Smart Meter - again

[Harry Bloomfield]

We have had the Smart Meters + display in now for over a month -OVO. I have just had the statement, which is more than covered by the fixed DD, so now we are showing as being in credit on OVO's site.

What puzzles me, is the indoor E & G display which shows £40 for E and £20 for G is due. Should this not reset itself to we are in credit?

Prior to the Smart meters install, I received just one combined statement covering both E and G. Now I get two separate ones.

Further point - I received an email from OVO last week, with an attached letter, stating that they would be upping my DD by 2.5x what I was paying, so cover for their estimate of my annual consumption and the fact that I was in debt to them (what?). Not would you mind if we made this change. Since moving to OVO I have paid them a fixed DD amount, then checked the bill and immedietely topped it up with a manual payment to more than cover the amount outstanding. I hit the roof, rang them and made clear that if they made any such change without my authorisation, I would immediately stop the DD and change suppliers.

They apologised, agreed I wasn't in debt and that my DD would stay at my agreed amount. They blamed it on their computer sending out letters automatically. MMmmmm.

[Bob Minchin]

Surely the whole idea with smart meters - or at least how the industry is selling the idea to us is that estimated bills will be a thing of the past and so you PAYG. If you have a budget DD plan to even up the monthly cost over the year then you will have to put up with whatever algorithm (and near scams) that OVO come up with to try to get higher monthly payments out of you. At least OVO pay 3% interest on credit balances or they did when I was with them. I moved when they wanted to charge me a leaving penalty just to change tariff within OVO. I'm now with EON who have a strange scheme whereby you can modify the DD every time you give them a meter reading. A web based meter/needle display has up and down buttons and you can take it down until the thing goes red then stop and they reduce the DD from the following month onwards. When the annual review takes place, I just pay up the deficit and start the game over again. I think it is their reaction to the criticism levelled at the schemes that push the DD upwards like yours.

[Cursitor Doom]

[...]

Say NO to smart meters!

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bob Minchin a écrit :

I was with E.ON prior to OVO and it seemed you could set the DD above or below the amount they suggested.

OVO only seem to offer your setting the DD amount well above.

[alan_m]

Similar with Scottish Power. Provide your own reading and get an up-to-date bill with 30 seconds or so. Web page or App where I can change the DD amount at any time.

[alan_m]

But you get free weekend electricity when you say yes - I've seen the TV adverts.

Seen today advertised on TV.

2 (bed) pillows for only £9.99, trial offer. Smaller print: the balance of £50 is payable if you don't ring up within 30 days to arrange return of the product.

Pocket Watch, museum quality, future heirloom - only £2.99

[Andy Burns]

If it's like my meters they are accurate for the units used, but the monetary figures are merely estimates of the energy used (they did send an update of the tariff costs to it once) and certainly doesn't know anything about the DR/CR balance of your account.

[bert]

In article , Harry Bloomfield writes

No I changed mine down recently.

[Peter Johnson]

You can change the OVO dd up or down on the website at any time. It also suggests a recommended rate, up or down, which you can ignore, as I am the suggestion that I change the current £45 to £60.

[DerbyBorn]

?

+1

[Harry Bloomfield]

Peter Johnson a écrit :

Well, not in my case.. I have a dd of £52, it recommends around £90 and will not allow me to set it at any less than £90 per month.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Not really that 'Smart' then.. 8-o

What then is the point of it just adding up the total cost of your useage and calling it an 'Estimated Bill'?

[Dave Liquorice]

But doesn't one of the OVO computers think you owe them a reasonable amount of money? It's simply trying to claw that back...

[Andy Burns]

Just ignore the £ display on it, the pence per minute display isn't a million miles away on mine, but it can't know the effect of standing charges, high/low rates for first so many units, multi-fuel discounts, loyalty discounts etc, etc.

The only time I've seen any estimated figures on my statements in the

4'ish years I've had smart meters is when changing tariff on a day that isn't the day of the month they happen to be read read.

I did have a polite moan at them to say they ought to have done an extra reading since they promise "no more estimated readings ever" OWTTE, but they didn't bite.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Dave Liquorice a écrit :

No, once the DD had been taken - I was well into credit again.

As said - I pay £52 monthly dd, then top that up each month with a manual payment - just as soon as I know what, if anything I still owe.

[Andy Burns]

I realise some people prefer to never be in debt, and presumably this is the closest you can get to the old way of paying a quarterly bill without getting stung for not having a D/D?

But I dare say your combination of D/D *and* manual payments confuses the heck out of their system that tries to calculate what level of monthly D/D average your total consumption over the course of a year.

With smart meters and 4 years of readings to go on, I now find e.on's system gets it close enough not to worry about, they review the monthly amount every 6 months with the aim of a zero balance once a year, and return any credit balance once a year ... which is now in the low tens of pounds unlike the previous high hundreds of pounds from the bad old days of estimated readings and 'you were out' meter postcards.

[tim...]

Surely all the meter calculates is amount used, I doubt very much that it knows how much you have paid.

Transmitting that data to the meter would be hugely complicated and an (unnecessary) data protection risk

tim

[Brian Gaff]

I have said to my supplier you can fit one when it either has a talking remote unit or a way I can look at it on a normal computer with a screenreader and control it from there. It is apparent to me that the current android interface app is still inaccessible to the blind as well, so these people need to get their fingers out of their bums and make something that is easy to understand and usable by those with poor or no sight and something that does not require a smart phone of a fruity nature. The one thing I was told which I found hard to believe is that at present only those who use gas and Electric and do not have economy 7 or whatever, are getting smart meters in any case as there are some design issues for electricity with multi tariffs only units. What??? EDF talking out of their backsides and fobbing me off with bullshit, surely not? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Hea ha. Well, also you see the adds about leccy and Gas and yet you get the run around if you are not apparently in the target bracket of the energy supplier and sent away with bullshit as to why they cannot give you one you can use. I think the Equality act has caught them out as usual as well. Too many disabled users about, how inconvenient. Brian

[Robin]

+1 (or +4 years of smart meters with BG, EDF and BG again)