British Gas Electricity Smart Meter not working

10gall

Sorry that you’ve had this trouble with British Gas. We moved into a property with this supplier in November last year. They really do seem to be a terrible company to deal with.  When you do eventually get a human on the phone, the call centre seems to be in South Africa....there seems to be a delay in the line & you and the call centre appear to talk over each other! We had so many promises given to us that we’re broken that eventually we moved to octopus (via uswitch) The change over was virtually unnoticeable and their customer service has been excellent! Only trouble was that we had to read the meters on change over day- not the easiest task when meters are on the floor of a tiny cupboard under the stairs! Maybe get someone to help with that. Good luck. P.s. we were let down by BG not turning up twice-complained and were compensated £30 for each occasion!)

Swipe

How convenient that they badger you like crazy to get a smart meter fitted but then can't be bothered once it goes wrong. Just about sums the whole smart meter fiasco up.

critchley

UPDATE
I finally got through to speak to someone a few weeks ago and was told that somebody would come out to repair the meter on the 9th June.  Then a couple of weeks before that I was contacted and told that no, they weren't going to send anyone on the 9th June because they now have the capability of fixing this remotely due to some new software that they now have !!  No idea when this was due to happen and the 9th came and went and still nothing so I went on British Gas's Facebook page and had a rant about it on there and was messaged by "Paul" who said the following:
I'm sorry for the conflicting messages you've had. Our smart metering team have identified an issue that is affecting a number of customers that they are working on a fix for, this fix will be applied remotely (no timescale at the moment). Once this is done it will fix the issue with the coms hub for the vast majority of customers, any that we aren't able to rectify remotely we would then look to book an appointment. If you can get the readings off the meters themselves for me I can update the account for you.
Aaaargh!!  What part of "it isn't working" do they not understand!!!  They seem to think it's just the Inhouse Display Unit that isn't working but if I know the difference between the IHD and the Coms Hub why don't they!  I messaged back and attached photograph of the defunct meter.  I got this reply:
Ah I see, thank you for the photo Mandy, this is a different issue altogether. Fixing the communication hub, whether remotely or in person, isn't going to bring the reading back on that meter so we can arrange to have the meters exchanged for you. The engineer will do both, because the new smart electricity meter won't be compatible with the old smart gas meter, so you get the whole package upgraded  < love the smiley as if they're doing me a big favour!! 
So.. after further messaging and a phone call I now have an appointment for them to come and change the meters on Wednesday the 16th June.  If they run true to form they will either cancel it beforehand or just won't show up.  
Just thought I would keep this up to date for the benefit of anyone else having the same issues.  If you have a rant at them on their Facebook page they usually seem to ask you to PM them with your address and D.OB. so they can find the account and, if they do actually turn up (miracles might happen) it may even get sorted.  I didn't tell them that once I get a non-estimated bill I will be hightailing it to another supplier.  They are just a bad joke.  

QrizB

Thank you for coming back here to update us. I do hope their engineer turns up on the 16th!

critchley

Well, surprise, surprise he turned up exactly as arranged and installed new gas and electricity meters.  Fine.  Then this morning I got an email saying they're sorry they couldn't install our smart meters and to phone to make another appointment.  Muppets the lot of them !!  They've let so many people down according to their F/B page that I guess they just send those off automatically.  

critchley

So.. I have just checked our account following the replacement of the gas and electric meters and I see this on the electricity one:

Date	Reading	Consumption
16/06/2021	00000	0 kWh
15/06/2021	00000	72702 kWh
06/01/2021	27298 (estimated)	1269 kWh
07/10/2020	26029 (estimated)	1176 kWh
07/07/2020	24853 (estimated)	1236 kWh
06/04/2020	23617 (estimated)	1660 kWh
01/12/2019	21957	753 kWh
30/09/2019	21204	377 kWh
01/09/2019	20827	1090 kWh
30/05/2019	19737	871 kWh
18/03/2019	18866	18866 kWh

Can anyone possibly tell me where the figure of 72,702 comes from?  I'm pretty scared at the moment.  That's as far back as I can go.  As the meter wasn't working they have pulled this from somewhere but isn't that a horrendous jump?  I've had an email confirming the Gas amount on installation but that meter was working and only what I'd worked out for myself.  I'm totally at a loss re the electricity amount though   

Gerry1

The computer doesn't know the meter has been replaced and thinks it's gone round the clock.  It thinks the reading has jumped from 27298 to (1)00000.

critchley

@Gerry1 Oh thank you very much xx  So I'll just sit back and see what figure they come up with and hope it's a fair assessment based on previous usage.  👍

Gerry1

There should be a yellow card fixed close to the meter showing the closing read from the old meter and the (zero) opening read on the new meter.

critchley

Unfortunately there wasn't a closing read from the old meter because it had died which was why it was being replaced.  x