Smart gas meter not worked in 10 months

roach3

My smart meters have worked fine until last may when the gas meter stopped working.
contacted Scottish power and they sent an engineer out to look at it. This was may 2033 he said he can’t fix it and would need a replacement and they would be in touch to arrange a date.
of course I heard nothing from them so to cut a long story short I’ve rang them at least six times and every time they arrange a date for an engineer to come out but nobody ever turns up.
my last call with them they seem to be saying that a part needed cannot be sourced and this is a widespread issue.
my real concern is how do they know what to charge me?
the price cap has been up and down since the meter failed and even today there’s an announcement it’s going down in April so how can they know what to charge.

One of the calls the guy said they will use readings from previous year to estimate the amount I’m using but that can’t be used surely.

im still getting txt from them asking me to give them readings for the gas which I obviously cannot do.

i pay by direct debit and the bigger problem is we might be moving house in next 3 months and im guessing if this isn’t resolved I can see a host of problems for me with the final bill and new owners.

anyone else have this issue with them.

Swipe

Raise a complaint with them

MeteredOut

Are SP still billing your gas based on estimated readings? If so, whilst the mess is being worked through, I'd be comparing those estimates with usage from previous years, to ensure there's not a wide discrepancy either way.

When it comes down to it, unless you can prove otherwise, the only data SP can use to fill in the blanks is your historic usage, weather conditions and aggregate trends from other customers (usage profile analysis). You want to get ahead of that and understand whether there's going to be a big bill coming.

But, as above, raise a complaint, and if they don't get it resolved within 8 week, raise it with the Ombudsman, who will, and you'll likely receive a little compensation too.

roach3

Yeh I’ve been thinking of raising it with the ombudsman but after reading some posts in here seems like it’s a very long wait to even get a reply
spose I’ve got to start somewhere.

My last communication with sp they said they could still get data from the faulty meter.

the previous one said they use historic usage.

different stories.

how can they even work it out when the cap has changed at least 3 times in this period and again today.

nightmare this

MattMattMattUK

roach3 said:

Yeh I’ve been thinking of raising it with the ombudsman but after reading some posts in here seems like it’s a very long wait to even get a reply
spose I’ve got to start somewhere.

My last communication with sp they said they could still get data from the faulty meter.

the previous one said they use historic usage.

different stories.

how can they even work it out when the cap has changed at least 3 times in this period and again today.

nightmare this

The cap applies to the amount charged per unit, historical usage is units, the apply the relevant rates at the historical usage. 

MeteredOut

roach3 said:

Yeh I’ve been thinking of raising it with the ombudsman but after reading some posts in here seems like it’s a very long wait to even get a reply
spose I’ve got to start somewhere.

My last communication with sp they said they could still get data from the faulty meter.

the previous one said they use historic usage.

different stories.

how can they even work it out when the cap has changed at least 3 times in this period and again today.

nightmare this

So did you do as I suggest and check your historic usage and whether your recent direct debits would cover that usage?

Don't rule out the Ombudsman - it can take time, but thats often down the the supplier, and not the Ombudsman itself. Without a formal complaint, it won't get resolved. And it the SP don't resolve it, without the Ombudsman, it won't get resolved.

Phones4Chris

I hope you also got the £30 compensation for each appointment that an engineer failed to turn up!

EssexHebridean

The sooner you start the process, the faster the Ombudsman response will arrive. 

400ixl

What is the actual fault? Is the display on the gas meter dead, or has it just stopped communicating the the hub in the electricity meter and therefore not reporting up readings? 

Do your bills have the reading as estimated?

roach3

The display has died completely 
tried pressing every combination of buttons to get any display.
so when I originally rang back in may 23 they send an engineer out who was here for about 45 minutes.
said it needs a part and I need to arrange for this to be fitted.
rang them day or two later and that’s when they suggested I ring them in two weeks to arrange a visit with the part.
why they couldn’t do that from their end at the time of this call I don’t know.
so in short I have rung them at least 6 times since then and every time is like the first time they heard about it all apart from one person who said the parts are on order and the problem is widespread.
he also wondered what the engineer did for 45 mins as he would have known what was wrong straightaway.
they also had no record of this visit.

just an absolute !!!!!! from this company.

roach3

I’ve just checked my historical usage and it’s similar but it’s priced from todays cap price not what it was back in 2022.