Problems with Ovo Charge anytime app since change with Ohme and Renualt app

​@jonoparton oh no, I was praying for you and thought we had actually cracked it 💪🏽

Back to square one we go!

I haven't charged yet, I was going to charge Friday night as I am away over the weekend. I might have a play with it tonight and if there are issues this will give me chance to contact OVO 🤔 and then wait once again!

Did the urgent charge work? 

No it didn’t work unfortunately. 
 

I’m going to give it a go again on Friday night when my battery will be low. I’m wondering if thats the reason (as battery is currently 94%).

Hey ​@ZO23 & ​@jonoparton,

Have you reached out to the the Charge Anytime team? 
 

How to get in contact with the Charge Anytime team

• Charge Anytime - 0330 175 9678 (Option 1 new customers/option 2 existing customers) 

• chargeanytime@ovo.com

These topics might have some helpful advice:

​@Emmanuelle_OVO 

Thank you, but myself and ​@jonoparton have contacted OVO on numerous occasions via phone and email and it is like banging your head against a brick wall. 

Maybe a new provider maybe easier at this point 🤷🏼‍♀️

I emailed last Thursday and haven’t had a response.

I’ll ask the team ​@jonoparton & get back to you, in the meantime let me know if they respond to your email. 

What a surprise my car still isn't charging!!!

Plugged the car in, 10 minutes later the app updated saying away from home. Even though my car is literally sat in my drive attached to the box on the side of my house like usually.

This is getting beyond a joke. All I want to do is charge my car and at the discounted rate. But instead I am meet with an app that constantly doesn't work. 

Amy suggestions on this next problem?

How frustrating, I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve reached out to the team internally ​@ZO23, I’ll let you know when I get a response. 

​@Emmanuelle_OVO I have called OVO this morning and spoke with Jorden, who was extremely helpful. She has arranged to call me back at 1pm today when I am at home connected to my charger.

This is the first time someone at OVO has actually been helpful and listened to me 💪🏽💪🏽 without telling me everything is fine and can't see any problems their end!

At last THANK YOU JORDEN !!

Update

Jorden never called at 1pm after scheduling a call and sending a confirmation email. I waited until 1.15pm as she could be on a call or in the middle of something which is understandable.

Still no call by 1.15pm, so I called myself. 40 minutes on hold, to be told Jorden couldn't be found - surprise surprise!

So I spoke with someone else. Who was helpful and i am just hoping everything now works.

​@jonoparton have you had any luck yet?

The gentleman I spoke with today advised to unlock the ohme box before plugging the car in and then locking it once unplugged.

The whole experience from the app to the customer service has been abysmal. If it wasn't for a £190 exit fee I would have moved energy companies. To be unable too charge a car for 6 weeks because of an app, isn't acceptable, especially as we live in a world that runs on apps!

Not only have I wasted my time with the numerous phone calls and emails, but I have lost money. Charging at my standard rate and having to leave work, which I've had to take unpaid as my lunch break is too short,  then add in an increase on my monthly bills! 

I hope OVO sort it out! 

Hi ​@ZO23, I’ve used my car this week and just plugged it in. At the moment it looks to be set up ok and set to smart charge from 11.30pm. Who knows if that will happen but I’ll let you know in the morning. 

Is your EV plugged in and what is your app showing you? 

Charging didn’t work overnight.

Oh no ​@jonoparton 🤦🏼‍♀️ so mine charged over night but only to 75% 🤷🏼‍♀️ my app screen looked just like yours last night!

A couple of things I have noticed, I changed my charge levels to 0% and 100%.

Plugged my car in, took about 10 minutes to acknowledge the charger was in and then planning your next charge. I kept an eye on it as I have no confidence this is going to work! 

About an half and a half had past and I noticed the car hadn't updated for over an hour and the little green light had turned to orange.

Out in the pouring rain I went unplugged my charger! Waiting for about 10 minutes again for the app to update my car wasn't plugged in.

Back in the rain to plug in, again waited 10 minutes for the app to realise it was plugged in but changed my charge levels to 20% and 100% 

I had already checked my Ohme app which had scheduled a charge so I knew the car would charge. Which isn't the point as I wouldn't get the discounted rate.

Why would it only charge to 75%, that's no good when it's needed for long journeys, it just means I potentially have to stop off and charge, again costing extra!

Hey ​@ZO23, 

We apologise that you're still experiencing charging issues. Charge Anytime is designed to charge your vehicle when the grid is at its greenest. This means charging won't start immediately after plugging in; it may begin sometime later.

If you continue to experience issues, our Charge Anytime team is available to help. They can triage the problems with you and offer advice. You can reach them at 0330 175 9678 (Option 1 for new customers, Option 2 for existing customers) or via email at chargeanytime@ovo.com

This doesn’t explain the problem. 
 

there is something wrong with you tech because I clicked to urgently charge my car on Friday and the app is stuck on this screen since then:
 

I charged it (at the non charge anytime rate) via Ohme app on the weekend so your app isn’t connecting to my EV. 
 

Ps please don’t tell me to uninstall / reinstall the app or unlink / relink my EV to my charge anytime app. It doesn’t work .

Hey ​@jonoparton,

I’m sorry to hear you’re still having issues, did you hear back from the team?
 

How to get in contact with the Charge Anytime team

• Charge Anytime - 0330 175 9678 (Option 1 new customers/option 2 existing customers) 

No. No one has emailed me back. Still. 

​@jonoparton sorry to hear that the team haven’t got back to you yet, I believe their response times may be delayed due to how busy things have got since the changes with Ohme. Hopefully they should reply soon. You could try calling them if you’d like to speak to them more quickly. Let us know how you get on.

​@jonoparton have you had any luck?

I've plugged my car in tonight and within a couple of minutes it acknowledged the car was plugged in.

However I still don't trust the app and if it is going to charge my car.

From personal experience I think OVOs communication is extremely poor, and I don't think the changes from Ohme should be any excuse!

It leaves me questioning should I look for a new provider, if a company implements new changes and new apps, there should be enough trained staff to support the transition. Not ignore hoping the problem will go away 🤷🏼‍♀️

​@ZO23 did the car charge ok overnight?

Also, we’re sorry that you’ve also experienced delays with responses. As a customer of many different utilities and services myself, I fully appreciate how frustrating it is when you don’t get a response quickly. Please rest assured though that it’s not a case of anyone being lazy or waiting until the problem goes away. I have many colleagues over in the EV side of the business and I’ve seen how hard they’re all working. I know that doesn’t make up for the wait times you’ve experienced, but I wanted to let you know that these delays are in no way deliberate.

​@Ben_OVO they always say trust your gut. My car was scheduled to start charging at 1am this morning, I set an alarm at 1.30am and I'm so pressed I did else my car wouldn't have charged. 

It seems that the app recognises when the car has been plugged in, but between this time and the charging start time something happens and my car was no longer recognised.

Not really what I want to be doing getting up in the middle of the night to unplug and plug my car back into charge. And again it didn't charge to 100%. It managed to get to 93% this time 🤷🏼‍♀️

Any advice? 

Hi ​@ZO23

Just checking something that may be specific to your car. Is the R-Link software in your car up to date? I can't remember if the ZE50 had any charging issues but the ZE20/40 did and that was fixed by an update. The ZE50 did have BMS (Battery Management Software) issues in the early days as they changed the chemistry of the batteries and it wouldn't charge properly. There were also issues about the car falling asleep and being unresponsive to charging.

Contact the r-link team and see if they can identify if you have up to date software.

https://www.renault.co.uk/renault-connect/r-link-2.html

Peter

​@Peter E thank you, I have emailed Renault to double check.

At the very beginning I had issues with my Renault app aswel, as I wasn't made aware that I needed a subscription for the app to work and my subscription had come to an end. The only way you can sort this is by calling the Renault app team and they do it on the phone.

My car was updated on numerous occasions as nothing seemed to be working!

Feels like there is a pattern starting to emerge! Should have stuck with petrol 😅

​@ZO23 It is true that we are pioneers when it comes to owning EVs. It would have been so much easier if we had given it another 10 years for everything to settle down and let others fish the bugs out the whole thing but we are where we are.

I've been very fortunate with my 2019 ZE40 so far in that I have found most of my answers on SpeakEV and I was prepared to do the spade work to make it work. I now have a cheap, reliable system that works for me and, very importantly, my wife. If it hadn't worked for her then we would have gone back to petrol but we have successfully navigated four years of EV car ownership with very few issues but it is a very steep learning curve if you have to do it by yourself.

I would be annoyed if I had to go back to petrol as I'm saving nearly a £1,000 a year not paying fuel duty and the VAT on top of that. And driving an EV is such a stress and noise free experience. I drive my son's A4 Audi on occasions and to be honest I dislike having to do that. I hope you manage to find the root cause of your issues and stick with an EV.

Peter