Smart meters / Sainsburys

Duncan1958

Hello, I had a quick search of the forum but was unable to find the information I require,

My current contract with Npower was due to expire and decided to find a supplier that would install a smart meter within a reasonable time scale not just before 2020 as most say, I knew British gas installed them but their prices weren't the best, Sainsbury's were slightly better but by no means the cheapest but I knew they were British Gas in disguise so I enquired via email to Sainsburys energy if they installed smart meters, I received a reply via British gas stating that once I'd switched if I registered my interest in smart meters that would set the ball rolling and the meter would be installed in due course, great so I signed up.
Move on a couple of months, signed up, paid first bill, time to register my interest in Smart meters, 10 days later I received a reply saying Sainsburys don't install Smart meters!! despite me telling Sainsburys that I was told otherwise I'm getting nowhere and stuck in a contract which I wouldn't have joined if I had known the full facts.
any advice would be most welcome.
Regards Duncan

BendyWill

I think you would have a strong case for being misold the contract do you have the email you were sent from british gas and does it show sainsburys energy in it some how?

I would say that they should allow you to switch and would waver the termination fee (dont hold me to it but I think its around £30).

in terms of who to goto sorry I'm still trying to find a good smart meter too! if you find one please let us all know

Duncan1958

Thanks for the reply, yes I have all the emails and on them it says to Sainsburys reply from British Gas, they appear to have stopped replying to my emails now so not sure how to take it further.

[Deleted User]

Sainsburys don!t install smart meters, Sainsburys don t actually do anything other than lend their very reliable name to gain a marketing edge. They are supposed to be a no frills cheaper option to BG They use the same call centres and sales teams and meter readers .I have switched between the two of them a few times now (collecting cashbacks ) when a good collective tariff comes up and ended up with cheapest electricity kwhr rate in the UK with BG at present at 7.9 p /kwh inc Vat
Once you have registered your interest you will go on the list, but I do not think they will supply a smart meter to fit to order. They will just turn up at some time in the future sooner than if you had not registered.

Joyful

Currently Sainsburys do not install smart meters. People often ask why they are cheaper than BG. This and the fact they do not install prepayment meters either is one of the reasons. This will change in the future as all suppliers will have to install smart meters.

mhla200

I have smart meters from British Gas but want to move to Sainsbury what happens to my smart meters?

System

They stay smart and operate as usual

[Deleted User]

@mhla200
British Gas and Sainsbury's Energy are the same firm, British Gas license the name to sell energy. So everything is the same: staff, computer systems, smart meters. They just put a different name on the bills

SammenForLivet2

gsmlnx wrote: »

@mhla200
British Gas and Sainsbury's Energy are the same firm, British Gas license the name to sell energy. So everything is the same: staff, computer systems, smart meters. They just put a different name on the bills

Sainsbury's Energy is slightly different. From what I believe, Sainsbury's Energy, albeit uses similar systems to BG, are solely based in the UK and mainly in Cardiff. A lot of work that is off-shored by BG (e.g: Backoffice, Call Centres) is still done in house with Sainsbury's.

OP, Sainsbury's don't install smart meters, but you could switch - penalty free to any BG tariff, and I'm pretty sure they do install smart meters. You'd then be free to switch back to Sainsbury's and from what I've heard, 9/10 the Smart Meter will still work. Saisnbury's at the moment, I believe only fit dumb meters and should not actively promote BG SMART functionality.

sarkio

Same issue here, switched to Sainsbury's gas and electric last month via the MSE scheme. I assumed (wrongly) that as Sainsbury's partner in this venture is British Gas that the smart meter would soon be installed as part of the BG roll out. Unfortunately not. I asked via the Sainsbury's site for an smart meter. A couple of days later I received a call from Sainsbury's telling me that this should happen in 2020. It looks like I will be switching suppliers when the 12 month tie in finishes.

Tbaron

As above, British Gas provide the administration for Sainsbury's Energy, you are technically a BG customer to the industry but the tariffs and their features and benefits are decided by Sainsburys. This isn't unique to Sainsburys either in the industry.

In terms of Smart Meters in general. As you may be aware, one companies Smart Meters are mostly non compatible with other suppliers so if you switch, you'll be reading the meter yourself ( it wont need to be removed though, it'll just function like a normal meter). There is a new generation of Smart Meters (so called SMETS 2) which alongside a national database of meter readings which will be cross compatible with every company that is enrolled to the database (all companies will eventually have to be). I can't post links but if you google SMETS 2 you will find government pages about its roll out.

At present, it is unclear which currently installed meters will be compatible with this system ( I would hazard a guess that SMETS1 or electricity meters whose serial numbers are 14,15,or 16 P or K ((and the corresponding gas meters)) will be and the rest won't). I'll leave your judgement to work out what to do there.