SMETS help needed please

[Saltyseadog]

Hi,
I'm having an issue with OVo energy and my smart meter, I was on economy10 with SSE, and switched to economy 7 with OVO almost a year ago and have been in dispute with them since!
My off peak is activated during economy10 times, if I turn off the off peak fuse box at 1pm or 8pm it does not! There is no timer other than the meter!
Obviously as my off peak is activated in the day they charge me day rate.
I am just being told that it cannot happen, but it is!
If I paid for a meter accuracy test, would this issue be found!

 

[Murdoch]

Sounds like the replacement meter isn’t connected correctly or the timings aren’t set.

You should get economy 10 on your entire installation when it’s activated

 

[UNG]

Is your meter SMETS 1 or SMETS 2 as there was some issues with SMETS 1 when changing suppliers but I don't know if it was ever resolved

 

[Saltyseadog]

It's SMETS2

 

[monkey5]

Can you send any photos of the meter and consumer units?

 

[Saltyseadog]

 

[ProDave]

You need to so some DIY tests. Along the lines of turn EVERYTHING off and first confirm the meter is not counting up.

Then with everything off, turn on just one known high power load, like a plug in electric panel heater. You should see the meter counting up. Check the different readouts, you should have a different register for normal and off peak rates.

Do this at different times of day, and see which register counts up.

My guess is you will find you are still on E10 and whenever the off peak CU is energised, everything will be billed at the cheap rate.

But until you do some tests like this and document your findings, you are only speculating that when the off peak CU is on, that it is being billed at the peak rate not off peak.

 

[Murdoch]

View attachment 14018

nice photo
do any of the heaters or immersion have indicator lights on them?

that would be the easiest way to visually see when the E10 is on or off

 

[Saltyseadog]

Thanks for the response:
I have done tests, to confirm my thinking.
At 12:59 my usage can be on green.
At 1pm my app and hhd (when it worked), show the usage going into the red. Where something has started drawing power, this also happens at 8pm. If I turn off the off peak fuse box this electrical draw will stop. Turn it on it starts.
If I turn the off peak completely like when I go on holiday, these spikes in usage don't happen.
When the off peak comes on in the day I am charged the day rate because the meter is programmed to do this.

 

[Saltyseadog]

nice photo
do any of the heaters or immersion have indicator lights on them?

that would be the easiest way to visually see when the E10 is on or off

Unfortunately not, they are just your general housing association cheap ones!

 

[Murdoch]

If you are being charged at your day rate when the daytime boost comes on for your E10 then I think you need to take this up with your supplier

 

[ProDave]

This post just reminds me why I have so far and will continue to refuse to get a smart meter fitted. There might, just might be some good points about them, but time and again we hear of people having problems, ESPECIALLY when it involves an off peak tariff, and having immense trouble getting the problems rectified. You could be forgiven for thinking that the people installing them and configuring don't even understand them so can't fix problems.

I will be staying with my dumb but reliable meter until it becomes law that you must have a smart meter, and just hope by then, someone has learned how to set them up and operate them properly.

 

[Murdoch]

^^ I quite agree.

Been looking at my MILs Eon Plus account over the weekend. There are 2 statements this year, both about 6 weeks long but there are huge gaps. Latest bill June. Since then they have just applied chargers for both gas and electric but no actual readings given - and she has SMs - this is beyond a joke

We are with Shell energy. I manually give them readings on the last day of the month and a couple of days later I get a statement showing usage, costs, and balance on our account. No smart meter is this clever - so I too won’t have a SM any time soon

 

[Saltyseadog]

An update: I actually found someone knowledgeable at Ovo today, I am correct, my off peak timings are set to economy 10, while my billing economy 7. They are going to look into a workaround. If not I may have to find an economy 10 supplier.
I find it hard to believe that I have the only meter with this problem!

 

[Murdoch]

I find it hard to believe that I have the only meter with this problem!

So are they admitting they have been overcharging you then? Sounds like it

 

[Saltyseadog]

Yes, today they have admitted overcharging me and that there is an issue, they just don't know if they can fix it.

 

[Saltyseadog]

To be honest the advisor today was from the advanced resolution team, luckily she had worked for SSE and knew how economy 10 works, the main problem is getting to someone who has knowledge rather than a computer screen which just says, no that can't happen!

 

[Murdoch]

I suggest you dig your heels in and write to the CEO

Talk about incompetence on the part of the supplier

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

To be honest the advisor today was from the advanced resolution team, luckily she had worked for SSE and knew how economy 10 works, the main problem is getting to someone who has knowledge rather than a computer screen which just says, no that can't happen!

Agree 150%!!!!!

This is unfortunately a problem with far too many businesses when you are calling their "customer service helpline"..

I get the impression that 95% of the time you either cannot get through to a real person....
or the person you do speak to has had less than 3hrs training, clicking a mouse pointing at a screen, for possible solution prompts on a call handling system that excludes all of the answers you are looking for....

But on that rare 5% occasion when you get though to someone who understands what you need...
They then need an extra 2% chance of transferring you to their line manager who is actually authorised to amend, adjust, or credit your account!!!

Most companies that have you on a direct debit contract do NOT care about giving any real customer service...
So it is all "outsourced" to third-world call handling centres, with staff who know nothing, are paid peanuts, but introduce themselves as, 'Gary' or Karen', even though they can barely speak legible English and their parents never named them Gary or Karen!!!!

If only there was a way you could actually phone and speak to a local person trained and experienced with the product(s) that you are enquiring about!!??

Oh yes... that's what MY customers get!!! via Landline / Mobile / e-mail / Text / Whatsapp etc...
If ONLY the big companies could do what small one-man-band sole-trader-enterprises have been doing for years???

How hard is it???

 

[Sharpend]

When you have shareholders it’s almost impossible it seems, something tells me the system is flawed?