Smart Meter installation warning!

As for not so smart meters, it appears there are three different technologies in use and BG for example wont be compatible with E-on's equipment. As they are unlikely to offer customers the best prices and services to stop us switching - in fact they go out of their way to encourage customers to shop around and switch then no meter will ever be compatible with your supplier. If they think we should pay for smart meters then wouldn't you think all these issues should be ironed out.
 
Just thought I'd share our experience with other users here just in case they experience the same thing as us and apologies for the long post.

In January we had an email from our provider (First Utility) that we could have smart meters installed. Although we are sticklers for providing monthly readings, being able to look at our usage in cost every day and not having to remember to submit seemed appealing and being a tech addict....why not!

So I logged on and arranged the date / time for the installation to take place, the process was very smooth and we were given a date of around mid April. The installation occurred on the day and time advertised with no issues and we were given a nice little screen showing our real time usage, daily cost etc etc.

It's at this point is when the problems start. Our first bill landed in my inbox after the installation, some 3 weeks after the installation which stated the below:

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Now you can imagine the reaction initially regarding a £3600 bill and given we were providing a reading every month on the same date I couldn't understand what had gone wrong. I obviously called First Utility who immediately raised a 'Case' as they call it, they held my DD payments at the same level and were very clear about the timelines upon which such complaints operate within.

After investigation it turned out that the meter company (who operate completely independent of energy suppliers) had not updated their records and failed to register us as having smart meters installed, so the billing system had automatically calculated the usage from our old meters to the new meters which both obviously started at 0 as if it was the same meters.

Fortunately for me, my wife in her wisdom had gone and submitted a meter reading on the morning of meter swap, this helped massively in aiding a quick resolution

After various update calls to me from First Utility it took around 10 weeks to get my bill corrected and I have to say the First Utility were absolutely brilliant throughout, I never had to chase them once and always called when they said they would.

So to sum up when having smart meters installed:

- Submit meter readings on the day of installation
- Don't panic if it goes wrong and you get landed with a massive bill
- Know that they have 90 days to get the bill corrected

Hopefully someone will find this useful!
 
I wish I didn't even bother getting one now. As soon as you switch supplier they go back to being a dumb meter, because the connection details etc don't get passed over.

All it's done is made it harder to read. Total waste of time.
 
Unfortunately it's not just smart meters, this can and does happen with any meter change as they need to take an end reading from the old one and a start reading from the new one at the time of the change over and that gives several chances for a reading to be entered incorrectly (or not at all) both at the installation and when the records are updated at the company that has fitted them.
It's the reason it's always a good idea to get a meter reading yourself (and preferably a photo with something showing the date) just before and after a change.
 
Useful info. I was with First Utility when they first started and didn't have a great site. Looks like they have improved. I actually thought this would be a thread where you were hating on smart meters because you don't know how much you actually use and when you were being billed correctly, were just getting angry about it.
 
Smart meter change was a good move for me... It highlighted that the meter in the property was reading about 1.8x too much (so one unit used was logged as 1.8 units), our bill have dropped substantially and the provider is refunding us quite a wedge...
And the charting/available data and incoming API satisfies my inner data analyst.. Nice tablet dashboard for the house showing solar against usage etc is in the works. :)
 
We had the same issue when our meter broke and it had to be replaced. We carefully submitted all of the readings and they still billed us for the difference between the old meter's reading and the new meter's starting reading. :rolleyes:

This was with NPower.
 
Nasher said:
I wish I didn't even bother getting one now. As soon as you switch supplier they go back to being a dumb meter, because the connection details etc don't get passed over.

All it's done is made it harder to read. Total waste of time.
Click to expand...

Typical British companies. Instead of agreeing a standard and then everybody(customers) are happy they have to do the above, as you mentioned. I have specifically twice told them when they asked me when I wanted it installed I replied "Never"

Unless you have a train spotter mentality or doing the things you have been told many times wastes Electric or gas then they are useless. Who cares if it costs X pence to make a cup of tea or Y pence for an hour of heating, the question is are you thirsty or are you cold. These meters are more likely to be 'accidently' moved to another tariff or hacked. I can work out my bill at any time, you only need a spreadsheet.
 
PiKe said:
You can refuse the installation if your supplier offers you it I believe?
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You can, but many just refuse to let you sign up to them without one (or agreeing to get one). Though as I said, it will probably work for a year until you switch and then it's back to working like a regular meter again anyway.
 
Werewolf said:
Unfortunately it's not just smart meters, this can and does happen with any meter change as they need to take an end reading from the old one and a start reading from the new one at the time of the change over and that gives several chances for a reading to be entered incorrectly (or not at all) both at the installation and when the records are updated at the company that has fitted them.
Click to expand...
Yep, thus happened with us when I bought my house, changed from prepay meter to standard meter.

Took ages for my girlfriend to sort out :D
 
samcat said:
Smart meter change was a good move for me... It highlighted that the meter in the property was reading about 1.8x too much (so one unit used was logged as 1.8 units), our bill have dropped substantially and the provider is refunding us quite a wedge...
And the charting/available data and incoming API satisfies my inner data analyst.. Nice tablet dashboard for the house showing solar against usage etc is in the works. :)
Click to expand...
Was it the "imperial vs metric" thing?
It turned out some companies were taking the old imperial units (from older meters) and not doing the correct calculation when billing ;)
 
Nasher said:
You can, but many just refuse to let you sign up to them without one (or agreeing to get one). Though as I said, it will probably work for a year until you switch and then it's back to working like a regular meter again anyway.
Click to expand...

The customer is still in the driving seat as far as suppliers go at the moment. They are for the companies benefit as they will be able to accurately forecast what they need from being able to record your usage all the time.
 
First utility are a massive bunch of spanners to boot.

I've built my new house and they somehow have incorrect meter numbers. Despite me providing photos of both! Idiots.

I've not gone smart meter as it's a total load of BS. Don't fix what ain't broken etc.
 
Worked for npower and eff, they are more trouble than they are worth wait for the cross compatible ones if they ever decided to release them to the public
 
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