Smart Meters-Hidden in the Small print- beware

Bodgeit1

So I noticed my credit going up on my dual tariff electricity account, Gas was being taken but no billing for electricity except for the first few months. I wrote to them and said why weren't you billing me as i have a night rate for car charging and the day rate. They couldn't extract the half hour data. i checked if anything had changed to block the signal at their request, nothing my end, i did offer  a yearly hour usage as I can export that from my Zappi charger CT unit. I then received a message saying that some data had been recovered and that if they couldn't get the rest they would charge me on the VARIABLE RATE, i.e. full price (remember the car charging!) i did say this was not acceptable, not my problem but it was my problem as the small print says if they can't get the data they will charge at the standard variable rate. How many consumers know that? They have since got the data bar one day which I have offered to send them my hourly KWH readings. 

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Bodgeit1 said:

.   I then received a message saying that some data had been recovered and that if they couldn't get the rest they would charge me on the VARIABLE RATE, i.e. full price (remember the car charging!) i did say this was not acceptable, not my problem but it was my problem as the small print says if they can't get the data they will charge at the standard variable rate. How many consumers know that?

You're always advised to read the T&C of your tariff. I've got a smart EV tariff and it says something very similar in my T&C.

There was another similar thread recently and the advice was to check your account at least once a week to ensure the smart meter data was being collected.

Here's the thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6597543/octopus-nightmare

Scot_39

Bodgeit1 said:

So I noticed my credit going up on my dual tariff electricity account, Gas was being taken but no billing for electricity except for the first few months. I wrote to them and said why weren't you billing me as i have a night rate for car charging and the day rate. They couldn't extract the half hour data. i checked if anything had changed to block the signal at their request, nothing my end, i did offer  a yearly hour usage as I can export that from my Zappi charger CT unit. I then received a message saying that some data had been recovered and that if they couldn't get the rest they would charge me on the VARIABLE RATE, i.e. full price (remember the car charging!) i did say this was not acceptable, not my problem but it was my problem as the small print says if they can't get the data they will charge at the standard variable rate. How many consumers know that? They have since got the data bar one day which I have offered to send them my hourly KWH readings. 

Smart meters have been known to go dumb.

And smart meter tariff suppliers are pretty clear what the fall back billing is in such situations - or should be.

But you are correct - it's probably glossed over by many - and it is really surprising how many people fail to read what they sign up to.

The real surprise is that they took notice and made the effort to recover a reasonabe number of missing ones from the meter (it's the store - in therory upto 13 months iirc - not the DCC or even necessarily the supplier) - so guess you are with one of the better ones.  

They don't have to - probably literally not even for a couple of days - let alone however long until you spotted it.

I still look at my monthly statements - to check the smart readings are there.  And thats on a normal 2 rate TOU tariff. After family ended up £100s in debt from estimated readings (actual on file but being ignored by supplier) on conventional tariff.

Qyburn

I recently change tariff with Octopus. In the terms and conditions which ae presented to you, and which you have specifically tick to show your agreement it includes ..

"1.5 If you switch to one of our smart import tariffs, you agree that we can take half hourly meter readings from your Smart Meter. If we are unable to obtain half hourly meter readings from your Smart Meter directly, we will charge you for your energy as we would charge a customer on our Flexible Octopus Variable Rate Tariff, based on typical consumption patterns (referred to by Ofgem as "Profile 1"). We are unable to use data from third party software or apps for billing purposes."