Avro Smart Meter Rollout

RufB

rjmachin said:

jimroy said:

This is what happened to my mother at the beginning of January. We're still waiting for an appointment with Lowri Beck to come and replace the still 'Not Commissioned' IHD still plugged in next to the electric meter. (As apparently it has to be within one metre of it).
I have also read reports that if you change supplier they won't replace it. I saw someone on Twitter who had moved to Avro from BG and theirs doesn't work any more and Avro are refusing to replace it.

In the meantime, we're raising the issue with the ombudsman now because it's been over eight weeks since we first raised this as a complaint. And oh how they didn't want to acknowledge our complaint about it. That was very difficult in itself.

I had issues at first with the gas smart meter not working with Avro, but I emailed them after a week (to give it time) and they remotely resolved the issue.

I received this email back from them:

Good Morning,

Thank you for your email regarding your Smart meter and the issues you have seen on your in-home display. Our technical team are now looking into this. They will be sending messages to your device remotely to try and fix the issues you have been experiencing. This may take up to 5 days to update at your end. If by the 5th day you are still experiencing issues, please can I ask for a photo of any screens you can see to help support our technical team further in ensuring we help with your issue.

Thank you again for your time and support and we will continue to assist you with this.

Kind Regards

I have since switched to Octopus and the meters are still working okay, but I found the response from Avro to be very satisfactory.

That is exactly the same as the 1st response I received from Avro. However all that happened was that I lost the working electricity usage on IHD. At the moment I have checked costs against other suppliers and Avro are still cheapest (at least £10pm up to £25pm cheaper than Octopus). If the IHD was working and I switched suppliers, I would expect it to continue working but that is not the scenario I was looking at

RufB

jimroy said:

RufB said:

In response to an email from Avro, I took up their offer to have smart meters fitted. That was on 9th February and done by Lowri Beck. I wish that I'd seen comments on Trustpilot about others' experiences before agreeing to this. Initially only the electricity usage appeared on  the IHD. I was told that gas would appear within an hour or 24 hours at most. That didn't happen. I contacted Avro via email and was told they would instigate remote work to tackle the problem. To cut a long story short (several more emails),  that didn't work and I was left with an IHD that displayed nothing but “Not Commissioned”
I then said that I would like a response as I felt that I was being ignored and would look to change suppliers if they did not respond.
I received a response saying Avro "are investigating this issue in collaboration with our regulator to ensure it is resolved as soon as possible for you, and will update you on any outcomes and developments as we get them". In the meantime I am supplying meter readings monthly which seems ridiculous
I am well aware of the issue that Avro had over smart meter installation (or rather lack of) with the regulator  last year. However I do not understand what the reference to the regulator in their reply is about in terms of an IHD not working.
Has anyone else had this response?
If I change suppliers, will the new supplier sort out the non-working IHD?
Thanks in advance

This is what happened to my mother at the beginning of January. We're still waiting for an appointment with Lowri Beck to come and replace the still 'Not Commissioned' IHD still plugged in next to the electric meter. (As apparently it has to be within one metre of it).
I have also read reports that if you change supplier they won't replace it. I saw someone on Twitter who had moved to Avro from BG and theirs doesn't work any more and Avro are refusing to replace it.

In the meantime, we're raising the issue with the ombudsman now because it's been over eight weeks since we first raised this as a complaint. And oh how they didn't want to acknowledge our complaint about it. That was very difficult in itself.

How did you finally manage to get the acknowledgement? I'm having the same issue. Thanks

Martlea

Oh dear, I recently observed an EDF smart meter being installed in our shared meter location. It clearly works fine. So as it is most inconvenient for me to traipse upstairs to the meters and submit monthly readings I contacted AVRO to enquire about fitting a Smart Meter. First AVRO directed me to their installers Lowri Beck. After a promising start they asked for the meters location and I told them.. Lowri Beck then informed me AVRO smart meters will not work here.
So I emailed AVRO and a week later got a promising reply stating so long as Gas & Electric Meters are within 10 mtrs of each other (they are!) installation could go ah ead and an engineer would be in touch.
Shortly after getting this email I receive another AVRO email stating Lowri Beck have said because meters are not on same level installation here is not possible aft all.
So EDF Smart Meter works fine but AVRO Smart meter will not. I'm not convinced by this and have requested an on-site inspection to confirm location is indeed suitable. I believe it should be but after reading of some other customers experience with AVRO may change my mind anyway.

jimroy

How did you finally manage to get the acknowledgement? I'm having the same issue. Thanks

Hello @RufB  I'm sorry for the delay in responding. The answer is 'with great difficulty.' They still didn't give us a complaint reference either. It was merely 'passed onto their complaints dept.' at my insistence via DM on Twitter I may add. But their email address for ref is complaints@avroenergy.co.uk. 
And with 35 years customer service experience I know and the Ombudsmen agreed that a complaint is 'any expression of dissatisfaction whether justified or not' when first raised regardless of whether they acknowledge it formally or not. That's the beauty of an email and social media DM trail after all. Evidence.

We haven't heard back from Avro in over two months now after they promised twice that we'd be contacted by Lowri Beck within 3 to 5 days to make an appointment to replace the 'faulty' IHD. They still haven't. They last said that 'appointments are limited.'

RufB

Hello @jimroy Thanks for your reply. It doesn't sound promising. I just wish I'd held off having them installed now. 
@Martlea I wish you luck
I find all of this even more frustrating given the latest round of tv advertising encouraging people to get smart meters installed. However I'll keep on plugging away