Forced to have smart meter

[Coatanger]

morning,

i’m Constantly being bombarded by Scottish power about having a smart meter fitted. I’ve consistently said no thank you and now the letters have changed, telling me that my meters are out of date and need changing.

is anyone else experiencing this?I feel like it’s just a ploy to fit a smart meter!

my gas meter was actually checked fairly recently with no concerns raised!

can I just keep saying no or will they escalate it?

I’m getting the same. I’m still ignoring them. No one has burst through the door with a battering ram so far! Pretty certain it’s just a ploy to get their numbers of smart meters up. Stay strong!💪

I think I read somewhere that the meters do expire, and that they can force the change on you?
I submit my readings for water/gas/electric every month and haven’t had anyone asking to read it for a long time, whereas when I wasn’t a regular submitter they would knock at my door.

Same here, from Eon. They keep advising me that my meter is beyond its safety date @ 20 years old. It's not. It's 6 years old, (a new barn renovation).

Letters, texts, phone calls are all ignored.

Drives me mad been ignoring for years now.

What's the problem with smart meters? I rate mine.

I have a smart meter and it's great because I can just forget it and don't need to submit meter readings (and you didn't need the screen that tells you your consumption either)

Yes, keep getting emails, and keep deleting them.

It’s usually either the big bad government spying on me, or they might just turn my supply off randomly and I don’t trust them not to.

Neither are sensible reasons in my view not to have something that is just a better bit of tech than the old ones

I posted the same a couple of weeks ago, some interesting answers https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5155781-your-meter-is-out-of-date

Because when they do go wrong it's a nightmare to sort out and in the meantime they can deduct literally thousands of pounds per month for fuel usage you haven't used and don't owe.

I think issues about them were on BBC news on Thursday, again.

Our good friend actually works for one of the big energy companies. He has advised us to avoid having one as he’s seen some real nightmare scenarios with inaccurate bills

It's a lie. We have an old house (1950's) and an old meter that they told us it wouldn't work after October years ago (pre covid I think). We got them in to put in a smart meter at the time because we assumed it was true and the guy doing the meter said he couldn't do it because we needed a part fitted that he couldn't do but not to worry as the letter wasn't actually true, We never heard from them again the fucking liars.

As much as it’s your choice to have one, it’s others choice to not have them.

Why the coercion?

You can keep refusing to have one fitted, the issue will be that there will eventually be no energy supplier willing to put you on an affordable tariff unless you have a smart meter. They only last 10 years aswell I think, so you'd need a new one fitted. I personally don't like them and much prefer the traditional meter but I'd rather be able to afford my bills.

My meters are nearly 30 years old and still working.

Eon or Edf, I can’t remember who I have, has offered me £300 to swap to a smart meter why?

They tried to fit a smart meter here after telling us the gas meter was out of date but the new electricity meter kept tripping the consumer unit so they put the old dumb meter back in place. Looks like we need to upgrade the consumer unit before getting a smart meter installed. It's on the to do list!

It’s hardly coercion to disagree with their reasons!

Don’t do it! Mine is broken, has been for over a year. I’ve had 4 engineers out and endless stress. I’m now on a waiting list (with no time frame) for a new model that hasn’t even been produced yet!!

I had a lot of problems with mine but I'm not sure if that was BG new system rather than the actual smart meter, I won't have a gas one as they can be more problematic if they are not next to the electric but will probably have to sometime as my gas meter has 1987 on it.

As far as I'm concerned the old meters we have work perfectly well - no huge bills here - and I just ignore any emails about it. Haven't had too many to be fair. Have enough going on without willingly fixing something that ain't broke.

We had inaccurate bills for a year but they were a lot less rather than more as no kWh electric charged, so I just dutifully told them several times, I did wonder if I would get some free electric because of backbilling rules but strangely there was a big flurry of activity and we got a correct bill after a year, luckily we had put money aside for the inevitable shortfall, they have put our DD up now to pay the shortfall.

They keep badgering us to have one. I know exactly how old our meter is because we had our meter relocated when we built an extension and the old meter (which measured in imperial units rather than metric units) was replaced then. Our present meter has a digital display.

@YourHangryQuail it makes things easier for the energy company, they have targets to meet and it helps the electricity provider (as in the network) better plan for capability provision did to the data they collect from them.