EonNext at it again with 'End Of Life Meter' tactics for exchanging to a Smart meter

Chris_b2z

SAC2334 said:

Saying "no " will soon be off the agenda when the energy industry returns to sanity and stops giving the public any choice in the matter .In 27 days time there will be a Labour goverment back in power .Ed Milliband was Energy Secretary at the time of the last Labour Government when smart meters first started getting installed and sensibly they made them mandatory as most other countries did .He may well get his old job back .

Does that mean that Ed Milliband was responsible for ploughing ahead with the rollout of SMETS1 even though it was clearly not fit for purpose?

born_again

Marvel1 said:

born_again said:

This is such a joke carry on.
At the time this was mooted, it should have been a simple rollout where every meter was changed. No if, no buts. Anyone that stalled the process should have been put on a more expensive tariff, or charged for the staff costs on the delay.

But of course a simple job was made a lot harder than it ever should have been, by giving people a choice.🤦‍♀️

What about for those who sign up for this - this is OVO energy, but the meter does not send the regular readings every 30 mins so doesn't know?

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If you have had one fitted & it does not communicate, that is not your issue. 

SAC2334

Chris_b2z said:

SAC2334 said:

Saying "no " will soon be off the agenda when the energy industry returns to sanity and stops giving the public any choice in the matter .In 27 days time there will be a Labour goverment back in power .Ed Milliband was Energy Secretary at the time of the last Labour Government when smart meters first started getting installed and sensibly they made them mandatory as most other countries did .He may well get his old job back .

Does that mean that Ed Milliband was responsible for ploughing ahead with the rollout of SMETS1 even though it was clearly not fit for purpose?

They were  fit for purpose and only British Gas installed the early Smets 1 s and must have fitted  couple of million of them to their own customers  before the others started years later .
Personally I never heard of any complaints and customers never objected to them at all because I carried on reading them for 2 or 3 quarters . The only occasional  complaints was when the meter fitters failed to turn up for the appointments .
  British Gas had a very  loyal customer base and I expect most of these early smarts ( Landis and Gyr and Siemens ) meters are still in use and operating fine now today . The smart gas meters would have been exchanged by now because the battery would have given up but the electric meters will still be in use . In those days the suppliers fitted what meters they wanted .OFGEM never tried to stop them.  

camking

BarelySentientAI said:

camking said:

I've started getting repeated emails and texts from eon next too on this topic.

My Ampy Automation 5196 meter was certified in August 2003 and manufactured in 2003, according to the label on it and this meter has a certification period of 25 years according to the government's schedule 4 document, dated 16th May 2024, listing meter certification periods.

2003 + 25 = 2028.  It's currently 2024 as the time of writing.  Therefore, eon next's statement that "your electricity meter has passed its certification date and needs to be replaced." is patently untrue. (my emphasis)

If there were genuinely beneficial reasons for switching the meter, then I'd expect them to list them.  They don't.  Instead, they make what looks like an obviously untrue statement.  In my opinion, using an untrue statement is deception, pure and simple.  If a company stoops to that level, it raises the question of their motivation for sending the message.  Since they cannot provide any compelling reasons, my assumption is that it's not beneficial for me, the customer.

The reason other posters have referred to these communications as a "tactic", and I agree with that assessment, is because eon next has gained a reputation for repeatedly using untrue claims to persuade customers to change their meter.  

Aside: I accept that it is possible that Ampy/L+G might have extended its certification period recently and that eon simply doesn't have up to date data.

Would you prefer that they just said "we're changing it, the government and regulator have told us we should, and it's ours so you can't object"?

Because that's what the supply licence and electricity act allow them to do.

Yes.  I would very much prefer that - because it would be truthful.

They might even regain my trust, at least partially.

If eon next continue making untrue claims that are so obviously and verifiably false, why should I trust anything else they say?

wild666

Given that many smart meters, both SMETS 1 and SMETS 2, have a 10 to 15 year lifespan will suppliers be emailing people in late 2020's to mid 2030's to tell them their smart meters have come to their end of certification period and need replacing? I don't think so they will wait for the customer to contact them and report a problem then they could say the meter has being under reading for X period of time and they owe £XXXX to the supplier.

I think my Landis and Gyr E470 SMET 1 meters are certified for 15 years meaning they have about 6 years until their end of certification period. I don't expect any supplier to to want to replace the meters unless they see a problem at their end with the meters.

wild666

SAC2334 said:

Chris_b2z said:

SAC2334 said:

Saying "no " will soon be off the agenda when the energy industry returns to sanity and stops giving the public any choice in the matter .In 27 days time there will be a Labour goverment back in power .Ed Milliband was Energy Secretary at the time of the last Labour Government when smart meters first started getting installed and sensibly they made them mandatory as most other countries did .He may well get his old job back .

Does that mean that Ed Milliband was responsible for ploughing ahead with the rollout of SMETS1 even though it was clearly not fit for purpose?

They were  fit for purpose and only British Gas installed the early Smets 1 s and must have fitted  couple of million of them to their own customers  before the others started years later .
Personally I never heard of any complaints and customers never objected to them at all because I carried on reading them for 2 or 3 quarters . The only occasional  complaints was when the meter fitters failed to turn up for the appointments .
  British Gas had a very  loyal customer base and I expect most of these early smarts ( Landis and Gyr and Siemens ) meters are still in use and operating fine now today . The smart gas meters would have been exchanged by now because the battery would have given up but the electric meters will still be in use . In those days the suppliers fitted what meters they wanted .OFGEM never tried to stop them.  

My SMETS 1 meters were installed by BG to get free electric for three years from July 2015 to July 2018. Both the electric and gas meters are still running OK 9 years after they were installed.

pseudodox

camking said:

BarelySentientAI said:

camking said:

I've started getting repeated emails and texts from eon next too on this topic.

My Ampy Automation 5196 meter was certified in August 2003 and manufactured in 2003, according to the label on it and this meter has a certification period of 25 years according to the government's schedule 4 document, dated 16th May 2024, listing meter certification periods.

2003 + 25 = 2028.  It's currently 2024 as the time of writing.  Therefore, eon next's statement that "your electricity meter has passed its certification date and needs to be replaced." is patently untrue. (my emphasis)

If there were genuinely beneficial reasons for switching the meter, then I'd expect them to list them.  They don't.  Instead, they make what looks like an obviously untrue statement.  In my opinion, using an untrue statement is deception, pure and simple.  If a company stoops to that level, it raises the question of their motivation for sending the message.  Since they cannot provide any compelling reasons, my assumption is that it's not beneficial for me, the customer.

The reason other posters have referred to these communications as a "tactic", and I agree with that assessment, is because eon next has gained a reputation for repeatedly using untrue claims to persuade customers to change their meter.  

Aside: I accept that it is possible that Ampy/L+G might have extended its certification period recently and that eon simply doesn't have up to date data.

Would you prefer that they just said "we're changing it, the government and regulator have told us we should, and it's ours so you can't object"?

Because that's what the supply licence and electricity act allow them to do.

Yes.  I would very much prefer that - because it would be truthful.

They might even regain my trust, at least partially.

If eon next continue making untrue claims that are so obviously and verifiably false, why should I trust anything else they say?

Me too.  We have been fed a load of nonsense about smart meter rollout from the beginning.  I agree that it should have been made mandatory from the start without any of the hype about "this will save you money" and without the ridiculous Einstein marketing and the haphazard gimmicky IHD units.  This is the approach that got my back up - and many more people likewise.  I don't like being fed marketing hype and being treated like a mushroom instead of being presented with straightforward facts.  SMs should have been stated to be a natural advance in technology, like when we rewire or replumb houses we use the latest wiring/piping configurations and equipment.  And there should have been straightforward information of the potential for TOU tariff availabilty.

Why should we have to turn to apps and downloads to monitor our usage when these IHD toys throw themselves out of the pram if, like me, we cannot reach the buttons of a smart meter to activate a display that we can read?  I can read my current meters in seconds - no apps, no devices, nothing but my eyes, pen and paper.  

bob2302

pseudodox said:

There is no way I would trust an IHD to give me accurate information

You can submit meter readings from an IHD provided you exercise some basic common sense.

pseudodox

bob2302 said:

pseudodox said:

There is no way I would trust an IHD to give me accurate information

You can submit meter readings from an IHD provided you exercise some basic common sense.

What?  Even if the IHD, like many reported on here, is not actually working?  Magic?  Smoke & mirrors!

SAC2334

bob2302 said:

pseudodox said:

There is no way I would trust an IHD to give me accurate information

You can submit meter readings from an IHD provided you exercise some basic common sense.

My IHD gives extremely accurate info..I now know exactly how many watts every appliance in my house uses including various modes on my OLED screen .It shows that one mode ,dynamic ,uses 250 watts and standard mode which uses 15O watts...Also the microwave screen uses 3 watts ,the standby on my old Plasma screen uses 15 watts and the OLED and attached recorder only uses. 1 watts ..etc etc ..the reading is correct on the IHD exactly same as the meter ..Tomorrow I m getting free electric all day and all afternoon they are paying me various prices just to use electricity up to 8 p a kWh just for using it..Thanks Octopus 
I can't believe the anti smart meter brigade have believed all the lies fed to them by the likes of Nigel Farage etc ..