Can ombudsman force BG to fix smart meters?

mr-b

Hi

Summary - BG haven't got my smart meters working properly since Jan '22 - can the ombudsman force them to be fixed?

Background:

I was forced to move to BG in Dec ’21 after my old supplier bit the dust. BG then replaced my meters with smart meters in Jan '22, which worked for a few weeks then stopped reporting. The displays were fine.

I continued to submit my readings every month manually but the bills never went up, despite my chasing the smart meter faults.

In the end I flagged a formal complaint and after several months of multiple missed or late (<24h notice) cancellations of engineer appointments my meters were completely replaced in Dec’22 but only one has ever reported back properly.

My updated readings from the meter replacements meant that my bill had of course by then grown to be huge, and BG wanted to treble my DD, but I said that it was unaffordable and espec as it was BG’s fault for not billing me correctly. So I then paid a slightly more affordable increased amount but still with a large deficit (current forecast £2.2k end of plan debit).

BG say that they will sort out my compo for all the missed engineer appts after both my smart meters are fixed and working again and my complaint is settled, but I’m now rather wary of this apparent stalling over more than a year.

They keep saying my smart meter issue now is a known network-wide fault and they are working on it. But I'm struggling to believe this after several months of this same explanation. Plus I’ve just now realised that I’ve not had a formal bill since Jan.

Is it worthwhile invoking Ofgem (since my formal complaint has been going for over a year now)? Will they be able to force BG to sort out the smart meter issues and their random billing which is making budgeting impossible?

Robin9

mr-b said:

Hi 

.....

Plus I’ve just now realised that I’ve not had a formal bill since Jan.

BG only bill 6 monthly - expect the next in Jily but make sure you give them resdingd first

QrizB

mr-b said:

Summary - BG haven't got my smart meters working properly since Jan '22 - can the ombudsman force them to be fixed?

The short answer is no.

If you have meters, and they are accurate, and they are able to be read manually, there's no obligation on BG to make them work "smartly" and report automatically.

They keep saying my smart meter issue now is a known network-wide fault and they are working on it. But I'm struggling to believe this after several months of this same explanation.

Others have reported that there is some sort of problem with one particular make/model of comms hub. This could be your issue too, or you might have a separate one. Previous issues of this type have taken many months (in one case, almost a year) to sort out.

CSI_Yorkshire

You can't go to OFGEM, they don't deal with customers.

You could go to the Energy Ombudsman, but they won't do anything.  You have working meters, you can submit meter readings.

What do you mean "I continued to submit my readings every month manually but the bills never went up"?  If you give them readings, they have to use them unless there's a very good reason.

mr-b

Oops for Ofgem read ombudsman - a big typo.

RE: the energy readings, I submitted them monthly but my bills never increased. Or rather they kept cancelling them and reissuing one the next month, then cancelling and reissuing etc. for several months. Then the bills just stopped unitl the smart meters were exchanged and then they started to go up. The statements record:

Date	Amount	Download
23rd Jan 2023	£173.03
16th Dec 2022	£1353.66
28th Jun 2022	£839.75
21st Jun 2022	£800.52
1st Apr 2022	£365.22	Bill cancelled & replaced
29th Mar 2022	£365.22	Bill cancelled & replaced
10th Mar 2022	£365.22	Bill cancelled & replaced
9th Mar 2022	£365.22	Bill cancelled & replaced
15th Feb 2022	£365.22	Bill cancelled & replaced
31st Jan 2022	£224.14	Bill cancelled & replaced
24th Dec 2021	£211.15	Bill cancelled & replaced

RE: the multiple missed appts compo, I'm concerned that they will never get my smart meters working properly and so that will effectively force me to close the compaint in order to have any chance of obtaining it.

[Deleted User]

Let us assume that The Energy Ombudsman told BG ‘fix em’. What does the OP expect BG to do?

Communications hubs are the responsibility of the Data Communications Company (DCC) not individual suppliers. The network is the responsibility of the network providers who are contracted to the DCC.

Meter and device manufacturers design; build and certify (via a DCC test facility) their meters and devices for deployment on the DCC network. These guys are also responsible for all firmware updates which once certified are passed to suppliers to deploy to the meters that they are responsible for.

As you can see from the above, the design of our smart meter system is a complete mess. There is little that suppliers can do other than lean on their industry partners. Some suppliers are better at doing this than others.

If the meters have been recording energy used accurately then the supplier has the right to use these readings to raise a bill. The argument ‘not billing properly’ is flawed.

Robin9

When was the last time you had a bill based on ACTUAL rather than Estimated readings.  What was that reading ?  What is it today ?

mr-b

I was arguing re: incorrect billing due to the fact that I find it confusing when:

• Every bill says "Good news, your payments are spot on. Your monthly payments are on track to cover your expected energy use." when they patently are not.
• Bills refer to amount owing at "end of plan" but then "Tariff ends: No end date"
• You religiously submit monthly manual meter readings but the bills still sometimes use estimates.
• The "Past readings" page sometimes has approx. monthly entries, other times multiple entries a month with no "last SM read" date/time.
• The Submit meter reading form is hidden when you have smart meters as it thinks you don't need it. So you have to be given (and save) a special link.
• The meter reading form asks for an account number (it says it's on your bill) when there is no such thing there. There are meter/met point ref/supply/customer numbers but no account no.
• The IHD works fine but BG is apparently no longer receiving readings
• Loop & Bright apps saw the meter readings fine for a few months then just stopped
• You're on your third set of meters in 18 mo.
• The statements' total energy costs exclude VAT but then only include VAT after they've added up any adjustments
• The statement date is several months after the last usage date.
• They predicate paying missed engineer appt compo on closing down a complaint on an unrelated matter

I guess I could try asking the ombudsman if they could force BG to fix those issues but I think I know what the answer would be! Hence I thought I'd try to see if they would help get the smart meters fixed as I think it'd go some way to fixing many of the above issues. I'm sure I read somewhere that installed kit that worked once did fall under ombudsman jurisdiction and so could be directed to be rectified.

FWIW my last bill that used my actual readings was in Jan '23 so we'll see if they use my regular ones in the next bill. Will submit another set of readings tomorrow and update this.

mmmmikey

What a complete nightmare

Stepping up a level, if I've understood there are essentially 2 linked but different issues here:

1. You still don't have a working smart meter

2. All the messing about with trying to get the smart meter working has left you with a hopelessly confusing set of bills and you don't know where you stand

Taking those one at a time...

1. Smart meter. From what you've said it sounds like it's working fine as a dumb meter but not communicating with the central computers. Although things are getting better, this is not an uncommon problem and it may not be something that BG can fix quickly even if they wanted to. I'm not saying that's OK but that's the way it is. On this one, the ombudsman takes the view that as long as the meter is properly recording energy usage anything else is a bonus and the rules are such that, in answer to the question you ask in the title of the thread, no the ombudsman can't force BG to fix smart meters. Again, I'm not saying that's OK but that's the way it is. Of course, as you've obviously understood you are entitled to compensation for missed appointments, etc.

2. Billing issues. From what you've said, you've been messed about and even when the bill is sorted that in itself is a perfectly good reason to expect some form of compensation. But there's also the bigger and ongoing issue of sorting the billing out. That's where the questions that, for example @Robin9 is asking come from. It's possible that all is OK there now - you should see when you get your next 6 monthly bill. I'd suggest you wait for that bill, and if it makes sense to you, all well and good. You can then make a formal complaint about the poor service and see where that leads. If not, well depends what the problem is. I suggest you update the thread at that stage and I'm sure someone will be able to help.

Alnat1

Do the simple thing and switch to a supplier with better service and clearer monthly billing (Octopus?)

mmmmikey

On reflection I think that @Alnat1 suggestion is better than mine. If you go down the route of trying to get compensation you'll have to work for it and any compensation is likely to be measure in £10's not £100's so you have to decide if it's worth it.