Energy Suppliers

[MatsyLR]

Worked fine for nearly a year no issues, just stopped working, no WAN and no HAN.

Ah so it was working beforehand, interesting. I'm assuming you have actually tried to escalate the matter and getting no where with them....our office recently stopped being hard on call times due to system changes (which is part of the reason you get bad customer service as keeping calls below a short threshold is quite hard and are built around the idea of getting you of the phone as quickly as possible making you someone else's problem), may just be a case of getting through the person who is actually going to bother trying. Getting someone like you on the phone messes with that persons stats which in turn messes with bonuses for both the employee and their manager as you are going to take way longer than the maximum call time to try to help. Something as simple as changing a tariff is already a case of speed reading and hoping the customer doesn't dispute what your saying or ask anything else and just accepts everything the agent says.

From a customer perspective yes its a horrible but that's how the system is built specially for things that are low priority such as SM not working (as you are more than likely capable of doing it yourself anyway)

 

[BigBoy]

What do you want them to do though?
If your smart meter is not already working its likely to not work at all for a long time, octopus can do very little about it, they have no control over the signal in your area. They can raise it with the smart metering team but they can only try to get the meter commissioned which they likely have tried already. Many areas still don't have the infrastructure to support smart meters. It also depends on how far away your meters are away from each other and how many walls/wall material are in the way, it all gets in the way of the rather crappy signal transmitters inside the meters.

The amount of calls today was crazy, was easily a couple of thousands left when I left at 5PM (compared to either 0 or less than 100-200). Was all either meter readings or complaining about prices increasing like the energy companies can do anything about it.....the hold time's was insane on how long people where willing to hold for. Wonder how many complaints will come in the tomorrow morning from people who got cut off while waiting (as the lines closed and you can't expect people to stay at work). Its not an issue when there only a few left, but when there are thousands of calls waiting at closing time, you are not going to have staff staying.



There is likely not much they can do about it tbh, your request would be submitted to the smart team, they will try commission the meter and more than likely won't be able to due to the signal issues. Its not as simple as "turning it on" the gas meter has to transmit its information to the electric meter for it to be passed back to the company, if your meter cannot get the signal across (distance, thick walls etc) they can't do anything about it.

Also withholding correct readings is your choice if you want to be bitter about it, but may come back to bite you later down the line with possible debt. You would also have no room to complain since you refused to provide readings.

There is lots they can do to rectify we (EDF my employer) do a huge amount to triage and maintain the assets. Plenty of times the HAN or local.meter network will drop out it's only a ZigBee connection after all and a hardware reset or reboot is required.

 

[chrcoluk]

They've gone downhill since taking on so many new customers.
1 month+ and still no reply about my meters not working. Just get the same line of its been passed to our metering department.

I agree, pre October they responded to emails quickly and now dont respond at all, have to ring now.

On the IHD, the latest they told me since I made that post is I got put in a queue for the IHD to be activated by the data entry lady, but she was put on manning phones because of the chaos, until that chaos dies down she is staying on phones so likely another week, so they basically just telling me to keep waiting.

The IHD is in the drawer now, and wont check it until next Friday, but I do want it to work as its the only way to see the "usage now" data.

That is pure and simple lies from Octopus, there is no switching things on when the system is working, it either gets installed properly and works or it gets installed poorly and doesn't.

:// Seems I may have a battle ahead of me.

There is likely not much they can do about it tbh, your request would be submitted to the smart team, they will try commission the meter and more than likely won't be able to due to the signal issues. Its not as simple as "turning it on" the gas meter has to transmit its information to the electric meter for it to be passed back to the company, if your meter cannot get the signal across (distance, thick walls etc) they can't do anything about it.

Thats a bit weak, they cant just say sorry the tech sucks so you wont have a working IHD, they as the supplier are responsible to me to make the system work even if its not directly their fault, and if that is the reason, they certainly shouldnt just be saying "wait another week". If all the system lets them do is to keep retrying remotely, then its a poor system, there should be a fault resolution process. The guy I spoke to earlier (friday) was very convincing in his argument that all that was needed was for someone on data entry to activate the IHD on their systems, if he was lieing then what was the point in all that effort, very bizarre customer service. Withholding the gas meter readings encourages them to fix it. If I do actually see the estimate is way off I probably will correct it. I didnt say I wouldnt check the readings myself.

Also what are the signalling issues for the IHD? The IHD has a signal, it picks up the time, and has fixed bars (not flashing), I also tested it right next to the meter. Also the readings are been sent to Octopus. The gas meter may be broken on the signal, but the electric side is working.

 

[BigBoy]

Also what are the signalling issues for the IHD? The IHD has a signal, it picks up the time, and has fixed bars (not flashing), I also tested it right next to the meter. Also the readings are been sent to Octopus. The gas meter may be broken on the signal, but the electric side is working.

IHD/PPMID gets data directly from the meter, if its still saying waiting for data or just showing nothing other than signal strength and time then the meters are not commissioned correctly/fully and need to be triaged, lots can be done by the back office team but depending on how big that team is it can take a while.

All of our (EDF's) back office work is done in India and mostly at night (UK night) as the smart network is less contested. That said the packets of information for setup are ok 1-3kb in size but are heavily compressed to squeeze the most into the small package size.

The meters have to unpack the package, decrypt it and then decide what to do with it after CRC checking it, as the gas meter is basically an Rpi a with a very low power long life battery that only wakes up 1min in 5 for the first hour of commissioning and then once and hour after that it takes ages to decrypt and analyse the packets (all 15 of them), on a good day its usually around 40 mins to fully commission a gas meter. Most installers/suppliers expect the installer to start the process and move on to the next job not wait around for things to be completed fully and this is where they fall down. EDF restrict engineers to 4-6 Duel fuel installs a day (depending on performance of the operative mainly) to make sure the upmost is done to get the meter fully commissioned and functioning. Unfortunately there are other updates sent to the meters continually at least another 8 in the first two weeks after initial install and several more after that too, these can get stuck or the meter can get stuck decrypting them causing the meter to crash and it needing a hardware reboot to get it functioning again.

 

[chrcoluk]

IHD/PPMID gets data directly from the meter, if its still saying waiting for data or just showing nothing other than signal strength and time then the meters are not commissioned correctly/fully and need to be triaged, lots can be done by the back office team but depending on how big that team is it can take a while.

All of our (EDF's) back office work is done in India and mostly at night (UK night) as the smart network is less contested. That said the packets of information for setup are ok 1-3kb in size but are heavily compressed to squeeze the most into the small package size.

The meters have to unpack the package, decrypt it and then decide what to do with it after CRC checking it, as the gas meter is basically an Rpi a with a very low power long life battery that only wakes up 1min in 5 for the first hour of commissioning and then once and hour after that it takes ages to decrypt and analyse the packets (all 15 of them), on a good day its usually around 40 mins to fully commission a gas meter. Most installers/suppliers expect the installer to start the process and move on to the next job not wait around for things to be completed fully and this is where they fall down. EDF restrict engineers to 4-6 Duel fuel installs a day (depending on performance of the operative mainly) to make sure the upmost is done to get the meter fully commissioned and functioning. Unfortunately there are other updates sent to the meters continually at least another 8 in the first two weeks after initial install and several more after that too, these can get stuck or the meter can get stuck decrypting them causing the meter to crash and it needing a hardware reboot to get it functioning again.

Ok I appreciate the response and you sound like you know whats what on this, so will take your word over what Octopus have been feeding me. So part of the problem is the installer not been able to hang around to check its activated.

So this commissioning process is local to the meter at my property, its not remote like Octopus told me? I just dont understand the point of them lieing, as it will inevitably mean I ring them back. Since I now know they sending me on a wild goose chase I am not going to give them a week and will chase daily from next Monday to get someone out to check if the local setup is done properly. Sounds like my gas meter may have crashed? Although I am guessing electric hasnt as its still sending data to Octopus.

So to confirm, meter has signal, it is able to fetch time, screens have either --- as value or "waiting for ....", the word after waiting for depends on the screen.

Ok things are not quite what I said.

On my main dashboard at Octopus it says no gas meter readings have been given the same as before.

However previously when I selected explore my usage (two days ago roughly) it only showed electric, but now gas is there as well, so there is gas readings, but they not showing on my main dashboard. Which seems to indicate something isnt linked up right. I have also just checked IHD again, that's still a brick.

 

[robj20]

There is lots they can do to rectify we (EDF my employer) do a huge amount to triage and maintain the assets. Plenty of times the HAN or local.meter network will drop out it's only a ZigBee connection after all and a hardware reset or reboot is required.

Is there any thing I can do to locally to reset the meters, it's proving difficult finding much information about the meters. I feel like ifew button presses and I could have the meters working again.

 

[BigBoy]

Ok I appreciate the response and you sound like you know whats what on this, so will take your word over what Octopus have been feeding me. So part of the problem is the installer not been able to hang around to check its activated.

So this commissioning process is local to the meter at my property, its not remote like Octopus told me? I just dont understand the point of them lieing, as it will inevitably mean I ring them back. Since I now know they sending me on a wild goose chase I am not going to give them a week and will chase daily from next Monday to get someone out to check if the local setup is done properly. Sounds like my gas meter may have crashed? Although I am guessing electric hasnt as its still sending data to Octopus.

Commissioning is the process of setting up the meter, basically programming it but doing so remotely, the installer sends a message to the DCC saying this meter is here and this is the ID number of the meters, Comms hub and IHD, the DCC then send the packets of info to the meter to commission it i.e activate it as your meter so it knows your tariff and all the account details it needs to do its job of providing you data via the IHD. A lot can be done remotely to triage the meters as long as the initial commissioning has been completed and the meter did not get stuck/crash half way though.

So to confirm, meter has signal, it is able to fetch time, screens have either --- as value or "waiting for ....", the word after waiting for depends on the screen.

Ok things are not quite what I said.

On my main dashboard at Octopus it says no gas meter readings have been given the same as before.

However previously when I selected explore my usage (two days ago roughly) it only showed electric, but now gas is there as well, so there is gas readings, but they not showing on my main dashboard. Which seems to indicate something isnt linked up right. I have also just checked IHD again, that's still a brick.

I think your IHD/PPMID is duff, if readings are now showing online the meter has finally kicked back in. Did you turn the IHD off within the fist 10 data of install?

Is there any thing I can do to locally to reset the meters, it's proving difficult finding much information about the meters. I feel like ifew button presses and I could have the meters working again.

If you are comfortable pulling the mains fuse then yes (although technically you are not allowed to and can be fined for doing so) it's the only way to reset the devices.

Pull the fuse and wait for 10mins for all lights to go out on the meter and Comms hub then put the fuse back in.

I am by no means telling you to do this as it's technically breaking the law and can also be very dangerous. This is very much do at your own risk as the live side of the mains fuse has very high potential current.[/QUOTE]

 

[chrcoluk]

Yep my IHD was off part of first day as didnt realise battery drained so fast it ran flat.

I also held button down at least a few times, probably more since then in attempts to get it working as advised by Octopus staff.

 

[Beans on toast Dave]

after the awful migration from eon to eon next (being locked out of my old and new accounts) i have been offered there fix v11 backdated to the start of last month
should i take it? if they had not messed up my account migration it would have been the Fix 1 Year v10 rates from eon which would have been cheaper

should i push for the Fix 1 Year v10 rates? i guess i would not get them

 

[Zenduri]

after the awful migration from eon to eon next (being locked out of my old and new accounts) i have been offered there fix v11 backdated to the start of last month
should i take it? if they had not messed up my account migration it would have been the Fix 1 Year v10 rates from eon which would have been cheaper

should i push for the Fix 1 Year v10 rates? i guess i would not get them

Got your message. Elaborate on what happened and a rough timeline and what you did. Short answer is they will not really want to give you the better rates as obviously its loss making for the business. However i would be inclined to give you the V10 personally if its been a long drawn out issue. I'll hold on from commenting any more until i get more of a breakdown

 

[kakarott]

Octopus gave me a bill from 28th Feb to 27th March and seems I line with what I usually pay (they never billed me before). I submitted my meter readings to octopus on 31st March but haven't seen an updated bill. They also recommend submitting readings today, what should I do?

 

[Beans on toast Dave]

Got your message. Elaborate on what happened and a rough timeline and what you did. Short answer is they will not really want to give you the better rates as obviously its loss making for the business. However i would be inclined to give you the V10 personally if its been a long drawn out issue. I'll hold on from commenting any more until i get more of a breakdown

was qoing to take the "Fix 1 Year v10" deal that was in my eon account, logged in a day or so later and saw i was migrating to eon next, i tried calling (eon next) several times with hold times of at least 20 minutes and could not get through, i could not see to accept the eon deal offered to me and i could not access anything from eon next

i have been sent nothing telling me of the migration except for seeing that message in my eon account

logged into my old eon next acount (was with them before eon) and there was nothing there only my old details as i asked them to close my account when i left them before

as i just could not get through on the phone i sent a complaint email, it was 3 weeks and it was eventally answered and after several emails and me wanting to open an offical complaint they offered the
fix v11 tarriif, i dont think i explained properly to them, i accepted thinking it was the best could get and they have backdated it to the start of march and want me to close the complaint

im not closing the complaint as i still am not happy but dont know what to really do about it

i cannot call them and emails are not the best platform for me to explain what i am unhappy with

 

[casper_uk]

Are most suppliers now installing the second version of smart meters? Am with British Gas at the moment and can't wait to leave them. Just wondering if it would be better/easier to get them to fit a smart meter, and then try moving to EDF/octopus to try take advantage of the cheap night rate etc.

 

[silversurfer]

Octopus gave me a bill from 28th Feb to 27th March and seems I line with what I usually pay (they never billed me before). I submitted my meter readings to octopus on 31st March but haven't seen an updated bill. They also recommend submitting readings today, what should I do?

its only 4 days since last bill, wait a few weeks before another reading. You are upto date, I expect they will report both readings on that future bill

 

[robj20]

Octopus gave me a bill from 28th Feb to 27th March and seems I line with what I usually pay (they never billed me before). I submitted my meter readings to octopus on 31st March but haven't seen an updated bill. They also recommend submitting readings today, what should I do?

I sent readings in today and got billed an hour later so that's up to the 31st March dealt with. Everything now is at the new price.

 

[silversurfer]

I know someone on Octopus and customer service said Octo GO is not worth the change as all the rates will cost more then just staying on the April capped prices. Does that sound correct, I thought they could benefit from using the cheap elec off peak but perhaps not if it only appears 4am briefly. Anyone got experience on their various smart meter schemes

Seems everyone who previously did Solar panels totally did the right thing

 

[BigBoy]

Are most suppliers now installing the second version of smart meters? Am with British Gas at the moment and can't wait to leave them. Just wondering if it would be better/easier to get them to fit a smart meter, and then try moving to EDF/octopus to try take advantage of the cheap night rate etc.

Get your new supplier to install the meters BG waiting list is around 18 months.

 

[john_smith]

If they have an EV and a battery to charge up the octo Go is mind blowingly cheap.

 

[Duke]

Pfft. Smells of energy company pulling servers out of load balance pools or creating the virtual room via cloudflare as they know it will potentially stop or delay people from submitting readings. It's ludicrous.

If they have backend load balancers I'm sure they could take the amount of traffic. I don't recall them seeing issues with the site when they went in to administration, it was available if I recall and they would have been getting a lot of website traffic

It shouldn't take more than an hour to get to bulb,

 

[benjii]

I would fashion a tin foil hat for this thread, but I've used it all for insulation to try and cut our energy bill.

Regarding my earlier issue with Shell. My IHD still is showing the old tariff rates and Shell said it could take up to a week to update.