Octopus energy smart meter problem - advice needed!

pkg2k

Hi all,

On 13th Dec 2022 I had smart meters installed by Octopus energy.
The electric meter all worked fine - connected quickly and could see usage/costs etc. The gas meter did not - no readings, no info at all and to this day there is no information for the gas meter on the Octopus app.
After the engineer left who installed it I went to the physical meter to see if that had any readings. To my my shock I saw a reading of 00394 m3 and not the 00000 that had been noted on the meter (and subsequently sent to Octopus as opening read).

I immediately called Octopus to tell them there was an issue, whereby they responded that just leave it as it takes some time to settle in with the connectivity and the meter read will reset. Of course this did not happen and I now have a huge bill for gas I've not used.
I have done creep test on the meter which seems to be operating normally since, but its just that initial opening read 'jump' that is the issue- and clearly if this is something that never happens I'm going to be on the hook to pay for it.
I sent them IHD readings at the time to show this, they even agreed it couldn't be valid, but are now backtracking and saying this is 'normal usage'!

Today they sent me their info they have got on their system which to me shows clearly there has been an issue BUT if they are suggesting that 574.6m3 for 16 days is reasonable usage then I'm not sure what else I can do.

Any advice on how to progress this as dealing with Octopus directly is a waste of time. Ombudsman next but wondering if that will help in this situation.

Thanks

pochase

You are saying that to this day there is no data on the Octopus site, but at the same time you are posting a screen shot that shows a smart meter reading on the 15th of January?

I assume you did not check the meter when the engineer took not of the start reading? When did you discover the 394m3, what is immediately for you?

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername

If you ask Octopus to send you the 'Job Card from the MOP', this will have photos of the opening meter readings from when it was installed.

The screen show you have posted it from Kraken, so i assume the person at Octopus you are dealing with has emailed you it, this is the person you need to ask for the job card.

pkg2k

thanks all - I have a photo of the IHD reading on the day showing it was 394.158 m3 a couple of hours after the engineer left. I regret not checking the actual meter whilst he was here - it may actually have been 0 when he left, but then it 'jumped'. I know it doesn't sound feasible and this is my issue, but I do have evidence on the IHD but it seems they dont really care about that.

If their opening job card photo shows 0 am I effectively screwed? Is it possible that a meter can 'jump' in a couple of hours? I know the smart meters can take a while to sync up and Octopus told me that this was normal and would settle down, but obviously it didnt.

They will have call log at the time and the IHD reading if that helps my case?

pochase

Is the reading taken on the IHD or on the meter?

They will not really care what is on the IHD, what counts is the meter. Did you check the smart meter after you discovered the reading the IHD?

Even taking the 394m3 start reading into account you gas usage is quite high, 714 - 394 = 320 x 11.2 = 3584KWh for a little more than a month. What was your gas usage before you got the smart meter? 

pkg2k

The reading of 384 was taken on the IHD - the actual meter was the same reading but I regrettably didnt take a photo of the meter that day (I know....). Reason was that the customer agent reassured me not to worry as this all settles down, but my fault on that miss.

My gas usage is quite high you are correct - in previous years my usage has been around 22361 KWh per annum. Badly insulated property unfortunately and not even warm most of the time. 

Rgds

victor2

Ask Octopus if they record the calls and request a copy of the first one, where you say they agreed the first reading you saw couldn't be right. It might be they were saying the IHD possibly hadn't correctly linked to the meter and not that the meter itself was at fault.

I would guess the engineer just assumed the meter would start at zero, as they usually do, so he didn't actually check it.

I suspect you'll have trouble convincing them you didn't use 574.6 m3 in the first 16 days after installation, although it is significantly more than you used in the first two weeks of January.

Try registering with n3rgy, where you can download the smart meter recorded usage from, at 30 minute intervals, not just what Octopus show on their billing system. It doesn't show meter readings, but will show what your usage was from when it started transmitting data.

EssexHebridean

victor2 said:

Ask Octopus if they record the calls and request a copy of the first one, where you say they agreed the first reading you saw couldn't be right. It might be they were saying the IHD possibly hadn't correctly linked to the meter and not that the meter itself was at fault.

I would guess the engineer just assumed the meter would start at zero, as they usually do, so he didn't actually check it.

I suspect you'll have trouble convincing them you didn't use 574.6 m3 in the first 16 days after installation, although it is significantly more than you used in the first two weeks of January.

Try registering with n3rgy, where you can download the smart meter recorded usage from, at 30 minute intervals, not just what Octopus show on their billing system. It doesn't show meter readings, but will show what your usage was from when it started transmitting data.

I have the nasty feeling that this ties in pretty closely with the very cold snap we had in December doesn't it? In which case - you may have even more problems convincing them, sadly. 

pkg2k

Will check that info out - thanks again for your advice. Yes - the timing is awful as they can just sit back and say I've run my heating 24 x7 at 30 degrees and now don't want to pay for it.

lopsyfa

Can you share a picture of the initial reading. I have just had a smart meter fitted by Octopus (so I am assuming we have the same IHD here) and the IHD provided does not show the gas usage in m^3 only as kwh or £. Except you have a different IHD, then I suspect you may be looking at kwh which shows the initial usage may be much lower (approximately 10x lower).

After fitting the smart meter, the engineer turned on all the gas hobs and asked me to switch the thermostat in the house to 30C to check the meter works and remove any air in the system. He actually didnt switch them off but I turned them down/off after a few minutes. I think what may have happened is you may have left the thermostat at 30C for significant period to cause some high initial usage.

And it seems the meter was fitted during the cold spell and considering how much gas you use, that initial usage may not be impossible. 

This is assuming the usage you are looking at is kwh. If you have a different IHD and it is really m^3 or the usage is in £, then this does not apply. 

pkg2k

In response to victor2 on n3rgy, I just registered and it confirms 100% what I've been telling Octopus. When I add up all the data within it it comes to a total usage of 377 m3 since meter install date (meter currently reads 774 m3 on actual).

So the data centrally confirms I'm not going crazy and that the opening meter read was not 0. I assume Octopus have access to this information also, which begs the question why couldnt they simply check against this to confirm I'm telling them the truth?

I've sent Octopus this data also.

thanks victor2 for your advice-  this may be what helps get them to resolve.

Rgds