Changing to smart meter has left me without lighting. OVO say it's not their fault

[thecatneuterer]

The engineer is here right now. Just changed to a smart meter and he's trying to tell me that the reason I now have no lights must be due to an underlying fault and not their responsibility. I'm sure I'm not being unreasonable to be annoyed. Has this happened to anyone else?

Do you sign a waiver when you get this done absolving them of any consequent issues? If not I'd be hassling them to put it right.

You don't have to give in to sales pressure to have a smart meter. British gas pestered me for years to get one, I kept saying no and eventually ended up shouting down the phone to yet another sales person that I would never want one and they should never call me again about it. They never did.
Moved to octopus, apart from their blurb about it on website and app no one's ever asked if I wanted one. I think their CEO about a year or 2 ago said he advised against it at the time.
I can't see the point of them at all to the consumer, I don't waste fuel, i wouldn't use any less if I had one, I send meter readings every month and they send a bill so I know the actual costs, and I monitor my account so I know if I need to adjust my DD, takes a few minutes each month, hardly onerous.

He recommended I get the MCB changed for that circuit. I've got an electrician coming tomorrow. I still maintain IANBU to be pissed off 😁

The problem is one day your meter will be obsolete and you will have no choice in the matter. Thats what we're facing now so threads like this fill you with dread!

Definitely never signed anything. But this was all done online so I could well have ticked to accept some dodgy Ts and Cs. I don't remember.

I explained myself badly- I’m talking about faults like a bastard feed, or radials that should be rings, or wrong amperage circuits - things like that. If the earth was there prior to the meter being installed, the RCD would have tripped. If the RCD is tripping now, there’s no previously unknown earth fault. There is a new earth fault, or the RCD has been broken.

That's sort of what I was thinking - about eventually being obsolete. I can't really see what benefit it will be to me. I held off for years as the early models occasionally caught fire. Now that seems to be no longer an issue I just thought I might as well get it over with.

Funny how we are being told that meters are obsolete after twenty years, now there is a smart replacement. My parents' meter was seventy years old when it was replaced when they had a new boiler. Friends in Norfolk had one still going strong after eighty. Ours is forty, last house was fifty when we left. Mobile signal very poor here. None of the neighbours have one.

I've started getting those emails too after ignoring the others for years. Now concerned that my unit is old so won't be caving in until that's been changed.

I hate life admin.

I had new RCD and all electrics upgraded in 2018, so nothing is old, yet I still have problems.

Tell me about it. Eon got in touch with me about mine so looked it up online and it was bang on 19.5 years old and a gov.uk site (which i now cant find) said my meter was obsolete at 20 years. They've chased me a couple of times but the clock is ticking. Ironically the gas meter is 40+ years old but never been chased for it.

Tails are the thick blue and brown cables that run from the mains fuse to the meter and from the meter to the consumer unit.

There is also an Earth tail, but he shouldn’t have had to touch that AFAIK

@Raasclaat I know that water meters are changed every so many years . It's because they are calibrated to a British Standard, and as with anything with moving parts like dials (which may stick or slip) the meter may no longer meet those standards. I expect the same applies to electricity meters.

Yes my gas meter is mechanical but the elec meter is purely digital/electronic so no apparent moving parts. It's a racket!

Bugger. Urgh. I can't be bothered. I have a gabillion other priorities.

Hope you get yours sorted soon.

I cannot count the ways OVO have royally fucked up since they installed our 'smart' meter. It's been over a year and still not resolved. I wish you luck on the tedious and soul-destroying journey ahead.

When we were having our smart meters fitted the engineer fitted the electric meter and then pressure tested the gas meter. It was leaking and he decided the leak was just small enough to let him do the work. He then discovered it was the incoming pipe to the meter that was leaking.

Gee, thanks....

What has been happening to you?