‘Installing devices wasn’t smart idea’

MY energy company, Bulb, installed a smart meter in my home about 18 months ago, I was told in accordance with national guidelines controlling the energy industry.

As my energy bills, paid by direct debit, have always seemed right because I have kept them a bit less each year by changing companies, I have not paid much attention to the smart meter.

However, last year I decided to use the smart meter to check how much energy my gas fire pilot light was using by keeping it on over summer.

Was it worth turning off in the balmy sunny weather months?

The resulting smart reading from this test seemed to be very wrong in the cost per unit charged.

On two occasions I contacted the company, admittedly spaced over many months. We will calibrate the meter over the internet connection I was advised, so silly me, I left the problem.

The meter was never corrected and with extra time on my hands today because of you know what, I belatedly decided to contact Bulb again.

I was not pleased to see that the Bulb app now incorporates automated questions and answers on smart meter problems and that one solution for accuracy complaints is a cost of £120 to have the meter checked.

I thought that luckily as Bulb has a good app with good customer service, I will press the contact button.

Yes, it worked. The immediate answer was ‘Hello, please wait you are number 48 in the queue’.

So, it’s word processor time and a postage stamp, and leave the high-tech communication.

Was the national drive to compel consumers to replace their old meters with poor reliability smart meters fair?

Why also should consumers pay for the service of meters owned by the energy supplier, and which probably most people did not want?