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Smart meters for energy

gentlegreen said:
Just had an advertising text from Lowri Beck - the bastards who sent me threatening letters about meter inspections - currently trying to find how to opt out ...
Click to expand...
Most smartphones can block texts from particular numbers. Just shitcan their poxy texts.

ETA: although I suspect we're going to find that your smartphone looks like this :D

da47e96f7f92eec1e8a32c19e9383ff9--telephone-vintage-south-yorkshire.jpg
 
Well here's my smart meter tale of woe:

Three years ago OVO put a smart meter in my house. It worked perfectly no need to read the meters and I got a fat rebate at the end of the year because I always overestimate. Lovely jubbly.

After one year I transfer to Sainsbury's energy to keep the price down and discover the meter is now no use at all. Oh well c'est la vie.

The following year (12 months ago) time to switch again and go back to OVO because they're second cheapest and I have an OVO smart meter. Might as well eh. On connection day they send me an email asking for a meter reading. I phone up and tell them they must be having a laugh. The young lady on the phone says they ask for an opening reading because it doesn't always connect straight away but says she's checked mine it's all good and I needn't worry. Lovely jubbly once again.

Over the next twelve months I check the detailed advice on their website regularly. A mild winter and most of the household being away for a couple of months means I'm well ahead again and between October and December I take nearly three hundred quid in rebates. Things could not be lovelier or jubblier.

Then in January I get an email entitled read dispute. Actually its half an email cause all the numbers are missing but it says there has been a read dispute. I email back asking for clarification. Over the next couple of months I get the same email again twice. No details and no answers to my emails asking for more information.

Then, just before end of contract I get an email saying read dispute resolved and I go from nearly 50 quid in credit to 50 quid in debit. I email them again. No reaponse. I then get an email asking for a Trustpilot review. Naturally I write a review that's as abusive as I can get away with and within hours I have several emails offering to help.

Despite the offers none of them seem to be able to get their head round the damage they have done by giving me incorrect information. They haven't even tried to apologise. I've now put my foot down and told them that I took the money because of the detailed information they gave me, have spent it and it's no longer there to be returned to them. A little further digging has revealed they're already under investigation by Ofgem for their misleading website. I've pointed this out to them and they are escalating it. They've stopped sending me stupid emails demanding I reopen my direct debit (which I had blocked as soon as I decided to dispute the payment).

Pretty pissed off that they can have a read dispute when there's a fucking smart meter in the house and they had confirmed it was working. There is another half to this story as you might imagine. In Octobet last year I got an email from Sainsbury energy saying they owed me 102 pounds. I wasn't actually expecting this (and they didn't mention a read dispute) but I phoned them up to moan about them taking so long and they barely even discussed it just offered me thirty quid on top for the inconvenience.

Not sure how long I can hang this out but will be taking it as far (ie. Ofgem) as I can.
 
maomao said:
Well here's my smart meter tale of woe:

Three years ago OVO put a smart meter in my house. It worked perfectly no need to read the meters and I got a fat rebate at the end of the year because I always overestimate. Lovely jubbly.

After one year I transfer to Sainsbury's energy to keep the price down and discover the meter is now no use at all. Oh well c'est la vie.

The following year (12 months ago) time to switch again and go back to OVO because they're second cheapest and I have an OVO smart meter. Might as well eh. On connection day they send me an email asking for a meter reading. I phone up and tell them they must be having a laugh. The young lady on the phone says they ask for an opening reading because it doesn't always connect straight away but says she's checked mine it's all good and I needn't worry. Lovely jubbly once again.

Over the next twelve months I check the detailed advice on their website regularly. A mild winter and most of the household being away for a couple of months means I'm well ahead again and between October and December I take nearly three hundred quid in rebates. Things could not be lovelier or jubblier.

Then in January I get an email entitled read dispute. Actually its half an email cause all the numbers are missing but it says there has been a read dispute. I email back asking for clarification. Over the next couple of months I get the same email again twice. No details and no answers to my emails asking for more information.

Then, just before end of contract I get an email saying read dispute resolved and I go from nearly 50 quid in credit to 50 quid in debit. I email them again. No reaponse. I then get an email asking for a Trustpilot review. Naturally I write a review that's as abusive as I can get away with and within hours I have several emails offering to help.

Despite the offers none of them seem to be able to get their head round the damage they have done by giving me incorrect information. They haven't even tried to apologise. I've now put my foot down and told them that I took the money because of the detailed information they gave me, have spent it and it's no longer there to be returned to them. A little further digging has revealed they're already under investigation by Ofgem for their misleading website. I've pointed this out to them and they are escalating it. They've stopped sending me stupid emails demanding I reopen my direct debit (which I had blocked as soon as I decided to dispute the payment).

Pretty pissed off that they can have a read dispute when there's a fucking smart meter in the house and they had confirmed it was working. There is another half to this story as you might imagine. In Octobet last year I got an email from Sainsbury energy saying they owed me 102 pounds. I wasn't actually expecting this (and they didn't mention a read dispute) but I phoned them up to moan about them taking so long and they barely even discussed it just offered me thirty quid on top for the inconvenience.

Not sure how long I can hang this out but will be taking it as far (ie. Ofgem) as I can.
Click to expand...
Ofgem don’t deal with customer complaints, but you can use this service:

Energy Ombudsman: Here to help with gas & electricity complaints
 
maomao said:
Well here's my smart meter tale of woe:

Three years ago OVO put a smart meter in my house. It worked perfectly no need to read the meters
Click to expand...
gosh, you were lucky. They installed our meters in September 2014 but didn't manage to bill properly until the following September, though they did send out incomplete and confusing bills in Jan, May and August 2015. They still weren't doing it properly when we abandoned them as incompetent in summer 2016. I live in hope that Bulb will be able to read the meters sometime in the next few years.
 
Good energy still havnt contacted me again about their roll out. Said they would be using the newer ones you can switch with, but that was last year.

On other companies can you pay monthly, but without a DD? That does really appeal.
 
I wonder what sort of usage pattern would really fuck up their stats.
I'm thinking here of something like Riker sending messages on Star Trek using the engine of the Ferengi ship that has captured them.
Not that they're running SETI algorithms .....
 
Call centre just phoned "on behalf of your energy provider" and unusually I actually picked up the phone.
Ring tone had defaulted to something really annoying.

They chose the wrong moment as I had just received yet another text so they got an earful.
I hope the call was recorded and I hope there isn't a law against swearing....

I suggested they take me off their mailing-list....
 
I just did a Google and though I didn't listen for them to say who they were I have confirmed they were Lowry Beck and not npower asking for meter readings and therefore I have no problems at all with the language I used.
And I did try to get myself off their list but I couldn't find how.
 
Last edited:
I’ve just been offered installation of a 2nd generation one from bulb - should I bother? They said it could take 2-3 hours and they’ll need to shut off my Electric and Gas for about 20 mins.
 
Last time I had a meter change it probably took no more than half an hour - and that included replacing the ancient incoming cable.
I will be leaving mine up to the next person who lives in this house.
Hopefully Bulb won't piss me off with their nagging like NPower did.
 
I like the idea of seeing how much I’m using in real time. And not giving readings.

I think I could live with being cut off for 20 mins.

Is there any reason why I shouldn’t accept?
 
maomao said:
Well here's my smart meter tale of woe:

Three years ago OVO put a smart meter in my house. It worked perfectly no need to read the meters and I got a fat rebate at the end of the year because I always overestimate. Lovely jubbly.

After one year I transfer to Sainsbury's energy to keep the price down and discover the meter is now no use at all. Oh well c'est la vie.

The following year (12 months ago) time to switch again and go back to OVO because they're second cheapest and I have an OVO smart meter. Might as well eh. On connection day they send me an email asking for a meter reading. I phone up and tell them they must be having a laugh. The young lady on the phone says they ask for an opening reading because it doesn't always connect straight away but says she's checked mine it's all good and I needn't worry. Lovely jubbly once again.

Over the next twelve months I check the detailed advice on their website regularly. A mild winter and most of the household being away for a couple of months means I'm well ahead again and between October and December I take nearly three hundred quid in rebates. Things could not be lovelier or jubblier.

Then in January I get an email entitled read dispute. Actually its half an email cause all the numbers are missing but it says there has been a read dispute. I email back asking for clarification. Over the next couple of months I get the same email again twice. No details and no answers to my emails asking for more information.

Then, just before end of contract I get an email saying read dispute resolved and I go from nearly 50 quid in credit to 50 quid in debit. I email them again. No reaponse. I then get an email asking for a Trustpilot review. Naturally I write a review that's as abusive as I can get away with and within hours I have several emails offering to help.

Despite the offers none of them seem to be able to get their head round the damage they have done by giving me incorrect information. They haven't even tried to apologise. I've now put my foot down and told them that I took the money because of the detailed information they gave me, have spent it and it's no longer there to be returned to them. A little further digging has revealed they're already under investigation by Ofgem for their misleading website. I've pointed this out to them and they are escalating it. They've stopped sending me stupid emails demanding I reopen my direct debit (which I had blocked as soon as I decided to dispute the payment).

Pretty pissed off that they can have a read dispute when there's a fucking smart meter in the house and they had confirmed it was working. There is another half to this story as you might imagine. In Octobet last year I got an email from Sainsbury energy saying they owed me 102 pounds. I wasn't actually expecting this (and they didn't mention a read dispute) but I phoned them up to moan about them taking so long and they barely even discussed it just offered me thirty quid on top for the inconvenience.

Not sure how long I can hang this out but will be taking it as far (ie. Ofgem) as I can.
Click to expand...
Just remembered that I had posted this. After opening a complaint with the ombudsman and haranguing them on Twitter they backed down, dropped the disputed amount entirely and let me have most of the rest off as well. Always worth making a fuss.
 
skyscraper101 said:
I like the idea of seeing how much I’m using in real time. And not giving readings.

I think I could live with being cut off for 20 mins.

Is there any reason why I shouldn’t accept?
Click to expand...
As far as I am aware (this was the case the last time I looked) the meter will only work for the provider who installs it. I would wait until the technology is better and also universal.
 
The first generation only work with the installing provider. The second generation are an interoperable standard, SMETS2. Some providers are still installing the first, so check.
 
Which reminds me .. I'm overdue a "gas meter safety inspection".
I've been threatened with having my door kicked down before now - even when they'd inspected it only months before.
 
Bulb are installing a SMETS2 meter at my house next month, or so they say. I'll let you know how I get on. I imagine I'd have to change provider to test it properly.
 
a_chap said:
npower (it's npower, not Npower or nPower or NPower) has been fucked for many years - pretty much ever since they were acquired by the German utility RWE in fact. The recently cancelled merger of their Retail division with the Retail division of SSE was their last opportunity to turn the business around. In my humble opinion, of course.
Click to expand...

Don't want to say "I told you so", but...

Thousands of UK jobs at risk as E.ON breaks up Npower

A few years ago npower had 6.5 million customer accounts. They've been haemorrhaging customers for years and at the start of this year it was well under 5 million, but the recent rate of loss has been appalling; over 250,000 in Q3 alone!

After this round of redundancies it's likely there'll be fewer than 1,500 staff left - down from over 10,000 at one time :(

E.on claims to want to keep npower as a separate brand but that makes no sense to me; I predict that the npower brand will go during 2020.
 
A-ha-ha how unbelievably shit is this.

48 hours ago our smart meter in-home display stopped working. So we can't see minute by minute how much energy we are using. And that's what smart meters are 'sold' as being good for.

So I contacted Eon. After 10 minutes of press button 3 press button 7 I eventually got cut off.

Emailed them. Explained the problem. And got an automatic reply that says this.

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Thank you for your email. We're aware of an issue affecting some of our customer’s Smart In-Home Displays. If you're affected, your display may show 'waiting for current data' or 'lost connection'.

To fix the issue we are already working with meter manufacturers and agents. Unfortunately, we've been told this could take more than six months.

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

There's more waffle but it's the 6 month wait I'm appalled by. Particularly as Eon have made no attempt to contact me over this and it's obviously an issue affecting lots of customers and one that may need me to temporarily resolve their problem for them (this is what the waffle says) with updated readings from the actual smart meter etc.

Shite company I'm stuck with for another year because I'm contracted in. Six months? FFS. Avoid.
 
I get that but tell them I can switch things off without a meter telling me I'm using a lot of electric. Also I have shit broadband signal to start with so doubt anything they install is going to be of any use.
 
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