Smart Meter Install. What A Palaver!

I don't think that it matters. The radio switch just switches between E7 and daytime rates

Some companies offer a standard rate, regardless of having an E7 meter, OVO doesn't

I had a similar experience, and cancelled the installation after the fourth aborted attempt, as The lease on my BEV was about to finish.

We finally had a smart electricity meter installed due to the old dumb one being a number of years beyond its certification date. It actually went very smoothly once the fitter had decided we had the right fuse rating after all. We keep getting called by the gas supplier to ‘upgrade’ to a smart gas meter, but when I explain that it’s about 15 m away from the electricity meter and there are three solid brick walls in between they suddenly lose interest. Apparently the max distance between them should be less than 5 m.

our gas and electric smart meters are at opposite ends of the house on the outside. Well over 5m.

due to the old dumb one being a number of years beyond its certification date

When our old meter went out of certification Octopus were very keen to replace it (legal requirement apparently) and bumped me up to the top of the smart meter waiting list.

(I'd asked for smart meter months before but was told I'd have to wait)

Our smart meter installs (x2) have been boringly simple affairs.

Ours took years. Moved into a house in 2012 and the electric company kept telling us we needed a new meter as our was well old. We kept saying go on then and they kept cancelling appointments. Few credits into the bank so we didn't really care. Eventually someone came round and said "yeah, we can't fit one there as its too close to the gas meter". We said ok!

Elcetricitiy company still kept saying we needed a new one and we kept saying go on then, but the first guy said...., cue more cancelations and a few more credits to the bank. Another guy came round and said the same as the first, I then said "why don;t you put it outside then", they said "we can but you have to pay for it" I said "nah mate, you want to fit a new one, I don't really care"

Few more years go by with the usual, "you need a new meter", and, "we know, come and fit one then"..couple more people come round then, eventually someone comes round and is actually going to fit a smart meter, but then can't because the meter board needs replacing and they need the contractor to do that!....

Contractor comes round and as says, "its a bit cramped in here innit, why don't we put it outside?" I could have hugged him. Came back 2 days later with a wall box and fitted new meter outside. Now we have more room in the cupbaord!

Just to add, the signal will turn off 30th June.

If you still haven't got it sorted by then consider turning storage heaters off and switching hot water on manually until it is done or you could be hit with a large on-peak bill

On third attempt we had gas and electric meters replaced. Gas spoke to electric meter but electric wouldn't talk to network. Another fitter came out a week later and replaced gas meter, despite me pointing out that previous fitter said electric was the issue. Another guy came out a week after that and replaced electric meter. He said it worked.

A month after that I got a gas bill for £800 based on estimated usage over four weeks. Four week, in July. Four weeks that when the house had been unoccupied for two weeks. Utility company insisted it was accurate and only cancelled it when it turned out fitter hadn't filled in a form properly. 

I still submit monthly manual readings. What a waste of everyones time. 

Got octopus to come out a couple of months ago after 2 years of them emailing me saying I needed new gas and electric meters and a smart meter,  both were replaced and the engineer then said there is no chance of the smart meter working in my house due to lack of signal. I've heard  absolutely nothing from octopus since then

I'm having fun with EDF at the moment with the supply to my workshop. They pestered me for a year to install one but I couldn't be in attendance on a week day as I was working on the other side of the country during the week and they couldn't offer any weekend appointments. 

When we finally could sort an appointment the guy turned up - saw that it was a 3 phase supply/ meter (its a commercial unit on an industrial estate, on a commercial electricity tariff so durrr.) he wasn't qualified or equipped to change it.

That was in late 2022 and I've been hounded by email and text to make an appointment, but on each prompt I log in and they have no free appointments on their calendar for the next 3 months and no option to book beyond that.

I then had to renew my contract with them, and they now only offer  contracts/tarrifs to buisness with customers with smart meters. Managed over the phone to make an exception to prevent defaulting to a punitive 'out of tariff' rate,  on the proviso that I get a meter fitted right away..... but still they can't provide an appointment

I keep getting prompts to make an appointment - they've even started offering a cash incentive, initially £100, now £150 as if its me thats holding the process up  (I've got two units/meters so I can actually make £300 out of this) but the fact is the could offer me a £million - there are still no appointments 🙂

Any smart meter story that doesn’t run into years isn’t really news worthy 

Mrs Ampthill battled this one. I think it started with us not being billed for any electricity we used at night due the tarrif and meter playing different games. An endless stream of people added and removed meters. They told it was the meter, it wasn’t the meter. The meter looks like it’s working but the system can’t see it. All through covid

We're going through similar with octopus. Told us to book appointment, system didn't allow us to book appointment. Repeat a few times. Someone told us we needed two numbers on the system (two meters) and only had one, someone later told us that was bollocks and booked an appointment hooray!

Still getting messages that we needed to book an appointment, so my wife phones up the fitters a couple of days before the appointment, gets told that it was cancelled by Octopus, no explanation given. Spoke to Octopus, they deny cancelling and say that they wouldn't have been able to do that even if they'd wanted to. New appointment booked for next week. I'm not holding my breath. They haven't even seen where it's going yet, so there's the possibility of more teeth-sucking and delay.

An absolute shower the lot of them.

Old electricity meter was swapped for a smart meter quickly and easily. The external/in-house display stopped working after a few days. Not a problem. 

Gas meter was a bit more complicated but no real problems or fuss. 

I have fallen out of the habit of recording meter readings now. 

I'm being hounded by email, text and occasionally phone call to swap to a smart meter. Eon:Next.

Most stories I've ever read about smart meters seem to be ones where everything has been great for years, a new meter goes in and suddenly you're getting £800/month bills and years of hassle to sort it.

The Government rollout of it has been chaotic at best - years of missed targets, revisions to the scope and generally abysmal communication.

Posted by: crazy-legs

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Most stories I've ever read about smart meters seem to be ones where everything has been great for years, a new meter goes in and suddenly you're getting £800/month bills and years of hassle to sort it.

Here's a story for you. Decided to get a smart meter, contacted supplier and made an appointment. They turned up on time, fitted electric and gas meters without any issue and they've worked perfectly since. Switched to a smart tarrif, bils are way lower than they were. No drama, no issues probably like the majority of cases but not the ones who tell their stories to their friends, the press or online.

Octopus here.

Took 6 attempts to get a meter in. Finally done, it worked flawlessly for 3 months. Then packed up.

As a result I have not had a bill since November..,

They keep blaming me for having a house made of brick, near some hills, with a postcode they don't like. 

They refuse to acknowledge that none of these things have changed since the install. Nor that the gas readings are still coming through when elec haven't 

Useless.

We definitely fit the 'two years and beyond' segment of grumpy smart meter waitees 😉 Similar issues to above, ombudsman ruled in our favour that we'd been 'mis-sold' when Octopus told us we could switch to a smart meter tariff. Loads of confusion, cancelled appointments, contractors turning up and leaving having brought the wrong bits. EVENTUALLY after two years and both the neighbour and us complaining to Octopus they installed the T3 aerial required for the phone signal.

A solution the first contractor identified 25 months previously but the myriad of organisations - Octopus, Morrisons Data Service, DCC, etc just did the finger pointing thing and nothing changed other than we getting credits most months.

We still had issues with the little hub thing transferring data for a few weeks. But to be fair Octopus sorted that promptly enough and since then, we've been enjoying the cheap overnight tariff for our EV (as has next door)

We were told about the June shutoff of Radio and since we were on an E7 tariff, we were keen to get off it! But no one ever explained what would happen if we couldn't get the smart meter working. 

Posted by: Alex Leigh

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no one ever explained what would happen if we couldn't get the smart meter working

I’ve just checked and I’ve got a radio set-up economy 7 meter. So does anyone know what happens if I do absolutely nothing? Will I just pay full rate for everything I use?

Hi @watty - we asked that specific question and were told "that is under discussion, but is one of the possible options" which was pretty unhelpful! I just checked my email, it was March last year when Octopus told us that. This was in response to their assertion that we were, in fact, never going to get the meter working, so we wanted some assurance around current contract.

Nothing useful to add, smart meters are a bit meh. I just came to say "palaver", what a great, underused word that is! Carry on.

Cheers Al, I think I best give OVO a ring then. +1 for use of palaver 👍

Here's a story for you. Decided to get a smart meter, contacted supplier and made an appointment. They turned up on time, fitted electric and gas meters without any issue and they've worked perfectly since. Switched to a smart tarrif, bils are way lower than they were. No drama, no issues probably like the majority of cases but not the ones who tell their stories to their friends, the press or online.

Yea, hate to disappoint you but it's been really dull. They turned up, turned the power and gas off for ~20min, and I can now see how much more gas I use when it's freezing cold outside.

A bit like when we had the cavity wall insulated. Everyone's aunt's dogs, groomers, husbands, ex had problems with it that ended up with the whole house having to be re-built . All I've noticed is my bill is about £800*/year lower and the house is still warm in the morning even when it's -5 outside.

*well technically not, we had it done just before things kicked off, so in reality we're just paying pretty much the same for energy as we were 4 years ago and the intervening price rises have been negligible.

I'm guessing there is a strong correlation between "houses in rural areas/poor phone signal/strange meter installs" and "2 year of misery" 😉

So when an install proceeds as per the standard installation process, it's no drama. Once you fall off that path tho, the number of organisations involved/devolved, lack of communication between them and unclear lines of responsibility, that's where you get the angst.

Posted by: Thepurist

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Here's a story for you. Decided to get a smart meter, contacted supplier and made an appointment. They turned up on time, fitted electric and gas meters without any issue and they've worked perfectly since.

Same.

I suspect the reason the Internet is awash with smart meter woes is because people don't generally report the mundane.  "I went to the shop this morning, it was open" isn't the most thrilling of thread starters.  Plenty of folk have had issues of course, but as a percentage it's probably grossly overstated.

Indeed Al, when things work, all is good - when they don’t it’s the loop of doom.
I’ve just called OVO and the answer to ‘what will happen if I do nowt’ was ‘we don’t know’! 😂

Posted by: Watty

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the answer to ‘what will happen if I do nowt’ was ‘we don’t know’!

I had a similar conversation with my dad's pension provider when my mum passed (she was receiving a pension from them as his widow) after being hounded with letters.  They wanted death certificates, copies of wills, a bunch of other stuff.  I asked them why, they mumbled something about their admin process.  My stance was, to paraphrase for brevity, "this is my problem how, exactly?"  I'd had her bank account frozen, so they weren't able to carry on paying even if I wanted them to and I was entitled to nothing anyway.  So I just ignored it, they stopped sending the letters so presumably worked it out.

Stuff like this makes me Disproportionately Cross.  Doing things for no reason other than because it's what we do.  It's utterly devoid of joined-up thinking.  Both my parents are dead and you require evidence of this before you can stop trying to pay money into a closed bank account?  Why?  I suppose it's possible that I was a bad actor, but even if that were the case would I not try to divert the funds to myself rather than cut them off?

We had an old smart electricity meter that only sent readings intermittently.  Then we were offered an upgrade and a smart gas meter, also one of those in house monitor things.  But some cupboard chopping was needed to get the new electricity meter in and the fitter only had  a hacksaw bless him.  So a few months later I got round to hacking at some chipboard and we had the new one put in.  It still didn't communicate at first, but it is now maintaining contact with the network.  Apparently they can tweak things a bit centrally, choice of network perhaps?  (Phone signals indoors are crap and the meter location doesn't help.)

A bit pointless really as we only bothered with this so we could go on a cheap ev tariff but with the amount we drive British Gas' half price Sunday deal on our standard tariff is probably all we need anyhow.

I got mine changed a few weeks ago as 2G gets turned off. They booked an hour but took 10,15 minutes so no complaints here

Always take a note of the meter readings before and after they fit the smart meter.

This all sounds very fun, something we need to do, hopefully they swap over pretty quickly as I have a few fish tanks in use that I'd like to not find dead fish in afterwards!

hopefully they swap over pretty quickly

the power was off for about 40 minutes for us. They do bring power banks for essential equipment, although I don’t know how much current a fish tank would draw an if it would exceed the capacity. 

Ovo did you say? Good luck! My dad has an ongoing palaver trying to get a faulty meter replaced, which has been simmering away for over a year now. This is on top of various previous attempts to threaten, bully, intimidate, gaslight and defraud him. In one instance nearly £400 disappeared from his Ovo account without a trace. Sorting that out took months and hundreds of emails and calls. We're fairly sure a senior customer service agent lost their job when someone else finally stepped in to find out wtf was going on and why Ovo were submerging under an avalanche of complaints about it. Dealing with them is worse than something Kafka might write. Every month there are problems with their obfuscatory billing.

Octopus have been fairly good for me. They missed one appointment and compensated for the inconvenience. Otherwise two smart meters installed in good time with minimal fuss. So far found their customer service to be efficient and helpful. Immediately obvious difference in tone to some.

my rental flat gas a non functioning  prepayment meter and has had for 6 years.  no electricity bills.

i tried to get it changed.  i gave up and told them it was up to them to get it sorted.  silence for years.