Bulb customers left with faulty smart meters - MSE News

D_M_E

Houbara - if your meter hasn't budged in 20 years does that mean it's been displaying the same reading for about 20 years and your last 20 years of bills have either been estimates or just for the standing charge?

[Deleted User]

D_M_E wrote: »

Houbara - if your meter hasn't budged in 20 years does that mean it's been displaying the same reading for about 20 years and your last 20 years of bills have either been estimates or just for the standing charge?

I only wish the reading had nt budged .I meant the meters themselves do not get taken out to be recertified.
Funnily enough I do have myself the only electric meter which occasionally does stick on the same number . The .Sangamo Weston old type analogue meter can show a blank digit on the single kwh dial , always after two 9 s in the preceding digits and it will stay like that unless it is given a solid thump to dislodge the blank.
Where this blank appears from is a mystery..I have found these types of meters stuck on the same digits for years in some cases.

AngieWelburn

It would appear that Bulb are still fitting these faulty In House Display units even though they have not resolved the ongoing issue with them. Mine was fitted 11th Oct and when I contacted them about it not working they just don't want to know.

PennyForThem_2

Bulb aren't the only ones installing faulty IHDs - Co-op Energy and ShellEnergy are too.

[Deleted User]

Houbara wrote: »

I wish people , including MSE would stop referring to the 3 quid freebie gizmo as a "smart meter ". Its not a meter !. In House Display or monitor is its description
Sounds like Bulb are yet another supplier to succumb to the bargain basement cheapest smart meter in the UK, Secure Liberty.
.As a Bulb customer , if that is what they are now installing, then they are wasting their time getting me to agree with the installation of it.

Thank you, Houbara. As Secure Liberty seems not to be a good brand, is there a list of available brands and their reliability or robustness?

When I searched I could only find first and second generation types but no actual brands to compare. I don't have a smart meter yet but, if changing, I would try to get the most reliable brand. I understand what you say about the difference between in house displays and the actual smart meter, thanks.

Is it a matter of certain suppliers only use a particular brand? You mentioned Bulb and Secure Liberty, or is it not possible to know the brand, and check on its reliability, before agreeing to have a smart meter fitted?

Thank you.

Crimson

staggered

w0z wrote: »

If I've understood it correctly the article is blatantly misleading on 2 counts.
1. The I.H.D. (not the meter) isn't showing incorrect figures, it's just not showing the figures for both fuels. So no "incorrect" figures are being shown
2. The meter (or meters) is/are not showing any incorrect figures.
Disappointing standard of journalism here, worthy of the tabloids.
I'm puzzled by the irate reaction of one customer saying they are going to leave because their IHD is not fully functional (when they never used to have one).

The reason I left Bulb wasn't because the IHD didn't work (annoying but not the end of the world).

It was because Bulb weren't receiving readings from the smart meters. Which meant that I would have to enter my own readings. But it wasn't possible for me to enter my own readings, because I had smart meters, which are supposed to send readings automatically. But they weren't working.

Catch-22.

What made it worse was that, when I rang Bulb with my meter readings, they just ignored me. So, despite all my efforts, I was left with estimated bills for months and no sign of Bulb resolving this or any other problem.

Glad to be rid of them

leviathan

Houbara wrote: »

I wish people , including MSE would stop referring to the 3 quid freebie gizmo as a "smart meter ". Its not a meter !

I wish people would stop referring to smart meters as smart meters.
The catalogue of problems regardless of supplier shows they are anything but smart and the utter lies being fed to us about the reasons for the industry bringing them in.


Lets come clean and call them price hike meters as that's exactly what they will end up being used for. Charging us more for energy use in peak periods and the eventual goal of price by usage type ie: charging your electric car at 40p/kwh verses your fridge at 20p/kwh.

Gerry1

leviathan wrote: »

the industry bringing them in.

Not quite, the EU is to blame, although they are no doubt influenced by the generating industry.

leviathan wrote: »

Let's come clean and call them price hike meters as that's exactly what they will end up being used for.

Not quite, it gets worse than that. Let's call them Rationing Meters. When your rip-off peak tariff hasn't deterred you and demand still exceeds the available supply, Load Limiting (see 4.7) will kick in: your load can be limited to any value from 0-24kWh.

If peak demand still exceeds the available supply, then Load Shedding will kick in. :mad:

Dumb people have Smart Meters. Smart people have Dumb Meters.

leviathan

Thanks for that link on the Atlantic meter.
Thats quite disturbing, not just section 4.7 but pretty much most of it.

Bulbatron

Bulb IHD's. I am not impressed. I had my first property fitted with smart meters August 2019. 
I then had my home fitted with smart meters October 2019.  The first fitting only ever connected to one energy source (elec) It has never connected to the gas supply, even though Bulb said it would be resolved. We are now in June 2020.
The home display worked fine for a few months. Then stopped working on the electricity. It is still reading only the gas meter but has now developed faulty readings and claiming gas is being used when I have switched gas off at the mains? Does anyone know where I can box up this rubbish technology and post back to Bulb?