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.