Desperate for some advise

ondre

Hi all...
I've sent the message below to the money saving expert private message section but have been sent a reply with links for the samaritans!?! 
Whilst I appreciate the prompt reply this isn't helpful at the moment and really don't know what to do so im just hoping there is someone here that can offer me any advise, I would really appreciate it? 

Dear sir or madam 

I'm sorry to private message but I am really desperate for advise regarding my energy supplier. 

Last November I had smart meters fitted. I was a simplicity energy customer and had been for many year's with no problems whatsoever. When my smart meters were fitted the engineer had problems fitting the electric meter and told me after being here for many hours that there was a problem and simplicity will have to deal with it and he had done all he could do. He was unable to take a reading from my electric meter but the gas meter installation went smoothly. Within days my electricity usage sky rocketed. I spent weeks trying to contact simplicity who at this time were not responding to emails or phone calls. Obviously it transpired they were in trouble and consequently ceased trading with nothing resolved and i was left with extortionately high bills. I was transferred over to British Gas Evolve who to cut a long story short have made my life a misery this year leaving me with awful mental health issue's. They insured me when I joined them that they would send someone out to do a loading test on my electric smart meter. They asked me to cancel my direct debit until resolved which I did. I took daily meter reads for weeks on end and was advised there was a spike issue with my readings which indicated my meter was faulty. I was continually fobbed off following this in the wait for a load test to be carried out only to be told after many months that this was not possible with them as they do not provide this service. I made a complaint which was continually ignored and eventually I raised the issue with the energy ombudsman. The energy ombudsman have been really helpful but sadly the decision which was instructed by them for British Gas Evolve to test my meter has been appealed against stating they do not provide this service and I would need to take my custom elsewhere for another company to load test my meter instead who will indeed now charge me for this service which the ombudsman had advised that British Gas Evolve should by no means charge me as they felt there was a problem with my meter too. 

I really don't know what to do with all the current energy price increases where will this leave me? Paying for a load test and potentially higher bills? How can British Gas Evolve get away with this with just providing me a £125 good will gesture but leave me to take a potentially faulty smart meter to another company? I just don't know what to do and have spent many nights laying awake worrying about this and at times have felt I can't cope with it all anymore. Please help me if you can.

I can provide you with all evidence if needed. 

Thankyou in advance. 

Kind Regards 

t1redmonkey

I don't really know much about this sort of thing, but there is a page on the gov.uk website around this, which you can read here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/electricity-meter-accuracy-disputes

Towards the bottom, it gives a telephone number for the OPSS (Office for Product Safety and Standards) if you have concerns over the accuracy of your gas/electric meters.  Might be worth giving them a call if you haven't already?

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

It's very quick and easy to do a load test yourself.

Do a meter sanity check first. Make sure the meter serial number on the bill matches the one on the meter. Close down and unplug all computers and sensitive equipment and then switch off all the circuits at the consumer unit, ending with the main switch. Look for a few minutes at the red LED on the meter on the wall marked '1000 Imp/kWh' or similar and make sure it never flashes once. Then switch on all the high power appliances (kettle, tumble dryer, hotplate, oven etc) and make sure the LED is flashing rapidly.

Finally, switch off everything except one high power item of known rating (e.g. a full kettle or fan heater set to maximum) and count the number of flashes (impulses) per minute. If the light says '1000 Imp/kWh' then a 3kW kettle or heater should make it flash about 50 times per minute. Not an exact test because the device's rating may be approximate and the power it draws will depend on the local voltage, but near enough.

If you have Economy 7, make sure that the register which increases during the day is being charged at the day rate on the bill.  Check that the meter readings show A (Actual) or S (Smart), never E (Estimated).

[Deleted User]

I am sorry but your post does not make a lot of sense. When a new smart meter is fitted then the reading is 00000 or less. The only readings that are taken are readings from the meters that are removed. These are then passed back to the supplier to raise a bill (a Final Bill if you like for the removed meters). Billing going forward will be based on start meter readings of 00000.

Smart meters are just meters that record usage. When you say ‘sky rocketed’ in what way? Have you actually checked that the supplier has been billing you for the correct meter serial numbers? It is possible that their systems were not properly updated when the meters were changed and they have been billing you using the last meter reading from the old meter as a start reading. For example, the meter reading on your old meter was 89223 and the reading from your smart meter is 01004. Rather than billing you for 01004 - 00000 = 1004 you have been billed 01004 - 89223. 

My advice, FWiW, take everything you have (bills etc) to a Citizens Advice Energy Specialist for review. CA has access to an extra help unit that has the numbers of the CEO’s outer office. CA could start by reminding BG Evolve that there is a Supply Licence Condition that requires all suppliers to take responsibility for the metering assets of their customers. All suppliers must be able to test meters so I am not sure why BG Evolve is suggesting otherwise. In normal situations, the supplier has a right to charge for tests if the meter is found to be accurate; however, if you have an EO Decision in your favour, then any charge should be waived. You could also raise the matter with The EO’s remedy compliance team if you haven’t done so already. The Decision is binding on the supplier. Best of luck.

wittynamegoeshere

Do you have an in-home display (IHD) for your smart meter?

This should be able to display the current consumption rate, either in kW or p/hour.  You may need to experiment with a few button presses to find this mode.  Then try switching things on and off and see what happens.

You shouldn't need to rely on them testing it, it's pretty simple to do a rough and ready test yourself, this would be a far better use of your time than just worrying about it!

Good luck with it, please let us know what you find out.

Gerry1

wittynamegoeshere said:

Do you have an in-home display (IHD) for your smart meter?

This should be able to display the current consumption rate, either in kW or p/hour.  You may need to experiment with a few button presses to find this mode.  Then try switching things on and off and see what happens.

If the smart meter is not recording the electricity consumption correctly, the IHD can't be used to detect the problem.  The IHD is not independent: it relies on info provided by the smart meter, so it would be a case of GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.

MWT

Gerry1 said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

Do you have an in-home display (IHD) for your smart meter?

This should be able to display the current consumption rate, either in kW or p/hour.  You may need to experiment with a few button presses to find this mode.  Then try switching things on and off and see what happens.

If the smart meter is not recording the electricity consumption correctly, the IHD can't be used to detect the problem.  The IHD is not independent: it relies on info provided by the smart meter, so it would be a case of GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.

That is true, but if it is available it is a lot easier to quickly verify if it is accurately reporting the zero usage and specific load parts of your test, especially if the person trying to do the test has problems accessing the meter and/or counting the flashes...

It is just another tool to make use of even if you do not generally like smart meters...