Smart Meter fitted now boiler broken.

Stum89 · 17 January 2018 at 2:04PM

First post on here so apologies if there's things I've missed and sorry for the long post.

I was contacted by EON regarding fitting a Smart meter for both my Gas and Electric Supply. I agreed to this and on the 12/01/18 I received a smart meter installation from EON using Morrison Utility Services engineers to carry out the works.

On the morning of my appointment my boiler worked fine, the engineers arrived and carried out the smart meter installation and removed my old meters. After the change I received a phone call while I was at work saying that my boiler wouldn't start up again. They 'purged' my boiler in order to try and resolve this issue with no result. I was then told there is nothing else they can do as they are not trained boiler engineers and was told to contact EON.

I contacted EON and they were apologetic that my boiler wouldn't work and said they requested an engineer to be sent back to my home to try and fix the issue. I was told he was close by and they will contact me at 16:00 to see if the issue was resolved. I waited 2 hours for the engineer to arrive and was called back at 16:00 where I explained the engineer hadn't arrived. EON then contacted Morrison Utility Services to try and find out what was happening and was then told that they are not sending out an engineer as they are not boiler trained. I was confused as to why they said they will send an engineer in the first place then? Completely wasted my time.

I explained to EON that this isn't good enough and they raised a complaint for me regarding my boiler not working after smart meter installation. Around 20 seconds later the person on the phone tried to close the complaint by saying she has done everything she can to try and resolve this and does this satisfy me to close my complaint. I said no, to resolve my complaint would mean my boiler working as they found it. I was then offered £16 in compensation. £6 for the phone calls, £5 for EON failing to complete a smart meter installation successfully and £5 for Morrison Utility Services. I then rejected this feeble offer and opted to speak to someone else. An internal review took place where they ran through my complaint and then said there is nothing they can do and I will need to get a Gas Safe Registered Engineer out to fix this.

I'm furious at the situation and think both EON and Morrison Utility Services have handled the situation poorly. On the letter I received from EON about the installation it said "Before they (Technician) go, they'll check everything's working properly, leave your home as the found it and take away your old meters to be recycled". This has not been the case in the slightest. I have been left with no heating or hot water and now have to arrange engineers to come and sort it out myself and I've been offered only £16 for my troubles?!

I have contacted my Home insurance who sent an engineer out and they came to the conclusion that EON have indeed broken my boiler with the new smart meter installation. But my insurance are now saying they are not able to cover me as a Third Party broke my boiler?

So neither EON, Morrison or Insurance are saying they can fix this?

Surely someone is liable for this?!

Any information will be greatly appreciated!

System · 17 January 2018 at 2:11PM

Stum89 wrote: »

I have contacted my Home insurance who sent an engineer out and they came to the conclusion that EON have indeed broken my boiler with the new smart meter installation. But my insurance are now saying they are not able to cover me as a Third Party broke my boiler?

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Has the engineer sent out by your insurer written a report that you can use to make a claim against the smart meter installers/supplier? Personally, I would be surprised if the two events are linked. If that was the case, the Press would be full of it. My guess is that there was a problem with your boiler that only became apparent when the gas supply was re-instated. Its a bit like the old filament light bulbs that worked fine until they were turned off.

EachPenny · 17 January 2018 at 2:31PM

Hengus wrote: »

My guess is that there was a problem with your boiler that only became apparent when the gas supply was re-instated. Its a bit like the old filament light bulbs that worked fine until they were turned off.

I would like to think that as with MOT tests for diesel cars, the customer is warned in advance that the proposed work might mean a latent fault would become apparent leaving the customer with no heating/electricity. That would give the customer the option of declining the work until they are able to deal with the problem on their side.

Likewise, the supplier could do as MOT testers do - make an assessment of risk and refuse to proceed on the basis that failure of the customer's equipment is likely to happen.

It also wouldn't be beyond the capabilities of a nationwide project on the scale of the smart meter programme to identify in advance equipment (e.g. boilers) makes and models which are most likely to fail, and especially those for which relevant spare parts are no longer available.

Being forewarned might make customers more wary of having smart meters fitted* - but of course that would run counter to the advertising campaign designed to make people think they are a wonderful idea.

(* I appreciate that having any meter swap carries the same potential risks, but consumers are not being asked to enthusiastically volunteer to have meter swaps done in other circumstances)

Carrot007 · 17 January 2018 at 2:32PM

AS per comments in other post...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5776981

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 18 January 2018 at 11:01AM

Stum89 wrote: »

First post on here so apologies if there's things I've missed and sorry for the long post.

I was contacted by EON regarding fitting a Smart meter for both my Gas and Electric Supply. I agreed to this and on the 12/01/18 I received a smart meter installation from EON using Morrison Utility Services engineers to carry out the works.

On the morning of my appointment my boiler worked fine, the engineers arrived and carried out the smart meter installation and removed my old meters. After the change I received a phone call while I was at work saying that my boiler wouldn't start up again. They 'purged' my boiler in order to try and resolve this issue with no result. I was then told there is nothing else they can do as they are not trained boiler engineers and was told to contact EON.

I contacted EON and they were apologetic that my boiler wouldn't work and said they requested an engineer to be sent back to my home to try and fix the issue. I was told he was close by and they will contact me at 16:00 to see if the issue was resolved. I waited 2 hours for the engineer to arrive and was called back at 16:00 where I explained the engineer hadn't arrived. EON then contacted Morrison Utility Services to try and find out what was happening and was then told that they are not sending out an engineer as they are not boiler trained. I was confused as to why they said they will send an engineer in the first place then? Completely wasted my time.

I explained to EON that this isn't good enough and they raised a complaint for me regarding my boiler not working after smart meter installation. Around 20 seconds later the person on the phone tried to close the complaint by saying she has done everything she can to try and resolve this and does this satisfy me to close my complaint. I said no, to resolve my complaint would mean my boiler working as they found it. I was then offered £16 in compensation. £6 for the phone calls, £5 for EON failing to complete a smart meter installation successfully and £5 for Morrison Utility Services. I then rejected this feeble offer and opted to speak to someone else. An internal review took place where they ran through my complaint and then said there is nothing they can do and I will need to get a Gas Safe Registered Engineer out to fix this.

I'm furious at the situation and think both EON and Morrison Utility Services have handled the situation poorly. On the letter I received from EON about the installation it said "Before they (Technician) go, they'll check everything's working properly, leave your home as the found it and take away your old meters to be recycled". This has not been the case in the slightest. I have been left with no heating or hot water and now have to arrange engineers to come and sort it out myself and I've been offered only £16 for my troubles?!

I have contacted my Home insurance who sent an engineer out and they came to the conclusion that EON have indeed broken my boiler with the new smart meter installation. But my insurance are now saying they are not able to cover me as a Third Party broke my boiler?

So neither EON, Morrison or Insurance are saying they can fix this?

Surely someone is liable for this?!

Any information will be greatly appreciated!

Hello Stum89 and welcome to the Forums.

I'm sorry you're having problems with your boiler. It looks as though you're doing the right thing in going down the complaints route.

With all gas meter installations, smart or otherwise, the new meter is full of air and the technician needs to purge the system. After they've done this, they'll relight the gas appliances and check they're safe to use. Guessing but it looks like this test highlighted a problem with your boiler. The technician will have reported this back to us so we could advise a course of action. As this hasn't sorted the problem, continuing with your complaint is the best way to go. If you've not already done so, I'd escalate this to the next level.

Sorry I'm unable to offer much more on this Stum89 and hope the boiler is fixed soon.

Malc

mathi.prakash · 28 February 2018 at 12:05PM

Hi,

I have now had the same issue. EON did change my meter and then boiler stopped working and it seems the circuit board blown. It seems definitely something wrong with EON installation. They should be held responsible. I am now without heating and hotwater for the last couple of days in this SNOW weather!!!!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 28 February 2018 at 4:16PM

mathi.prakash wrote: »

Hi,

I have now had the same issue. EON did change my meter and then boiler stopped working and it seems the circuit board blown. It seems definitely something wrong with EON installation. They should be held responsible. I am now without heating and hotwater for the last couple of days in this SNOW weather!!!!

Hello mathi.prakash and welcome to the Forums.

I'm sorry you're having difficulties with your heating, particularly with the weather so bad at the moment.

If you believe your smart meter wasn't installed correctly and has caused this problem, please contact our specialist smart team directly (contact details are on our website and your bills). They're available from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 6pm Saturdays. Explain the issue and our advisor will sort out a course of action based on your particular circumstances. If necessary, we'll arrange for a technician to call.

In these circumstances and should we be unable to fix the problem straightaway, the technician will leave a heater to help in the short term whilst a permanent fix is sorted.

Malc

SCreegan · 5 March 2018 at 10:03PM

I am having the same problem. When the smart meter was installed the engineers couldn’t get the boiler to start initially and now keeps crashing. There was no problem before, the account isn’t in my name so I sent an email through the online account and have heard nothing back. I tried to send another one tonight and the website informed to try again later as they are having technical issues. It is to cold to have no heating and a customer service that don’t respond.

lilac666 · 5 March 2018 at 10:08PM

Hi
The exact same has happened to me today - Eon refusing to take responsibility though I am quite clear that the gas boiler was working before they installed the smart meter and not working after. As the display has gone on the boiler I assume same has happened. The call centre ABSOULTELY refused to own this issue even though their installation was the cause. Posting this because I feel someone should redress. Wasted a day off work so far with no resolution. Wasted 30 minutes being fobbed on the phone left with no gas no heating no hot water - not a simple process as advertised :mad:

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 7 March 2018 at 12:59PM

SCreegan wrote: »

I am having the same problem. When the smart meter was installed the engineers couldn’t get the boiler to start initially and now keeps crashing. There was no problem before, the account isn’t in my name so I sent an email through the online account and have heard nothing back. I tried to send another one tonight and the website informed to try again later as they are having technical issues. It is to cold to have no heating and a customer service that don’t respond.

Hello SCreegan and welcome to the Forums.

As I posted earlier to Stum89, [FONT=&quot]with all gas meter installations, smart or otherwise, the new meter is full of air and the technician needs to purge the system. After they've done this, they'll relight the gas appliances and check they're safe to use. Sounds like our technician had issues with this at the time.

You're right to raise this with us and I'm sorry you haven't had a reply yet. Last week's bad weather caused us to close some of our offices. We also had major system issues. This included our website going down. All sites are now operating fully and the system issues have been sorted but, all in all, we've large backlogs that we're working through. We're currently prioritising our more vulnerable customers and, if you still haven't had a reply and problems continue, I'd suggest calling our specialist smart teams (contact detail are on our website and bills).

As you're not the account holder, we'll need their permission to talk to you. Unless, that is, they've already made arrangements for you to handle the account on their behalf.

Sorry for the delays [/FONT]SCreegan.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 7 March 2018 at 1:22PM

lilac666 wrote: »

Hi
The exact same has happened to me today - Eon refusing to take responsibility though I am quite clear that the gas boiler was working before they installed the smart meter and not working after. As the display has gone on the boiler I assume same has happened. The call centre ABSOULTELY refused to own this issue even though their installation was the cause. Posting this because I feel someone should redress. Wasted a day off work so far with no resolution. Wasted 30 minutes being fobbed on the phone left with no gas no heating no hot water - not a simple process as advertised :mad:

Hello lilac666 and welcome to the Forums.

How long after the smart meters were installed did you have problems with your boiler? As above, have you spoken to our specialist smart team? If you have and as you're unhappy with their advice, I'd recommend taking this down our complaints route.

A dedicated Complaint Manager will investigate and offer a resolution. If you're unhappy with this, a separate part of the business will take a second look. They'll either uphold the original resolution or offer an alternative. Should you still be unhappy, we'll let you have a Final Resolution Offer letter you can use to go to the Energy Ombudsman for an independent review. There's more information about how we look after complaints including how to contact the Ombudsman on our website.

Malc

Smart Meter fitted now boiler broken.

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