Check your smart meters now!



I don’t believe you’ve been that naive mind. I’m with Octopus. When you have smart meters they still ask you to submit occasional readings to check they’re working ok.
Most companies use the same ones, Octopus use the same ones I’ve had in years. You also have an app where you can check your daily use going back years. Surely the bill will say “estimated” somewhere on it?
You missed all this and just kept on blindly paying without checking?
 
The Fitter said:
Today I've just had my mind blown apart.

I switched to Octopus back in August 2019 and an engineer came along to install the new smart meters for gas & electricity, so I left him to it and an hour or so later he said everything is good to go. Obviously bills have gone through the roof over the past year but I couldn't understand why I'm being charged more than twice the electricity compared to the lady next door, especially as I'm on my own. She has 2 teenagers, washing machine on twice a day, tumble dryer, electric shower, old gas oven and old boiler (the one in the cupboard, not her!) Kids using every plug socket, 4 TV's on standby, lights left on everywhere etc.

So after comparing bills yesterday, and paying over £300/month, I decide to check out my Octopus smart meters as something is clearly amiss. My bills state I'm using smart meters, so I decide to check they are working and go to submit a reading... It turns out I don't have any smart meters fitted! The engineer never fitted any in the first place! Only the old Scottish power ones that are turned off/dead. I call Octopus this morning and they confirm for the last 3.5 years they have been estimating my bills, from the closest meter to my house! Yep, the lady next door. They call it cross-metering. I'm now due a refund for the last 3.5 years which will be several thousand pounds. They say it's rare but does happen, so check you have the right smart meter fitted or it's likely you'll be getting fleeced!
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No consolation at all, but crossed metering and missed meter exchanges happen a lot more often than you would think

Sounds obvious but provide regular meter readings and check your bill to make sure the meter you are being charged for, is the one in your property
Especially of you live in flats with a communal cupboard. Especially
 
Suppliers were told by the government that every home had to have a smart meter installed by a certain date/year.

The first smart meters (smet 1) were not universal which meant if you switched suppliers then the meter would no longer be in smart mode.

I believe the smet2 are universal which meant if you switched to a company who had the technology then it would still work as a smart meter.

Smart Meters aren’t the big con everyone seems to think, they send regular meter readings to the supplier resulting in a more accurate bill. The meter reader (who are usually a 3rd party at still under obligation to manually read the meters very so often.

Under estimated and over estimated bills happen al the time, as does crossed metering.

When bills are estimated it is usually by looking at your previous consumption and the estimate is based off that, taking into time of year etc…

I wish they would fit Me a smart meter, fed up crawling through loft hatch and cupboard to read mine!
 
There is a relatively common error that has been seen on here several times where they get the meter billing units incorrect.
It's easy to check. Check your actual meter units and your billing units. If your meter says m3 on the front and your bill is in ft3x100 then you will pay about 3x as much as you should.
The units for the meter are marked on the front of the meter, normally ft3x100 or m3 and the billing units will be on your bill.
There is also another relative common error on meter reading. Most gas meters you are told to ignore the red numbers. But on a small number of meters you should actually include them. This will generally lead to either a very tiny or very large bill. If you have any doubts talk to your supplier.

from elsewhere
 
Kenna said:
These energy company's are just criminals.

At least you're getting the money back but they had no intention stopping it from happening.
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Why would they when someone doesn't even bother checking for what 4 years?
OP obviously didn't give a shit.
 
I've only had this issue with my current supplier but my electricity meter occasionally sends a reading that's about 300kWh lower than it actually is. I do send in manual readings too and it caught me out in December when the auto reading went in after my reading but before the bill was generated. It meant the electricity part of my bill was negative. The serial numbers on both the meter and the bill match so I'm not sure what's happening.
 
When I closed my account at the beginning of Jan they were sitting on about £500 of excess - if people are short it’s worth checking if your energy account has a surplus, I had a working smart meter as well there was no need to have a £500 savings pot in the middle of winter
 
joemcdokes said:
Why would they when someone doesn't even bother checking for what 4 years?
OP obviously didn't give a shit.
Click to expand...
I just believed the engineer when he said everything was good to go, then I get bills with meter numbers etc, all looked cosher until I compared bills with the missus/neighbour and clearly something was way wrong. Admittedly I'm crap with technology and thought a £300 bill was just normal these days. Theft and deception is the new norm from energy suppliers & I hope I can help someone else not get robbed blind. True I can afford it, but 1000's of others can't.
 
I’m with octopus and don’t have a smart meter but after being with them for about 18 months they said I don’t need to send readings any longer as the meters I’ve got are now “smart”. Still send them in every quarter and tbf they’ve not had to make any adjustments. They do keep trying to get me to up my dd but at my anniversary now and am about £200 in credit, which will likely get wiped out this month, but should start building a surplus again and hope aprils rise won’t hit too hard.
 
Dave Herbal said:
I don’t believe you’ve been that naive mind. I’m with Octopus. When you have smart meters they still ask you to submit occasional readings to check they’re working ok.
Most companies use the same ones, Octopus use the same ones I’ve had in years. You also have an app where you can check your daily use going back years. Surely the bill will say “estimated” somewhere on it?
You missed all this and just kept on blindly paying without checking?
Click to expand...
I don't do apps. Nope, not an estimated bill, it looked like they were obtaining the readings directly from an installed meter. But not mine, they were using next door's. Yep, I'm afraid that I did!
 
I'm kind of the opposite, I have an analog meter, I give Scottish Power the readings through the App, but are ignoring them and estimating me instead, been happening most of last year till now. Reading between the lines, I'm a shite customer for them, as my home empty using only 30 quid a month in elec/standing fees, my history shows this, seems they decided I'm a bullshiter and submitting false reading as "they are too low", despite backing all them up with photos. We now at ombudsman stage and finally got to see my SP case notes, some utter lies are written in the case notes, luckily I switched to email correspondence (SP barely ever reply) and my emails are submitted, I've made my final comments, just waiting on SP's final comments before a verdict is reached......

I've used all the readings from Oct/Nov last year, calculated with the sky high rates and shown I use around 35 pound a month when house empty and was 85 pound for the month when home for 11 days at Christmas. By getting dragged into all this and researching a lot, it shows the skullduggery these companies will go to, to fill their accounts with money which is not theirs.
 

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