MSE News: Smart meter problems? You could be automatically compensated under new rules

tfhnota

Emails often end up run by AI bots or non-thinking people who just cut and paste answers that might possibly have some relevance, much better to phone - if you use your registered phone number you will get the person assigned to your account, if you use a different one you seem to get more intelligent people. If you ask Google AI or Grok AI for a contact number that deals with metering problems, perhaps mentioning the need for 4G, you may find a route to yet more knowledgeable people. You may have to try a few times before you get the right person.

Chrysalis

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81862872#Comment_81862872

Most likely lobbying.

I guess Martin needs to get back on TV embarrassing Ofgem until they comply.

tfhnota

Rumour is that ten percent have gone dumb, so a deep slice into their profits if everyone complained and got the dosh

Scot_39

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896748#Comment_81896748

No idea of tariff cost - surely that likely also applies to your meter - and not the fault of the ihd but the meter settings (if not underlying configuration limitations to suit) ?

tfhnota

Just to update, had a new communications hub fitted yesterday and the account is now showing yesterday's usage. The Octopus guy phoned Thursday night to tell me what time he was coming and arrived early. So all good and ten out of ten for my second phone call, the first phone call did not seem to do anything and the original email exchange was full of silly questions that had no relevance to the problem but did eventually get it referred to the smart meter team who apparently checked if it could be done remotely but then nothing more. Not on TOU, if I was would have ignored the email option and done the phone calls in a much more persistent manner but a happy ending, anyway. Not that I am going to swap my fix for TOU at the moment! First email Jan 11th, referred to smart meter team 22nd Jan, problem fixed March 6th.

RoagC

We’ve had a dumb unit for a year now—a year of chasing Octopus to replace it. The irony being, the technician who installed it had brought five units with him, knowing that there was a high circulation of duds. Having discovered that all five were duds, he said we’d be in for a wait to get ours replaced. He wasn’t wrong. It also seemed like he’d go through all his subsequent jobs that day installing duds.

He’d said that technicians routinely return known duds (at least, those they don’t install) to the supplier, who apparently seems to rebox and reissue them, thus increasing the proportion of duds in circulation. So it doesn’t surprise me that one in five households have a dud. Someone somewhere is making a profit out of this.

Chrysalis

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81942772#Comment_81942772

The current system has a perverse motivation, instead of the suppliers losing money (which is how it should be if the metering stuff isnt working), they can bill people on more expensive legacy tariffs, over estimate usage, and instead the customer pays extra due to faulty equipment.

The attitude seems so chill from the industry, EON FAQ states if your meter has gone dumb dont worry you just send us readings instead. As if its a very minor problem. Similar thing on Ofgem's website.

Another thing that seems to have not been accounted for is I expect Ofgem allowed the exemption because the suppliers argued its outside of their control (this isnt really relevant contractually, as the consumer pays the supplier to handle all of it), however there is issues as I have discovered, that sometimes a meter readings are not sent because of the supplier's own systems not working properly. One advantage of the Bright service is that its a good way of diagnosing if its down to the supplier or to the meter. Luckily I got them to accept the liability on their side, it seems its possible to use the switch failure compensation scheme if it happens as a result of a switch.