Broken Smart Metre - Do I have to agree with estimates

UnOrthOdOx

Hi,

I am an SSE Customer. I bought my first home in March 2022 and as there were no deals at the time so I decided to stay with the current provider SSE as I knew the metres were smart and heard that switching providers can cause issues.

When I moved in I found that there was an issue with the Gas Metre and couldn't get a reading so after recieving my first estimated bill I reported it to SSE. After a year of delays they are now telling me that they have fixed the issue depite the fact I still cannot see the usage etc.

They have told me that on 08/02/23 it was fixed and they can now see my readings from this date onwards (even though I still can't). They cannot tell me how much i have used between the date I moved in up until that date so they would not adjust my balance just continue to use the estimates I had already been billed for.

The electric metre has been working fine and I have used approximately a thrid of what they estimated I would use, so I don't trust their estimations on my gas usage. When i told them this they said that they cannot find out my actual usage and the actual usage since 08/02/23 is about inline with there estimate, so will not adjust the balance.

I'm I forced to go along with paying them whatever they estimate? Even though they had little to nothing to base the estimation on even though they were the ones at fault and it took them 11 months to fix the issue, or do I have any rights to chaallenge their estimates?

Flight3287462

This may be better on the energy board.

My gut says you need to keep on them to show you proof of what you are using, to my mind since they have nothing to base their estimates on it is pure speculation.  Sounds very tricky to me.

pochase

If you give us some more information it will be easier to give advise here.

How many KWh did they estimate you have used?

When you moved in was the meter working or how did you give them the initial reading?

When you are saying they have fixed the meter, and they can see the information but you can't what does that mean? Is it a smart meter and they get data again? Was the display broken, and if you are saying you can't see your usage is it still broken?

Have they fixed it with an engineer coming out or online?

UnOrthOdOx

pochase said:

If you give us some more information it will be easier to give advise here.

How many KWh did they estimate you have used?

When you moved in was the meter working or how did you give them the initial reading?

When you are saying they have fixed the meter, and they can see the information but you can't what does that mean? Is it a smart meter and they get data again? Was the display broken, and if you are saying you can't see your usage is it still broken?

Have they fixed it with an engineer coming out or online?

On the last bill I receieved it was estimated I had used 1786 KWh (For the period: 22 October 2022 to 16 January 2023)

When I moved in it wasn't working so I spoke to them via web chat and gave them an M3 number from the metre - which they seemed to imply they could use as a metre reading.

They are saying that they can now see the usage coming from the smart metre but my in home device cannot connect to the metre and if I check my account online it still shows the usage as £0.00.

They sent out an engineer, but they came and went without talking to me.

pochase

So the smart meter did show the m3 reading in the display?

In this case there is no "broken" meter, the smart meter just did not communicate.

If you read the meter today and deduct your opening reading, you have your usage in m3.

Multiply the m3 by 11.2 and you have a very near number to your usage.

Why do you think they will estimate your usage? Did they say so?

The part that they will have to estimate are your meter readings on 1st of April and 1st of October when the new more expensive rates started.

UnOrthOdOx

pochase said:

So the smart meter did show the m3 reading in the display?

In this case there is no "broken" meter, the smart meter just did not communicate.

If you read the meter today and deduct your opening reading, you have your usage in m3.

Multiply the m3 by 11.2 and you have a very near number to your usage.

Why do you think they will estimate your usage? Did they say so?

The part that they will have to estimate are your meter readings on 1st of April and 1st of October when the new more expensive rates started.

Ok So the M3 number is the KWh multiplied by 3?



I sent them this message yesterday:
------------------
Hi,

Every Gas bill I have had from SSE since the account was opened a year ago have been based on estimates. I don't agree with the estimates and want to be sure I am paying for what I am actually using as the estimated usage on the electric bill is generally much higher than what the actual usage has been.

Can SSE confirm how many units of gas I have used in the past 12 months? Until this can be answered I do not consider the issue as resolved. Could you please provide details of how I can escalate this to the ombudsman as I do not feel that SSE are understanding or resolving the issue.

Many thanks
-------------------



And recieved this responce:
-------------------
So now we have updated the reads your bills going forward will be actual reads so we pulled a actual read on the 08/02 and today we can only get actual reads going forward we can't give actual reads on the last bills as we could not pull a read but the reads are not far in est as the reads are all falling in line
-------------------

UnOrthOdOx

I have a record of the M3 number from when I gave it to them via the web chat, so if I get the current M3 numer I can work out haw much I have actually used in KWh

'old reading' -  'new reading' / 3 = equals my usage in KWh between those dates?

MattMattMattUK

UnOrthOdOx said:

pochase said:

So the smart meter did show the m3 reading in the display?

In this case there is no "broken" meter, the smart meter just did not communicate.

If you read the meter today and deduct your opening reading, you have your usage in m3.

Multiply the m3 by 11.2 and you have a very near number to your usage.

Why do you think they will estimate your usage? Did they say so?

The part that they will have to estimate are your meter readings on 1st of April and 1st of October when the new more expensive rates started.

Ok So the M3 number is the KWh multiplied by 3?

m3, not M3, cubic meters, it is slightly more complicated as there is calorific value to factor in, but 11.2 is a reasonable approximation to make things easier.

UnOrthOdOx said:

I sent them this message yesterday:
------------------
Hi,

Every Gas bill I have had from SSE since the account was opened a year ago have been based on estimates. I don't agree with the estimates and want to be sure I am paying for what I am actually using as the estimated usage on the electric bill is generally much higher than what the actual usage has been.

Can SSE confirm how many units of gas I have used in the past 12 months? Until this can be answered I do not consider the issue as resolved. Could you please provide details of how I can escalate this to the ombudsman as I do not feel that SSE are understanding or resolving the issue.

Many thanks
-------------------



And recieved this responce:
-------------------
So now we have updated the reads your bills going forward will be actual reads so we pulled a actual read on the 08/02 and today we can only get actual reads going forward we can't give actual reads on the last bills as we could not pull a read but the reads are not far in est as the reads are all falling in line
-------------------

It seems fairly reasonable, they knew what it was at the start, they know what it is now, therefor you used the amount in the middle, the fact that they cannot provide you with a daily/monthly breakdown of that usage is irrelevant. 

UnOrthOdOx said:

I have a record of the M3 number from when I gave it to them via the web chat, so if I get the current M3 numer I can work out haw much I have actually used in KWh

'old reading' -  'new reading' / 3 = equals my usage in KWh between those dates?

You need to multiply the m3 figure by 11.2, not divide it by 3.

UnOrthOdOx

Matt

It seems fairly reasonable, they knew what it was at the start, they know what it is now, therefor you used the amount in the middle, the fact that they cannot provide you with a daily/monthly breakdown of that usage is irrelevant. 

I interpreted their message as. We cannot work out what I have used since you moved in therfore we are just going to go off a calculations of number of bedrooms etc. that i would have told them when I opened the account.

But from what you've explained they know what the reading was, they now know what it is currently so can acurrately say how many units I have used, just not when? So I should wait for the next bill to see what happens to the credit balance on the account.

Thats fine, I just wanted to be sure I would be billed for what I had actually used and not a guess based on the number of bedrooms etc.

Thank you so much for your help Matt & pochase

Alnat1

Ask them to issue a bill as soon as possible so you can see the figures and put your mind at rest.

Spoonie_Turtle

I'm slightly lost about what info they're getting and what's showing on your account or not, but a couple of suggestions:

- Check your smart meter settings in your account are set to daily not monthly, then they should pull readings/data more often

- Have a look at third-party usage apps like Bright or Loop, who should be able to pull usage data even if it's not showing in your SSE account (as the smart meter evidently can communicate because they're able to pull readings from it).  It may be possible that you can then see historic data as well, for I think up to 13months?