Octopus Delays Fixing Smart Meter

QrizB

Qyburn said:

Ten weeks since it was first raised. It sounds like when you said they might take a few weeks, you presuming was no chance whatsoever of them doing anything until a complaint was made.

I first spoke to Octopus about it in April 2022. I didn't raise it to a complaint until December, and they completed the fix in February 2023.

Qyburn

Still no nearer to getting someone on site, it's always the same story of no appointments available each time I call.

However yesterday the guy told me that they are in fact actually receiving some data which he referred to as the "snapshots", and it responds to download requests for that data. It's unclear why everyone else always said there was no communication at all. He was going to try something and they should know today whether it worked or not. The (different) person I spoke to today couldn't confirm. She said she'd speak to their smart meter specialist, and would send an email update, which she hasn't.

MarzipanCrumble

umm
I have had intermitant SM2 conn over 5 years and nothing has worked.  I am in South Wales in a house built with black cement (coal dust as a mixer) and SM2 connects to O2 whose signal is iffy at best.

I too am frustrated I cannot access cheapest tarrifs - and feel discriminated against because of this.  BUT I do not blame Octopus who have been great at trying everything to get SM2 to communicate.  Yes, it has taken emails and phone calls and time.

I blame the comms system which is reliant on 1 method of communication.   If it does not work you are stuffed, and cannot partake of best tarrifs.

chrisw

chrisw said:

I reported the same issue on 8th November and they are coming to look at the meters on Monday 15th December. They said they were going to try power cycling the meters but the email says replace, so I'm not quite sure what they're going to do.

They came out and replaced my meters on the date they said. They worked fine until Christmas Eve and then the gas readings stopped being transmitted. Strangely, they show on the IHD but not on the Octopus app or bright app.

Qyburn

Still chasing and not getting answers, but now three different people have confirmed that they're receiving index readings for import. Once again the answering agent said she'd c8nsult their smart meter expert to see what should be done.

I also tried to get some hard facts on how they manage the waiting list for appointments. They've said that they book appointments for five weeks in advance, and I find it hard to beleive that all of those four months work of booking were requested before 17th October 2024.

Qyburn

Following a suggestion I tried contacting Octopus via Facebook, with interesting results.

Firstly two different fake profiles, pretending to be Octopus reps, tried to get me to send details to them.

Then i had an email from an Octopus social media person. Not very helpful as it was mainly just boilerplate about how they handle complaints. She touched on the actual issue saying they were experiencing longer than usual delays of 6 to 8 weeks for on site work, obviouslymissing tge fact that we've already been waiting for 13 weeks.

Then whether as a result or by coincidence I had contact from their booking people setting up an appointment for next Monday. Either way although it's good news it also give the lie to their repeated assertion that they're booked out five weeks in advance.

Concerningly they are now saying that it may not start working while the guy's on site. In those cases it "usually" starts working within 48 hours, but they will allow 10 days before booking a return visit, which may be another six weeks.

Qyburn

Today's visit was a dead loss. The guy carried out a reset and some other checks in conjunction with Octopus, and determined that both the comms hub and the meter should be replaced. Every time i spoke to Octopus they assured me that once they eventually had someone on site he would be able to carry out whatever reset or replacement was required to get things working without the need for a second visit.

In spite of those assurances the guy arrived not able to do anything except the reset, and only allowed 30 minutes on site. A return visit is needed but no dates are available.

So we're back exactly where we were last October, meter not working and no indication of when anyone will fix it.

EssexHebridean

You must be closing in on the 8 weeks now though - so a strongly worded follow up pointing out that in X days you will be escalating to the Ombudsman just might get things moving? 

Qyburn

It's over eight weeks since the complaint was logged, I got my "8 week letter" just about the same time as Octopus made the appointment. I told them I would hold off on the Ombudsman until we saw the outcome of the visit. Logged with Ombudsman this morning.

Current status is Octopus have the notes determining that both comms hub and meter need to be replaced, but that work has to be "authorised" by Octopus before they'll even try to schedule it.

Qyburn

Octopus have scheduled a return visit for 28th February. Obviously !!!!!! off at another nearly five week delay but it really seems impossible to get them to do anything. They keep saying it's an escalated complaint but that doesn't seem to mean they actually do anything.