Product Recall: AltHAN Devices

That’d probably be because most people don’t have 2+ AltHAN Devices, nor would they leave OVO because of a product recall like this one.

As I’d mentioned earlier, OVO can only assist you while you’re still with OVO. It’d be the same story if you were with any other supplier - they can’t assist anyone who isn’t active with them.

If you leave, OVO can assist with things like your Final Bill, Final Refund, final debt repayments and matters explicitly related to closing your account down but otherwise pretty much everything else gets terminated e.g. booked appointments, active support cases, Winter Support Package items, complaints, online services, Charge Anytime, Power Move/Power Move Plus/Power Move Flex etc. Matters related to product recalls arguably fall into the latter category unless it relates to another still active service or it’s to do with a physical product you purchased like an EV Charger.

Likewise, OVO can assist you if you’re yet to join, but the support is limited to generating quotes, helping you to set up an account and giving some general advice about how things work but they cannot help you with anything that’s considered to be account specific (other than opening a new one).

If you choose to leave now, you’ll need to take up the AltHAN issue with your new supplier. I can’t 100% guarantee how they’ll handle it.

Hey @Simon.p 

Sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve had with this.

I’ve been in touch with the team, and they want to help get this sorted. I’m going to reach out to you via private message so we can get this sorted out for you, look out for a message here soon.

@Abby_OVO Hi all and Abby, I can see that this last comment seems to be 2 months ago 

I am extremely confused and concerned. 
I received a call from a number I cannot remember (I am autistic and was I a mental health crisis at the time) I do remember the person mentioning replacing my alt han bridge. We set a date. I wrote down. Even wrote down the number to call if I needed to. I unfortunately threw out this piece of paper which I regret massively now as … evidence right? So I call ovo and I explain this call the person on the phone says she can see no appt for me but will reach out to suppliers and get back to me about what date via email. She also mentioned they are quite quick to respond so expect and email soon. The email never came. So I called again the next day but the person then said the same there is no appt after explaining the issue he put me on hold for 30 mins and I had to leave for an appt for my mental health so I just hung up. 
 

my mother called as again I was struggling with my mental health and getting no where was clearly upsetting me more. She managed to explain the letter and the issue they said they would send someone. 
Today the engineer came and had no idea about the fire safety issue nor had he see the sticker on the front saying do not use. He seemed extremely confused as to why he was booked as he mentioned we are NOT replacing these yet. 
he took some photos of the letter and the plug said keep it plugged in but don’t use the front no fire risk. 
 

my concern is this seems so shady… OVO take responsibility before something awful happens. 
 

Elliot. 
 

Hi @Elliot1 ,

Please note that Blastoise186 is a Forum Volunteer. He doesn’t work for OVO

It was me who first alerted OVO to this, so I’m well versed in exactly what’s going on here. I have industry contacts who’ve been helping to keep track as well, to which I owe them my thanks. I have Autism myself so I can understand where you’re coming from - I can sense it in the post you’ve written and I’m sorry to hear of the trouble here.

As far as I’m aware, OVO was fine with me posting this alert - it ultimately helps them out because safety is a higher priority than basically anything else.

I can also tell you OVO were very rapid to take my warning seriously. As soon as OVO saw this thread the morning after it was posted, they were straight on the case in a heartbeat.

The device itself is safe to use as long as you don’t use the Plug-Through Socket as the current one can’t safely deliver the full 13A that it’s supposed to be capable of doing. The replacements have the extra parts in them which will allow that.

The latest info is that the upstream manufacturer isn’t ready to replace them just yet and the new stocks are still in the pipeline so OVO doesn’t have any right now. You’ll get an update directly from OVO - and here on the Forum - once the new devices are ready to deploy.

One of my contacts at OVO has also been watching this thread and saw your comment. They don’t reply directly, but have asked me to recommend you sign up for the Priority Services Register if you haven’t already done so. Autism is 100% on the list of things that qualify and this will make your life much, much easier. More details at https://www.ovoenergy.com/register-for-priority-services or you can do it via OVO Support.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Just to add to the above, we’ve had a chance to talk to one of OVO’s Engineers today.

We’ve had confirmation that L+G is definitely working flat out on getting new AltHAN Bridges ready to deploy, with a possible estimated first delivery of sometime early next year. Please don’t take this for granted though - it’s just an estimate.

We’ll keep you all posted.