Smart Meters

[Deleted User]

bobbob052 said:r

Last October (2020) we changed our dual fuel supplier, after checking energy prices, to Eon.  We were required to have a smart meter with our new supplier.  This was arranged by them and a couple of months later Morrisons Utilities came and did the work.  When completed they called for another colleague to check their work and our smart meter was working.

In January we noticed our lights occasionally flickering, like a drop in voltage.  It got worse over time as we sometimes heard our fridge and freezer stopping and restarting.

One dark and cold night mid-January all out electricity went off at 5pm, just as I was about to get dinner.  My husband checked the obvious things then phoned Western Power.  Fortunately they were not too busy and arrived about two hours later and after an hour or so repaired the fault.  

Morrisons Utility who were employed by Eon had not properly connected a cable in our external electricity supply box and it had been arcing.

All this evening time we had no heating, or lighting or food.  By the time it was sorted it was almost 9pm so too late to begin cooking dinner.  We are both “pension age” and had been very worried about what had caused the power failure and how it would be repaired.

For all this we were offered £10 compensation.  Eon couldn’t have cared less!!!!!l

With respect, your experience has nothing to do with smart meters. The same thing could happen whenever a meter is changed. It shouldn’t happen but sadly it does. There are a number of similar reports of arcing on high current devices such as EV charging points.

oldandwizend

Unfortunately human nature appears to favour complaint over praise whatever business you are in. The only certainty is that, whilst smart meters should improve billing accuracy, they are unlikely to lead to an improvement in customer service.

murphydavid

oldandwizend said:

Unfortunately human nature appears to favour complaint over praise whatever business you are in. The only certainty is that, whilst smart meters should improve billing accuracy, they are unlikely to lead to an improvement in customer service.

Off topic sorry but:
Don't be so pessimistic glass half empty again--
Your view of human nature is not scientifically supported. see
https://www.mycustomer.com/experience/voice-of-the-customer/are-customers-more-likely-to-shame-or-praise-brands-on-social-media
In that survey 
38% are likely to give favorable and 31% complaint.
Have you been on trustpilot to look at reviews? You might be surprised at how many high star ratings based on positive verses negative reviews there are.
and (this is only my opinion) I think both bad and good reviews improve customer service.

Gerry1

murphydavid said:

oldandwizend said:

Unfortunately human nature appears to favour complaint over praise whatever business you are in. The only certainty is that, whilst smart meters should improve billing accuracy, they are unlikely to lead to an improvement in customer service.

Have you been on trustpilot to look at reviews? You might be surprised at how many high star ratings based on positive verses negative reviews there are.

I suspect many of the high star reviews on Trustpilot are fake !

niktheguru

Gerry1 said:

murphydavid said:

oldandwizend said:

Unfortunately human nature appears to favour complaint over praise whatever business you are in. The only certainty is that, whilst smart meters should improve billing accuracy, they are unlikely to lead to an improvement in customer service.

Have you been on trustpilot to look at reviews? You might be surprised at how many high star ratings based on positive verses negative reviews there are.

I suspect many of the high star reviews on Trustpilot are fake !

Or they are reviews which have been requested by the company in combination with a subsequent promotion or discount for the reviewee.

carl.waring

Gerry1 said:

murphydavid said:

oldandwizend said:

Unfortunately human nature appears to favour complaint over praise whatever business you are in. The only certainty is that, whilst smart meters should improve billing accuracy, they are unlikely to lead to an improvement in customer service.

Have you been on trustpilot to look at reviews? You might be surprised at how many high star ratings based on positive verses negative reviews there are.

I suspect many of the high star reviews on Trustpilot are fake !

And what about the negative ones? You believe those? You do know that bad reviews can also be faked, right?

carl.waring

niktheguru said:

Gerry1 said:

murphydavid said:

oldandwizend said:

Unfortunately human nature appears to favour complaint over praise whatever business you are in. The only certainty is that, whilst smart meters should improve billing accuracy, they are unlikely to lead to an improvement in customer service.

Have you been on trustpilot to look at reviews? You might be surprised at how many high star ratings based on positive verses negative reviews there are.

I suspect many of the high star reviews on Trustpilot are fake !

Or they are reviews which have been requested by the company in combination with a subsequent promotion or discount for the reviewee.

But of course the negative ones won’t have been similarly paid for by the reviewed items competitors?

The point being that anything is possible.

Gerry1

carl.waring said:

Gerry1 said:

murphydavid said:

oldandwizend said:

Unfortunately human nature appears to favour complaint over praise whatever business you are in. The only certainty is that, whilst smart meters should improve billing accuracy, they are unlikely to lead to an improvement in customer service.

Have you been on trustpilot to look at reviews? You might be surprised at how many high star ratings based on positive verses negative reviews there are.

I suspect many of the high star reviews on Trustpilot are fake !

And what about the negative ones? You believe those? You do know that bad reviews can also be faked, right?

Of course I know that !  Many of the good ones are probably posted by the organisation itself, many of the bad ones by their competitors.  It's an inherent problem with all review sites unless you can verify purchase of the goods or services.

Quaedam360

Him I am in need of advice, please. 

In November 2019 I contacted British Gas to get a smart monitor.  I'd recently become too disabled to work full time so was on Universal Credit and PIP, and still working two days a week as allowed.  As of November, that two days also ceased, so finances became considerably more tight, and I outlined this to BG in that November call.  They sent an engineer who couldn't complete the job.  He said "the meter's in but the monitor won't communicate with it".  He said he would come back with another unit and he left.

The Coronavirus hit the fan.

I held out as long as I could to try allow the urgent jobs to be dealt with, knowing that the restrictions had implications for everyone.  When things started to settle a little (Feb or March this year) I called BG and asked what had happened about finishing my installation.  Got no information on that but they booked an appointment for it to happen between 1 and 2pm on 24th May just gone.

May 24th a little after 1pm I called to check if the engineer was on track to arrive (wanted to pop to the shop) and Agent No1 told me my appt was for between 1pm and 5pm.  Not too concerned, I waited again.  5.15pm I called to ask if he was still likely to arrive or what would happen with the appt rescheduling as he still hadn't turned up.  Agent No2 said there was no appointment on the system.  I said Agent No1 told me 1pm - 5pm.  Agent No2 says, no, no appt on system, you'll have to make another appt.  It's late now so call in tomorrow.  I asked how long I should expect to wait for another appt, because this was a job that should have been finished in 16 months ago.  I outlined my financial position and told her truthfully that my health wasn't up to dealing with the potential financial difficulty I could be in if I couldn't monitor my usage - especially since I have health conditions which demand higher usage than normal.  Agent No2 said I was unlikely to encounter difficulties as their estimating system was usually quite accurate.  The LOUDEST alarm bells rang.  I said sorry, what do you mean?  She said they hadn't been receiving readings so they had been estimating my usage but it would be better when I had my smart meter.  I said I HAVE a smart meter!    She said it hadn't been sending readings through.  I asked when the last reading was from it.  It was October 12th - right before the engineer came to install the monitor.  So..presumably, he had disconnected it or switched it off...and BG have been estimating my bills for 16 months. 

 I was in a cold sweat and nearly in tears by this time.  I said did nobody follow up that unfinished job?  It would have been caught way earlier than this if they had.  I asked how they could justify estimating for 16 months without even letting me know?  I paid any and all bills by DD precisely so that they are looked after.   This wasn't something that Coronavirus had any effect upon; they could have notified me - and as I understood it, BG are obliged by law to take a physical reading at least once a year?  Agent No 3 gave me no replies of any use to this.  I was so scared by the potential financial hit that can come from this - I said you really don't understand what a $$$*show this could bring on for me - and she hung up on me.  Yes I did swear that once...but honestly, the potential financial implications for me of this are fearful, and my mental health is not the best given my disabilities and some other long-running life things through the last three years.

I gathered myself a little and then went onto BG's live chat.  I asked Agent No4 to check what had happened to my missed appt today.   She too stated there was  no appt on my account.   I resigned myself to this being the line they were going to stick to whether it was true or not, so I tried to move forward.  I told her that I needed this resolved as I had waited 16 months, trying to keep a hold on my finances and that Agent No3 had just hit me with the fact of 16 months estimated bills which could be disastrous for me.   Agent No4  stated that if I gave her a reading she could update the account.   Talk about putting a plaster on an amputation!  I reiterated that I needed the monitor installed.  She said she would raise a task at her end highlighting it to their technical team.   I then asked her to check when I had called (Feb/March I think) to get this moving again.  She said she couldn't see any call in March.  I asked her to look again to find the last time I had called in before today.  She said there's no call in March.  And so it went.  She stuck to "no call in March", I asked again for the Last Time I called in whether it was March or not...she asked me for a reference number which of course, I didn't have.  She never answered this.

I then asked her to furnish me with an email address I could write to in order to place a formal SAR request, and the email address for complaints to Ofgen.  She didn't give those but said that she had sent a request for all my previous call and chat records to their team and I would receive them in the next 7 days.  I asked her to give the addresses anyway, and said that I had waited over 16 months to be able to monitor my energy consumption for financial reasons, and that ever since their engineer had visited in November 2019 BG had been estimating my bills and this was potentially extremely bad for me.  I said I wanted to know why that initial visit was never followed up, why the engineer had disconnected the signal somehow, and why this had never been fixed or notified to me - and why they had not informed me of my bills being estimated for such an extended time.

She gave a generic stock line of Ï  have already highlighted your issue to our dedicated (ha!) team and you will definitely receive a resolution ASAP."  I told her that ASAP is meaningless given the whole mess before today, and that BG had placed me in a potentially impossible situation.  Again I asked for the email addresses.  And here's the killer.  She said "We do not currently have email services.  As a business we are investing heavily in self-serve and webchat which offer our customers a better service which we know through customer feedback".   I was flabbergasted.  I asked how it was that despite having no email service BG manage to send me promotional junk so often?  I said also that I wasn't asking her to USE an email service, I just needed the addresses, I could write the emails.  Can I have the email for the SAR request please?  She said sorry but there's no email address I can provide.

Fine.  I asked when I could expect to hear from someone about all this.  And how would it come through - post? text?   She said it will come by email.  Wow.  Okay.  Please tell me which address it will come to because I have had one or two addresses along the way.  She quoted the correct address - the only one registered with them now.  

Having got a timeline for the SAR, I asked when I could expect the meter and monitor to be installed.  She said she had raised a task and I would receive an email.  Because from the email, I will probably have to wait another seven weeks or so for an appointment?  She didn't know or wouldn't say, though I asked again two different ways. 

If anyone out there can give me any advice on this, I would be extremely grateful.  I don't know what best procedure is to get this rectified, I don't know whether BG have broken Ofgen rules on customer care or vulnerable customers, I don't know if I am liable to foot what really could be a horrible bill if they've estimated 16months wrongly, or whether they are even allowed to go that long without a physical reading (I thought meters had to be read once a year by law).  If anyone can answer these questions and add anything I've not mentioned please do?

Many thanks in advance for any and all advice you can give.

JJ_Egan

( don't know whether BG have broken Ofgen rules on customer care or vulnerable customers )

You are registered with BG as vulnerable ??