[Citori]

18 months ago npower customers were moved over to Eon.
when this happened I specifically asked if my smart meter would still work as I work away and I'm not always around to read meters.
I was told that, Yes, it would still work.
when I was with npower it worked well with no problems and made bill payments easy and accurate.
However, for 18 months this has not been the case. I have had on occasions to pay someone to get meter readings in my absence. My bills have been a mix up of estimates and submitted readings and are generally impossible to understand.
I'm now told that my meter is now "fully smart" by email, but it still does not take gas readings.
How can this be so difficult when it was so easy with npower?

[theunknowntech]

Hi @Citori ,

Could you show us some photos please? I can try to help with diagnostics, but I need to figure out what you've got first.

Thanks!

[Citori]

@theunknowntech
Hello. I was told recently that my meter is now "fully smart" after 18 months. However I'm still being asked for Gas meter readings in particular.
My meter readings have been a disaster area over the last 18 moths with my usage being wildly over estimated and then having to be corrected. I'm still having a dispute over inaccurate readings. This was never the case with npower. I was only ever billed for exactly what I used.
I work away from home and usually I have 3 months a year with normal usage and 9 months a year with very little usage. This totally throws off the estimated bills.

[Citori]

@theunknowntech How is this progressing please?

[theunknowntech]

Oh right, sorry for the wait! I got held up with a million other things. Blastoise186 needed my help with some stuff recently, because as usual... He managed to blow up BlastoiseLabs again... XD

Let me grab @PeterT_EONNext for an assist. He's got tools that I can only dream of.

[Citori]

Ok. I look forward to your reply. Thank you.

[NickyCuff]

@Citori I have this exact same issue - was with Npower and had no issues at all with the smart meters or meter readings - now my electricity meter submits and the gas doesn't. Apparently it is an issue with the gas meter "not being a smart meter" but I don't buy it - how can it work for one company perfectly and not another.

Really poor - I have basically been told they will get to me when they are in my area - yet the issue has been ongoing for over a year. I feel your pain...

[Citori]

@NickyCuff Exactly. If it worked perfectly with npower why not now? I can't believe that Eon took over and just deleted all the previous infrastructure.

[meldrewreborn]

@Citori

Older "smart" meters were not on the DCC network which is accessible by all suppliers. The older meters were on networks unique to the installing supplier, so then were not accessible by the new supplier, when there was a supplier change. These older meters are being migrated to the DCC network gradually, and by the end of this year it is hoped they will all have been migrated.

If Npower customers were to have been migrated next year the process would have been straightforward. But they were transferred last year, I think. The fault lies with EON management who decided to transfer customers to save the company money irrespective of the inconvenience to Customers. And that senior management claims it was a great success. Don't blame the workers!

[Citori]

@meldrewreborn Hello. Thank you for your reply. Yes, I understand the issue of the older meters not being on the DCC network. What I didn't understand was why the older system was not also transferred with the take over. Especially when they insisted to me that it would be.
Unfortunately because my property is only occupied for 2 to 3 months a year Eon insists on sending estimated bills based on the months I'm there, wildly overcharging me then having to re credit me when I send in a manual reading.
To make matters worse, they somehow cancelled my direct debit (which they said I did, but I didn't) over estimated my bill and demanded immediate payment.
This would never have happened if the smart meter was working..
I understand what you say, sorry for bending your ear.. 🙂