Stuff and nonsense!

Hillarious Bluegal

I had a letter (or email; can't remember) asking me urgently to phone a certain number and book a time to have a new meter fitted. Phoned and had a long conversation trying to get HerOnTheOtherEnd to understand the 'situation' of our current meter: under the stairs and just to the left of the understairs loo.
Would it be difficult to get at?
—Not if no-one was using the loo and the lid was down.
Someone will ring you to arrange a time, she said.

That was about two years ago.

Bluegal, it doesn't surprise me one bit - I have had a lot of contact recently with several power companies, and incompetence seems to be widespread.

The latest example of it involves Scottish Power, who I am currently in the process of leaving for a cheaper supplier (though in fairness, I must say that I've had no problems with them throughout my contract).
Because I am leaving them, I got a lot of emails saying that I must give them a meter reading. I logged in to do this, and even on my online account, there were red massages reiterating the need for a meter reading. I clicked on the relevant link, but it didnt work. A quick Google search showed that this has been a problem for people since at least last September!
Not to be beaten, I used 'live chat' to both mention the problem and hopefully give a reading.
What a waste of time - the chat was surreal, almost comically frustrating (I have even kept a copy of it). Anyway, it turns out that they don't need a reading at all, but I had already wasted at least 30 mins in finding that out! Grrr!

We have just had a smart meter fitted - my reasoning was that I would not then have to read the meter - it will be done remotely.

The meter was kind enough to tell me that our electricity consumption is 56% above the average for our age and size of home. I did not need to know that - my skeleton of an OH needs an electric neater on in the bedroom all night in the winter and I knew what this meant. But I am not prepared to see him cold; nor to use the central heating all night - I would have to go round and switch of all the inaccessible radiators or we would be using oil at the rate of knots.

I just accept that it costs us a fortune - it is the lesser of 2 evils.

We have a smart meter for our new house. I’ve yet to get to grips with it, but it is useful as a clock.

I've had several phone calls asking me why we haven't got a smart meter fitted. When I reply we don't want one the person on the other end gets quite interrogatory - demanding reasons for our decision - and is reluctant to accept my answer that "We just don't want one".

I'm very suspicious of this massive push to get everyone on to smart meters - and on Watchdog there was quite a disturbing item where many viewers had reported that their meters had been incorrectly fitted and turned out to be quite dangerous.

These big organisations tend to say that they are "phasing out" certain things because "there is no demand" (or, alternatively, that they are introducing them to respond to "customer demand"). They tried to do it with cheques but fortunately many people complained. They have done it with automated checkouts by making fewer manned checkouts available. I noticed a newspaper item yesterday which said that Tesco is opening some stores that will be card payment only. Since a couple of years ago our buses no longer accept cash. People do not have the choice to pay by cash - and if their Oyster card has run out of money they have to find somewhere to top it up before being able to get on abus. Also people are less likely to be aware if they have been incorrectly charged - a report I read some time ago said that TfL makes a very significant amount of money in this way.

(Sorry, I digress)

Our meter has been changed. The box was always outside, but now it has been placed so close to the ground that I have to use a garden kneeler to get low enough to read it (or else prick my knees on the gravel and mud). What's more, the numbers are so small that I need a magnifying glass to read them!
By the way, this isn't British stupidity but Italian.

We had a smart meter but it didn't work. Now we are back to the sensible, old way of reading it quarterly.

Two reasons not to get one - 1) DH would monitor it excessively and divorce proceedings would probably follow and 2) I don't want anyone hacking into it and finding when we are away, or switching off our supply!

We have decided we do not want a smart meter. Recently a chap from our utility company called at the door, with ID, to enquire politely about fitting one and I equally politely said No thank you.
A few days later I got an email from the company telling me I NEED to change to a smart meter and must make an appointment to do so. I replied that I do not NEED to and I do not want to and would they please stop asking. About two weeks later I had a reply, apologising , but saying that the government has set them targets to install these smart meters and they are trying to meet them. Tough!

I dare say there are ways we could save money on fuel. It irritates me that DH will leave things on unnecessarily, but I don’t need a smart meter to tell me that.
I do not want a gadget, which may or may not work, snoooping on my home.
So far, one company’s meters are not compatible with another’s, so it would be redundant if I switched company.
I am even more irritated by these adverts which tell you that you will save money with a smart meter. You won’t, unless you check out what appliance is using a lot and adjust your usage. That is a human task, not a machine!

I've had a smart meter with BG for around 19 months it sits on the side board, largely forgotten and I get regular monthly bills. No sitting on the floor reading meters, no estimated bills and a clock to tell the time.
Painless really.

We have had loads of emails from our power supplier asking us to confirm pre arranged appointments for a smart meter and we just ignore them. After the first email I had a look online and they have had poor reviews so we telephoned our supplier and asked if they were compulsory to which they replied no so we declined, even so they keep sending us emails that we just ignore. Just putting it out there, don't be bullied into having one if you don't want one. I won't have anything 'smart' or anything else that can be 'hacked' into, unless it becomes compulsory.

@ Cabbie21 ... I question why the government is so anxious for all homes to have these installed?

We are pestered frequently by various electricity providers to have a smart meter. They tell us 'it is the law and we have to have one and everyone will have them by 2021'. It is NOT a legal requirement and I flatly refuse to have one. I have had some very angry and rude responses. A smart meter would be a nuisance for us because we frequently switch electricity suppliers to get a better deal, and many of them are not able to access meters installed by another company. Secondly I do not want this kind of intrusive technology in my home, I'm quite capable of reading my own meter and submitting the details myself. So if you do not want a smart meter, don't be swayed by special offers or bully tactics, just keep saying No. They can't make you have a meter.

We have no phone aignal in the village. Our neighbour was pestered to have one but he said it won't work here. Nonsense they said,of course it will work. Fin5allly they came to install it. It didn't work. Oh, but you have no signal they said, it won't work here. I won't say what the neighbour's response was!

More and more seeds of doubt enter my mind regarding the installation of SM. My inclination is to avoid them like the plague. I think stubborn instinct also piles in when suggested that 'compulsory' is the name of the game. The contributions here have been very helpful, enlightening and interesting. Thank you all.

Finally not fin5allly!

We are with SSE too and in May 2017 we had a letter and emails asking us if we would like smart meter we decided not to bother but in June 2017 a meter man arrived to read our meter and found he couldn’t as it was blank and he said don’t worry somebody will be out within a week to put a new meter in ...well a week went by and no letter,email or phone call about our old meter being replaced DH rang SSE and they didn’t know anything about it but the nice lady,who answered the phone, said she would arrange for someone to come and do it but the earliest they could do so was early September!! so DH asked would it be quicker if they could fit a smart meter and the lady said...Oh sorry they are not being rolled out in your area yet! so why were we being bombarded with emails about smart meters

Eloethan an Oyster card isn't necessary any longer for London travel, people pay with their ("wave") contactless debit cards, or touch in their phones!

I think I've written about this before on another thread - British Gas overcharged me on an account. Many phone calls to the call centre in Cape Town and thousands of words spoken, they refunded me and said I would receive a bill for the correct amount within the week. Never saw the updated bill - and I'm certainly not going through the phone rigmarole again to enquire why not! British Gas is hopeless, useless as an organisation. And crooked.

I had the same experience with SSE.
I thought a smart meter would be ok, so I agreed to have one. A man turned up on the appointed date, but couldn’t find my gas meter. I said that I hadn’t been able to find it either, and was hoping that he would be able to locate it.
Anyway, no smart meter, still no one can find the gas meter, and despite SSE knowing this, I have constant reminders to send a reading. I send equally constant reminders to inform them that I need to know the location of the meter, but so far no luck!
It’s all getting a bit Kafkaesque!

Radio 4's You & Yours did a feature on smart meters not so long ago and it convinced me not to bother.

As others have said, the meter is supplier dependent so you will need to have it changed if you switch supplier.

Also the pressure for everyone to have a smart meter by 2020 means there are not enough technicians suitably qualified to fit the things. There is evidence that companies are sending our poorly trained installers and this can lead to problems with the operation of the meter.

They also said that the second generation of smart meters have been poorly tested and don't work terribly well.

I get an monthly email from my supplier reminding me to submit a reading. It takes all of five minutes to read the meters and send in the numbers.

While I am usually very quick to embrace new tech, in this instance I am sticking with a way I know works until I am confident that the technology and installer expertise have improved.

We had SM a few years back and looked at it to discover we were using gas and electricity! Oh, we knew that. We switched it off but whatever technology was behind it meant that we didn't have to have our meter read so that was good.

I don't understand why the government thinks they are going to save us all money, surely we know when we are using power. Maybe younger people who were not brought up to be thrifty will benefit when they discover that leaving lights on and having TVs in several rooms at once is wasteful. Our house is larger than average but our bills are lower than those quoted for the average household so maybe there are lessons to be learned by some people? Thrift is not only good for the bank balance but also for the environment.

As we have no mobile reception in the village the so called smart meters are useless, how will this fact effect the pressure for everyone to have one by 2020 as we are certainly not alone in this lack of mobile signal

I had an Email from Scottish Power more or less saying I had to have a smart meter fitted and to select a date for it to be done. I ignored the email because a while ago we looked into this and after information on Moneysavingexpert.com we decided not to pursue it. Apparently the first generation of smart meters have caused a lot of problems and until I am confident that they are more reliable I will decline one. My account is online and I provide meter readings every so often, my direct debit is adjusted accordingly and that is all that is required as far as I am concerned. I am unclear about who pays the cost of the meter and the fitting, probably the consumer, and I also believe that some smart meters tie you to one provider making it difficult if you want to change providers.