Energy Ombudsman Refusing To Re-Open Complaint

mattinglis

I have had nightmare times with Bulb and their "smart" meters, which haven't worked since day one and this has consequently caused my billing to be all over the place, and most of the time (3 months) no bills at all.
I complained to Bulb who surprise surprise did nothing in 14 weeks, so i took it to the ombudsman and thats when my troubles really started!

I raised the case and two weeks later Bulb offered a) compensation and b) to continue attempting to resolve my meter problems. I accepted this offer as all i want is my meters working so my billing works!

However Bulb made no attempt to resolve the issue, just stated that my meter wasn't installed properly in the first place and closed the case!

Ombudsman Services say if your not happy that the issue is resolved to raise an issue within 14 days, which i did.

Only for them to tell me they will not re-open the case as i accepted an offer, despite the fact the offer has not been fulfilled and their website telling you they will ensure the company full fills any resolution.

Now im in a constant round robin email exchange fighting with them about why they will not re-open the case, they state they have reviewed it and view it as resolved.

How can i appeal their decision to mark it as resolved? they refuse to tell me their complaints process, refuse to re-open the case and refuse to help any further?

How can a supplier just close an ombudsman case without any confirmation from the customer as to whether it has been resolved?

Ectophile

Have you tried badgering Bulb for the money that they owe you? If necessary, open another formal complaint with them.


What do you mean by "haven't worked"? If they cannot connect to the network, then that may not be solvable by Bulb until the network improves. Bulb don't operate the radio network, so there's nothing they can do about it. You just have to keep taking manual readings and submitting them, the old-fashioned way.

Streaky_Bacon

Even if you managed to get the case reopened and the ombudsman ended up instructing the supplier to do the things the things they have already promised to do, the ombudsman would not take meaningful steps to force them to comply (apart from asking them a couple of times). So, you would really be in the situation that you are already in, an agreed resolution and the supplier not carrying it out, and any enforcement action falling to you. This is probably why they don't want to reopen it.

In terms of enforcement, if the compensation is never paid, you may need to end up taking, or at least threatening legal action.

With regards to the meter, what you choose to do in terms of enforcement, depends very much on the problem with the meter, and how Bulb are billing you.

If the net result of the fault and Bulb's billing is that you are being under billed, you may decide to do nothing (apart from putting the shortfall money to one side in a savings account) and Bulb may eventually lose the ability to charge you for it.

If the meter is recording usage and you believe that you are being over billed, you can just submit meter readings manually as Ectophile suggests.

What is the problem, and do you believe that it is resulting in you being over billed or under billed?

mattinglis

The problem is over billed and then under billed and quite often never billed at all...

My issue is more that because the meter has never been commissioned properly in the first place, i feel i am tied to Bulb until they decide they want to fix it. As others on here have discovered once you move away from the original fitting company, getting issues resolved with smart meters is nearly impossible.

I mean would any company really commission a meter fitted by someone else?

So ultimately because Bulb installed what they describe as a faulty meter, and are refusing to replace or fix it, i'm stuck with a partially commissioned system which seems to cause suppliers a nightmare with their billing systems even when manual meters readings are provided.

Cardew

Raise a fresh complaint!

Streaky_Bacon

mattinglis wrote: »

The problem is over billed and then under billed and quite often never billed at all...

My issue is more that because the meter has never been commissioned properly in the first place, i feel i am tied to Bulb until they decide they want to fix it.

What is the actual issue with the meter? Is it not providing readings, providing incorrect readings, not sending those readings to the supplier, sending incorrect readings, or something else?

mattinglis

It is not connecting to the supplier, and hence not providing readings according to Bulb the meter did not send out its certificates so they cannot communicate with it.

Streaky_Bacon

mattinglis wrote: »

It is not connecting to the supplier, and hence not providing readings according to Bulb the meter did not send out its certificates so they cannot communicate with it.

OK, so it seems that it is another Smart meter that is "Dumb" (because it cannot communicate with the supplier).

Presumably you can supply manual meter readings, and the supplier should simply bill you based upon those, but your earlier post suggested that there was a problem when you supplied manual readings.

mattinglis wrote: »

The problem is over billed and then under billed and quite often never i'm stuck with a partially commissioned system which seems to cause suppliers a nightmare with their billing systems even when manual meters readings are provided.

What is going wrong when you supply manual readings?

mattinglis

Bulb say their system doesn't work because my account says i have smart meters, yet as explained they are not receiving readings from one of them, because of that their automatic billing system doesn't seem to work.

Ultimately they fitted a faulty product, and their system cannot cope with it.

They stated in the resolution with the energy ombudsman they would continue to attempt to resolve my smart meter issue to fix the billing, yet have done nothing but tell me they have a report telling them what went wrong (the meters can talk to each other, just one didn't send its certificates so they can communicate securely). They say that replacing the meter doesn't always fix this so are not willing to even attempt this!