Jump to content

Smart meters ...


jpadie

Recommended Posts

Hello all and happy 2025.

 

BG have just installed a smart meter at my place.  I was on economy 7 and they said I needed to change as the time signal would be turned off.  

 

I was assured that the tariff would be maintained of course.  the installed double checked and confirmed too.  

 

but now the time of day tariffs have disappeared from my BG customer portal and I'm on a fixed unit tariff.  

 

is this normal in your experience? 

 

thanks in advance

Justin

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, jpadie said:

Hello all and happy 2025.

 

BG have just installed a smart meter at my place.  I was on economy 7 and they said I needed to change as the time signal would be turned off.  

 

I was assured that the tariff would be maintained of course.  the installed double checked and confirmed too.  

 

but now the time of day tariffs have disappeared from my BG customer portal and I'm on a fixed unit tariff.  

 

is this normal in your experience? 

 

thanks in advance

Justin

 

If they confirmed in writing (email) that your tariff would stay the same, they need to explain what is going on... 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe they need to assess the 30 minute meter readings for a few days before the tariffs change.  

 

I got fed up with having to learn a different language to speak to BG to sort out their metering problems and recently moved to Octopus at no charge,. The transition went smoothly and we have been up and running with them for about a month. We are on their cosy tariff which gives us 8 hrs of half price electricity at various times during the day. All has been good so far and their customer service for a couple of minor queries has been excellent.

Edited by Canski
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am with EDF and also on E7.

Apart from EDF being total (expletive deleted), the E7 Smart meter worked well  even when it stopped communicating.

 

Do you have a proper E7 Smart meter i.e. more wires out than in.

I am led to believe that the time switch is built in.

 

I fell for the lie about switching off of the radio signal is going to happen soon, but probably not this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Google "The long wave goodbye" if you want the full story all about obsolete valves.

Valves 🤷‍♂️ in this day and age. And I thought I was a Luddite!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, jpadie said:

Hello all and happy 2025.

 

BG have just installed a smart meter at my place.  I was on economy 7 and they said I needed to change as the time signal would be turned off.  

 

I was assured that the tariff would be maintained of course.  the installed double checked and confirmed too.  

 

but now the time of day tariffs have disappeared from my BG customer portal and I'm on a fixed unit tariff.  

 

is this normal in your experience? 

 

thanks in advance

Justin

 

 

They should be able to sort it

 

I was with Scottish Power - took me a lot of effort to get tariff changed to std rate for all hours with my old E7 meter but got there in the end - however when I moved to Octopus they took a similar amount of effort to get them to agree to a single rate tarrif with an E7 meter.

 

When I had the "direct communication meters" fitted (I refuse to call them "smart" as there is nothing smart about them) I hoped to go to a single daily consumption but no when I look in the app I still see day and night rate readings recorded even though the meter only has one reading - bloody weird but at least it means I can still make the calculation if E7 type tarrif would work for me. (It did until electricity costs sky rocketed and the suppliers loaded the day rate far higher than the night rate saved (£200 a year was my saving in ditching the E7 rates)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

They have been threatening that for at least a decade.

This was the original article 10 or more years ago highlighting the issue with the very old valve transmitter and lack of spare valves to keep it going forever.  It seems nobody has the appetite to build a new modern replacement transmitter.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/09/bbc-radio4-long-wave-goodbye

 

This summarises the current situation.

https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2024/03/long-slow-goodbye-of-bbc-radio-4-on.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

They have been threatening that for at least a decade.

Threatening it yes, but dates in the near future? Not that I know of. 
 

30th June 2025 is apparently the date. To my knowledge they’ve not given a firm date before, that has then passed with the service still operational. We’ll see I suppose. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update from BG is that they've installed the wrong meter and so automatically changed the tariff.  

 

No notification etc.  Just unilateral action.  No attempt to apologise.  And theyre now saying things like "we want to help you resolve this etc".  Whereas they should be saying "we screwed up royally and we are in breach of contract. We will resolve it and compensate you in the next xx days".  

 

I'm a lawyer by trade and have some spare time at the moment.  Seriously considering taking them to court.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, jpadie said:

No notification etc.  Just unilateral action.

I had the same with EDF, but got £200 out of them.

 

I thought, and was mentioned when I studied contract law at college, that 'silence is no acceptance', but it does not seem to apply any more.  Certainly did not with Students Loans.  These were initially interest free, but now, even on the old ones, charged at a greater rate then bank loans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, jpadie said:

Update from BG is that they've installed the wrong meter and so automatically changed the tariff.  

 

No notification etc.  Just unilateral action.  No attempt to apologise.  And theyre now saying things like "we want to help you resolve this etc".  Whereas they should be saying "we screwed up royally and we are in breach of contract. We will resolve it and compensate you in the next xx days".  

 

I'm a lawyer by trade and have some spare time at the moment.  Seriously considering taking them to court.  

 

If a supplier (expletive deleted)s up for me I send them a bill - after passing it around depts they normally end up paying it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...