Smart meters, less smart companies

Just received an email from BG thanking me for making an appointment with an engineer on 18 Jul. The work is now complete.
Eh, what? I've not made an appointment, and no engineer attended on 18 Jul (Saturday). I found a note in my calendar app that says "Smart Meter" (with no other details*). That was for 18 Jul 2024.
What a bunch of clowns!

* Wrong. I'd added the word "engineer" which didn't show on the original view.
 
Just had Thames Water come and fit a smart water meter today. The booklet of information they left says it could take up to 90 days to show in the account.

Eh? Haven't they heard that computers are faster then that ... ??
 
10 months after my smart water filter fitted - no daily or even weekly readings on my online account... just a reading every six months, as it was before.
It also had an 'episode' where I suspect it's shut-off mechanism went bananas, causing water hammer sounds on my internal pipework!
 
EEPhil said:
Just received an email from BG thanking me for making an appointment with an engineer on 18 Jul. The work is now complete.
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I replied to the email telling them they'd made a mistake. Got an automated response saying the mailbox isn't monitored. Did it say that on their email? Of course not. Am I going to waste time using their online chat? Of course not. It all gets routed to India, at least it was the last time I used it.
 
So, a useless company with 13 years experience is being replaced by a non-profit startup. How much experience has the startup? What could go wrong?
How long before we all have to read our own "smart" meter and send the energy company the numbers?
 
EEPhil said:
How long before we all have to read our own "smart" meter and send the energy company the numbers?
Click to expand...
My aunt's smart meter has never reported back to the network, probably because it is in a concrete underground utilities room at her retirement apartments. I call it the nuclear bunker. None of smart meters in it work.

My parents' smart meter reports back to the network for readings, but the in home display has never worked. And it can only be placed about a metre or two from the electricity meter or it loses signal so it would be useless anyway as nowhere inside the house is within range.
 
Owen Smith said:
My parents' smart meter reports back to the network for readings, but the in home display has never worked. And it can only be placed about a metre or two from the electricity meter or it loses signal so it would be useless anyway as nowhere inside the house is within range.
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Both my meters are under the upstairs flat's concrete stairs with two brick walls and a space (downstairs cloakroom for upstairs flat) between there and anywhere useful. There's only one place where the signal is good enough and there's a nearby power point. The IHD works, and the smart meter reports some of the usage data (half-hourly) and "proper" readings once a month - most of the time. The meters aren't usually read when there is a tariff change (except last time), so I do it to stop Gritish Bass guessing.
 
EEPhil said:
So, a useless company with 13 years experience is being replaced by a non-profit startup. How much experience has the startup? What could go wrong?
How long before we all have to read our own "smart" meter and send the energy company the numbers?
Click to expand...
The way these things normally work is that the systems are transferred to the new company and staff who are running it now are TUPEd over to the new company.
 
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