We have an asbestos fuse- How do I get OVO to inform the DNO?

Oh great… I got stuck in RoboOperatorLand again… Out of all the DNOs I’ve spoken to so far, their phone system is probably the most annoying.

I did at least manage to get through to a really good agent after breaking the bot. UKPN are insistent that the supplier needs to send that form as a B Code before they’ll deal with you. As you’ve been waiting a rather long time, I’ll ask @Emmanuelle_OVO to stop by.

Yep I’ve seen a few examples of this in 2022. OVO says ‘we’ve sent the info to the DNO’, the DNO say ‘We haven’t got the info from OVO’. Who knows who’s in the wrong, but the customer suffers. @Bonny86 can we try plan A and chase this up with our Support team via an online chat? That way you can link to this topic and explain that we need a ‘case’ raised with Siteworks to send the correct data flow. 

Failing that, I can ask our Forum_Support team to do the same. 

This morning I was told couldn't have my smart meters fitted today because of this problem but the engineer was very reassuring.  He said that Ovo would contact UK Power Networks and they would come and change the fuse for a modern one.  If it looked like it might a couple of months before UK Power Networks could swap the fuse, Ovo could even send an engineer with asbestos training to do my smart meters installation in the meantime. 

Then I saw this thread and got very worried.  Has the communication problem between Ovo and UK Power Networks been resolved yet?  Or do all requests to swap asbestos fuses still get permanently stuck forever?  Does Ovo really have engineers with Asbestos training?  I think I read something on this forum to the effect that this wasn't going to happen.

Howdy @RedCow 

OVO can’t do main fuse swaps at all as it’s DNO equipment. Bear with me as I’m just going to give UKPN a quick call myself - I can usually get useful information this way.

Ironically enough, there’s an OVO Engineer right outside my flat right now lol.

Sheesh… Talk about terrible systems… Took me over five minutes to get through Robo Operator Land (the average for a DNO in my experience is more like 30 seconds) and more than 10 minutes to get through to a rep (average for a DNO in my experience is more like 10 seconds).

It’s no wonder UKPN never seems to get anything done…

I eventually got through and managed to get an answer. Unfortunately, UKPN won’t let me post it publicly, so I’ll send it you privately in a second - every other DNO that I speak to has always been OK with answers going public. TBH this is a terrible way of doing customer service on their part as it means I can’t post an answer that helps the community despite the answer being basically the same as what others have said. Oh well. And it’s bonkers because literally anyone can phone up and get the exact same answer I got.

I can’t risk getting UKPN mad, but I can go off of the advice given by another DNO recently who did give permission - credit to them for doing the right thing!

Unfortunately, you can’t request this yourself. The other DNO mentioned that a D0135 form sent by the supplier with a B Code should do the job.

Thank you.  What worries me is that several previous posters could not get Ovo to send the B code to UK power networks no matter how times they tried or how many months or years went by.  From what I read in this thread Ovo kept telling them it was sent but it wasn't or else the wrong thing had been sent I couldn't work out which.  

It sounded like a problem with the system.  It is always possible that it has have been fixed by now.

That is possible. But when UKPN even make it difficult for even me as an experienced forum volunteer to get the most basic of answers… It doesn’t say much for their customer service.

In comparison, my local DNO Western Power Distribution have a 24/7/365 Live Chat service for any and all enquiries and they don’t mind me throwing random forum threads at them to get advice. I try to only use it if either:

• It’s related to someone in the WPD area
• I’m completely unable to get advice from the actual DNO that serves whoever came here

And I usually have a full answer in five minutes or less. Most of that time is spent just waiting for the agent to finish typing it out.

Worlds apart comes to mind.

You are an amazingly helpful person.  I will wait a few weeks and then phone UK power networks to see if they have received it.

No worries.

The one concession is that UKPN will supposedly contact you once they receive the form. Since it’d be a B Code, you should hear back within six weeks. I’d definitely nudge after that if you hear nothing.

I phoned up UK Power Networks this morning.  They said that Ovo had sent the wrong code through!

I need a category B D0135 flow from Ovo for them to come and change the the fuse. 

Alas Ovo has sent them a CAT C11 which means that UK power networks don't need to do anything!

This means that Ovo still hasn't fixed their reporting system after all this time!

I am having exact same problem as all the other people in this thread but I've just detected early because of having seen their experiences.