Ain't fuel providers great?

[Thehooperman]

So British Gas decided to increase their tariffs and called me a couple of weeks ago to say that could offer me a cheaper tariff than I'm currently on but I would have to have Smart meters installed.

After getting (in writing) that they would pay for any other suppliers' Smart meter to be installed if I wanted to change after 12 months and doing a quick comparison I agreed today was the day for them to do their installation.

They turned up on time but then I had to go out so left them to it in the garage. Then after 30 minutes or so I get a call saying that the socket in my garage wasn't working and they were going to fit an isolation switch.

I suggested they first try switching on the garage light which also didn't work and then I asked what the isolation switch would achieve. Reply "it will enable an electrical engineer to switch off the distribution board to fix your problem".

"But I didn't have a problem until you fitted the Smart meter are you sure your new Smart meter isn't faulty?" I said

"No it's fine there is a supply to your distribution board"

I challenged how he knew there was a supply and all of a sudden a call to his manager was necessary and miraculously the problem disappeared a few minutes later when he swapped meters.

Why do fuel suppliers think we're all mugs who will believe anything their "engineers" say?

 

[Gramaisc]

About fifteen years ago, I had a rather strange power event that they just denied was happening.

I noticed that the incandescent bulbs were looking a bit 'orange' and that the CFLs were OK, but would not strike back on if they were turned off. Shoving a meter into a socket showed that I was actually being supplied at around 150 volts. A glance around at other houses revealed a lot of 'orange' lighting, so it wasn't just me.

When I rang them, they denied there was any fault and that this was even possible, which of course it shouldn't be.

The voltage slowly decayed further, until about an hour later, at about 85 volts, when it finally dropped out altogether.

We came back on at some point before I woke up the next day. It happened on a Saturday night - I know this because I found the hole, where the cable joint had blown its way out of the ground on Common Walk, whilst on my way to the boot sale in the morning. A new joint had been fitted overnight, but the hole was still open 'just in case'. The state of the nearby vegetation was interesting...

 

[staffordjas]

Quite a few years ago now....We had several British Gas blokes making several attempts at installing our smart meters. Eventually they said the problem was that the Vodafone signal wasn't getting through and left without them working. Then received a letter saying they were now introducing ' smarter' improved meters, but we decided to forget about them . Just stay with the new ones that they put in replacing the old gas and electric meters, even though they weren't sending any readings to either our machine or British Gas.
Suddenly the electric one must have started sending readings to them , as the online account was showing current readings. Still doesn't send any info to the monitor thingy they left with us.
Gas 'smart' meter has never actually sent any readings anywhere ever since it was put in all those years ago.

 

[Noah]

One of the dodgy things about smart meters is that they have the facility for variable tariffs built into them - by government decree.

 

[Cue]

Your first mistake was being with any of the Big 6. They charge a fortune and don't care one bit.

I switched to Bulb a while back. They're variable rate so do fluctuate with the wholesale market but they're also 100% green electricity and still significantly lower than when we were with Scottish Power (who wanted to crank our bill up by £25 for a new tariff!). I can give you a referral link if you want £50 credit, they pay your exit fee too.

As for smart meters... oh god. What a shambles. The version 1 system was a complete farce - any idea if that's what they've fitted you with? I'd hope it's a SMETS2 meter at this point however the bit about paying for someone else's meter to be installed makes me think they've shifted you with one from their now-redundant stock. We have a SMETS1 which doesn't transfer to most providers so I pretty much just use it to take a reading using the indoor display instead of having to go outside. SMETS2 is meant to be far better so I'm waiting on Bulb to roll that out now.

 

[Jonah]

I got a phone call from British Gas asking me if I wanted a 'smart' meter fitted. I declined. Which prompted the question "Could I ask the reason why you don't want one so I can put it down on your file?' So I told the woman I think they are completely pointless and a waste of time. You could hear the tone of surprise in her voice when she said 'thank you'.

 

[c0tt0nt0p]

I got a phone call from British Gas asking me if I wanted a 'smart' meter fitted. I declined. Which prompted the question "Could I ask the reason why you don't want one so I can put it down on your file?' So I told the woman I think they are completely pointless and a waste of time. You could hear the tone of surprise in her voice when she said 'thank you'.

Suppliers record the reason so they can report back to Ofgem.....