Should I trust EDF?

dunstonh

At circa 2.00pm received a phone call from an engineer some 30 miles away from the property. The good news was that he was the first EDF person I have spoken to in this whole scenario who knew exactly what he was talking about, knew the location of my property and knew the general area very well. In no time at all he explained that because of the location of my meter and his experience of the area generally, there was little chance that the smart meter would work. The likely outcome would be that he would fit the new SMET2 (five ports for Eco7) and discover that it would not work when he came to programme it, necessitating a refit of the old meter. We agreed to abort the installation.

Before the engineers attempt to install anything, they have the ability to test the connection.  So, that scenario was highly unlikely.

dealyboy

@inspectorperez said:

A further update for the benefit of any reader who wants an answer to my question "Should I trust EDF"?, I think the answer is definitely a "yes" and a "no"!

So I drove 100 miles this morning for a "between" 12.00pm to 4.00pm appointment for second attempt at smart meter installation after the first attempt failed because of an EDF no show.

At circa 2.00pm received a phone call from an engineer some 30 miles away from the property. The good news was that he was the first EDF person I have spoken to in this whole scenario who knew exactly what he was talking about, knew the location of my property and knew the general area very well. In no time at all he explained that because of the location of my meter and his experience of the area generally, there was little chance that the smart meter would work. The likely outcome would be that he would fit the new SMET2 (five ports for Eco7) and discover that it would not work when he came to programme it, necessitating a refit of the old meter. We agreed to abort the installation.

So all in all, I've wasted 2 days of my life and driven 400 miles without any progress other than to remain with the status quo.

The engineer stated that in his view I should just bide my time and wait for the eventual release of a Gen3 smart meter which should deal with issues like this which appear to be reasonably common in his experience in certain areas.

I'll write this off as one of those unfortunate experiences in life, but only wish I had been able to get to speak to a knowledgeable person at EDF in the first instance rather than having to field the inane text, phone and email messages reminding me to turn up for the appointments in question.

I don't know, if it was me I would probably have asked for the fitting to go ahead, just in case. At least I would have had the satisfaction of an attempted fitting and evidence for EDF. 

inspectorperez

dunstonh said:

At circa 2.00pm received a phone call from an engineer some 30 miles away from the property. The good news was that he was the first EDF person I have spoken to in this whole scenario who knew exactly what he was talking about, knew the location of my property and knew the general area very well. In no time at all he explained that because of the location of my meter and his experience of the area generally, there was little chance that the smart meter would work. The likely outcome would be that he would fit the new SMET2 (five ports for Eco7) and discover that it would not work when he came to programme it, necessitating a refit of the old meter. We agreed to abort the installation.

Before the engineers attempt to install anything, they have the ability to test the connection.  So, that scenario was highly unlikely.

We discussed that and he was categoric that this was not possible. Who am I to argue?

[Deleted User]

inspectorperez said:

A further update for the benefit of any reader who wants an answer to my question "Should I trust EDF"?, I think the answer is definitely a "yes" and a "no"!

So I drove 100 miles this morning for a "between" 12.00pm to 4.00pm appointment for second attempt at smart meter installation after the first attempt failed because of an EDF no show.

At circa 2.00pm received a phone call from an engineer some 30 miles away from the property. The good news was that he was the first EDF person I have spoken to in this whole scenario who knew exactly what he was talking about, knew the location of my property and knew the general area very well. In no time at all he explained that because of the location of my meter and his experience of the area generally, there was little chance that the smart meter would work. The likely outcome would be that he would fit the new SMET2 (five ports for Eco7) and discover that it would not work when he came to programme it, necessitating a refit of the old meter. We agreed to abort the installation.

So all in all, I've wasted 2 days of my life and driven 400 miles without any progress other than to remain with the status quo.

The engineer stated that in his view I should just bide my time and wait for the eventual release of a Gen3 smart meter which should deal with issues like this which appear to be reasonably common in his experience in certain areas.

I'll write this off as one of those unfortunate experiences in life, but only wish I had been able to get to speak to a knowledgeable person at EDF in the first instance rather than having to field the inane text, phone and email messages reminding me to turn up for the appointments in question.

I am not sure how a Gen 3 meter ( is one actually planned?) will resolve the connectivity issues as the meters are not the issue.  The next planned upgrade is a 4G comms hub which will still have connectivity issues in remote areas. The other possibility is comms hub meshing until a connection with the DCC network is established.

Mobtr

Not sure how an advisor who possibly lives in the other side of the country or even another country would know your area well enough to know if a smart e7 meter would work or not

inspectorperez

Mobtr said:

Not sure how an advisor who possibly lives in the other side of the country or even another country would know your area well enough to know if a smart e7 meter would work or not

This guy knew his patch very well (Cumbria)!

Mobtr

Yes the engineer would but the advisors who booked the appointment wouldn’t. It’s great to have an engineer who does know the area though, saves a few hours of installing then changing the meters back again when they don’t work. 

I’ve always thought smart was not really suitable for E7 & also PAYG as if the signal drops, you’re stuffed 

Swipe

Mobtr said:

I’ve always thought smart was not really suitable for E7 & also PAYG as if the signal drops, you’re stuffed 

Won't make any odds to E7, not sure about PAYG. Once the meter has the config, it knows when to switch and write to the appropriate registers regardless of signal.