Any Smart Meter Installers in the House?

[RBZ5416]

Trying to assist someone who has had dual-fuel meters (SMETS2) installed by Bulb but the gas meter appears to have failed to initiate comms, so remains dumb. Bulb were referring to a supposed software upgrade that never materialised. He's switched to EDF & they appear unwilling/unable to sort it either.

This appears to be far from unique in the land of Google but with no obvious solution. It appears to be a similar story to the ISP/Openreach scenario, where you can't speak to the company installing & the supplier is unwilling to foot a bill to get them to investigate. Are there any installers here who can suggest a way forward to resolve this please?

 

[zebedee2001]

I wish you good luck. My parents have a similar issue with British Gas due a Gas Meter going haywire. To fix it they replaced bith gas & electricity meters. That was a year ago & since then the meters have been dumb. They are both nearly 80. BG have been useless. Promised multiple visits & not turned up or they have, said it was sorted & then it wasn't. They are now blaming their centre in China........ As these are smart meters BG wont accept readings unless you ring them up. I refuse to have a smart meter it's all a big con & stated above my parents got a gas bill for £1000 which BG initially told my 80 year old parents they had to pay & was caused by a non existant gas leak in their house!

 

[Old Salt]

I worked for edf before retiring. My contacts would be well out of date now but I suggest you ring customer services and tell them you would like the gas meter issue resolved or you will move the account to a competitor. Its a shame really as a major part of my working career was with the engineers who install meters and the last 3 years spent working on the smart metering programme. Its common for these meters not to receive a signal.

I remember witnessing an install in the early days and it took 3 attempts to get the gas meter to communicate with the electric meter. Sometimes it can be achieved by swapping the sim card. Other times it can be a dead spot just like your mobile phone.

Keep pestering and ask to speak to a supervisor. Make sure to get the name of the person you are speaking to as all calls are recorded and noted on the customer record so it can be followed up. If its a SMETS1 meter it possibly wont work with their systems.

Blame the government for forcing energy companies to do this and the EU for the carbon targets which is the reason behind the rollout of smart meters. The aim is to get consumers to see how much energy they are using and reduce demand. Thereby reducing emissions and saving the planet.

SMETS1 and SMETS2 meters are down to the manufacturers and Ofgem who basically couldn't agree the specification. Ultimately a central data collector will collect the data and farm it out to the various suppliers who will then bill you as their customer.

No I don't have a smart meter, but I will do once SMETS 2 becomes the norm.

Good luck.

 

[RBZ5416]

tell them you would like the gas meter issue resolved or you will move the account to a competitor.

As I said in the OP, he's just carried out that threat when Bulb couldn't/wouldn't resolve it. It's beginning to look more like the ISP analogy where suppliers would rather you just leave than put any effort or money into solving the problem.

No I don't have a smart meter, but I will do once SMETS 2 becomes the norm.

I think they pretty much are now. I had mine (electricity only) installed by Bulb in October 2019 & switched to Octopus recently with no issues.

My meter is in the garage, at ceiling height & obscured by the up & over door. Not having to dick around in the rain trying to get the door at just the right angle was the sole reason for wanting one.

 

[SimonH2]

Is there not some sort of ombudsman service for when suppliers f***-up and won't sort out problems ?
In the internet service world there is, and it costs the ISP a fair bit if a case is taken to them - so the ISPs try and avoid that if they think the customer has a clue.