Two Related Meters on a single rate tariff - being charged two standing charges

mmmmikey

FLady said:

thanks for all replies - yes the date has been extended to 30th June 2025 and the document that this is in states that  "Our consideration of extending the licence condition will again be based on the state of the smart meter rollout This should give the sector sufficient policy certainty of our likely action in 2025."  which seems to suggest that they might extend again if the smart meter rollout is delayed.  

I did ask shell last year if I could swop the two meters to a single smart meter - they asked for pictures of the set up and then it all went quiet and then they sold to octopus. There is no reason why that I know of that they cant be combined but I guess it is not quite a standard simple old meter to new smart meter installation.

Have other people with related meters being able to get their energy company to do a simple swop to a single smart meter? - any complications?  I know mobile coverage in our area is very patchy - is that still an issue?
I would love to have a single smart meter without all this hassle !!

Hi

There are of course lots of different ways of tackling this, but what I would suggest is that you write a final email to Octopus making the following points. 

Octopus are generally fair and reasonable but recent experience (both my own and reported by others here) is that it can take a frustrating amount of time for this kind of thing to get looked at by someone who understands it fully and takes it seriously. With a bit of luck Octopus will just relent and sort things out. But even if you've said all this before and Octopus don't agree it doesn't matter because, having written this, you'll have everything perfectly teed up ready to take to the Ombudsman. The important thing is to be friendly, reasonable, specific and firm.

The points I would suggest you make in your email are:

1. You raised this as a complaint on (whenever)

2. You are not satisfied with the way it has been dealt with.

3. The rules are very clear and you should not have to pay a second standing charge.

4. This problem has only arisen following the account move from Shell (who billed you correctly) and, quite apart from the rules, changing the way you are billed without notice or agreement is unreasonable.

5. You understand that they do not normally support this kind of two meter / one standing charge arrangement so the obvious thing to do would seem to be replace the two meters with a single meter, so could they arrange for this to be done as soon as possible.

6. You would like them to refund any standing charges that you have been incorrectly billed for immediately, and then to make a second refund for any further standing charges once the new meter is fitted.

7. You would prefer to resolve this with Octopus directly and avoid the inconvenience to you and cost to Octopus of progressing this via the ombudsman, but, given the above points, you are sure they will understand your reason for taking this to the ombudsman.

8. Finish by asking them to confirm their agreement to replace the meter, refund the incorrect standing charges and telling you when this will be done. If they are not agreement with that, could they confirm that you are now in deadlock so you can take this to the ombudsman.

I don't think you need to get into any discussions about potential issues around the smart meter installation at this stage. There probably won't be an issue and if there is you can cross that bridge when you come to it.

Hope this helps and good luck getting it sorted

FLady

So as I thought - no reply for a week and then when I prompted them for a response, the reply was just to say again that octopus charge two standing charges for two meters and they are going to close the complaint - so have sent email based on mmmmikey s comment above (thank you so much for that !) - and now just see what happens ....

Scot_39

You have yet to answer what your multirate metering was - I.e. if E7 or not.


If so it certainly wasnt in their original definition of relevant restricted metering.  But would have to read the current 22G to see if still true.

Spoonie_Turtle

FLady said:

Have other people with related meters being able to get their energy company to do a simple swop to a single smart meter? - any complications?  I know mobile coverage in our area is very patchy - is that still an issue?
I would love to have a single smart meter without all this hassle !!

Don't know how relevant this will be to your situation as I don't know what our exact setup was, but we had Economy 10 metering changed to a single meter in 2019, that went smoothly.  (But if we had a separate off-peak circuit it was no longer needed because the storage heaters and immersion were being replaced by a heat pump.)
At the time it was switched to a non-smart meter, as my parents were put off by the SMETS1 horror stories, but we got there in the end by needing a smart meter to stay on a particular tariff.

To be honest even if you had a smart meter and it didn't communicate properly with the supplier, you might still be in a better position than you are now - the certainty of just one standing charge, and you would still be able to manually send meter readings to get accurate bills.  (And if you were interested in something like Tracker, last time I checked the T&Cs as long as the meter communicated with them when you went onto the tariff, you'd be allowed to stay on even if it stopped communicating.)

FLady

so now have an offer to replace meters or at least it is being passed to the engineering team to investigate - and an agreement to refund all extra standing charges - no need to go to ombudsman - will just have to wait n see what happens

mmmmikey

FLady said:

so now have an offer to replace meters or at least it is being passed to the engineering team to investigate - and an agreement to refund all extra standing charges - no need to go to ombudsman - will just have to wait n see what happens

That's great news, hopefully this is not too far away from getting sorted now

FLady

Well I finally have a single smart meter - fitted yesterday by Octopus - two meters removed  - hopefully all the "paperwork" or the electronic equivalent for the changes will go through OK - still to get refund of standing charges that have been charged up until yesterday - but at least going forward its only one meter !! yeah - so pleased - thank you everyone here for all your help !!!

EssexHebridean

Thanks for coming back to us to update the thread - glad you got sorted! 

Sailbad

Just make sure you get that standing charge refund. No way it should take as long as that.

FLady

standing charges all refunded today