British Gas Smart Metre

Will2015

I am at my wits end with British Gas. I can’t describe the problems I have had and the stress and worry it has caused me. 

Anyway to cut a very long 11 months short….

my smart metre has never worked, therefore I have always had to submit manual readings to British Gas in order for them to provide me with bills, to save them keep sending me estimates. 

To keep this brief, after so many problems and being unable to cope with the stress of British Gas after them sending me a £524 bill I have left them. 

Anyway, upon switching to octopus- I was issued with new smart metres as the current ones weren’t fit for purpose (I was told by engineer). 

I switched on 18th Jan and had new smart metres fitted on 25th Jan. 

My readings from 18th - 25th Jan on the old smart metre are nearly triple the amount I’ve used in 6 days compared to the readings I’m having with the new metre. 

How can this be right? How to I challenge my precious metre readings and how to do I know if the old smart metre (which was faulty) is accurate? 

This is so unfair and I just feel the bills are so confusing and British Gas are essentially conning. Surely as a customer I am entitled to a clear break down of usage and entitled to challenge British has in relation to my old meter. 

Please help 

Jyana

I think that you will need more evidence than having used more energy during what was a time when most of the country spent the week under 0C - Cold Weather Payments were last given out that week. How does it compare to you usage over time in general, for instance?

That said, I think you may have a struggle on your hands as the one sure way of challenging this is more than likely now impossible as that meter is probably untraceable and can no longer be tested. 

[Deleted User]

If you switched to Octopus, then there would have been an agreed meter reading to close your BG account and open your Octopus account. This reading should have been shown in your Final Bill from BG and your opening bill for Octopus.

When Octopus installed your new smart meters, the installer would have given them a final reading from your old meters.

As you are no longer a BG customer and your old meters are probably in a skip, there is no way you can ask BG to review your old bills. You should have asked BG for a meter accuracy test before you switched suppliers.

BG was conning nobody. All you had to was to provide a manual reading to get an accurate bill.

Robin9

Johns2022 said:

...............................

To keep this brief, after so many problems and being unable to cope with the stress of British Gas after them sending me a £524 bill I have left them. .....................

I switched on 18th Jan and had new smart metres fitted on 25th Jan. 

My readings from 18th - 25th Jan on the old smart metre are nearly triple the amount I’ve used in 6 days compared to the readings I’m having with the new metre. 

............

Please help 

If your old (gas)  meter was an Imperial one and your new one Metric   - then yes , actually 2.7

Have a look at your old BG Bills -   look for references to cubic ft     or m3

Will2015

I appreciate that and the metre reading upon closure of account was taken from the old metre and submitted by me - but I didn’t have any comparison when I was with BG, so paid as normal and didn’t think anything of it since I had the 6 day readings which are nearly triple the readings that I’m having on the new metre? Why would this be? With 2 people living in a home. 

Will2015

Jyana said:

I think that you will need more evidence than having used more energy during what was a time when most of the country spent the week under 0C - Cold Weather Payments were last given out that week. How does it compare to you usage over time in general, for instance?

That said, I think you may have a struggle on your hands as the one sure way of challenging this is more than likely now impossible as that meter is probably untraceable and can no longer be tested. 

I agree, I know it’s only 6 days which isn’t a lot but I’ve been with them for 5 weeks now and each week the read is are so much lower. Eg: 5 weeks bill is £263 and a 6 week bill with BG is £524. 

Maybe I should wait a while and compare a few more months. Either way surely the fact BG has confirmed an error with the metre gives me something to go from?

Jyana

You have three possible answers above already:

It was extremely cold that week

The meter numbers at the change over point could have been different than what they actually were, making it look like a lot more was used than was

The old meter used imperial and the new one metric

mac.d

Are all the old gas meters that had 4 digit reads on them imperial?

Will2015

old gas metre metric and so is new one

Robin9

Can you give us those meter reads please ?

Take great care in reading the meter -  watch out for the decimal point.

(Please it's "meter")

Will2015

Sorry it’s my phone & no glasses on ..

Final readings for BG on 18th Jan are