Supplier won't change prepayment meter

nonotatall

Hi All,

Any advice on what to do about getting rid of our prepayment meter?  We moved into a new flat last September (2020) signed up with the previous owner's supplier (Npower) in order to get the supply sorted.  At some point near Christmas we asked for an engineer from Npower to change over the meter, they came bur refused to change the meter because of problems accessing the supply (now resolved).  At some point this year Npower was bought by EON and we were transferred to E.ON next.

I have not managed to get anywhere persuading E.ON next to change the meter.  There's a recurring issue where I get put in contact with E.ON rather than E.ON next and then get kind of told off by them.  Then there's an issue getting our electricity account number BECAUSE we are pre-payment and have no bills.  They keep saying they can't send an engineer out because of covid-19.  That's kind of annoying because we HAD an engineer present on the property in December from Npower.

It feels as if we are being punished for the previous owner's incompetence which led to the prepayment meter being installed (the flat was a repo).

Any advice welcome.

Tom

Neil_Jones

nonotatall said:

Hi All,

Any advice on what to do about getting rid of our prepayment meter?  We moved into a new flat last September (2020) signed up with the previous owner's supplier (Npower) in order to get the supply sorted.  At some point near Christmas we asked for an engineer from Npower to change over the meter, they came bur refused to change the meter because of problems accessing the supply (now resolved).  At some point this year Npower was bought by EON and we were transferred to E.ON next.

I have not managed to get anywhere persuading E.ON next to change the meter.  There's a recurring issue where I get put in contact with E.ON rather than E.ON next and then get kind of told off by them.  Then there's an issue getting our electricity account number BECAUSE we are pre-payment and have no bills.  They keep saying they can't send an engineer out because of covid-19.  That's kind of annoying because we HAD an engineer present on the property in December from Npower.

It feels as if we are being punished for the previous owner's incompetence which led to the prepayment meter being installed (the flat was a repo).

Any advice welcome.

Tom

Eon bought nPower in 2019...

You should had had an electricity account number when you moved in in 2019 when you phoned up to set a new account.  Find your previous paperwork and it should be on there.  You don't get "bills" as such as prepayment but you should get statements as to how much you've fed the meter.

Also prepayment meters are a deliberate choice by some people.  Some suppliers do credit checks if you want to swap a prepayment out for a credit/smart meter.  Assume this is only a prepayment meter and not a smart meter that can run in any mode?

Carrot007

Neil_Jones said:

Eon bought nPower in 2019...

Techincally EON bought the German assets of Innogy and got lumbered with npower (who were owned by Innogy) as the government refused to let it merge with "whoever" (I forget), ending up with the excact same situation anyway.

EON neither care about EON UK or npower as regard them as an inconvienice and would sell them on it they could. The continued despite the deal changiong to you have to have npower as well halfway though the purchase.

But close ;-)

@OP

Move suppliers as many are actually competent.

nonotatall

.  Assume this is only a prepayment meter and not a smart meter that can run in any mode?

Yes, it is one with a key where we have to walk to a shop to get it charged up.  Don't think it is very smart!

nonotatall

EON neither care about EON UK or npower as regard them as an inconvienice and would sell them on it they could. The continued despite the deal changiong to you have to have npower as well halfway though the purchase.

Move suppliers as many are actually competent.

It certainly feels like EON don't give two hoots about me as a customer.  They are incredibly hard to contact and then I always seem to end up with EON and not E.ON next (who I am actually with) and waste massive amounts of time waiting on calls where I've been transferred within the same company.

I have tried the transfer route.  We asked octopus energy and they said "… after three months we can try to see if we can change your meter."  I didn't like how qualified that was so I've been trying E.ON next again but am getting stonewalled.

nonotatall

Thanks to you both for replying so quickly.

Carrot007

nonotatall said:

It certainly feels like EON don't give two hoots about me as a customer.  They are incredibly hard to contact and then I always seem to end up with EON and not E.ON next (who I am actually with) and waste massive amounts of time waiting on calls where I've been transferred within the same company.

I have tried the transfer route.  We asked octopus energy and they said "… after three months we can try to see if we can change your meter."  I didn't like how qualified that was so I've been trying E.ON next again but am getting stonewalled.

Yeah they are running them as 2 sperarate companies. Whioch will be wionderful for the old staff when they get the boot. You can expect why the customer service is bad.

Beyond that eon next is a very bad system in my view. email me bills? No thanks. Email is bad. I left after I got transfered.

And unlike most people around here I would never recomend a small company. Sorry the (small) savings are not wroth it. Stick to the big 6 (er 5). Bgas seem easy to get a meter change out of FWIW (though as with any especially if you want a smart meter so they can meet their targets and not be fined passing it on to the customers, and yes smart meters are good and you can't avoid them forever and should not unless you have a good reason (there are some)).

nonotatall

Thank you Carrot0007.  I may well try Bgas if I can't get E.ON next to play ball.  I'm not particularly fussy about saving a few pounds, I only don't want to spend a LOT of extra pounds by having prepayment and thus being tied to a standard tariff.

E.ON next are terrible, service-wise.  They barely communicate and when they do it is lagged by hours/days.  I waited for half an hour on their phone line and then got somebody who had terrible signal and ended up cut off.  Awful.

I'm not particularly anti-smart meter except they seem a bit pointless.  Everybody I know who has them ignores the usage aspect (watching how much is being used).  I don't particularly like the harvesting of consumer data part about them but the main reason I thought they were bad news was that different companies use different smart meter technologies.  Doesn't that mean that if you want to change company you have to have a meter change as well?  This seems like a major impediment.  Has that changed since they were introduced?

[Deleted User]

Contact smart@octopus.energy and explain your situation again. This time ask them to consider whether they could fit a smart meter if you lodged a deposit against a future payment default. All suppliers now install smart meters that comply with SMETS2. The fact that two meters may not look the same is irrelevant: they all comply with the same technical specifications and connect to one central data hub. Suppliers cannot use your data for anything other than billing without your permission.

nonotatall

Many thanks Dolor.  I don't know what SMETS2 is but I guess I can google it.  I also guess it means that there's no need to change meters every time one changes supply.

I've written an email to smart@octopus and they already got back to me.  I emphasise that I wrote that email and they replied after the time I have written to EON next and still await a reply from them.  They really seem very very rubbish with comms.

[Deleted User]

nonotatall said:

Many thanks Dolor.  I don't know what SMETS2 is but I guess I can google it.  I also guess it means that there's no need to change meters every time one changes supply.

I've written an email to smart@octopus and they already got back to me.  I emphasise that I wrote that email and they replied after the time I have written to EON next and still await a reply from them.  They really seem very very rubbish with comms.

Correct - SMETS2 meters connect to a central hub run by The Data Communications Company. Suppliers connect to the hub using an approved/secure piece of software called an adapter. When you switch, the new supplier takes over responsibility for your meters. It pulls data from your meter once every 24 hours if you are on 30 minute usage recording.