Shell Energy Smart Meter

adam250

Looking for some advice on what to do with a disagreement i got into with Shell regarding smart meters. In February i phoned them up saying i wasn't sure the readings on my IHD were accurate as they differed from the meters in the box. They said they would send an engineer out to have a look. The engineer came and replaced the meters and IHD. However, the IHD was not working but he said it can take up to 48 hours 

I called them back up after 2 days as this was still not working! I was told i need to wait 14 days before they can investigate which i wasn't happy about but accepted it. 14 days pass and still nothing on the IHD so i got in contact again where they now say its a known problem within the industry and there is nothing they can do until after 28 days now! i express my disappointment and frustration about this and the fact prices are due to rise soon as i have no way of now seeing where i can save money. i asked for £50 compensation which they grant to my amazement!

I still wanted to let them know how much anxiety this has caused me. They said they had exhausted all options of troubleshooting which i was quite surprised about as they never even attempted another meter/IHD!!! They told me i can use to app to see how much I'm spending which is useless for 2 reasons. Firstly the app is a piece of S**t that doesn't display data half the time and two it doesn't tell you on the fly what is having a high energy impact rendering a smart meter IMHO completely useless.

Also i want to know why they would install equipment that they know is faulty and has this issue where the meter and IHD don't communicate?

To make matters even worse since the 1st April the app is saying "Electricity and gas usage failed to load" I'm not conspiracy theorist but all seems far to convenient to me!!!

There latest response was to send a letter of deadlock to take to the onbudman for any further action. A letter which i had to chase 3 time i hasten to add!!!

Any advice appreciated

QrizB

adam250 said:

Any advice appreciated

I'm sure it's frustrating but the only people who can do anything about this are Shell.

I'm quite surprised they agreed to replace your original smart meter if the only problem was with the IHD.

adam250

Yeah but that’s just the problem they are saying there is nothing they can do! 

I never asked for them to change it in the first place. They did that out of there own choice. All I said was I don’t believe the the IHD is accurate.

Shell are the ones who have caused this problem by replacing my equipment

[Deleted User]

adam250 said:

Yeah but that’s just the problem they are saying there is nothing they can do! 

I never asked for them to change it in the first place. They did that out of there own choice. All I said was I don’t believe the the IHD is accurate.

Shell are the ones who have caused this problem by replacing my equipment

The IHD connects to the Home Area Network that is generated by the communications hub that sits on top of your electricity meter. What do you mean by accurate? The IHD will show accurate usage for electricity and pretty close to accurate usage for gas; however, as it gets its tariff data from the electricity and gas meters, any costs will only be accurate if the correct tariff information has been sent to your meters.

How far away is your IHD from your meter box. My IHD sits about 1.5Ms away from my meter box and I get one bar of Zigbee wifi signal: at times, my IHD is waiting for data. For this reason, I use the free App BRIGHT which gives me all the information that I need.

adam250

I don’t think you understand. I had an IHD that was working but which was from my previous supplier before I switched to Shell. After a year of being with Shell I said I don’t think the IHD is accurate because the readings on the IHD differed from what was displayed on the actual meters. For both gas and electric.

They sent an engineer round to investigate and he changed the meters completely and gave me a new IHD. Ever since then the IHD doesn’t display anything! It’s in the exactly the same place as the old ones

Mstty

It would.be worth opening a complaint with Shell energy but bear in mind they won't have been this busy before having had to take on failed.energu company customers and all the calls they are receiving about the capped rate price changes.

If they don't have a complaints procedure on their website maybe reach out to them over twitter or messenger as sometimes you get through quicker that way👍

dms1944

I had a Shell Energy smart meter installed almost a year ago.  The IHD has never worked.  I have spoken to Shell Energy a number of times and said I will go to the Regulator.  Their response was (a) the Regulator knows their IHD units don't work at all (b) the problem is the software in the IHD supplied by Chameleon Technology - this is not fit for purpose and they are waiting for the software to be amended.  12 months on the IHD is still not working.

My guess is they tried to persuade me not to report the problem to the Regulator so the problem doesn't get highlighted as 'acute' and is simply a rare occurrence.  

dms1944

I've just complained to Shell Energy  (yet again) and received this email:

We are currently receiving a higher volume of emails at this time so it will take longer than usual to respond, we are sorry about this. 

As it's now a full year since this started a few more months seem inevitable.   

wild666

adam250 said:

Looking for some advice on what to do with a disagreement i got into with Shell regarding smart meters. In February i phoned them up saying i wasn't sure the readings on my IHD were accurate as they differed from the meters in the box. They said they would send an engineer out to have a look. The engineer came and replaced the meters and IHD. However, the IHD was not working but he said it can take up to 48 hours 

I called them back up after 2 days as this was still not working! I was told i need to wait 14 days before they can investigate which i wasn't happy about but accepted it. 14 days pass and still nothing on the IHD so i got in contact again where they now say its a known problem within the industry and there is nothing they can do until after 28 days now! i express my disappointment and frustration about this and the fact prices are due to rise soon as i have no way of now seeing where i can save money. i asked for £50 compensation which they grant to my amazement!

I still wanted to let them know how much anxiety this has caused me. They said they had exhausted all options of troubleshooting which i was quite surprised about as they never even attempted another meter/IHD!!! They told me i can use to app to see how much I'm spending which is useless for 2 reasons. Firstly the app is a piece of S**t that doesn't display data half the time and two it doesn't tell you on the fly what is having a high energy impact rendering a smart meter IMHO completely useless.

Also i want to know why they would install equipment that they know is faulty and has this issue where the meter and IHD don't communicate?

To make matters even worse since the 1st April the app is saying "Electricity and gas usage failed to load" I'm not conspiracy theorist but all seems far to convenient to me!!!

There latest response was to send a letter of deadlock to take to the onbudman for any further action. A letter which i had to chase 3 time i hasten to add!!!

Any advice appreciated

If you want to know your daily usage then take daily readings from the meter, if you want to know the total price of the energy used then just take the last days total from the present reading and it will give you the kWh's used, not the exact usage that the smart meters give, but over a period of time it will work out to within less than one kWh. Add the SC plus the price of the number of kWh's together i.e. 48.5p and 4 * 28.5p, as an example,  this would give the price, in my example of £1.62.5p, gas will be multiply by 11.3 to give the kWh's then multiply by the price per kWh and add the SC.

QrizB

adam250 said:

I don’t think you understand.

I think we probably do.

I had an IHD that was working but which was from my previous supplier before I switched to Shell. After a year of being with Shell I said I don’t think the IHD is accurate because the readings on the IHD differed from what was displayed on the actual meters. For both gas and electric.

Exactly what differed? The price, the kWh, the index readings, all of the above?

dms1944

wild666 said:

adam250 said:

Looking for some advice on what to do with a disagreement i got into with Shell regarding smart meters. In February i phoned them up saying i wasn't sure the readings on my IHD were accurate as they differed from the meters in the box. They said they would send an engineer out to have a look. The engineer came and replaced the meters and IHD. However, the IHD was not working but he said it can take up to 48 hours 

I called them back up after 2 days as this was still not working! I was told i need to wait 14 days before they can investigate which i wasn't happy about but accepted it. 14 days pass and still nothing on the IHD so i got in contact again where they now say its a known problem within the industry and there is nothing they can do until after 28 days now! i express my disappointment and frustration about this and the fact prices are due to rise soon as i have no way of now seeing where i can save money. i asked for £50 compensation which they grant to my amazement!

I still wanted to let them know how much anxiety this has caused me. They said they had exhausted all options of troubleshooting which i was quite surprised about as they never even attempted another meter/IHD!!! They told me i can use to app to see how much I'm spending which is useless for 2 reasons. Firstly the app is a piece of S**t that doesn't display data half the time and two it doesn't tell you on the fly what is having a high energy impact rendering a smart meter IMHO completely useless.

Also i want to know why they would install equipment that they know is faulty and has this issue where the meter and IHD don't communicate?

To make matters even worse since the 1st April the app is saying "Electricity and gas usage failed to load" I'm not conspiracy theorist but all seems far to convenient to me!!!

There latest response was to send a letter of deadlock to take to the onbudman for any further action. A letter which i had to chase 3 time i hasten to add!!!

Any advice appreciated

If you want to know your daily usage then take daily readings from the meter, if you want to know the total price of the energy used then just take the last days total from the present reading and it will give you the kWh's used, not the exact usage that the smart meters give, but over a period of time it will work out to within less than one kWh. Add the SC plus the price of the number of kWh's together i.e. 48.5p and 4 * 28.5p, as an example,  this would give the price, in my example of £1.62.5p, gas will be multiply by 11.3 to give the kWh's then multiply by the price per kWh and add the SC.

The whole point of having a smart meter and IHD is to make it possible for ANYONE to immediately see their energy usage.  For example I'm almost 80 and classified as 'in need of support'.  I thought a smart meter was exactly what I wanted and when I ordered the system the Shell Energy employee promised me it was exactly what I needed - even though they knew that the system wouldn't work.  That's about as nasty as any customer service can react to their customer.  They continue to propagate this mis-information even today.  

In addition my smart meter main unit is so installed it is impossible to read the tiny LCD numerals to check where my energy consumption is.  I feel let down and to be honest don't have the inclination to continue battling a dis-interested  supplier.