Name and Shame your Smart Meter Supplier Share your experiences

RandomQ

OK Let's face it, we have one of the weakest Governments in our history, they literally do not have the balls to dump or suspend the Smart Meter programme despite it being a total debacle and waste of £12bn of your money.

We are going to get dragged kicking and screaming into having a smart meter, so who are the best and worst suppliers of Smart Meters in your opinion?

Which Suppliers In Home Display (IHD) should you avoid like the plague?

Which Suppliers IHD is the best?

Which Supplier have comms problems from the Gas Meter to the main Smart meter?

Which Supplier has no respect for the consumer, for example installing a Gas meter protruding out of standard Gas Meter enclosure by 6 inches and exposed to rain and vandalism?

Which Supplier has great Smart Meter data that they let you tap into?

Which Supplier has no Smart Meter infrastructure at all and can barely get the readings into it's billing system.

Which Supplier is only installing Smet2 Smart Meters rather than dumping crappy Smet1 meters on customers?

Which Supplier is installing crappy Indian industrial smart meters that are hard for customers to operate?

Which Supplier is still screwing you on Direct Debit despite the Smart Meter being installed for 6 months?

What other problems have you had with your Smart Meter?

What is the greatest bribe you have seen for getting a Smart Meter?

The general advice seems to be avoiding getting a Smart Meter until mid October when Smet2 meters are supposed to be rolled out, do you agree with that?

If you had to choose a supplier based solely on the Smart Meter and associated infrastructure, which one would it be?

The_Green_Hornet

My preferred option would be I do not have a smart meter and I am waiting until my current meter reaches end of life

RandomQ

Good to know

Wizard_of_Id

both of my existing meters reached their end of life stage 2 years ago so I got smart meters fitted at my request and have had no problems.

Mojisola

RandomQ wrote: »

We are going to get dragged kicking and screaming into having a smart meter

Or threatened - one of my elderly relatives has been very upset recently after receiving a letter from SSE. The main part of the letter says things like "ageing meters can become unreliable, which means they can give inaccurate readings".

There is one sentence which says that you don't have to upgrade to a smart meter but then there is an outlined box and the threat "If we don't hear from you, we have the right to apply for a warrant to obtain access to your property to carry out this exchange".

My relative was imagining arriving home to find they had gone to court, come to her house and broken down the door to do the work so she quickly agreed to having the smart meter fitted out of fear.

AndyPK

could do with another option.
or change last.

Never is a long time.

I don't want a smart meter in the foreseeable future or until cheap tariffs require it.

RandomQ

Mojisola wrote: »

Or threatened - one of my elderly relatives has been very upset recently after receiving a letter from SSE. The main part of the letter says things like "ageing meters can become unreliable, which means they can give inaccurate readings".

There is one sentence which says that you don't have to upgrade to a smart meter but then there is an outlined box and the threat "If we don't hear from you, we have the right to apply for a warrant to obtain access to your property to carry out this exchange".

My relative was imagining arriving home to find they had gone to court, come to her house and broken down the door to do the work so she quickly agreed to having the smart meter fitted out of fear.

That is obscene and should be reported to OFGEM

ConsumerMatt

Mine is OK. The house I purchased last year already had British Gas smart meters installed so I decided to go on a BG tariff to make use of them.

The IHD is fiddly and doesn't provide anything particularly smart. Apart from the concerning meter that shoots up into the red when I boil a kettle. I'm sure there are handy features on there but I got bored quickly trying to navigate the interface.

I've just left it to its devices to be honest. The only thing of concern is how random the readings are. When I view my usage online the meters go from sending readings daily, then suddenly nothing for 3 weeks. Then sometimes it's weekly, then twice per day.

Overall no issues although hardly "smart" as the best thing it does is automatically send readings. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't ask for one to be installed in my house.

matelodave

My SSE meter worked fine when I was with SSE. and I could see my online data, although only up to midnight the previous day. Real time would have been more useful.

The IHD doesn't give me the info I want without a lot of button pressing - it would be better if it could be configured by the user to present the info that they want.

I'm not with SEE anymore so data doesn't get transmitted back to the supplier, but I can still use some functions on the IHD. The most useful being able to read the meter remotely (although the range is less than 10m so it cant' be placed where it's easy to use)

In general I reckon they are a good idea and would help people get up to date and accurate bills but the introduction and implementation is a poorly executed shambles which has done nothing to enhance their reputation.

Michaelw

Which Supplier is only installing Smet2 Smart Meters rather than dumping crappy Smet1 meters on customers?

The Landis&Gyr G370 appears upgradable however if this ever happens its wait and see there may be a case of no real benefits to the average user .A meter is a meter the main problem with the current situation is switching,once that situation is addressed then so will the negative publicity.

https://www.landisgyr.eu/product/landisgyr-g370-series/

https://www.landisgyr.eu/product/g370-zigbee-smart-ultrasonic-gas-meter/

Compliant meters have been installed for some time.

If it is a Landis & Gyr G370 it is certainly a full fat SMETS2 compliant smart meter. If it is any other G300 series then that becomes "almost certainly". For electricity you're looking to see if they've fitted a Landis & Gyr E470 - that's a smart meter.

https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2015/07/07/smart_meter_business_case_still_there_insists_gov/

British Gas are installing the best equipment at the present time, the pipe work is modified in IGT ground gas meter boxes.The inhome display is clearly the best also its clear menus also stand out.

PennineAcute

although mine is now dumb, I love it. Mine is an Elster and the accompanying IHD is far better than the one I had with OVO. Scottish Power put a new Smart Meter in for me, replacing the one installed by OVO.

My IHD shows me the all important kWh and m^3 readings from my electricity and gas meters.

I give weekly readings and if my SM are not able to be upgraded, I am very happy to keep my current ones and forego any future new SM installation.