Not so smart electricity supply company
Regarding your front page article in the Friday March 10 edition of “the Squeak”, I may be able to help these long-suffering electric bill payers.
I had installed at the end of November 2022, by a Kilsyth company, both an air source heat pump and solar panels and can not praise the company highly enough in their efficiency etc.
Upon completion of the solar panels installation, the electrician told me to inform my electricity supplier immediately that I needed my old “wheel” type meter changed for a digital one so that it could communicate with my supplier, which I phoned the same day.
Over the next few months I was repeatedly told by the company’s call handlers that there was no available time slot in my area for an installation to take place but that I would be contacted as soon as one became available.
On my last call, at my insistence, I was reluctantly given the phone number of their installer.
Although this photograph was taken in early December by Rosemary Neagle of Kilmartin Glen, the weather has produced similar scenes in the last few weeks.
▍ If you have a photograph you would like to share with our readers, please send it to editor@argyllshireadvertiser.co.uk
Upon phoning this company and talking to a very helpful man, who checked all his records, I was informed that he did not have any details of an installation due for my address.
He explained that he needed the energy company to actually send him my details and to agree to the extra costs involved before he could actually allocate a time, or day slot, for an installation to take place.
The energy companies are all reluctant to agree to the extra costs involved in installing digital meters in rural areas where they may only get four done in a day compared to up to 10 done in a city.
Another excuse is poor mobile phone signal in the area, for the smart meter to work properly.
Anyway, fed up with the constant “merrygo-round” excuses from my energy company, I decided to phone the energy ombudsman and complain about my supplier, and its feeble excuses.
Hey presto: my case was taken up by the ombudsman and I finally had my digital smart meter installed last Friday, just in time for the Argyllshire Advertiser’s front page headline. What a coincidence.
The information needed is www.ombudsman-services.org or phone 0330 440 1624.
The Energy Ombudsman is an independent organisation that investigates complaints free and, may I add, actually gets things done. My best wishes to you all.
Name and address withheld