Meter readings

[Petrushka]

After suspiciously for no explicable reason rejecting my debit card, which had been my payment method for several years using the same fully functioning card, the only alternative for council tax payments was to go DD, whereupon without any forewarning they have increased my monthly payments by £20, so this practice appears to be happening in other areas too.

I'm not understanding this. Why did your council reject payment by debit card? My own council accepts payment by several means including online by debit card, by post, phone and in person at 70 Payzone outlets. I can't imagine your council would be any different.

As your Council Tax is a fixed sum for the year it cannot be changed on a whim and most certainly would not have been increased 'without forewarning'.

What I think may have happened is this: the Council here offer the option of paying either by 12 monthly instalments or giving you a month's 'holiday' by paying nothing for that month but with the other months at a slightly higher rate to compensate. I think you've gone from one to the other but whatever happened you must have agreed to it.

It's worth talking to your Council to clear it up. The phone number will be on your bill. I had to phone mine about a minor issue a few months back and they could not have been more helpful.

[oddoneout]

hello@ovoenergy.com ? But OVO's customer service rating on Trustpilot is that 91% give it (out of ) so you are not alone.

One occasion when I might give Trustpilot some credence... As I think I mentioned previously the acquisition by OVO of SSE 3 years ago didn't go as smoothly for customers as it should have, and although as of January this year the process is considered to be complete I think that is not actually the case, as the forced move to monthly DD(not something that was mentioned as due to happen until very late in the day when, how convenient, the options for customers to move were not good) has caused more problems. I am lucky in that so far I have just been inconvenienced, not financially disadvantaged, but that in itself is hardly a ringing endorsement!

[oddoneout]

I'm not understanding this. Why did your council reject payment by debit card? My own council accepts payment by several means including online by debit card, by post, phone and in person at 70 Payzone outlets. I can't imagine your council would be any different.

As your Council Tax is a fixed sum for the year it cannot be changed on a whim and most certainly would not have been increased 'without forewarning'.

What I think may have happened is this: the Council here offer the option of paying either by 12 monthly instalments or giving you a month's 'holiday' by paying nothing for that month but with the other months at a slightly higher rate to compensate. I think you've gone from one to the other but whatever happened you must have agreed to it.

It's worth talking to your Council to clear it up. The phone number will be on your bill. I had to phone mine about a minor issue a few months back and they could not have been more helpful.

My council does 12 or 10 monthly installments. I go for the 10 month option (and standing order not DD) as I have two annual insurance bills to pay that fall due in the New Year so not having to shell out for council tax helps to cushion the cash flow situation significantly.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm not understanding this. Why did your council reject payment by debit card? My own council accepts payment by several means including online by debit card, by post, phone and in person at 70 Payzone outlets. I can't imagine your council would be any different.

As your Council Tax is a fixed sum for the year it cannot be changed on a whim and most certainly would not have been increased 'without forewarning'.

What I think may have happened is this: the Council here offer the option of paying either by 12 monthly instalments or giving you a month's 'holiday' by paying nothing for that month but with the other months at a slightly higher rate to compensate. I think you've gone from one to the other but whatever happened you must have agreed to it.

It's worth talking to your Council to clear it up. The phone number will be on your bill. I had to phone mine about a minor issue a few months back and they could not have been more helpful.

It "suddenly" didn't recognise my bank card for some reason best known to goodness knows who. Similar happened with my iphone server, which refused same card when the time came to renew. On both occasions I left it overnight, assuming maybe tiredness on my part was the cause, and the next day faced the selfsame problem. With the council I decided the time had come to go over to DD, and it worked. I've put the CT increase down to having missed a previous month's payment owing to the problem, but I've received no notice and will wait and see what happens. I just can't deal with these problems, psychologically, and reading the above posts makes me feel we're slipping into an Orwellian nightmare world in which we are gradually being deprived of control over our lives altogether.

[HighlandDougie]

Just seeing the word "Ovo" is depressing. I keep thinking that, as an SSE shareholder, I should have gone to the meeting where the gutless Board sold their retail business and objected in the strongest possible terms. Not that, given the general greed of institutional shareholders for turning a fast buck, it would have made the slightest difference. SSE used to pride itself that everything - including call centres - was done in house. Alas, not now. My next-door neighbour has, after a good deal of effort on his part, just had a smart meter installed by SSE and is now involved in a major spat with Ovo. So I think that I will continue to give one a body-swerve.

I have one in France - they have the rather disagreeable name here of, "Linky". Having just got rid of an oil-fired boiler in favour of a rather large air-source heat pump + two large hot water solar panels + a photovoltaic panel to power the pump on the panels, I find myself obsessively looking each morning at the previous day's electricity consumption - and cost. Turning all the radiators down or keeping them switched off is a bit of a 'no-no' with the heat pump as it stops working so it is very much trial and error at the moment. At least EDF is pretty attuned to managing monthly payments so that they reflect actual consumption. And I can indulge in some complacent self-green-washing about helping to save the planet by no longer burning oil - and wondering why on earth I've spent so much money on the damned thing and paying handsomely to have a large steel oil tank removed.

[Nick Armstrong]

"Linky"

[oddoneout]

In my quest for OVO contact details I've just come across this

From 1 October 2022, 100% renewable electricity is only available to customers who currently have an electricity smart meter or who have a smart meter installed.

Heck, if smart meters really are that smart I might be tempted. Or perhaps I ought to consider a fixed term tariff

If you are on a fixed contract you will still receive 100% renewable energy until the end of your contract.

Not sure how they would manage to filter out all the non-renewable electrons, but then physics was never my strong point...

On a serious point I don't see how talk of "receiving" renewable energy could be considered acceptable under Trading Standards. The evasion is usually phrased as "we will supply", with a National Grid caveat/explainer buried somewhere in the T&Cs/small print.

[french frank]

In my quest for OVO contact details I've just come across this

From 1 October 2022, 100% renewable electricity is only available to customers who currently have an electricity smart meter or who have a smart meter installed.

?? So they only have capacity to generate/buy in a limited amount of 100% renewably sourced, so have to restrict the number of customers? Otherwise they're no different from the major players? In that case, customer service could potentially differentiate them. I assume if you're not a 100% renewably sourced customer you pay less?

[oddoneout]

?? So they only have capacity to generate/buy in a limited amount of 100% renewably sourced, so have to restrict the number of customers? Otherwise they're no different from the major players? In that case, customer service could potentially differentiate them. I assume if you're not a 100% renewably sourced customer you pay less?

My argument is the implication that the supply somehow differs between customers, which it doesn't, except on paper. The second statement I quoted is even worse hence my comment about Trading Standards, as it actually says "receive" - which is patently not the case.
Yes I imagine it might have to do with ensuring they can match supply into/demand out of the Grid for their customers, as in theory they can be challenged on their 100% renewable claim, and possibly also to do with different price tariffs but I haven't looked at that yet as I have other matters to sort out with them first. Presumably they have to hope that once the smart meter rollout is complete the match still works.

[antongould]

The Tec’ Man Cometh And Goes

The story drags on ….. on 13/12/2023 I got a WhatsApp message saying someone was coming to “look at my meters again” on 04/01/2023. A man arrived and said he was a technician. I said I thought my problems had already been diagnosed and that my electricity meter needed changing. He made a show of checking things and suggested that maybe the communication hub needed changing … He rang his boss who I think agreed with him …. So he left and said someone would “probably” come and do the business …. and if that didn’t work then
“probably” someone would come and change everything - both meters and the hub …..
The will to live left me a while ago …

I know readers of this thread will be desperate for an update on the state of our, supposedly, smart installation ……… well absolutely nothing has happened - complete silence from EDF …..
So on a quiet afternoon I decided to try again via, what seems to be their preferred method of customer communication, WhatsApp. It became obvious very quickly that either all my records had been lost or that the person I was dealing with had no access to them, and they wanted me to start all over again as I had done last September. I tried to point out that two of their “engineers” had visited the installation and said things needed physically changing but my new friend wasn’t having any ….. what was possibly even more worrying was that they obviously had no idea how a smart installation worked or what the various elements were called. I was asked if my main meter was working and “fetching the reading” …… I managed to ascertain they were talking about the display unit (IHD) ……. anyway someone from the Smart team will, I am promised, contact me in the next few days ……
I have raised a complaint via twitter …….

[Old Grumpy]

Sorry to hear that, Anton. This saga is longer than an Archers storyline!

[Bryn]

. . .I have raised a complaint via twitter …….

How about https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information...twork-operator?

[antongould]

Sorry to hear that, Anton. This saga is longer than an Archers storyline!

Cheers OG …… I suppose it keeps the brain active …….

[antongould]

How about https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information...twork-operator?

Thanks Bryn it is almost certain I will end up, for the umpteenth time, with the Energy Ombudsman …. unless of course EDF come up with an exceptional compensation offer ….

[antongould]

I know readers of this thread will be desperate for an update on the state of our, supposedly, smart installation ……… well absolutely nothing has happened - complete silence from EDF …..
So on a quiet afternoon I decided to try again via, what seems to be their preferred method of customer communication, WhatsApp. It became obvious very quickly that either all my records had been lost or that the person I was dealing with had no access to them, and they wanted me to start all over again as I had done last September. I tried to point out that two of their “engineers” had visited the installation and said things needed physically changing but my new friend wasn’t having any ….. what was possibly even more worrying was that they obviously had no idea how a smart installation worked or what the various elements were called. I was asked if my main meter was working and “fetching the reading” …… I managed to ascertain they were talking about the display unit (IHD) ……. anyway someone from the Smart team will, I am promised, contact me in the next few days ……
I have raised a complaint via twitter …….

The raising of a complaint seems to have generated some positive action I am now to expect a third engineer - with instructions to change whatever needs to be changed - so all will hopefully soon be smart as hell ……

It may interest some to read this part of the complaints section’s response which also appears in communications with EDF’s AI ….


“Smart functionality is not a guaranteed service but preferred. As long as you can read the meters manually they are not faulty.” ….. and I thought the planet would fry without 100% take up ….. a cynic might say suppliers are happy with any customers willing to submit their own readings for billing and won’t move to resolve any smart meter problems they have …..