Congrats!
Yes, dealing with electricity suppliers is a faff, they are not really geared up for anything other than faults on the line. Especially DNO’s – although some are better than others.
Its a shame really as it tarnishes the EV experience, even though it’s not the cars fault. Thankfully its a done that, no need to sort it again thing.
The problem is that you suffer from dealing with 3-4 different firms all telling you different things & you don’t know who to believe. But as said, all finally sorted.
As for smart meters, most low rate EV tariffs need a SMETS2 meter – the SMETS1 (first gen meters) are not capable of supplying the readings they need. Octopus will change your meter for you for free, from SMETS1 to SMETS2, others should be the same.
And you don’t need a smart meter to have an EV, I didn’t get mine fitted till a year after I had the car and charger, as I wanted to move onto an EV tariff and realised I’d need one. Fitted in minutes by SSEN after one phone call and a wait of about 2 weeks. Thankfully SMETS2, as all new meters should be.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.