My new gadget doesn’t work

ENTREPRENEUR Amanda Overend says EDF Energy ‘pestered’ her to get a smart meter.

Finally succumbing in June, she then found the device did not work. Its display remained blank, meaning Amanda has had to continue relying on old-fashioned meter readings and cannot view her usage in real time.

And the 43-year-old mum-of-three, from Ilkley, West Yorkshire, is still waiting for her supplier to repair the gadget three months later.

Amanda, who runs online children’s bookshop Books & Pieces, says: ‘We are the kind of family that turns the light off every time we leave a room.

‘ That has become even more important now bills are rising. A smart meter would be really useful.’

She adds: ‘When the engineer installed it, he said it wasn’t uncommon for them (meters) not to work.’

EDF says it is fixing the device as a matter of urgency.