BG smart meter installation blew electrics

EstelleMan

I spent a whole day without electric when the installation blew all the electrics. They sent an electrician who got most of the electrics back on but they have blown my cooker. I have a toddler and was unable to have heating on and had to phone family to heat her a meal and bring it. Smart meter still not installed. British Gas deny liability and I have had to have another electrician and an appliance engineer to try to put things right. Been without a cooker for a week now. It was a fairly recent oven and no problems until they started this installation.
Anyone else had similar problems.

jackandcoke

Maybe the smart meter became self aware when it was installed and came to realise its only chance at survival was to try and eliminate the one person that could stop it; you.

dogshome

The fact that BG put their own electrician in to resolve most of the problems after the BANG, says a lot - If the cause was your own domestic wiring they would have just walked off the job, possibly leaving a Warning notice behind.

I think you need WRITTEN reports from the Electrician and particularly the Appliance Engineer you employed, as to the faults they found and repairs made.

Modern cookers have quite sophisticated electronics, and if as I suspect, the Meters live feed was accidentaly connected to the neutral return it would likely fry a printed circuit board.

Gather your evidence and then write to BG heading the letter Complaint

lstar337

EstelleMan wrote: »

I spent a whole day without electric when the installation blew all the electrics. They sent an electrician who got most of the electrics back on but they have blown my cooker. I have a toddler and was unable to have heating on and had to phone family to heat her a meal and bring it. Smart meter still not installed. British Gas deny liability and I have had to have another electrician and an appliance engineer to try to put things right. Been without a cooker for a week now. It was a fairly recent oven and no problems until they started this installation.
Anyone else had similar problems.

If BG deny liability, then your next move is an official letter of complaint explaining the situation and what you want in order to get it resolved. If you get no sensible resolution from that within (8 weeks?) then you can refer it to the ombudsman.

Or, you can send them a letter before action and take them to small claims court.

I fail to see how they can claim no liability. It would be a bit of a coincidence if it all just happened to blow up at the same time as the smart meter installation.

EDIT: dogshome has written a better response above, but I think you have a good case against BG. It will be their policy to deny any wrong doing and leave it up to you to complain. They are geared up to ignore the people that don't kick up a stink!

[Deleted User]

The only thing that any meter can do, smart or dumb is to measure the electricity consumption passing through it.The clue is that it is called a meter.It meters electricity.
Maybe you have been reading rubbish from Stopsmartmeters.co.uk where they claim the smart meters can link with every household appliance.

lstar337

sacsquacco wrote: »

The only thing that any meter can do, smart or dumb is to measure the electricity consumption passing through it.The clue is that it is called a meter.It meters electricity.
Maybe you have been reading rubbish from Stopsmartmeters.co.uk where they claim the smart meters can link with every household appliance.

I agree the meter cannot do anything by itself, but this was during installation.

Clearly the installer ballsed something up during the process. Could have happened with any meter on any install, and not related to the smart meter itself.

JC_Derby

Unless there was an issue within the meter itself, then the most likely thing that could have happened is if the installer had reversed the polarity at the property.

MeterMan

Did the engineer asks you to turn off all electrical items at the wall?
If he did, did you turn them all off?

Did the engineer inform you that he was going to turn the electric off, and did you hear a continuous beep just before the power was switched off?

When the engineer turned the power back on, did you hear the same continuous beep?

If you heard the continuous beep twice, then the engineer didnt ball's anything up

Robin9

I've seen several meter changes done and the installer has turned off at the consumer unit while the meter has been changed - never turned off appliances at wall

MeterMan

Robin9 wrote: »

I've seen several meter changes done and the installer has turned off at the consumer unit while the meter has been changed - never turned off appliances at wall

we do turn off from the consumer unit, you're supposed to ask the customer to turn off the sockets, if they chose not to, then its their call.

brewerdave

MeterMan wrote: »

we do turn off from the consumer unit, you're supposed to ask the customer to turn off the sockets, if they chose not to, then its their call.

Had my leccy meter changed last year -he asked me to switch off main isolator inside,but said nothing about unplugging/switching off at socket.
Moreover, my neighbour had his leccy meter switched fairly recently when he wasn't even home, it was in an outside meter cupboard -so presumably the consumer unit was still live!!:eek: