Grumble Thread

[Roger Webb]

I was annoyed to receive an e-mail from my energy supplier which deceitfully implies (in fact, more or less tells me) that I must have a smart meter fitted.

I've always refused, for various reasons we needn't go into here, to have a smart meter. The wording of this e0mail in my opinion is as bad as an outright lie. It is well-known that we are not obliged to have a smart meter if our current meter is working and is not life-expired.

I shall complain strongly. This is only the latest ,and the worst , example of what I call 'corporate deceit' (i.e. them trying to trick us into doing what they want).

If you don't want one, refuse! you are quite entitled to do so.

I have a 'smart' meter...I didn't ask for one. I have a 'digital voice' phone....I didn't ask for one. I have an inside toilet...I didn't ask for one - it was sold to me disguised as 'the usual offices'.....is there no end to the corporate deception of some trades?!

[french frank]

IIf you don't want one, refuse! you are quite entitled to do so.

Absolutely, I agree. OTOH, I have a freely installed smart meter and am delighted not to have meter readers calling or to bother sending in meter readings. I won't mention the supplier I'm with for fear of being accused of commercial advertising but if you aren't satisfied with your suppliers, do some research and change them i.e. punish them.

[oddoneout]

Absolutely, I agree. OTOH, I have a freely installed smart meter and am delighted not to have meter readers calling or to bother sending in meter readings. I won't mention the supplier I'm with for fear of being accused of commercial advertising but if you aren't satisfied with your suppliers, do some research and change them i.e. punish them.

Won't stop the smart meter nagging though? There are government targets to be met, so regardless of supplier, the existence of non-smart meter in the property will continue to generate "prompts". The other approach to "persuade" change is to make certain tariffs conditional on having a smart meter.

[french frank]

Won't stop the smart meter nagging though?

No, but it's hard to understand the objection to smart meters which function efficiently.

[oddoneout]

No, but it's hard to understand the objection to smart meters which function efficiently.

No, but for those who aren't convinced, for what ever reason, that they want or need one, the fact that 3 million already installed don't function as they should/at all isn't likely to help change minds.

[french frank]

No, but for those who aren't convinced, for what ever reason, that they want or need one, the fact that 3 million already installed don't function as they should/at all isn't likely to help change minds.

No, it's hard to change people's minds about anything! There are over 30m smart meters currently installed, so 90% are presumably functioning satisfactorily. But far be it from me to suggest people should be forced by the government or anyone to do what they don't want to do.

I had the fourth or fifth phone call today, just as I was finishing lunch at 1pm, from my energy supplier about having a heat pump installed. I explained why this would not be possible until the end of the year at the earliest. But I shall certainly get a survey done to see if there is a suitable place for one to be installed because I believe it to be A Good Thing in spite of what others have said as I don't believe they know what they\'re talking about. I was talking to an engineer friend about 15 years ago and he said heat pumps were the future and I didn't know what they were.

[gurnemanz]

No, but it's hard to understand the objection to smart meters which function efficiently.

.. which ours seems to. Checking back I noticed we have had a smart meter for nearly ten years. It would be preferable, I thought, to crawling around on the floor with a torch to get a reading. And if you already have one they obviously can't nag you to get one.

[oddoneout]

No, it's hard to change people's minds about anything! There are over 30m smart meters currently installed, so 90% are presumably functioning satisfactorily. But far be it from me to suggest people should be forced by the government or anyone to do what they don't want to do.

I had the fourth or fifth phone call today, just as I was finishing lunch at 1pm, from my energy supplier about having a heat pump installed. I explained why this would not be possible until the end of the year at the earliest. But I shall certainly get a survey done to see if there is a suitable place for one to be installed because I believe it to be A Good Thing in spite of what others have said as I don't believe they know what they\'re talking about. I was talking to an engineer friend about 15 years ago and he said heat pumps were the future and I didn't know what they were.

A 10% failure rate isn't that impressive, not least as those failures can have considerable adverse financial implications. It's to be hoped that the withdrawal of 2G and 3G networks doesn't increase those figures - companies concerned have had a fair amount of notice.
The heat pump issue is one where the decision(against) has been made for me in effect, regardless of whether I'm in favour or not. A mid-terrace house doesn't lend itself well to siting options, certainly not while the 1m boundary rules apply if, like mine it has the back door in the middle of the rear wall of the house. Re-siting the back door would mean knocking out part of the wall and rebuilding, and replacing the kitchen. That would be in addition to work to install a hot water tank(location an issue) and associated pipes and upgrade some radiators, which had already ruled out ASHP on cost grounds.

[LMcD]

I was annoyed to receive an e-mail from my energy supplier which deceitfully implies (in fact, more or less tells me) that I must have a smart meter fitted.

I've always refused, for various reasons we needn't go into here, to have a smart meter. The wording of this e0mail in my opinion is as bad as an outright lie. It is well-known that we are not obliged to have a smart meter if our current meter is working and is not life-expired.

I shall complain strongly. This is only the latest ,and the worst , example of what I call 'corporate deceit' (i.e. them trying to trick us into doing what they want).

If you don't want one, refuse! you are quite entitled to do so.

My smart electricity meter (upstairs) seems to be working, but British Gas have 'lost contact' with my not-so-smart gas meter, which is under the stairs. I just hope that, after I've crawled under said stairs to read said gas meter, I don't inadvertently give them too low a reading.

[smittims]

I was amused to receive the following reply to my complaint:

'...according to your concern, I have raised a disinterest in your account so for further until six months you will no longer receive any communication regarding installation of SMART meter'.

Well, I think I know what they mean. But I wonder on what planet they learnt to speak English. It doesn't even begin to adress my complaint which was about their coercive policy of trying to trick people into having smart meters when they didn't want them, by pretending that they are compulsory. After all. their customer charter promises that they will deal 'honestly and fairly' .

[french frank]

I was amused to receive the following reply to my complaint:

'...according to your concern, I have raised a disinterest in your account so for further until six months you will no longer receive any communication regarding installation of SMART meter'.

Well, I think I know what they mean. But I wonder on what planet they learnt to speak English. It doesn't even begin to adress my complaint which was about their coercive policy of trying to trick people into having smart meters when they didn't want them, by pretending that they are compulsory. After all. their customer charter promises that they will deal 'honestly and fairly' .

"However your supplier will insist on installing a smart meter if your current meter is about to become obsolete and can't be repaired, or can't be replaced by another non-smart meter.

"Most non-smart meters are no longer being manufactured.

"Suppliers are also under obligation to install a smart meter if the old meter is deemed unsafe."

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-13065453/Our-energy-meter-reached-end-life-supplier-says-smart-meter-legal-requirement.html

When TV Licensing kept asking me if it was time I got a TV licence, I just kept patiently telling them that I had no television set and didn't watch television. When I said over my dead body would a television enter my house, they gave up 'reminding' me. Haven't heard from them since September 2021.

[smittims]

Thanks, Frankie. And ironically, less than five hours after they promised not to send me any more smart meter bumf for six months,they sent me another .

As Rufus Sewell says in The Father, 'D'you know, I sometimes think you're doing this deliberately'.

[cria]

... When I said over my dead body would a television enter my house ....

Is Television the new name for Dalek?

[oddoneout]

"However your supplier will insist on installing a smart meter if your current meter is about to become obsolete and can't be repaired, or can't be replaced by another non-smart meter.

"Most non-smart meters are no longer being manufactured.

"Suppliers are also under obligation to install a smart meter if the old meter is deemed unsafe."

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...quirement.html.

These are the "reasons" that make me suspicious, since I would be completely unable to argue against compulsory installment if that was given as the justification - even if it was less than "the whole truth" on the part of the company concerned. The electrics in this house were completely overhauled, including replacing the meter(it was set up for E7 even though there had been a combi boiler and so no immersion heater for years...), as part of the renovations needed before I moved in, so I hope that will stave off such a move - for a while at least - but I wouldn't be surprised if it is tried at some stage.

[Serial_Apologist]

Gone would seem to be the anarchic times when one could almost get away with anything outrageous when it came to metering.

In the early 70s a friend of mine gleefully told me he had managed to avoid paying anything for his electricity, having heard "from this man in a pub" that this was possible by jamming a screwdriver into the slot one was supposed to feed one's coins into. So the next time I called I announced myself as someone from SWEB. "Who?" he asked anxiously over the intercom; "South West Electricity Board" I replied in my best pretend-Bristolian. "Oh, um, hang on, I won't be a minute" he said breathlessly. "Don't worry, it's only me!" I told him. He opened the door, and on seeing it was me said, "You bastard - you nearly had me there!" I think he did stop the practice after that!

Also, is anyone here old enough to remember putting just enough change into the meter so that the current would cut out at "just the right moment"?