Engie and smart meter problems

Jd843

Hi

A bit of a rant coming up, but I'm so fed up with my gas and electricity supplier.

Over a year ago, I moved into a rented house that had smart meters fitted, and the gas/electricity supplier was British Gas. As you'd expect I did a price comparison and switched suppliers towards the end of July 2017, and ended up on a fixed tariff with Engie, who I'd never heard of but thought sounded okay. I wasn't bothered about losing the smart meter functionality - the gas meter didn't work anyway (apparently it's not available in my area) and it's not exactly hard to read your meter is it?

The problems have all stemmed from my electricity meter. Engie have been baffled by the fact that my meter produces a rate 1 and a rate 2 reading, despite not being an Economy 7 meter.

At first, Engie called me about a month after switching to explain that I'd have to submit two separate readings, which I was fine with. I realised later that this meant I couldn't submit my meter reading online, as it only asked for one reading and not two. This annoyed me a bit as it's so much more convenient to do it online, but I put up with it since it's only a few times a year.

However, this wasn't the end of it. In the year that's followed, Engie have been investigating my meter. They've called me and asked me to send pictures of it multiple times. Eventually, a couple of months ago, they realised that while I was with British Gas, I got free electricity on a Sunday, and this was recorded using the meter's "rate 2". So they asked me to take two readings on a Sunday, so they could confirm that rate 2 was no longer being used for this purpose. I did this, and they could see from this that rate 2 now did not increase, and all of my electricity usage was being recorded on "rate 1". As a result of this, one of their staff members told me the investigation was resolved and I could now use my meter like a single rate meter, just submitting the "rate 1" reading. This also meant I could use my online account for readings, which I was pleased with.

Fast forward to today, and I get a bill from Engie with some estimated reads on. This includes a "rate 2" reading for electricity, which they have estimated to have increased by 2 kWh. So not only are they still using the "rate 2" when they shouldn't be, they are also estimating that it's increasing, which they know doesn't happen (that was the whole point of their investigation).

Basically, I'm wondering whether to jump ship to a different supplier. I technically should have to pay fees to get out of my tariff, but I've been told as part of the many, many complaints I've made about this that they would waiver the fee so I could leave. I think that offer would still stand since this is probably the 10th time I've been given the incorrect information and had to contact them to clarify what's going on. It's got to the point where I don't trust a thing they say, because every time I speak to someone they explain what's happening differently, and they also assure me it's all sorted when it isn't

My question is - do all suppliers have issues interpreting British Gas dual rate electricity meters? It would be great to hear from any of you who have switched suppliers while having a British Gas smart meter. I'm thinking of switching to Bulb as I've heard good things, but I'd hate to do that and have exactly the same issues. I think part of the issue with Engie is that they're quite new to the consumer market so have no idea what they are doing, and it's occurred to me that this might be true of Bulb too!

Any advice much appreciated.

Skools_Out

Jd843 wrote: »

Hi

A bit of a rant coming up, but I'm so fed up with my gas and electricity supplier.

Over a year ago, I moved into a rented house that had smart meters fitted, and the gas/electricity supplier was British Gas. As you'd expect I did a price comparison and switched suppliers towards the end of July 2017, and ended up on a fixed tariff with Engie, who I'd never heard of but thought sounded okay. I wasn't bothered about losing the smart meter functionality - the gas meter didn't work anyway (apparently it's not available in my area) and it's not exactly hard to read your meter is it?

The problems have all stemmed from my electricity meter. Engie have been baffled by the fact that my meter produces a rate 1 and a rate 2 reading, despite not being an Economy 7 meter.

At first, Engie called me about a month after switching to explain that I'd have to submit two separate readings, which I was fine with. I realised later that this meant I couldn't submit my meter reading online, as it only asked for one reading and not two. This annoyed me a bit as it's so much more convenient to do it online, but I put up with it since it's only a few times a year.

However, this wasn't the end of it. In the year that's followed, Engie have been investigating my meter. They've called me and asked me to send pictures of it multiple times. Eventually, a couple of months ago, they realised that while I was with British Gas, I got free electricity on a Sunday, and this was recorded using the meter's "rate 2". So they asked me to take two readings on a Sunday, so they could confirm that rate 2 was no longer being used for this purpose. I did this, and they could see from this that rate 2 now did not increase, and all of my electricity usage was being recorded on "rate 1". As a result of this, one of their staff members told me the investigation was resolved and I could now use my meter like a single rate meter, just submitting the "rate 1" reading. This also meant I could use my online account for readings, which I was pleased with.

Fast forward to today, and I get a bill from Engie with some estimated reads on. This includes a "rate 2" reading for electricity, which they have estimated to have increased by 2 kWh. So not only are they still using the "rate 2" when they shouldn't be, they are also estimating that it's increasing, which they know doesn't happen (that was the whole point of their investigation).

Basically, I'm wondering whether to jump ship to a different supplier. I technically should have to pay fees to get out of my tariff, but I've been told as part of the many, many complaints I've made about this that they would waiver the fee so I could leave. I think that offer would still stand since this is probably the 10th time I've been given the incorrect information and had to contact them to clarify what's going on. It's got to the point where I don't trust a thing they say, because every time I speak to someone they explain what's happening differently, and they also assure me it's all sorted when it isn't

My question is - do all suppliers have issues interpreting British Gas dual rate electricity meters? It would be great to hear from any of you who have switched suppliers while having a British Gas smart meter. I'm thinking of switching to Bulb as I've heard good things, but I'd hate to do that and have exactly the same issues. I think part of the issue with Engie is that they're quite new to the consumer market so have no idea what they are doing, and it's occurred to me that this might be true of Bulb too!

Any advice much appreciated.

No not all suppliers are confused by two rate meters.

Why does your smart meter have 2 rates. What do they refer to?

I wasn't aware that smart meters were being deployed by British Gas (or any other major supplier) to customers on E7 yet.

Just checked with BG, and they are not able to currently fit smart meters to customers with E7.


So what are the 2 readings for on your meter for?

New suppliers such as Engie often don't send meter readers (to help keep their cost low) but rather rely on customers supplying the correct readings to them.

Jd843

Skools_Out wrote: »

No not all suppliers are confused by two rate meters.

Why does your smart meter have 2 rates. What do they refer to?

I wasn't aware that smart meters were being deployed by British Gas (or any other major supplier) to customers on E7 yet.

Just checked with BG, and they are not able to currently fit smart meters to customers with E7.


So what are the 2 readings for on your meter for?

New suppliers such as Engie often don't send meter readers (to help keep their cost low) but rather rely on customers supplying the correct readings to them.

Hi

Thanks for your reply. Just going to paste from my OP for speed:

"While I was with British Gas, I got free electricity on a Sunday, and this was recorded using the meter's "rate 2". So they asked me to take two readings on a Sunday, so they could confirm that rate 2 was no longer being used for this purpose. I did this, and they could see from this that rate 2 now did not increase, and all of my electricity usage was being recorded on "rate 1"."

So it's not economy 7, it was because I got free electricity on a Sunday, and BG needed to record it separately so I wasn't charged for it I guess.

Jd843

So basically, Engie should only need my rate 1 reading, but instead they're using both! And I am worried that if I switch supplier, the exact same thing will happen and if they ever do an estimated reading, they will estimate that both readings are increasing, adding to the confusion.

Jd843

So there is nobody on the forum with a smart meter like this who has switched suppliers and has to give their meter readings manually?

mac.d

Jd843 wrote: »

So basically, Engie should only need my rate 1 reading, but instead they're using both! And I am worried that if I switch supplier, the exact same thing will happen and if they ever do an estimated reading, they will estimate that both readings are increasing, adding to the confusion.

Presumably Engie are using both readings because they were supplied with both rate 1 and rate 2 as opening readings when you switched? If its set up on their system for two readings, I'm not sure its as simple as just telling a supplier to ignore rate 2 or that you don't use it. Try submitting the actual meter reading to them a few times and eventually even the estimated read should just stay the same for rate 2 since its not moving.