Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

rjmachin

The readings on my last two bills have shown as E and the reading are way out.

The electric reading is 1365.6 instead of 1182, so nearly 200kWh too much

The gas reading 325.1 instead of 358, so around 368kWh too low/under (after the conversion)

The electric works out £23.77 (inc vat) over.
The gas works out £8.80 (inc vat) under

Not a massive amount, but that's just for 2 months, so could increase

Consumerist

rjmachin said:

The readings on my last two bills have shown as E and the reading are way out.
The electric reading is 1365.6 instead of 1182, so nearly 200kWh too much
The gas reading 325.1 instead of 358, so around 368kWh too low/under (after the conversion)
The electric works out £23.77 (inc vat) over.
The gas works out £8.80 (inc vat) under
Not a massive amount, but that's just for 2 months, so could increase

A couple of points:

1. Do you get the regular monthly reminder to submit your readings ? They should not be necessary if Avro are using your smart-meter readings.

2. Are the dates of the readings the same as your statement date ? If the reading dates are different from the statement date then Avro may estimate for the period between them.

As you say, the amounts involved are relatively small but they should remain small going forward as new readings and estimates are used each month. It would be a good idea, though, to keep taking your own readings each month so you can watch for unexpected differences.

rjmachin

Consumerist said:
A couple of points:

1. Do you get the regular monthly reminder to submit your readings ? They should not be necessary if Avro are using your smart-meter readings.

2. Are the dates of the readings the same as your statement date ? If the reading dates are different from the statement date then Avro may estimate for the period between them.

As you say, the amounts involved are relatively small but they should remain small going forward as new readings and estimates are used each month. It would be a good idea, though, to keep taking your own readings each month so you can watch for unexpected differences.

I used to get regular emails until December, the month after the smart meters were installed.
I had read that Avro did not have the capability to read the smart meter readings automatically yet, so I submitted myself.
My statements have always gone from the 9th to the 9th of the following month and I have always submitted readings on the morning of the 9th.  I would then get a statement around 4 or 5 days later with a C reading, showing my exact reading being used.

Last month (December), I submitted my reading as usual on the 9th December, but the statement that following had a C start reading, a F reading for the last reading from the old meter, and a E reading for estimated, not the C reading that I had submitted on the 9th December.

This month (January), I submitted a reading again on the 8th instead of the 9th.  I thought in this case, I would see 3 readings on my statement, an opening E reading from the end last month, my C reading on the 8th, and possibly a E reading from the 9th.  However, I just had a opening and closing E reading, nothing in between.

I have been taking photos of my meters and submitting the reading for years, so I have no problem continuing to do so

2010

rjmachin said:

Consumerist said:
A couple of points:

1. Do you get the regular monthly reminder to submit your readings ? They should not be necessary if Avro are using your smart-meter readings.

2. Are the dates of the readings the same as your statement date ? If the reading dates are different from the statement date then Avro may estimate for the period between them.

As you say, the amounts involved are relatively small but they should remain small going forward as new readings and estimates are used each month. It would be a good idea, though, to keep taking your own readings each month so you can watch for unexpected differences.

I used to get regular emails until December, the month after the smart meters were installed.
I had read that Avro did not have the capability to read the smart meter readings automatically yet, so I submitted myself.
My statements have always gone from the 9th to the 9th of the following month and I have always submitted readings on the morning of the 9th.  I would then get a statement around 4 or 5 days later with a C reading, showing my exact reading being used.

Last month (December), I submitted my reading as usual on the 9th December, but the statement that following had a C start reading, a F reading for the last reading from the old meter, and a E reading for estimated, not the C reading that I had submitted on the 9th December.

This month (January), I submitted a reading again on the 8th instead of the 9th.  I thought in this case, I would see 3 readings on my statement, an opening E reading from the end last month, my C reading on the 8th, and possibly a E reading from the 9th.  However, I just had a opening and closing E reading, nothing in between.

I have been taking photos of my meters and submitting the reading for years, so I have no problem continuing to do so

What have Avro said regarding ignoring your readings and have they said they can`t read smart meters?

Consumerist

rjmachin said:

I used to get regular emails until December, the month after the smart meters were installed. . .

Ok. This suggests Avro are are using smart-meter readings.

Is there a difference between the reading dates and your statement date? This could be the reason for the estimated readings for billing.

In fact smart-meter readings can be recorded at half-hour intervals so even a time difference on the same day could lead to a difference between their reading and yours.

polymaff

Were any of you with smart meters pressed by AVRO to have it fitted? TIA.

Telegraph_Sam

Following this long thread I can't help wondering if many of the queries and speculations could not be solved in a quick clarification phone call to Avro, assuming that they are taking phone calls. I would personally avoid smart meters if at all possible.

gwapenut

Coming up for renewal, and the price they are offering me for Simple and superpremier is £10 per month more than the simple and superpremium tariff they offer on comparison websites.
So, it seems to me they don't offer the same quotes to existing customers. And worse than that, they have chosen a very similar name for my tariff versus their open market tariff (premier versus premium) to reassure me that they are near the best buy end of the comparison table, when in fact that is not the case.

wild666

I move to AVRO on the 19th, I will submit my opening reading around midnight of the 18/19th to both Avro and the company I am leaving then they have an exact reading so shouldn't need an outside company to give them any readings as they have done with the latest bill from the company I'm leaving. I also estimated my yearly usage as given on the soon to be previous suppliers site plus a few hundred kWhs on each utility just in case I use a bit more of either utility.

I have a SMETS 1 smart meter, I got it when I moved to their free electric tariff in 2015 from BG it still registered the free electric units until September 2019 and I have had to put in two readings with the two suppliers I have been with since Jan 2018. Because I didn't give the supplier reading this month they estimated the readings and the electricity is about 50 kWh more than used and the gas about 35 kWh under. This should be amended when I put the readings in at midnight at the beginning of the 19th.  

rjmachin

Consumerist said:

rjmachin said:

I used to get regular emails until December, the month after the smart meters were installed. . .

Ok. This suggests Avro are are using smart-meter readings.

Is there a difference between the reading dates and your statement date? This could be the reason for the estimated readings for billing.

In fact smart-meter readings can be recorded at half-hour intervals so even a time difference on the same day could lead to a difference between their reading and yours.

No, the statement date of December matched the reading date that I submitted.
In a previous response, I mentioned that this months reading was submitted the day before as an experiment to check if that worked, and I would have expected at least the actual reading and a estimated reading on my statement, but there was no actual reading.

It is as if Avro's system knows it's a smart meter, so ignore manually submitted readings, but is unable to process the central network that the smart meter submits to.

I can download the daily half hour consumption from this website, so I know it is submitting successfully:
https://data.n3rgy.com/consumer/download-data

I have not spoken to Avro regarding this, it's not that urgent as it's only a small amount at the moment, but will do so soon if not resolved.