Meter readings

[Cockney Sparrow]

I met an acquaintance (from the allotments...) and she told me she was heading for the Citizens advice B, because she was on a prepayment meter - pay before use, no nasty surprise bills had been her rationale. Every time she gets a top up, she has to get down to floor level to enter the voucher code on the supply unit because the smart meter unit has stopped working, its been like that for months and her supplier has nothing to offer her. Having got nowhere with British Gas before involving CAB after her previous visit there a telephone call date & time with an engineer/technician was set up and, of course, she didn't receive one.

I won't be getting a smart meter until I'm forced to.

[french frank]

I wonder how people decide which supplier to use. If you get unsatisfactory service, why not change supplier?

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/energy-companies/article/best-and-worst-energy-companies/which-energy-survey-results-ajqM43e6ycY8

[antongould]

I wonder how people decide which supplier to use. If you get unsatisfactory service, why not change supplier?

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/ener...s-ajqM43e6ycY8

Ff I have been with at least 6 suppliers since this whole shambolic jamboree began and have been awarded compensation for terrible customer service by every one. I have already had about £60 from the awful EDF but have decided to stick around as I think the next complaint should be very financially rewarding …….

[french frank]

Ff I have been with at least 6 suppliers since this whole shambolic jamboree began and have been awarded compensation for terrible customer service by every one. I have already had about £60 from the awful EDF but have decided to stick around as I think the next complaint should be very financially rewarding …….

That does sound unfortunate - and you an expert in the business too! All things may happen to smaller companies (well, and larger ones as well) but I'm just hoping mine has got things worked out to survive where others have failed. Smart meter 100%, customer service seldom needed but 100% when required. I reckon I could survive (just) without gas or electric (could cook on wood burner and have miner's safety lamp-type thingies for candles). Light wouldn't be good enough to read in the evenings, and no music to listen to. Might have to learn to knit - good for gloves, socks and scarves.

[antongould]

That does sound unfortunate - and you an expert in the business too! All things may happen to smaller companies (well, and larger ones as well) but I'm just hoping mine has got things worked out to survive where others have failed. Smart meter 100%, customer service seldom needed but 100% when required. I reckon I could survive (just) without gas or electric (could cook on wood burner and have miner's safety lamp-type thingies for candles). Light wouldn't be good enough to read in the evenings, and no music to listen to. Might have to learn to knit - good for gloves, socks and scarves.

It keeps my hand in as they say ….. I hope your supplier remains as good for you as they see to be ….. given the fun of the last eight years I might find them a little boring …..

[french frank]

.. given the fun of the last eight years I might find them a little boring …..

Yes, what with them and no R3 these days I have to make my own entertainment and keep busy. I've written two books (hard bound for family only), an academic paper that I shan't send anywhere and am currently compiling a collection of home recipes

[oddoneout]

I wonder how people decide which supplier to use. If you get unsatisfactory service, why not change supplier?

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/ener...s-ajqM43e6ycY8

Because there is no guarantee that things will improve. The very act of setting up a new account and closing an existing one seems to be one of the points at which problems arise, often at considerable financial cost to the customer; smart meters seem to add to the difficulties more often than should be the case. Existing customers of the still surviving suppliers seem either continue to have the level of service they had previously - acceptable or good if they are lucky, or notice that previous levels have deteriorated due to the firm having had to take on failed supplier customers. I'm not so sure that new customers can be certain of a satisfactory experience just because they've moved to a "better" company. My experience of an existing (and still surviving) company having done a planned (ie they supposedly knew what they were taking on)buyout, well before covid and energy price issues, of another largely functioning business(my original supplier), coupled with (Guardian consumer articles) horror stories about bungled accounts and zero customer service, has completely put me off the idea of trying to find an alternative. The 3 years it took to get the transfer completed(and still some loose ends) doesn't inspire confidence, and I haven't so far suffered financial disadvantage, so it's a case of better the devil you know...
I should perhaps in fairness say that it seems that the business practices of the failed companies have made for considerable difficulties for the companies that have had to take them on, not least where credit accounts cannot be transferred because the money has gone AWOL. The fact that such money is still not protected (held in a separate account, ideally similar to the tenant deposit scheme) doesn't inspire confidence. https://www.theguardian.com/business...redit-balances

[Anastasius]

Good question - I can still read the electricity meter but only to round kWh and the gas meter displays a reading some weeks but not others ….. the first technician - I have had two - said the whole installation, both meters and the communication unit, IHVVHO, needed changing ….. and he was “doing it all the time” - APPALLING maybe doesn’t cover it …….

Why don't you play them at their own game? All the time the Govt is subsidising, make up your reading then add 2000 a quarter. By the time the subsidy ends later this year and you start racking it back you will be quids in.

[antongould]

Why don't you play them at their own game? All the time the Govt is subsidising, make up your reading then add 2000 a quarter. By the time the subsidy ends later this year and you start racking it back you will be quids in.

A very cunning plan indeed …… but I will, I think, submit no readings and see how long it is before they leap into action ….

[oddoneout]

A very cunning plan indeed …… but I will, I think, submit no readings and see how long it is before they leap into action ….

This is turning into a suspense story. Having seen from Guardian articles some of the bizarre (and frequently totally unacceptable when it comes to vulnerable - financially, physically or emotionally - customers) antics of the companies involved the outcome could be anything - including an effective final resolution, but that would be a really unexpected twist!

[DracoM]

My supplier has changed / added something to how I pay online - inexplicable, have had no warning of change, and their on-screen 'explanation' [huh!] impossible, indeed so inexplicable that I have had to phone my bank to get them to make the payment on my behalf! Felt a complete idiot. All part of their strategy to get me to have a smart-meter installed ?? At least that's what it feels like.

Hitherto, I make meter readings, make simple online payments. Easy, convenient. Why the sudden change I do not know?

PS the bank gent who took my lament said 'you have NO idea how many calls we have had in the last ten days from baffled people about this same supplier

[french frank]

Well, I my supplier and my smart meter. How annoying is that ?

[antongould]

Well, I my supplier and my smart meter. How annoying is that ?

No way as annoying as I love R3 and Kate Molleson

[eighthobstruction]

No way as annoying as I love R3 and Kate Molleson

....And somehow you are putting shillings in the meter and getting them Toon moving....

[antongould]

....And somehow you are putting shillings in the meter and getting them Toon moving....

Indeed 8o