smart meters

Pm1972

we had someone come round to read our meters at the weekend and today I have just got an email from British gas for my energy statement, on clicking on it they have put my payments for gas and electric to £507 a month! on looking in to my account I have been having estimated readings for the pass 2 years I have contacted them  and have been informed that 

"Your smart meters have stopped sending us reads. The reason your meter is not working correctly, is because it hasn't yet been moved onto the central data and communications service (the DCC). The good news is that this process can be completed without the need for an engineer visit and we expect all our affected customers will be transferred to the DCC over the coming weeks and months. In the unlikely event that we have any problems transferring your meter over, we'll be back in touch to discuss further options. In the meantime, to keep your account up to date and avoid estimated bills. Please use this webform here  to provide any meter readings or if you can let me know your reads, I'll rebill you"

I am still talking to them as my tariff changed in nov and  I am now on the only one available and have been charged at the higher rate for 3264 units , they have said they have raised a complaint for me and given a id for it , but is there anything else i can do about this ? or someone i can contact ? 

EssexHebridean

If you’ve not been giving them readings, and they’ve been underestimating, then I suspect all you would be able to do is tell them that increasing your DD to that level will result in you suffering financial hardship, and ask for a payment plan to be set up that you can afford. Having said that, they certainly shouldn’t be charging you for all use at the current prices as I understand it - it should be pro-rata’d out.

bagand96

Sounds like without any readings they've been underestimating your use and now the meter has been read you're seeing a catch up bill, being billed for the units used but not billed.

Your bills the last 2 years must have been all based on estimated reads, this would be shown on the bill.  You could have checked and given them meter readings, this will be a good habit to get into from now on.  Even after your smart meter starts working again it's always best to check.

Ultimately you will have to pay for the energy used.  But if your tariff changed during the period then they should average out the extra units and charge pro-rata.

[Deleted User]

Pm1972 said:

we had someone come round to read our meters at the weekend and today I have just got an email from British gas for my energy statement, on clicking on it they have put my payments for gas and electric to £507 a month! on looking in to my account I have been having estimated readings for the pass 2 years I have contacted them  and have been informed that 

"Your smart meters have stopped sending us reads. The reason your meter is not working correctly, is because it hasn't yet been moved onto the central data and communications service (the DCC). The good news is that this process can be completed without the need for an engineer visit and we expect all our affected customers will be transferred to the DCC over the coming weeks and months. In the unlikely event that we have any problems transferring your meter over, we'll be back in touch to discuss further options. In the meantime, to keep your account up to date and avoid estimated bills. Please use this webform here  to provide any meter readings or if you can let me know your reads, I'll rebill you"

I am still talking to them as my tariff changed in nov and  I am now on the only one available and have been charged at the higher rate for 3264 units , they have said they have raised a complaint for me and given a id for it , but is there anything else i can do about this ? or someone i can contact ? 

You MIGHT have a claim for the BackBilling rules to be applied to your account. Under Standard Licence Conditions, a supplier is required to obtain a meter reading once every 12 months. A working smart meter would satisfy this requirement. I would argue that it is up to suppliers to have systems in place to identify smart meter issues. I know that Octopus runs fortnightly ‘health checks’ on its smart metered accounts. 

If BackBilling is applied then all charges from 12 months backwards should be written off back to the last actual meter reading; HOWEVER, the supplier is allowed to take into account any payments made during the write-off period.

 No doubt, the supplier will argue that this situation would have been avoided if you have looked at your statement - the ‘ E’ annotation is a bit of a give away - and you had given them an actual meter reading.

Pm1972

thanks would not mind i check my parents one all the time as the have a elc smart meter and a normal gas one as they said they are not available in the area yet ! I do check my bill regular but it did not cross my mind that the smart meter was not sending readings as the bills and dd were going up with usage over the pass two year will see what they cone back with as they have now forward my complaint on to another department 

EssexHebridean

For anyone else reading this who it might inform - your bills will tell you what is going on with readings - and even if you have a smart meter this is always worth keeping an eye on:
E = Estimated - either you haven't given a reading, or your SM isn't sending them (or both!)
S = Smart meter reading
A = actual reading - could be because someone external has read the meter but some suppliers use this instead of
C = Customer read - given by you

Other contributors may have others to offer also. 

diystarter7

Hi OP

Sorry about yor problems but its just another thread, one of many where the so-called 'smart meters' are anything but that.

I'm glad I read posts on this site and mass of media re why people should not be going for smart meters and this is just one more reason.

I hope its all sorted out soon.

Btw, the main reson we wanted to investigate a smart meter was to stay on top of what were were using and not get surprise bills -  Thankfully we stayed with the old style meters and send readings in once every three months.

Good luck

matt_drummer

diystarter7 said:

Hi OP

Sorry about yor problems but its just another thread, one of many where the so-called 'smart meters' are anything but that.

I'm glad I read posts on this site and mass of media re why people should not be going for smart meters and this is just one more reason.

I hope its all sorted out soon.

Btw, the main reson we wanted to investigate a smart meter was to stay on top of what were were using and not get surprise bills -  Thankfully we stayed with the old style meters and send readings in once every three months.

Good luck

Having a smart meter does not stop you checking that the readings on your bill match the readings in your meter.

A smart meter that is not sending readings to the supplier leaves you in no worse a position than if you had dumb meters.

Given the price of energy at the moment and how significant a proportion of many people's household expenditure it is, I would think that most people would be checking that what they were billed was correct, the risk when not doing so is that you could be left overpaying by large amounts or, perhaps worse, receiving a large unexpected bill!

[Deleted User]

diystarter7 said:

Hi OP

Sorry about yor problems but its just another thread, one of many where the so-called 'smart meters' are anything but that.

I'm glad I read posts on this site and mass of media re why people should not be going for smart meters and this is just one more reason.

I hope its all sorted out soon.

Btw, the main reson we wanted to investigate a smart meter was to stay on top of what were were using and not get surprise bills -  Thankfully we stayed with the old style meters and send readings in once every three months.

Good luck

Not again. A very high percentage of smart meters are working exactly as they should. Problems do occur from time-to-time as is the case with all technology. I have just had a situation where my comms hub stopped communicating as the result of a firmware update. Similarly, I have had issues with meter firmware updates. The challenge for suppliers is getting other parties to resolve these issues as quickly as consumers would like. The DCC is responsible for the network, and meter/device manufacturers retain responsibility for firmware updates.

As we are likely to see the widespread deployment of time-of-use tariffs in the next 12 months, I just wonder how long you will shun smart meters if you end up paying more for your energy than a smart-metered home? France has already introduced a penalty charge for non-smart metered homes.

fndyr

I have a British Gas 1st generation smart meter that British Gas can no longer read apparently. I have to upgrade to a 2nd generation meter which apparently is a 12 month wait. Without any warning to any of it's customers they ceased connecting with their own meters . Given the billions of profit they're making it's appalling that they don't bother to notify their customers of changes like this. Quick to notify price hikes though. Makes you wonder why you have to have a smart meter at their insistence that I had to have one if they can just turn it off effectively when they want at a great inconvenience to it's customers. Anyone who isn't overly mobile with a 1st generation meter is now back to crawling around in cupboards under stairs. Who says technology makes life easier for the user

Mstty

Hi, you won't be the first or the last person to get caught out like this. The (E)stimate is something you won't miss in future that's for sure.

I do feel in someways energy suppliers could alert customers that their smart meter is not sending data but also see this as a customer responsibility as well.

As mentioned above it would be worth mentioning back billing and/or a payment plan if the debt is large.