Octopus not helping

Pericles1st

Thank you. The meter stopped. No usage. It is so confusing. 

Now wondering if it’s the boiler. Was replaced last year just before the meter. I’ve moved, downsized to help with costs etc. will now wait for octopus resolutions to return my emails. Have sent about 12 over past few weeks to octopus and 2 to resolutions. 

I will let you know but perhaps time to take a breath/break from all this. Thanks  everyone 

Pericles1st

Well surprise. Just had a response of a kind 

Hi Thanks for your message, hope you are having a nice weekend. So sorry for my slow response to you.  I'm almost certain your gas meter was impacted by a smart meter defect.  I am just waiting for confirmation on this.  This is a well known defect that impacted many customers with your meter type for gas.  We will be able to make sure your billing is correct, if it is this defect, so once I have confirmation, I will do this and I will come back to you asap with more info.  Best Wishes, Joanna M Octopus Energy

Joanna from Octopus Energy

fatbelly

Sounds promising.....

Pericles1st

This was my response 
Dear Joanna 

Thank you. I’ve posted your response on the money supermarket . Com forum webpage. A large number of people are waiting to hear what has happened and how I’m holding up. I’ve had my boiler off for most of the day. People advising , helping me with carbon monoxide alarms and questions. Also on Facebook. 

Luckily I still work part time and have downsized my home as it’s not easy being a pensioner and living on my own. I dread to think about the suffering I have been told about since I started trying to discover why the huge bills.

I sincerely hope that  things will be resolved very soon. 

Regards

BooJewels

Pericles1st said:

Thank you. The meter stopped. No usage. It is so confusing. 

Now wondering if it’s the boiler. Was replaced last year just before the meter. I’ve moved, downsized to help with costs etc. will now wait for octopus resolutions to return my emails. Have sent about 12 over past few weeks to octopus and 2 to resolutions. 

I will let you know but perhaps time to take a breath/break from all this. Thanks  everyone 

If it is a meter recording issue, it could be that it is simply over-recording use - say multiplying actual use by a particular factor - so if it isn't drawing any gas though, it's not recording anything.  That in itself is something - in that you probably don't have a leak your side of the meter.

As pointed out earlier, if your boiler was over-using the gas when not supposed to be - you'd know - I find I'm very sensitive to the sounds of it and if it were over-firing unexpectedly, the sounds would alert you pretty quickly and something somewhere would be getting very hot.  The numbers you've posted are a shed-load of energy - enough to make a large drafty house very warm - so you'd either smell that excess gas if it were leaking or you'd be feeling toasty warm.

I think a fault with the meter - somehow over-recording your actual use - seems like a very plausible and hopeful explanation.  Fingers crossed that it is favourably resolved for you soon.

flyingv

Pericles1st said:

Well surprise. Just had a response of a kind 

Hi Thanks for your message, hope you are having a nice weekend. So sorry for my slow response to you.  I'm almost certain your gas meter was impacted by a smart meter defect.  I am just waiting for confirmation on this.  This is a well known defect that impacted many customers with your meter type for gas.  We will be able to make sure your billing is correct, if it is this defect, so once I have confirmation, I will do this and I will come back to you asap with more info.  Best Wishes, Joanna M Octopus Energy

Joanna from Octopus Energy

Hi, I've just read through this thread as the exact same thing happened to me a few weeks back.  Smart meter said I'd used £18 in gas for the month of July, yet the bill from Octopus was for over £260.  Email back and forth got me nowhere - the helpful (not helpful) chap who replied said perhaps I should turn the heating off.  In the hottest month on record.  Ever.  Ok.

Anyway, I called up, exasperated, and spoke to a lovely guy who checked the make of my gas meter and said there'd been a firmware update a couple of weeks previous that had gone a bit wonky and he could see exactly where the massive jump in gas use had come from.  He also said he'd had almost the exact same conversation with someone else the day before so knew it was a 'thing'.  He immediately reversed the £260+ charge and said they'd send an updated bill.

Keep plugging away, they will sort it out, you just need to get the right bod on the phone.  I called up at 9am on a Monday and got through almost instantly.  Good luck OP, really hope you get it sorted, and anyone else who has had this happen to them also.

k_man

Good luck to the OP getting this resolved.

I just hope this doesn't lead to others (with no fault) assuming their reported high usage is down to a faulty meter, and therefore ignoring actual usage.

wakeupalarm

If this has happened to several people but only spotted due to the huge jumps in reported usage by this firmware update, how do we know there are not other errors with the firmware resulting in smaller increases in reported usage.

Several hundred units is relatively easy to spot but what if its only 5 units or even a 1 unit a month increase.  How do we know the meters are recording correctly, who tests and verify them?

[Deleted User]

wakeupalarm said:

If this has happened to several people but only spotted due to the huge jumps in reported usage by this firmware update, how do we know there are not other errors with the firmware resulting in smaller increases in reported usage.

Several hundred units is relatively easy to spot but what if its only 5 units or even a 1 unit a month increase.  How do we know the meters are recording correctly, who tests and verify them?

All meters are UK Government tested and certificated before they can be used for billing purposes. Firmware updates are the responsibility of individual meter manufacturers not suppliers. Manufacturers produce meter firmware updates and they test them on the DCC network before they are approved for deployment by suppliers.

Having had issues with 3 SMETS2 meters, the challenge that suppliers face is that firmware problems do not seem to affect every meter. For example, 2 years ago, a L&G gas meter had an issue with the October firmware update, it was resolved in March and repeated again 6 months later. Kaifa electricity meters had issues with 30 minute usage reporting which only impacts Octopus ToU customers. This took Kaifa 7 months and 3 firmware updates to resolve.

FWiW, it is highly unlikely that smart meters are randomly adding 1 to 5 units. If that was the case, it could also be happening with an analogue meter: how would you know?