Also just got the letter. Very disappointed but I’m not totally surprised TBH. Just hope it does indeed turn out to be an April Fool’s joke.
A couple of months ago I downloaded the “Inverter” android app onto my old android phone and that gives basic local access and control without having to dig too far into the tunnels of geekdom. There is a one-off £10 fee for control access though.
However I expect there’s more detail to be had if you do go down the Home Assistant route, but I’m trying to avoid that added complexity if I can.
As above, if this forum goes down then we really do need an alternative, there’s some very knowledgeable and helpful folk on here…
i purchased mine October 2024 via EON, I too got the email but it did go into my spam folder as well. So, I have emailed EON asking what they are able to do as there was no mention of potential future charges. So the question is to this as well, as its EON that I purchased the panels and the battery from and they used GE as their supplier, who is responsible, who do I complain to, watch this space
From my perspective this is a brazen attempt at extortion.
That it is a threat with menaces, a blackmail attempt, and there is no way to see it in a good light.
I can only conclude that the dude on here who was mulling about it being ok is a shill for the company, planted herein to manipulate opinion.
There are many ways under the law to deal with shysters, I chose to respond directly to the GivEnergy email by way of a formal complaint, asking them to provide a copy of their complaints policy setting out timescales.
If I don’t receive a response to acknowledge my complaint within 14 days then I’ll take the matter up with the appropriate ombudsman.
I’m using this pathway because I’ve used the ombudsman’s services before and I’ve found them to be good because they take on the legal burden of enforcement if the shysters in question don’t comply with the appropriate legislation.
I’ll keep folk posted as to progress from my end and I recommend that others do likewise as there is no harm in attacking the problem from more than one direction.
Let us not forget that we have effectively paid for the service that they now intend to take from us unless we bend to their blackmail.
Paying the £10 gives you local control and functionality much like the givenergy app. Without paying the £10 you get a few pages of displays and inverter/battery stats.
Thanks Scoob, you already know my view on GivEnergy messing around with control, including locking customers out of functionality they originally bought into.
I’ve now sent formal emails to both GivEnergy and my installer, so that I have a proper paper trail in place in case I later need to rely on Section 75, legal expenses cover, or similar.
I’ve also started a separate thread on Renewable Heating Hub and contacted JoinTheClaim, simply to make them aware of the issue and to see whether it is something that may ever fall within their remit.
What genuinely surprises me is how many people still try to justify this. I do not care that some form of local access may remain. That is not the point. I did not buy the system on the basis that, one day, I might have to resort to workarounds, lose remote access, or risk being excluded from smart tariffs unless I pay extra for the privilege.
Even if the core inverter and battery hardware continue to operate locally, the withdrawal or paywalling of cloud/app access, smart-tariff functionality, API automation, remote monitoring, remote diagnostics, and firmware updates in under two years would amount to a material reduction in the value, usability, and expected lifespan of the connected product as sold. In my view, that raises issues under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 as to satisfactory quality, durability, description, and unfair unilateral variation of key product characteristics.
For me this immensely simple. The portals EULA document states, plain as day, that all the software features the portal provides are free at least for the duration of your warranty.
They are intending to make a clear breach of the terms of that agreement
The problem with this view (shared by many) is it assumes that payment of a sub stabilises the financials of Givevergy and assures existing manufacturers guarantees will be honoured.
If Giv were to be in such a bad state that these things are genuinely at risk (I personally don’t think it is), then a few hundred grand a year in subs revenue doesn’t plug those perceived gaps.
This is simply wish fulfillment and bears no relation to either your statutory rights, the future direction of the company, or what is likely to happen.
People are worried about their investments and think a few quid a month is their best bet as reassurance. It isn’t.
I think the replies show that the community is pretty united here.
The system was sold on the basis of being ‘free forever’ so it is essential we take the excellent advice given by a few of writing to Givenergy making our thoughts clear.
The worry to all will be that if the company sadly goes onto administration, there will not be any practical support of comeback.
I hope Givenergy turns this round, as it is an excellent product, designed in the UK, if only they could sort out the customer service and tech support.
You put it very well. It sounds to me like GE are in trouble. I think it’s possible that they have been overtrading a bit and now are left with supporting a large number of customers and maybe they hadn’t thought that through. If everyone pushes them to continue to fund support and the cloud for no money, it’s more likely that they will go out of business, sooner. I really don’t want the future situation where my system encounters a problem and I’ve no-one to turn to. It’s just possible they will survive if we all pay a fiver a month. The savings the system generates easily covers that.
I’m on IOF which has control over the system. If the APi were to die overnight is there even a way to release that control or would I be left with a brick. Obviously IOF is the best tariff for me by a long way but idk If I should quit it and default back to something where I have manual control. Would any of the 3rd party apps be able to override the octopus integration or not?
Me, too (regarding IOF - been on it since November 2023). As I understand it, Octo speak to your inverter via the GE cloud. If that’s dead, then no IOF for you. However, you would have local control, of course. One possible issue - as you see on the Inverter ‘Remote’ page, you are currently locked-out of making any significant changes to your inverter, as you handed-over full control to Octo. Not sure how regaining full local control would work out, if you are unable to delete the Octo API key…
Curious to see whether Octopus would get involved, as they recommended(?) & installed(?) Giv kit…
Exactly I believe some other inverters you can break the link yourself but not afaics on Giv (unless anyone knows better) which seem to leave us in a high risk position of essentially a dead battery if it neither charges or discharges as it loses the remote commands but equally looses the ability to release control. But prob like me you know the IOF returns are strong and atm its closed to new entrants so if I quit I prob can’t get back. Very hard to know whether to go low risk and lose significant money or higher risk (how high?) and lose the battery. I have no idea what to do tbh
Joe
I was on OF tariff (their recommendation) just after having my GE battery installed. I switched to Oct Cosy but had no control of my inverter. Oct advised they had removed my system from their OF tariff but still no control of my inverter. I checked ‘Account settings’ > ‘Manage account security’ > ‘Manage API tokens’ & found an Octopus token, which I ‘revoked’. I regained full control of my inverter after that action. Oct technical support were useless!
Thanks for that. Although I imagine in any circumstances where the API non functional to release it normally is bc Givenergy collapses & the portal is dead as well. So a catch 22
Has anyone used the apple app - mentioned earlier in the thread - to control their inverter. I’ve got it running but although i can see buttons that look like force charge/discharge etc I can’t see any to set scheduled slots? There is clock but I assumed that was the clock! I suppose some functions may not be visible as IOF is controlling slots?