Find out what happens when one of our engineers visits you, and how you can feel relaxed and secure about letting them in.
Sometimes one of our engineers will come to your home, to read your gas or electricity meter, check on a fault you’ve told us about, or replace an old meter. When this happens, they will always introduce themselves and explain why they’re visiting you.
We take your safety very seriously, so before you let them into your home, please:
Our engineers will always have identity cards. They’ll show them to you when they arrive, so you shouldn’t even need to ask.
Their card will show:
The only people with these identity cards are engineers currently working for OVO. There are strict checks in place to make sure all cards are kept up to date, and that they’re given back and checked off when an engineer leaves.
If you’re still not 100% certain that the person visiting you is a genuine OVO engineer, please call us on 0330 303 5063.
As well as having our own OVO engineers, we also use companies called Lowri Beck, Trojan and Providor to install meters on our behalf.
If an engineer needs to carry out work or check something in your property, we’ll be in touch with you to fix a date.
Apart from meter readings and extreme emergencies, we will never send engineers round unannounced. They will always have an appointment to do work that you’ve requested, such as a meter exchange.
If you haven’t yet got a smart meter, at some stage you may be contacted from either Lowri Beck, Trojan, Providor or our Smart team, offering you a Smart meter to replace your existing meter. We may contact you via email, SMS, over the phone or if we have a meter reader in your area, door to door. We are rolling out coverage nationwide, so if you're an existing customer, you don't need to do a thing as we'll contact you once there's availability in your area.
We’ll set a date that works for you and then give you a time slot, the time slots you can choose from are either: 8am - 12noon, 10am - 2pm, 12noon - 4pm or 2pm -6pm.
The time the engineer spends at your home will depend on where you live and the kind of work or checks we’re doing. If there’s a charge for any of the work, the cost will also depend on how long it takes.
We’ll always phone, email or write to you if one of our engineers needs to work inside your home. However, if there’s an emergency we might not get a chance to tell you before they come. If that ever happens, our engineer will explain what’s going on as soon as they arrive, and tell you exactly what needs to be done.
Even if you provide us with meter readings every month without fail, we’ll still send a trained meter reader to take them at least once every two years, just to make sure your meters are safe and working properly.
This is the only time (apart from a genuine emergency) when an OVO engineer will visit you without an appointment.
In exceptional circumstances you might also get a visit from a Revenue Protection Service (RPS) agent. They have to investigate if we’re told that someone could have tampered with a meter or tried to steal electricity or gas.
If someone visits you and claims they’re an OVO engineer, don’t let them in unless you’re absolutely sure. If you have any doubts, call our friendly, Bristol-based team on 0330 303 5063 to check they’re genuine and ask why they’re visiting you.
Engineers not directly employed by OVO are employed by Lowri Beck (for standard and Smart meters) Providor (for Smart meters) and Trojan (for Smart meters) but we make sure they’re carefully chosen and trained.
All our meter readers are vetted, and checked with the CRB (Criminal Records Bureau). After they’ve done their training course, they spend some time working as a ‘buddy’ with a senior installer before they start any work on their own.
All our engineers are trained to:
All our engineers go through regular checks and re-training to make sure they’re up to date with the way we do things and will provide the high quality of service you expect from OVO.