Energy Suppliers, Suppliers of Energy. Gas / Electric

2 standing charges? I'd be looking to shift that to a single supply. My brother had a similar setup on his house as it was a knock through semi detached by a previous owner

Eon next customer here.
Gas smart meter isn't giving readings, just shows internal battery level, won't connect with IHD (not that I use it anyway), doesn't send readings automatically like my electric meter does.
I've phoned (no answer), emailed (no reply), WhatsApp messaged (not been read).
Should I just leave it and let them sort it (if ever) at their leisure?
Or
Anyone got a clue what's up with my meter?

e-mail from bulb this week

" Based on your latest meter readings and the credit in your account, we're lowering your monthly payment amount from £41.03 to £22.34. "

nice ! i think this is electricity only

Does that even cover the standing charges?!

ahhh .... on further digging

£66 Energy Bills Support Scheme looks like my bill includes the first support payment, not sure if this is monthly or a one off ?

Every one gets £400 spread out in monthly payments.

Yeah 6 monthly payments.

Oh Bulb emailed me to say that the post office will email me within 10 days and I need ID to collect. It would be easier if they take it off my direct debit.

Mine was just added to the credit I have on the account with bulb.

Same, mine was automatically added. Maybe double check your account, you might have been sent that email by mistake.

Bulb are being knobs.

Had smart meters fitted Nov 2020. IHD stopped working early this year but didn't really care and just forgot about it.

Finally got in touch with Bulb about it in August and was told that I'd been 'disconnected from the network by mistake'. This would require a reboot which takes 'up to five weeks'. Discover that all meter readings since Feb have been estimated.

Couple of weeks ago it still wasn't working so I got in touch again. 'Needs rebooting, takes a week'.

Yesterday obviously no change, and this time was told that the meters can lose connection and there's nothing they can do to fix it.

Feel like I've been fobbed off. How can this connection be irrevocably broken?

A new trick from SSE's customer 'help' line.

You report a problem. Thy say they will call you. I missed a call from them last Friday. Today they called again and hung up even as I picked up, after maybe two rings.

I rang them up to try and establish contact. 'Your reported issue has been closed as we called you twice and you didn't pick up'.

WTF?

Background is smart monitor that doesn't work. Has been replaced already once since original installation in Nov 2020. Still doesn't work. Any call to their 'help' line will take maybe 45 mins of listening to dreadful music. Latest offer is that I can access my monitor data on my phone using their app. That's not the deal I signed up for when I yielded to their pressure to install a smart meter.

I'm paying these people something like £1500 a year!

Did a bit more digging and it seems a widespread issue relating to the smart meter network which is run by Data Communications Company, so Bulb not ultimately responsible. Anyone else here affected?

18 month thread on the whole thing here.

And folks wonder why people are sceptical about smart meters

Sceptical in what sense? I hoped for nothing more from them than excusing me from manual readings. Had no reason to expect they wouldn't be able to do that reliably.

Sceptical in what sense?

That they solve a non-problem via an expensive and complex non-solution

I hoped for nothing more from them than excusing me from manual readings.

Agree a problem that should be solved if it could be solved reliably and cheaply (think of all the five minutes you'll save!), but...

Had no reason to expect they wouldn't be able to do that

Solution produced at scale by the lowest bidder and rolled out by companies that DNGAF about end users and who benefit when the meters do not work - what could go wrong?

That they solve a non-problem

It should be a non-problem but it isn't. Loads of people don't submit meter readings and end up with wild estimates.

I'd say it's also pretty good for giving a better handle on what is actually costing you money, and how much, for gas and electricity.

Loads of people don't submit meter readings and end up with wild estimates.

Such a painful problem for them that they continued to not submit readings.

I'd say it's also pretty good for giving a better handle on what is actually costing you money, and how much, for gas and electricity.

Possibly... but then what? Now you have this information, what do you do with it? In the past, any kind of action based on it was at best fiddling with the edges as the energy was so cheap. Now, I agree, fixing something horribly inefficient (like an old immersion heater) might , long term, make a material difference to your finances. But now you can get the same, or better information via a smart plug, that you own.

For context, a quick search seems to indicate the cost of the smart meter program to the UK was £11bn

Smart meters use the mobile phone network to transmit their data.

Where do you live? Whats your phone signal like? If youre in the sticks it may never work consistently, but they revert to 'dumb' meters in this case and you just need to take meter readings the old fashioned way.

Lol that number, I always looked forward to the Octopus meter lottery wheel of fortune.

If we want a fully clean, smart renewable grid with decentralised production of electricity to individual, small and medium renewable producers (eg small wind farms/solar farms on farmers fields) then smart meters are critical at providing the inputs thst allow the grid to balance demand and supply.

That’s why they are so important not for the past (although I agree not having to take meter reads is nice) but for the wider country and energy infrastructure.

Of course if we keep burning gas and coal then sure, probably not as much need but if we do that then we won’t be around long enough to care about the missed opportunity to do something better anyway.

N8.

If we want a fully clean, smart renewable grid with decentralised production of electricity to individual, small and medium renewable producers (eg small wind farms/solar farms on farmers fields) then smart meters are critical at providing the inputs thst allow the grid to balance demand and supply.

Nice idea, but this is decades away, if ever, though isn't it?

Those of us who could read their meters, or had regular calls from meter readers, were pressured to have smart meters (probably 8 or 9 'You know it makes sense' letters inside a year, and even 'These new ones are better than the SMETS1 type that had all the faults'). We were promised reliable smart monitors to foreground day-to-day energy use.

When they worked they were brilliant and useful. In two years my monitor worked for about about 6 weeks. Was replaced a year after the original installation, failed again within a few days. Came back to life of its own accord for a week and has not worked since.

I have spent hours on the phone trying to resolve this. SSE seem intent on beating me into submission by making contact near-impossible, then making me go round in repeated circles when I do break through.

I have no problem with smart meters. I just wish SSE would concern themselves with customer service.