Bulb Smart meter only showing gas. They claim "Waiting for update from Manufacturer"

Mega_Maniac

So... this seems like I've been fed a line of BS by Bulb, so I just want to confirm before taking it further.
This was the email I received after I complained about my new smart meter not working and only showing gas. They 'reset' it multiple times (as did I) fro their end to no avail. Then when I complained and said that I expect a response under their obligation to resolve complaints they responded with this:

"I have had a look at the case raised with Lou and our smart team and I can see that unfortunately  we are unable to commission your electricity meters at this moment. In order to commission your meters we will require a software form the Smart Manufacturers. This is not yet available for us so we do have to wait for it to be ready, and have been given no time frame as to when this will be ready for us."

[Deleted User]

Are you talking about the In House Display or the actual smart meter? If it is the actual smart meter which model is it and are you still able to obtain manual readings?

Mega_Maniac

I'm not sure I know the difference.
The engineer fitted one of the meter seen here in the first image: https://www.besmetering.co.uk/take-control-of-your-energy-usage-with-a-smart-meter/
And I also have one of the in home displays that connect to this device wirelessly - this device only shows gas.

Gerry1

The meter is on the wall.  The IHD toy goes to the back of the drawer and is best forgotten.

Mega_Maniac

They have said they are not receiving electric reading remotely as well, so the problem is not limited to just the IHD but the entire system. 

matelodave

That an interesting one - the gas meter cannot communicate directly to the supplier, it has to use the communication hub in the leccy meter.

I'm not sure if the same is true for the IHD but I suspect it might not if you are getting gas readings on the IHD. I assume that the supplier isn't receiving both gas and leccy info.

TBH jumping up and down and getting upset about it wont really sort it out if they don't have a solution and it needs a software update which they cant get yet, so I suggest that you just chill out and send in readings yourself once a month.

[Deleted User]

If you have SMETS2 meters you can see whether your communications hub is transmitting data to the DCC (the central hub used by all suppliers to access your readings) by looking at the website N3rgy.com. 

Use the ‘I am a consumer’ link and all you need is your MPAN and the GUID number off your IHD to see your data. N3rgy.com uses a different Adaptor* than your supplier to access this data so there is no guarantee that your supplier is seeing what N3rgy.com is seeing. You will at least know that your comms hub is, or is not, sending data.

*Adaptor - the sophisticated piece of software that all DCC Users require to del with the DCC.

Mega_Maniac

matelodave said:

TBH jumping up and down and getting upset about it wont really sort it out if they don't have a solution and it needs a software update which they cant get yet, so I suggest that you just chill out and send in readings yourself once a month.

Not getting upset at all, the inconvenience is a mild one. It just felt like they were stringing me along - they are installing (one would assume) hundreds of these meters all over the country, and these smart meters have been around for a while now. Yet somehow they have been installing meters that don't work yet and require an update from the manufacturer to do so without having any idea of this or being able to inform their customers that the meter wouldn't work for an "unknown" amount of time. It is also particularly strange to me that they are waiting on an update from their manufacturer to fix what must be a significant amount of meters - but they somehow have accepted that "It's done when it's done" as a delivery date for this update.
It just doesn't really make sense - but I accept that I could be wrong and indulging in logical fallacy due to factors I am not considering - hence making a post here seeking information as opposed to anything else.

[Deleted User] said:

If you have SMETS2 meters you can see whether your communications hub is transmitting data to the DCC (the central hub used by all suppliers to access your readings) by looking at the website N3rgy.com. 

Use the ‘I am a consumer’ link and all you need is your MPAN and the GUID number off your IHD to see your data. N3rgy.com uses a different Adaptor* than your supplier to access this data so there is no guarantee that your supplier is seeing what N3rgy.com is seeing. You will at least know that your comms hub is, or is not, sending data.

*Adaptor - the sophisticated piece of software that all DCC Users require to del with the DCC.

Thanks, I registered with them, however the downloadable zip that shows usage has no actual figures in it and also only has a 'gas' folder, so it appears they also are not receiving the leccy readings.