We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
E-on can't access smart meter after switch, now overcharging me
Comments
-
Did they manage to issue you with a statement pf billing month or so later?
0 -
No statement yet, but usage looks accurate on the Eon Next App, including for periods where the car was smart charging during peak time, the cost for that period reflects the off peak rate.
1 -
Thanks to you good people it seems that (1) it is the governments fault (2) the Ombudsman isn't going to sort it and (3) It's going to take a while to get it sorted and no amount of shouting will speed things up. SO I've given up, I've switched back to octopus. Having set up a comparison spreadsheet with our expected annual usage in it, there's not as much in the different tariffs than I'd imagined. Thanks for all the inputs everyone.
2 -
Did you sign up to the bright service yet? I would for sure do that so if this situation happens again in future you have evidence the meter is communicating with DCC.
1 -
I did. But that doesn't solve the problem. They now acknowledge that the meter is communicating with DCC but it's not communicating with the current supplier (eon), and eon will not accept trains from 3rd party.
0 -
This is the ombdusman? They seem idiots then. For me when I showed EON proof the Bright service (sourced from DCC) is working, they caved on the attempted switch to SVR, and admitted they were to blame internally.
1 -
Adding experience where Eon Next dashboard stated connected to smart meter from Day 1, energy insights or whatever Eon call smart meter usage figures and tables app only which I am unable to use.
No statement of billing or any charges deducted after a month so I contacted Eon Next who replied.
"Although your smart meter usually sends us your electricity usage automatically every half hour, sometimes there can be missing half-hourly data. When this happens, we need to retrieve the missing data before we can issue an accurate bill.
Please be assured that we are working to get the missing information as quickly as possible so your bill can be generated" ( I have since pointed out that in that instance Octopus response usually would be to say have added missing half hour reading(s) statement has been issued)
A month later still no statement of billing or any charges deducted, I switched out to EDF.
On Friday got £40 auto compensation for failing to issue final bill within 6 weeks, transaction charge dated switched out date appear to be usage deductions for two months, no deduction for standing charge.
1 -
Suppliers are well aware of the problems they can have getting smart 1/2 hourly data - and so protect themselves in T&Cs.
10% plus in last MSE article I read on meter problems - bit old now so hopefully improving - (of maybe 20% plus they reported from others findings having some fault) - were smart meter comms problems - far too high a failure level - for comfort.
It doesnt take long for some firms to decide partial missing 1/2 hrly data is a failing connection - switch to use estimated billing and then if too frequent in a month in some cases e.g. see 1.5 here - Octopus will only estimate for 4 days in a month and if cannot ? - but will use Octopus flex rates on Ofgem estimation rules. How long before they drop you onto monthly register SVT ? See e.g. 1.5 in
e.g.
Compare that to EOns slightly more involved take here - in at least promising to attempt to recall missed data for upto 7 days
And just picking one of the smart - Smart Saver - 6.5-6.9 - its at least quoting a definite we will attempt to recover - rather than a rush to estimated.
But it's still only upto 7 days of attempts any missing data - but still basically 4 days in any 30 missing goes from estimate - and a failure to connect after failures (at all or reliably ??) - and a reversion to Next Flex - their SVT tariff.
Ive noticed on my EOn app it regular misses data updates - and thats just nightly registers - for 2-3 days. So would worry about smart TOU here.
The 7 days automated retry, the promised manual intervention stages etc - may explain why EOn may be a little slower to produce initial bills for a problem meter month - but ultimately too many failures - means unlikely to remain on smart TOU.
And if your one of the 10% (in a recent but maybe not current figure) of those with failing or failed communications then as another recent thread title - then you may now be quite financially disadvantaged - e.g if run an EV or heat pump etc.
0 -
Just to wrap this one up, realised last week I'd still not had a bill so dropped them an email asking where it was. A couple of days later, had an odd email from Octopus as follows
Hi xxx,
When you switch energy suppliers, we and your old supplier need to agree "handover meter readings" - this is the figure which marks the last unit of energy you pay them for, and the point where you'll be paying us for your usage.
In an ideal world, the "handover" reading(s) would be the same as the opening readings you send us — but the highly regulated industry process for handover includes some calculations done according to a specific rule (you can see details on our blog.
In your case, this process produced a slightly different figure from the one you sent us. This doesn't mean you're paying twice for your energy, both Octopus and your old supplier use the same reading for your switch.
We think this is all a bit bonkers, but the energy industry is full of these estimations and methods, to account for things like variations in the date when a reading is given.
We've written about the process on our blog if you want more detail.
Now the industry has agreed this figure, we can use the monthly readings you give us from now on.
Which seemed odd given I'd not been with Octopus for a couple of months and prior to that had been with them for about 3 years with no bill issues...
A couple of days later, Eon replied and said it was sorted and bill turned up.
I can only assume the mysterious 3rd party disagreed with the accurate smart meter readings provided to both suppliers and no idea why it triggered Octopus to send that email when it probably should have been Eon. Either way I don't think in my case it made any difference as Eon, for some reason, onboard direct to Next Drive Smart rather than to SVR so actually index reading were never used by them anyway?
No idea why it took me emailing them to get it sorted, clearly their backend systems aren't smart enough to identify issues and get them resolved without customer intervention but I'm happy now. My migration went though without any of the issues reported on this thread.
1
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 355.7K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 456.1K Spending & Discounts
- 248.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 605.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 179K Life & Family
- 263.6K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards