British Gas PAYG Smart Meter Problems

andytheegg

I had a PAYG smart meter installed by British Gas around a year ago and it worked perfectly, allowing me to top up using their app or website, monitor electricity usage, etc. It was much easier than the old system of topping up a key or card at a shop.

Unfortunately it stopped working around 3 months ago. I could no longer top up, see energy usage or using anything "smart". The monitor in my home says it cannot connect to the meter and my top ups don't make it onto the meter. I now have to type a very long vend code into the meter itself, outside in the rain, using two extremely unresponsive buttons. The situation is much worse than before I had smart meters. I never know when I'm going to run out of credit and it takes ages to top up.

I have spoken to British Gas many times. They say they are aware of the connectivity issues, they say it's a national problem affecting numerous customers but I just have to wait until the engineers fix it. At first that seemed ok, but now 3 months later they are still saying the same thing and don't seem to be doing much about it. They are now saying that the more people that complain about it the higher the engineers will prioritise it.

So, I'm wondering how many people are actually affected, and if there is anything else we can do to try to get this fixed? This isn't what I signed up for but now seems I'm stuck with it, with no indication of how long it might take.

Would like the hear from anyone else with the same problem.

System

People using the Ovo smart prepay meter ( the Secure Liberty meter ) have faced even worse problems when the smart PAYG credit top up fails..The number they have to imput can be over 40 digits long and has to be entered at the correct speed to succeed. Hopeless , if you re poorly sighted or under the stairs or like you out in the pouring rain. The answer for you is to get the payment method switched to credit mode and at the same time lower your bill by at least 20% by switching over ( with £30 cashback ) to a Sainsburys Energy account. Its part of the British Gas set up but quite a lot cheaper than what BG can do.Have a look on the Cheapenergyclub comp site to see what the best one year fix is for Sainsburys Energy at the moment.
There will be many people like you affected by the smart link dropping. I work for BG reading meters and I m always being sent to do manual reads on smart meters not communicating. If you have a poor credit history which would stop you going on credit mode or there is more than £500 debt on the meter you can t switch .If you have less than £500 debt EDF are a good bet to switch your meter to EDFs prepay s then get them to fit you a credit meter, dumb if poss because smart switching is nt in operation yet. You stay smart if you switch to Sainsburys Energy

Rubidium

As what they have fitted is not fit for purpose and causing you inconvenience, insist that it is removed and replaced with a conventional meter.

Smart meters are currently a big joke!