Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Consumerist

Telegraph_Sam said:

Latest post today from wakeupalarm won't open or download (for me). Deleted or "broken link"??"

Probably deleted by poster shortly after posting. This buggy new forum is a bit of a time waster - at least in the past you could get to the board in question now you just get Martin having a laugh at you getting nowhere.

Biggus_Dickus

I’ve just had a call from Lowri-Beck about fitting Smart  meters;...anyone had them fitted recently?...are they Smets-2 meters and if so do Avro have the facility to actually read them and use them properly?

I’d quite like to have smart meters again;...I had Br.Gas smart meters installed years ago and they worked great for a while before turning ‘dumb’ when I changed energy supplier.

 

2010

Biggus_Dickus said:

I’ve just had a call from Lowri-Beck about fitting Smart  meters;...anyone had them fitted recently?...are they Smets-2 meters and if so do Avro have the facility to actually read them and use them properly?

I’d quite like to have smart meters again;...I had Br.Gas smart meters installed years ago and they worked great for a while before turning ‘dumb’ when I changed energy supplier.

 

I`ve not got one and don`t particularly want one.
Do they give you the option to have one?
If so, tell them you`ll only have it if it is Smets-2. 

Biggus_Dickus

2010 said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

I’ve just had a call from Lowri-Beck about fitting Smart  meters;...anyone had them fitted recently?...are they Smets-2 meters and if so do Avro have the facility to actually read them and use them properly?

I’d quite like to have smart meters again;...I had Br.Gas smart meters installed years ago and they worked great for a while before turning ‘dumb’ when I changed energy supplier.

 

I`ve not got one and don`t particularly want one.
Do they give you the option to have one?
If so, tell them you`ll only have it if it is Smets-2. 

There is an option to say ‘no’ and there is nothing they can do to force me, or anyone else for that matter, to have smart-meters fitted. 

However, as per my post, I want Smets2 meters that actually  work properly,...not some vague utterings from the Lowri Beck sales-team assuring me that they’ll definitely/possibly/maybe install Smets2 and they’ll definitely/possibly/maybe  work as they were intended to with Avro.

Any real-life Avro/Lowri-Beck/Smets2 success stories out there?

Consumerist

Biggus_Dickus said:

I’ve just had a call from Lowri-Beck about fitting Smart  meters;...anyone had them fitted recently?...are they Smets-2 meters and if so do Avro have the facility to actually read them and use them properly? . . .

My understanding, from posts on this thread, is that Avro says they do get smart-meter readings but their process is not yet automated. I assume this means that they collect readings periodically rather than acquiring them automatically.

From reports on here, this can mean that if the date they collect the readings (manually?) does not coincide with your statement date then Avro will estimate consumption over the intervening period.

Some have complained that they get estimated readings from Avro when using smart meters. I would think the differences are fairly small but, if you can live with small estimations, you shouldn't have to read the meters yourself each month.

jimroy

Biggus_Dickus said:

I’ve just had a call from Lowri-Beck about fitting Smart  meters;...anyone had them fitted recently?...are they Smets-2 meters and if so do Avro have the facility to actually read them and use them properly?

I’d quite like to have smart meters again;...I had Br.Gas smart meters installed years ago and they worked great for a while before turning ‘dumb’ when I changed energy supplier.

 

Yes they are Smets-2 meters and no Avro can't/don't read them automatically. But they can manually.

My mother had hers installed by Lowri Beck on 7th Jan this year and she and I have regretted it. It was supposed to make life easier in that she wouldn't have to read her meters any more manually every month on the billing date and for me then to submit them online for her to get accurate bills each month.

The IHD doesn't work and still says 'not commissioned' It's still plugged in next to the electric meter where Avro said they had tried numerous times to send signals to it to no avail. And Lowri Beck said that the IHD has to be within a metre of the electric meter to keep signal and get data. Did you know that? So it'd be useless for my mum then as the meters are many meters away in her garage!

She still has to manually read her meters every month and submit readings as Avro say they can't do that yet.
She has difficulty even getting a reading on the new electric meter properly as when you press button A to light the screen up it goes blank and you have to then press through many screens to get to the one Avro say you should get your reading from. The Total Actual Import screen. The button is very unresponsive.

It also took two months between her last bill in December and February to get a new bill because they hadn't added the new serial numbers onto her account and we were manually adding meter readings onto her account with the old meters on.
We had to complain to get that sorted out and also to get an appointment for an engineer to come out and replace the faulty non functioning IHD. We're still waiting for that. They eventually said that appointments are limited.

In the end we had to escalate to the Ombudsman and Avro quickly gave us an engineers appointment which was supposed to be this Friday afternoon.
They just called my mother this lunchtime to cancel the appointment to do the work needed and they didn’t know when they would have an engineer available again.

We have to call back and re-escalate with the Ombudsman in a week's time as that is 28 days after Avro's proposal to resolve.

To cut a long story short, my advice is do not go for having smart meters installed by Lowri Beck on behalf of Avro. They're a nightmare. Stick with your existing meters if you're with Avro and get smart meters installed if and when you switch to a more reputable energy supplier.

Biggus_Dickus

@jimroy ;  many thanks for the very detailed reply. Much appreciated.

Anyanka1

Yet another reason to leave so called smart meters alone until/unless the industry ever gets its act together.

oldagetraveller1

Watch out for Avro continuing to take Direct Debit payments after switching away from them. In spite of the account being over £100 in credit!

2010

oldagetraveller1 said:

Watch out for Avro continuing to take Direct Debit payments after switching away from them. In spite of the account being over £100 in credit!

Once the switch has been made and if you`ve got enough credit for your final bill with them, then cancel your DD.
Cancelling your DD doesn`t affect the ability for any company to pay what they owe you.
They know your bank details, the DD is for taking payment from you , not the other way round.