smart meter remote display showing old tariff

Iwanttobefree

Continuing from my post of 6th May where I contacted the ombudsman and my MP etc, 

I received an email yesterday from my MP saying

Thank you for your email regarding outdated information on smart meters.

We have contacted EDF and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and are awaiting a response.

Kind regards

xxxxx xxxxxx

Constituency Assistant
Office of Brandon Lewis CBE MP

I've just received a phone call from EDF, this wasn't their normal complaints department, cant remember the name, but she was obviously higher up and much more knowledgeable.  

She said she had read through all the history and appologised that a lot of the information I had been told was completely incorrect, and she will be instigating a review of the people that responded to me (she pointed out, when she raises a complaint about one of them, it's not dealt with via her etc).

She explained that they do batch updates of everyone's meters and unfortunately, there's always some that don't go through, and if they don't go through, they have NO WAY OF KNOWING  unless the customer brings it to their attention  (I presume they just get kW used from the meter to do their billing), she admitted this was a far from ideal thing, but that's whats happening and she has spoken to the relevant department and it should correct it's self instantly as soon as they apply the update (but also added it could take up to two weeks for them to do it)

She asked me what I would like the outcome to be with the Ombudsman, 

I said that I want my display fixed, more importantly, I've seen news reports of people skipping meals etc as they are paranoid of the rising bills, but not once have I seen any news report telling people their smart meter display might be completely wrong, regardless of their energy supplier, and that the smart meter ads on the TV say you can monitor your billing when in reality, if your one of the many that various suppliers had missed, you can't.

She agreed, well she said when the correct info is on the meter they are great, but admitted when incorrect info is on the meter they aren't.

She finished by saying she would send a response to my MP and the ombudsman and email me her address so i can contact her directly.

While she was very very nice and I have zero complaints about her, I do wonder whether this would have happened if I hadn't contacted my MP etc.

Swipe

Iwanttobefree said:

While she was very very nice and I have zero complaints about her, I do wonder whether this would have happened if I hadn't contacted my MP etc.

Obviously not. Well done for bringing it to their attention.

Phones4Chris

Update since my 7th May post After a lot of to and fro with "Complaints resolution" they have now sent a deadlock. My meter hasn't been updated. I intend to escalate the complaint deadlock as it's based on mis-information and no explanations. I'm not sure I'll go to the ombudsman yet (or at all, I'm sure they have more urgent things from others in a bad situation) as billing hasn't been an issue to date, but I'm waiting some further rinformation before I make my next move.

Phones4Chris

Well I spoke too soon @Iwanttobefree !  Billing has become an issue. Having submitted readings for the 31st March via their web-form back on the 31st (remember the website was crashing because of so many people doing the same, so they promoted the form) the readings were correctly applied to my account - they were showing as the 31st March in the on-line account. Then lo and behold I get a bill at the end of May, those readings were "transferred" to the bill date and there were "estimated" readings for the 31st March.!!! They are getting readings from the meter, they're just not getting to my account, this is unbelievable.
Comms is not an issue (lights flash correctly as well), I also get regular data via the Bright App and n3rgy.
Needless to say, phoned up, complained .(another complaint raised), bill re-issued upto the end of March. Another bill to come end of June (which would be my normal billing cycle before this smart meter).