Stuff and nonsense!

I booked an appointment for smart meters to be fitted. It had to be a Saturday as I work in a school so can't take time off in term time. The engineer's van broke down on his way to me so he said he would re-book. I explained it had to be a Saturday. When I checked my account I'd been booked for a Tuesday so I cancelled it. Since then I've had a number of calls asking me to book another date but they no longer offer Saturdays. I've told them I have better things to do in my holidays than sit at home waiting for a meter fitter so it will have to wait until I retire - about 2 years away - if I agree to have one at all.

We had our boiler repaired last year and I asked the engineer if he knew what the meter in the loft was for.
He went up and had a look and said that it was a smart meter.
I said , well I'm certainly not going up there to check it, and he snorted and said typical British Gas stupidity.

Before committing to a smart meter, I would find out if a company is fitting the new generation of meters that are transferable between companies, or still fitting the older ones.
First Utility were pestering my mum to have one fitted, and their cheapest new tariff meant agreeing to have one, but when I phoned them, it turns out they won't have the latest ones until autumn. In the end, I found her a much better deal with Eon, anyway, and no meter required!

I was badgered for ages to have one and eventually gave in. THEN they asked me if we have solar panels. Yes, we do. O you can't have one then, the meters won't cope with those yet. Why didn't they ask me first, before all the badgering?

Well I dont inderstand that Grannyguitar. We have solar panels too and we were given a device that shows our usage (works off our wifi). But I suppose its not a smart meter as we have to send readings in every month and occasionally they come and check up.

I was with Scottish Power up until Feb 2018, last year I reluctantly agreed to have a smart meter installed, gave me a date and time 0800-1200. I waited all morning until 12.30 - no sign of anyone, sent off a blistering email complaining about the waste of time and that had an appointment later which meant I couldn't wait any longer. Ten minutes later engineer knocks on door - said he had been held up, no explanation as to why no texts or phone calls to explain - and he wasn't happy when I said I couldn't wait any longer - will only take an hour he said!! well if he had phoned maybe I could have changed my appointment, but I stuck to my guns and sent him away. Still no reply to my email a year later!!

I changed to NPower (cheaper contract) this year and told them I didn't want one, but kept getting texts and an appointment. Didn't stay home for it - no message/card to say he (she) had called, and no contact since.

This is 'smart meter' related. I stupidly got one fitted. I got a short questionnaire afterwards which merely asked if the installation had been satisfactory.
Everything went fine until around ten days afterwards when it mysteriously stopped working. As advised I moved it to different places but no joy. Apparently they still get the readings but I don't. What a waste of time - complete rubbish. I was fobbed off by customer services and I don't feel inclined to ring them again. So glad all I wasted was my time. Say clear of this nonsense.

In any case, there's no,point in having a smart meter until they roll out the ones that will still work if you change supplier.
At the moment they're not 'smart' enough to do it.

This is obviously why we are being constantly bulliedpestered to have a smart meter fitted. "EDF fined £350,00 for missing smart meter target". www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3034250/edf-energy-forks-out-gbp350-000-for-missing-smart-meter-target

Be thankful. They are still fitting version 1 of the smart meter even though it is not up to the job. Version 2 will be fitted in all places that now have version 1 at some future time, meaning two visits at least for the work to be done.

Even version 2 is not up to the standard we consumers ought to get.

Avoid having a smart meter fitted if at all possible. They are an imposition (supposedly free) that we are all paying for through our fuel charges. Do not believe the hype.

A couple of years ago we agreed to a smart meter, this entailed moving our water butt, which was full, no mean task, the meter was to be fitted in wall behind it. Men arrived, said sorry your phone signal in your village is so poor we cannot fit meter!
Does not stop pleas for us to have one fitted- phone signal no different.!!

No one has ever suggested we have one - probably because we switch providers every year, at least.

However our electricity meter is up on the wall just under the kitchen ceiling. We had it boxed in so it looked less conspicuous. But to read it you have to climb onto a chair, stand on the work surface, on tip toe, open the box with one hand and shine a torch onto it with the other.

That leaves no free hands to write down the reading, so I end up muttering 25897.7 to myself as I clamber back down (more dangerous than climbing up as nothing to hold onto) and hoping I remember it until safely within reach of paper and pencil.

Smart meters therefore have an appeal for me!

We were contacted many times about having a Smart Meter. Eventually I contacted them to ask if it would work when there were extremely poor network connections and mobile phones rarely worked in or around the house. She said “ no problem” and booked an installation date. You’ve guessed - the installer said it would never work as he could get no signal whatsoever. All was not lost as he installed a brand new but less smart meter!
He scanned all the new meter details into his device & then the problems started.
In total, 26 emails exchanged, numerous phone calls and many headaches caused!
Messages re booking a new date for a Smart Meter, the newly installed meter not being registered, the new meter readings not accepted as the meter didn’t exist. Two visits from meter readers who said the meter wasn’t registered but they would do it.
Me sending all the meter numbers, previous readings, current readings, installation dates, explanations many many times.
After several months, the new meter seemed to have been accepted onto their system, - queue the emails telling us we needed to have a Smart Meter installed starting again!!!!!!

They're all useless. I tried to order superfast broadband online with BT and got the message that:
We’re sorry…
We cannot take your order at the moment. Please call us on 0800 800 150 to renew or change your bundle.

If they don't my business, go to blazes.

I hope you all know you are in no way obligated to have a smart meter. These power companies will try and imply that but there is no law about it. What happens is that the govt. will eventually fine them for every household that doesn't have a smart meter. This is why they're so keen to install them. Hang tough, sisters!

I am being badgered by E.on (by email and the post) at the moment to have a smart meter fitted, as they say they are "obliged" by the government to fit one. I certainly do not want one and am quite happy to pop outside and read the meter for them. There is also a sentence in the letter that tells me that if I do not want a smart meter to let them know...

Actually, I remember a few years back an engineer coming to fit one, but he couldn't do it as the signal wasn't good enough.....

I feel completely left out on the subject of smart meters, nobody has contacted us in anyway, not that we want one anyway. Plenty of contact from people trying to sell us new windows though.

Not just you, Barmyoldbat, nobody has offered us smart meters either. Like you, we don't want them, so it's not a problem, and when I hear stories like some of the above, I think we have made the right decision. At least neither our gas supplier nor our electricity supplier has our email addresses, so that's something if they do get round to pestering us.

On a related subject, our boiler was being serviced recently as part of our service contract. The letter we got said between 12 and 6, but the engineer was told it was a morning visit. Fortunately he was running late... The right hand obviously hasn't a clue what the left is up to!

As someone else said, why does the government feel it is so vital for people to have smart meters? And if they are saying that the target is for everyone to be on these meters by 2020, this suggests that at some point it will not be voluntary or at least there will be some sort of disincentive introduced to force people to comply.

It seems wrong to me that energy companies are fined by the government for not reaching targets re smart meters. It will, of course, mean that all sorts of implied, and perhaps actual, "carrots and sticks" are likely to be employed by energy companies to pressurise people into having these meters installed.

For those who are interested, here is a link to quite an interesting article on the subject of smart meters.

notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/06/26/smart-meter-media-blitz-paid-for-by-me-you/

Some people say there is a push for a "New World Order", the objective of which is to institute an unchallengeable and irreversible global power structure, principally through the use of technology. I used to think this was a very far fetched notion but I'm not so sure now.

I believe they want to 'spy' on us, one way or another. I have seen video's online where people's 'smart' televisions and other 'smart' items with inbuilt camera's have been hacked into and you can actually witness random people in their homes just doing whatever. I guess the hackers are trying to gather information from item's these unsuspecting 'smart' users have lying around the room where the 'smart' appliance is. This is why if we ever get a smart TV I will cover the camera area with some tape as a documentary I saw advised users to do. Where I don't believe that power 'smart' meters have a camera installed I do believe they are gathering information that obviously the government are very interested in for one reason or another, one step closer to Big Brother. I also question the free DNA kits they are pushing on TV right now but that's another story.

I can't help thinking there is much more to this than getting accurate bills which I do anyway by submitting regular readings.

This is interesting: www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/smart-meters/herocontrol/

"At present, your supplier will be adding around £6 per year to cover the roll out across the UK – hardly noticeable. But each meter will cost the public around £200 each on average."

And:

"The only people who have access to your data should be you and your energy company, who will use it to calculate your bill. Suppliers need to get your permission to use your data or information for marketing purposes – as access to half-hourly data could be lucrative for them."

Energy use will be higher when the occupant is home rather than out or away. It bothers me that absence from a property is effectively being tracked on a half-hourly basis.

I think the adverts for smart meters are really misleading, saying you'll save money when you only save money if you yourself cut down on usage. Won't have one. Quite happy to read my meters.

I imagine that when people get a Smart Meter they spend the first week or two obsessively monitoring their usage, then forget all about it. I know all that I need to know about being thrifty with my power. I also regularly change suppliers. I neither need nor want a Smart meter, as I regularly tell EDF when they phone me. I also receive emails every couple of weeks asking me to make an installation appointment - which I ignore. It is almost time for me to switch again, as my contract is coming to an end soon. No doubt I will have the same amount of pestering from my new supplier.
The thing that annoys me most is the statement that Smart Meters are completely free. Do the utility companies think that we are stupid? They are not charitable institutions. The cost of buying and installing these meters is, most certainly, being shared among all their customers. The one thing that I am sure of. The savings that they make by having fewer meter readers will definitely NOT be passed on to us.