British Gas, Faulty Gas Meter and Ofgem's GSOP

Frogling

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice.

I received our 6 monthly energy bill statement from BG on 25th January, and realised that the readings for gas usage were the same for December and January, so I hadn't been charged anything for one month. I checked our outside gas meter, and sure enough the reading wasn't moving at all (it's a smart meter).

I rang British Gas to report the problem, and was sent an e-mail by an advisor who asked me to send a couple of photos of the meter, which I duly did. I received an e-mail back saying 'Thank you' and heard nothing from them until 10th Feb, when they sent a further e-mail saying that a specialist had now picked up my case, but no workaround and no date for it to be resolved. I'm still currently waiting for it to be resolved, they did book a replacement gas meter to be fitted last Wednesday, but cancelled the appointment and I've had to chase them up again today.

I'm fed up with having to ring them and chase up what's happening, and they can't even tell me how my gas bill will be calculated for the period the meter hasn't been working - one person I spoke to advised me that they have calculate it based on an average over the last 12 months, but that some advisors calculate it differently!

I've just been looking on the Which? website to see whether they had any advice on how best to get the matter resolved, and found an article on response times for energy companys under Ofgem's Guaranteed Standard of Performance. The article states the following:

Suppliers have a time limit they must follow when dealing with faulty meters, under Ofgem’s Guaranteed Standard of Performance (GSOP). The supplier needs to investigate the problem, take action if needed, and put this in writing to you. If it doesn't do this within five working days, it must pay you £30 in compensation. A further £30 is paid if it doesn’t pay the initial sum within 10 working days. 

As it took from 25th January when I initially reported the problem to the 10th of February for them to get back to me with the message that a specialist had picked up my case to look at, so this mean I am entitled to claim that compensation under the GSOP?

[Deleted User]

I am guessing that you have a L&G G470 meter? I had one for two years which stopped accruing usage from October through to January for two years running. The supplier was aware that this problem impacted some - not all - meters installed from 2019 onwards.

Smart meters are a tricky area for compensation as suppliers do not certify the meters and they are not responsible for building and certifying quarterly firmware updates.

Frogling

[Deleted User] said:

I am guessing that you have a L&G G470 meter? I had one for two years which stopped accruing usage from October through to January for two years running. The supplier was aware that this problem impacted some - not all - meters installed from 2019 onwards.

Smart meters are a tricky area for compensation as suppliers do not certify the meters and they are not responsible for building and certifying quarterly firmware updates.

Thanks for the info on the meter Dolor, interesting to read that it's a known problem.

With regards to compensation, I'm not looking at receiving any for the lack of a working meter, but rather for the fact that it took BG 12 working days to do anything at all. The Ofgem GSOP seems to indicate that they need to let me know within 5 working days, otherwise they are liable to compensate the customer with a £30 payment.

Tomo1925

Hi Frogling,

I know this is probably out of date but came across this thread from a google search.

You are correct in relation to the GSOP regulation for that and suppliers needs to investigate the problem, take action if needed, and put this in writing to you.  These three tasks however are individual standards therefore each of them failing would be £30 each therefore £90 would be owed.  If not paid or applied to your energy account within the required time it would double to £180.

I hope you got the issue sorted in the end but thought I'd mention it incase you have had this provided to you or experience similar issues in the future.

Frogling

Tomo1925 said:

Hi Frogling,

I know this is probably out of date but came across this thread from a google search.

You are correct in relation to the GSOP regulation for that and suppliers needs to investigate the problem, take action if needed, and put this in writing to you.  These three tasks however are individual standards therefore each of them failing would be £30 each therefore £90 would be owed.  If not paid or applied to your energy account within the required time it would double to £180.

I hope you got the issue sorted in the end but thought I'd mention it incase you have had this provided to you or experience similar issues in the future.

Thank you for the reply. I wrote a letter to British Gas regarding their failure to meet GSOP regulations in this matter back in March, but the notification of your response to my post has served as a reminder that I never heard back from them! Also, I wasn't aware that each task was an individual standard, so thank you for that information. I shall be contacting BG tomorrow to follow this up.

powergen_insider

Frogling said:

Tomo1925 said:

Hi Frogling,

I know this is probably out of date but came across this thread from a google search.

You are correct in relation to the GSOP regulation for that and suppliers needs to investigate the problem, take action if needed, and put this in writing to you.  These three tasks however are individual standards therefore each of them failing would be £30 each therefore £90 would be owed.  If not paid or applied to your energy account within the required time it would double to £180.

I hope you got the issue sorted in the end but thought I'd mention it incase you have had this provided to you or experience similar issues in the future.

Thank you for the reply. I wrote a letter to British Gas regarding their failure to meet GSOP regulations in this matter back in March, but the notification of your response to my post has served as a reminder that I never heard back from them! Also, I wasn't aware that each task was an individual standard, so thank you for that information. I shall be contacting BG tomorrow to follow this up.

I wouldn't be so confident in the "three tasks" comment.  That's a particularly generous interpretation of the wording.

Westertonbilly

Frogling said:

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice.

I received our 6 monthly energy bill statement from BG on 25th January, and realised that the readings for gas usage were the same for December and January, so I hadn't been charged anything for one month. I checked our outside gas meter, and sure enough the reading wasn't moving at all (it's a smart meter).

I rang British Gas to report the problem, and was sent an e-mail by an advisor who asked me to send a couple of photos of the meter, which I duly did. I received an e-mail back saying 'Thank you' and heard nothing from them until 10th Feb, when they sent a further e-mail saying that a specialist had now picked up my case, but no workaround and no date for it to be resolved. I'm still currently waiting for it to be resolved, they did book a replacement gas meter to be fitted last Wednesday, but cancelled the appointment and I've had to chase them up again today.

I'm fed up with having to ring them and chase up what's happening, and they can't even tell me how my gas bill will be calculated for the period the meter hasn't been working - one person I spoke to advised me that they have calculate it based on an average over the last 12 months, but that some advisors calculate it differently!

I've just been looking on the Which? website to see whether they had any advice on how best to get the matter resolved, and found an article on response times for energy companys under Ofgem's Guaranteed Standard of Performance. The article states the following:

Suppliers have a time limit they must follow when dealing with faulty meters, under Ofgem’s Guaranteed Standard of Performance (GSOP). The supplier needs to investigate the problem, take action if needed, and put this in writing to you. If it doesn't do this within five working days, it must pay you £30 in compensation. A further £30 is paid if it doesn’t pay the initial sum within 10 working days. 

As it took from 25th January when I initially reported the problem to the 10th of February for them to get back to me with the message that a specialist had picked up my case to look at, so this mean I am entitled to claim that compensation under the GSOP?

Would be interested in how they eventually resolved the billing for the months the meter was stuck?
Have a similar issue, reported to Shell in early September that the meter was not moving, replacement immediately arranged for late October but that appointment has now been cancelled and SMS (who appear to be Shell's agent/contractor) are unable to providing an alternative date blaming lack of engineers. Hence, now seem to be facing the prospect of a stuck meter for some months, not that I'm overly concerned.