British Gas Smart meter billing mess up

Takmon

Comingoutofthedark said:

Takmon said:

Gerry1 said:

Takmon said:

Gerry1 said:

Takmon said:

Comingoutofthedark said:

Neil_Jones said:

Comingoutofthedark said:

Thanks for your reply the bill went down in January 2020 and the. June this year. Up until then it was in line with previous years the only difference was not having the hassle of submitting meter readings!  Yes I should have kept a closer eye but surely that then defeats the object of the smart meter which is marketed as ‘sends accurate readings so eliminating estimated bills’ and prevents inaccurate readings. However British Gas were aware since March 2019 they were not receiving meter readings from a smart meter that’s 18months surely in that time they had some sort of responsibility to raise this , ask for a reading , send a meter reader out? Or even arrange for an engineer to check the meter? 

I'm going to argue that the general fallback is that if the supplier does not get a reading from some auxiliary accessory to the meter (whether the meter itself provides a reading, you, a meter reader or the cat supplies one), then the next bill will have to be estimated.  Simple as.  No different to dumb meters.

Smart meter lack of readings aren't uncommon, usually because they can't communicate with where they send the data to.  This may be temporary, it may be permanent.  A temporary failure is probably nothing to worry about and will happen on occasion, but BG aren't going to drop everything and run round your house for lack of one meter reading.  As I say, there is nothing to stop you submitting your own readings.

Tell British Gas (by phone, not chat, since chat is just the poor man's first step and they're just there to filter out questions that are already answered on the website) that you've had a bill, all the readings are estimates, can somebody come and look at my smart meter.

Appreciate your reply again, just to clarify it wasn’t one reading missed they say they haven’t received one since March 2019 so until August 2020 that’s 18months of no readings for an active smart meter account which should have raised a flag somewhere in the system. Especially as looking all the way back to the bill that covers the swap they may never have had a reading from the meter at all? 

Unfortunately as the bill came in yesterday and out of the two phone numbers I found one was a recorded message saying the office is closed and the other told me to hang up and try again I am stuck using the poor mans first step to try and someone looking into how this happened preferably before they try and take a direct debit I can I’ll afford. As I said before I was looking for advice/experiences with this kind of scenario as the whole point of me fitting the smart was so I didn’t have estimated bills again and is indeed how they are marketed you live and learn!! Next step access the damm thing to teach myself how to access the readings in anticipation of moving to another provider next year and I thought the dial meter I had previously was bad to read 🙄

If your (sic) on such a tight budget you have no emergency funds for things like this they i don't see why you don't take better notice of your bills. If i was as poor as you i would be reading every bill to make sure it was correct and not just assuming all was well.

That's pretty harsh.  The OP cannot be blamed for believing the propaganda bombardment about the alleged benefits of smart meters.

I haven't seen any advertising that says you don't need to read your bills once you have a smart meter

"smart meters will bring an end to estimated billing - you will only be billed for the energy you actually use, helping you budget better"  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/smart-meters-how-they-work#benefits-of-smart-meters

"A smart meter helps you take control of your energy use, by showing you exactly what you are spending in pounds and pence; no more estimated bills or supplying meter readings."  https://www.smartenergygb.org/en

These promises have been broken.  The OP has every right to be aggrieved because estimated bills have resulted in bill shock.

So where does it say that you don't have to read you bills? All that says is that smart meters will end estimated billing and I can't even see where it says they are "promises" ?. 

But as everyone knows things can go wrong, which is why everyone should be reading all their bills to make sure they are correct and not looking at them for 18 months is ridiculous!. People seem to think it's fine to take no responsibility for any of their finances and then seem surprised that it goes wrong.  
A good example is that my bank accounts and credit cards are fully automated systems but things go wrong so that's why I check the statements. 

Taken from the British gas website : 

What’s the benefit of smart meters for customers?

Once you have a smart meter, you’ll find it easier to control the amount of energy you use by setting energy budgets – which will help you lower your bills. And you don’t have to send us meter readings to get accurate bills – it happens automatically.

British gas also helpfully send you a statement which has no small print on it and I did take responsibility for my finances I had a equipment installed to ensure I only payed for my usage!

Again that doesn't say you don't have to read your bills!. I just find it ridiculous how people think it's fine to not read any bills and think they are completely blameless when something goes wrong. It's even more important when your on a tight budget and don't have much money to make sure all your bills are correct by actually reading them. 

No system is perfect and things go wrong so that's why you need to keep on top of these things and it only takes a few minutes a month to ready your energy bills. 

Also you need to start checking any other bills you get including bank and credit card statements because they are also produced automatically, but that doesn't mean they are free from errors!.

Comingoutofthedark

Takmon said:

Comingoutofthedark said:

Neil_Jones said:

Comingoutofthedark said:

Thanks for your reply the bill went down in January 2020 and the. June this year. Up until then it was in line with previous years the only difference was not having the hassle of submitting meter readings!  Yes I should have kept a closer eye but surely that then defeats the object of the smart meter which is marketed as ‘sends accurate readings so eliminating estimated bills’ and prevents inaccurate readings. However British Gas were aware since March 2019 they were not receiving meter readings from a smart meter that’s 18months surely in that time they had some sort of responsibility to raise this , ask for a reading , send a meter reader out? Or even arrange for an engineer to check the meter? 

I'm going to argue that the general fallback is that if the supplier does not get a reading from some auxiliary accessory to the meter (whether the meter itself provides a reading, you, a meter reader or the cat supplies one), then the next bill will have to be estimated.  Simple as.  No different to dumb meters.

Smart meter lack of readings aren't uncommon, usually because they can't communicate with where they send the data to.  This may be temporary, it may be permanent.  A temporary failure is probably nothing to worry about and will happen on occasion, but BG aren't going to drop everything and run round your house for lack of one meter reading.  As I say, there is nothing to stop you submitting your own readings.

Tell British Gas (by phone, not chat, since chat is just the poor man's first step and they're just there to filter out questions that are already answered on the website) that you've had a bill, all the readings are estimates, can somebody come and look at my smart meter.

Appreciate your reply again, just to clarify it wasn’t one reading missed they say they haven’t received one since March 2019 so until August 2020 that’s 18months of no readings for an active smart meter account which should have raised a flag somewhere in the system. Especially as looking all the way back to the bill that covers the swap they may never have had a reading from the meter at all? 

Unfortunately as the bill came in yesterday and out of the two phone numbers I found one was a recorded message saying the office is closed and the other told me to hang up and try again I am stuck using the poor mans first step to try and someone looking into how this happened preferably before they try and take a direct debit I can I’ll afford. As I said before I was looking for advice/experiences with this kind of scenario as the whole point of me fitting the smart was so I didn’t have estimated bills again and is indeed how they are marketed you live and learn!! Next step access the damm thing to teach myself how to access the readings in anticipation of moving to another provider next year and I thought the dial meter I had previously was bad to read 🙄

If your on such a tight budget you have no emergency funds for things like this they i don't see why you don't take better notice of your bills. If i was as poor as you i would be reading every bill to make sure it was correct and not just assuming all was well.

I didn't say I was poor I said a direct debit I could ill afford - you've made an assumption based on your own obvious superiority.  

Takmon

Comingoutofthedark said:

Takmon said:

Comingoutofthedark said:

Neil_Jones said:

Comingoutofthedark said:

Thanks for your reply the bill went down in January 2020 and the. June this year. Up until then it was in line with previous years the only difference was not having the hassle of submitting meter readings!  Yes I should have kept a closer eye but surely that then defeats the object of the smart meter which is marketed as ‘sends accurate readings so eliminating estimated bills’ and prevents inaccurate readings. However British Gas were aware since March 2019 they were not receiving meter readings from a smart meter that’s 18months surely in that time they had some sort of responsibility to raise this , ask for a reading , send a meter reader out? Or even arrange for an engineer to check the meter? 

I'm going to argue that the general fallback is that if the supplier does not get a reading from some auxiliary accessory to the meter (whether the meter itself provides a reading, you, a meter reader or the cat supplies one), then the next bill will have to be estimated.  Simple as.  No different to dumb meters.

Smart meter lack of readings aren't uncommon, usually because they can't communicate with where they send the data to.  This may be temporary, it may be permanent.  A temporary failure is probably nothing to worry about and will happen on occasion, but BG aren't going to drop everything and run round your house for lack of one meter reading.  As I say, there is nothing to stop you submitting your own readings.

Tell British Gas (by phone, not chat, since chat is just the poor man's first step and they're just there to filter out questions that are already answered on the website) that you've had a bill, all the readings are estimates, can somebody come and look at my smart meter.

Appreciate your reply again, just to clarify it wasn’t one reading missed they say they haven’t received one since March 2019 so until August 2020 that’s 18months of no readings for an active smart meter account which should have raised a flag somewhere in the system. Especially as looking all the way back to the bill that covers the swap they may never have had a reading from the meter at all? 

Unfortunately as the bill came in yesterday and out of the two phone numbers I found one was a recorded message saying the office is closed and the other told me to hang up and try again I am stuck using the poor mans first step to try and someone looking into how this happened preferably before they try and take a direct debit I can I’ll afford. As I said before I was looking for advice/experiences with this kind of scenario as the whole point of me fitting the smart was so I didn’t have estimated bills again and is indeed how they are marketed you live and learn!! Next step access the damm thing to teach myself how to access the readings in anticipation of moving to another provider next year and I thought the dial meter I had previously was bad to read 🙄

If your on such a tight budget you have no emergency funds for things like this they i don't see why you don't take better notice of your bills. If i was as poor as you i would be reading every bill to make sure it was correct and not just assuming all was well.

I didn't say I was poor I said a direct debit I could ill afford - you've made an assumption based on your own obvious superiority.  

Being unable to afford basic household bills is a good example of being poor. 

Gerry1

British Gas

Takmon said:

Taken from the British gas website : 

What’s the benefit of smart meters for customers?

Once you have a smart meter, you’ll find it easier to control the amount of energy you use by setting energy budgets – which will help you lower your bills. And you don’t have to send us meter readings to get accurate bills – it happens automatically.

Again that doesn't say you don't have to read your bills!

British Gas promise that "you don’t have to send us meter readings to get accurate bills – it happens automatically".

Therefore if this were true it would not unreasonable just to check the statements to make sure that the direct debits collected all match up with the amounts taken from your bank account.

However, if BG fail to deliver on their promise then they've caused the problem.

Takmon

Gerry1 said:

British Gas

Takmon said:

Taken from the British gas website : 

What’s the benefit of smart meters for customers?

Once you have a smart meter, you’ll find it easier to control the amount of energy you use by setting energy budgets – which will help you lower your bills. And you don’t have to send us meter readings to get accurate bills – it happens automatically.

Again that doesn't say you don't have to read your bills!

British Gas promise that "you don’t have to send us meter readings to get accurate bills – it happens automatically".

Therefore if this were true it would not unreasonable just to check the statements to make sure that the direct debits collected all match up with the amounts taken from your bank account.

However, if BG fail to deliver on their promise then they've caused the problem.

You have added the word "promise" and they don't use that word on their website. They are correct with the statement that when the system is working correctly the bills will be accurate and produced automatically. BUT no system is perfect so it's silly not to check and spot a problem as soon as it happens and not 18 months later. 
I agree that the problem is caused by British Gas systems but that doesn't mean the OP should get away with not paying for energy they have used just because they haven't budgeted properly and don't have the money.

Using the bank statement example; these are also produced automatically and should also be 100% accurate but it would be silly not to check them often to make sure everything is correct and report any problems and get them resolved quicker.

[Deleted User]

It's in the small print to deny liability, but I feel your pain though, you should be able to rely on a smart meter and bills to be accurate and not have to check.

Gerry1

Takmon said:

You have added the word "promise" and they don't use that word on their website.

So what?  They failed to do what they said they'd do.  Irrelevant semantics just to muddy the water. 

Takmon said:

that doesn't mean the OP should get away with not paying for energy they have used just because they haven't budgeted properly and don't have the money.

I never said that the OP should get away with not paying for energy they have used.

Takmon

Gerry1 said:

Takmon said:

You have added the word "promise" and they don't use that word on their website.

So what?  They failed to do what they said they'd do.  Irrelevant semantics just to muddy the water. 

Takmon said:

that doesn't mean the OP should get away with not paying for energy they have used just because they haven't budgeted properly and don't have the money.

I never said that the OP should get away with not paying for energy they have used.

Companies only use the word "promise" when it's something they know will happen as it's a strong word to add, they know that systems aren't perfect so would never use the word "promise" in this case. 

But the fact remains if the OP had checked their bills and kept on top of their finances then wouldn't have ended up in the position there are now where they can't afford to pay for the energy they have used. 
Everyone should check and understand all bills and statements and never assume that any system will always work as stated all the time. There are so many people who end up with financial issues that could have been sorted quicker if they were on top of it.

airedalejoe_2

Moved into new build 29th May 2021, only energy supplier allowed, British Gas. Meter readings supplied.
No contact from BG till beginning of August. Chose Tariff during phone call. Projected yearly usage given by BG. Direct debit around £110pm.
Received email August 13th saying as my energy usage is lower than estimated my dd would be lowered to £93pm. Received an energy statement same day. Electricity bill was fine, Gas was not. The statement covering first 2 months showed no Gas usage, meter reading on moving in was 99, on 28th July was shown as estimated at 99. I had not received anything asking me to provide meter readings. I now know that electricity meter is smart and they get the readings remotely. Gas meter is smart but BG can't use the smart feature just yet.
I didn't know I had to provide readings. No request for readings. In it's reading estimate BG estimated I hadn't used any gas in 2 months.
The lower DD was simply because BG had not charged me for any Gas usage.
I've spent 2 or 3 hours on the phone to a couple of different people but BG refuse to send me a monthly reminder asking for meter readings saying there's no need as I pay a fixed amount every month and it will be reviewed every 6 months.
Great, but every time they dont read my Gas meter and they seem incapable of estimating usage, they are going to lower my DD which will result in me owing a large sum down the line.
Is this normal? For as long as I can remember, I've been contacted every month by my energy supplier and asked to provide meter readings. Failing me providing readings they estimate it, usually not being far from actual.
BG won't contact me for readings, nor do they seem capable of an estimate.
If I don't remember a monthly meter reading and BG won't estimate, my DD will drop and I'll fall behind.
Hopefully this makes sense, any opinions?

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

airedalejoe_2 said:

Moved into new build 29th May 2021, only energy supplier allowed, British Gas.

Unless you are paying a landlord for energy you can choose any supplier(s) you like, having first registered with BG.  Separate suppliers will probably be cheaper.

airedalejoe_2 said:
If I don't remember a monthly meter reading and BG won't estimate, my DD will drop and I'll fall behind.
Hopefully this makes sense, any opinions?

Why not just set a monthly reminder on your PC, laptop or phone?  You can also make top up payments whenever you like.