business supply for each of those properties, which is something OVO hasn’t offered for over a decade.

Whether OVO continues to serve you is arguably at OVO’s sole discretion because they’re not a business supplier. For the best experience… TBH I’d suggest you switch the properties to another supplier who can cater for the use case.