Why does OVO send an engineer to read my smart meter?

I have a smart meter , so why has a meter reading men call to read my gas meter? 
should this be a concern? 

Hey @celia marshall ,

Yes, this is expected. Even with Smart Meters, you’ll still get manual visits every so often to verify everything is working and take a manual reading. This is just housekeeping stuff more than anything else. As long as the ID is valid, you can safely allow them in.

Thank you for your help Uk reply

Best wishes 

Is there a particular time in the year to give photo meter readings to avoid Morrison Data  Services  visiting your premises when you only have electric energy no gas 

Hi @Pilgrim2 

No, there’s no time to submit a read to avoid a meter reader coming round. We’re required to carry out certain checks on your meter every 1 - 2 years, and we use ‘Morissons Data Services’ for this work. This is an industry-wide requirement and means we’ll check not only the reading but also that the meter is safe and functioning as it should. If you’re not in when they pop round, it’s really not a problem so long as we are still getting meter readings from yourself.

A male person knocked on my door lately and he said he was from ovo, and he was looking for a particular house.  Is ovo really sending out agents for home visits or was this fake? Unfortunately I did not ask for ID.

Funny enough I'm a ovo customer as well and I wonder if there's a connection. 

Depends on the reason. As far as I’m aware OVO doesn’t use door-to-door salesmen.

However, there are reasons why OVO staff - or someone on OVO’s behalf - might do a home visit, such as :

• Engineer visit - such as to fix/replace a meter or carry out a job you requested
• Meter reader - pretty self-explanatory
• OVO Energy Expert - but this is ONLY by appointment that you’ve requested
• Debt collection
• Investigating tampering
• Safety reasons - if there’s an emergency, an engineer might visit to make things safe

Always ask for ID.

Hi,

I routinely send my meter readings via the OVO app. Recently I’ve started to be pestered by Morrisons to send readings to them instead. Which should I do? Surely not both. 

Hey ​@RossBrown !

On this occasion only, please give a single meter reading to Morrison Data Services as well - you only need to do that once. After that, you should resume using the OVO app (and definitely do that this month too!).

This request from MDS is just part of an audit/quality check that happens every so often.

Hey ​@RossBrown,

Morrisons Data Services conducts occasional meter health checks, including reading the meter. This is a separate, one-time check and doesn't replace providing your readings to OVO for billing. Your regular readings to OVO remain crucial for accurate billing. Thanks to ​@Blastoise186 for the correct explanation.

Any more questions please let us know.