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British Gas EV Tariff - Smart Meter Issues

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Good Evening,

 

I am looking for some support and this seems like somewhere that will be able to help - the information already consumed has been enligtening but I do have a specific issue which I am hoping I can get some support on.

 

I have been with British Gas since buying my property in Dec 2018 (in Scotland - that will come to life later in my story). I’ve always been on one of their tariffs which had a end time on it until the whole energy crisis put me onto the standard tarfiff which was seen to be the best for everyone - everything worked fine, I could sign into my account, I could use my in home display and all was well with the world.

 

In Dec 2022 British Gas informed me they were moving me to their ‘new system’ - I didn’t think much of it at the time but I thought hey ‘new system’ it’s gotta be better right? Around that time the gas side of my in home display stopped reading, didn’t think much of it at the time but after contacting them they advised it was this ‘new system’ that caused the issue and all would be recitified at some point in the future - I took them at their word.

 

Fast forward to March 2023 and the anticipation of my new EV car arriving I made enquiries on how to move onto their new EV tariff, no problem they said, we can do that, use this link. So I signed up for their EV tariff and then surprisingly got letters/emails saying ‘Sorry you are leaving us’ - erm I’m not….I contacted them and they said ‘you are moving from British Gas to Scottish Gas, it’s the same company, don’t worry all will be fine. When I tried logging into my account with the detials I had I get a message saying ‘we hope you come back soon’ or similar.

 

I’ve contacted them a few times and they’ve eventually given me a link which gets me to view my account online, although it says ‘your details are on our ‘new system’’ - but it does display that I am on Scottish Gas EV tariff, and they have said i’m back on their ‘old system’

 

I’ve contacted them a few times as I would have expected my in home display to suddently kick into life but it hasn’t. I also thought that my meter would have had a Rate 2 (it only shows Rate 1), and no matter how much I have fiddled with the E470 I cannot get it to change to Rate 2 (i’ve watched the guides here). I’ve contacted them again who say there are no issues, they are receiving my readings as expected and when I asked them about the in home display they said it was out of warranty and wouldn’t be replaced (I don’t think it’s faulty to be honest)

 

So looking for some advice, will I get a mammoth bill because I am not actually on an off peak/on peak tariff and my meter isn’t setup correctly. Should I call them again (about the 6th time) and force the issue. I also don’t know why I wouldn’t be showing a Rate 2 - is there some other method of the meter reading for them to calculate my bills?

 

Any help much appreciated. A photo of my electricity meter for giggles.

 

 

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Best answer by BPLightlog 22 April 2023, 22:03

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BPLightlog
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Hi @rscosworth and welcome to this customer forum. 
It’s an interesting story although the system change would not have made any difference to your IHD. They connect directly to the smart meters and so somewhere that connection has been lost. The E470 seem a little awkward for operation but some have managed to conquer the manual access. 
If you have sight of your account now , you would be best checking the readings recorded. If these don’t show dual readings and you expect to see them, I would think it worthwhile to continue to ask for some resolution. There is a defined time for past billing to be enforced but I would be cautious about waiting for anything like that. 
Your account details, price per kWh and timings should be recorded so that you can confirm your own account details. 
Hope that helps

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My readings are all estimated on my account page although something just doesn’t look right between the British Gas and Scottish Gas side, they all show estimated although the agents I speak to are 100% certain it’s being recorded correctly. But I don’t have much faith in them to be honest.

 

I should probably add that my electricity appears to be providing readings but based on my old tariff (ie after waking up from charging the car for 5hrs it shows £15 rather than the expected £3.75 on the in home display - and the gas still doesn’t work.

 

When I raised a complaint I got the following response.

 

You have recently contacted us with regards to your In Home Display (IHD) unit for your smart meters not working correctly and only showing electricity usage.

I am sorry for the inconvenience this is causing you. I do understand your frustration.

To try and resolve the issue, unplug the Energy Monitor for 2 hours If possible, before switching back on move the energy monitor closer to the electricity meter (if possible use batteries and take the monitor to the electricity meter and see if it connects). Plug the energy monitor back in Allow 7 days for the fault to rectify itself (the Communications Hub resets after 7 days if it loses connection with any of the smart devices in the home).

I have reviewed your account and unfortunately as your IHD is over 12 months old, and therefore out of warranty, we would not be able to repair or replace your In Home Display unit if the above troubleshooting does not resolve the issue.
However, your smart meters are both communicating with us and providing smart reads so we will be able to keep your bills accurate.

As your reason for complaint does fall under our policies and procedures, we will be closing your complaint today under policy reason. However, although closed, your complaint will remain on your account as a sign of your dissatisfaction.

BPLightlog
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That doesn’t really help you does it. 
If the meter readings are shown as estimated I don’t see how they can be communicating correctly. The meter set up you have is know to be problematic but your IHD (what type do you have?) should work unless it’s faulty. Where they talk about switching off you should also remove batteries if you can for a decent time. If there’s somewhere close by when switching it back on its best to be as close as possible to the smart meter. 
For your EV tariff it won’t necessarily be shown as a second rate - OVO for example monitor charging and charge accordingly. You may be expecting off peak anyway but I can’t see that in your notes. 
I’m still confused by the British Gas / Scottish Gas part unless this is something that’s happened north of the border that we’ve not seen down south. 

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Blastoise186
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You have a WAN Failure. 

Blastoise 

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That doesn’t really help you does it. 
If the meter readings are shown as estimated I don’t see how they can be communicating correctly. The meter set up you have is know to be problematic but your IHD (what type do you have?) should work unless it’s faulty. Where they talk about switching off you should also remove batteries if you can for a decent time. If there’s somewhere close by when switching it back on its best to be as close as possible to the smart meter. 
For your EV tariff it won’t necessarily be shown as a second rate - OVO for example monitor charging and charge accordingly. You may be expecting off peak anyway but I can’t see that in your notes. 
I’m still confused by the British Gas / Scottish Gas part unless this is something that’s happened north of the border that we’ve not seen down south. 


I am expecting a different peak/off peak charger (44p vs 10p).

 

Scottish gas and British Gas appear to be the same (ie when I try and log into Scottish gas it redirects me to British Gas). Emails come in titled British Gas but are headed Scottish gas - it seems a shambles!

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You have a WAN Failure. 

Blastoise 

Because the light isn’t lit? I think the pic just happened to be when it wasn’t flashing 

BPLightlog
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Ok - looking at the British Gas website, they say that their EV tariff doesn’t work with economy 7 and so you probably won’t see two rates on your meter. If your smart meter is sending readings then they can see what power is used when which is how you get the different rates. 
It’s worth keeping check on your readings and account and especially double check on your billing. 
They do say that they estimate EV usage to start with 

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Tim_OVO
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What is your EV model and charger, @rscosworth? Maybe Charge Anytime and our variable tariff is a good option for you…

 

 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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What is your EV model and charger, @rscosworth? Maybe Charge Anytime and our variable tariff is a good option for you…

 

 

I don’t think I’m eligible (yet?). Volvo C40 P8 and Easee One charger.

Jeffus
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I don’t think I’m eligible (yet?). Volvo C40 P8 and Easee One charger.

 

Just FYI @Tim_OVO in case it helps

As i understand it the XC40 and C40 have the same underpinning drive train. 

Only the XC40 currently pops up on the Anytime app. 

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Just FYI @Tim_OVO in case it helps

As i understand it the XC40 and C40 have the same underpinning drive train. 

Only the XC40 currently pops up on the Anytime app. 

 

It says only XC40,60,90 between 2019-2021. That suggests to me not the full EV like the XC40/C40 (that share the same underpinnings)

nealmurphy
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Some people on the British Gas EV tariff have the two rates showing on their smart meter in-home display (though several are reporting the display incorrectly shows the cheap rate as 100p/kWh instead of 10p/kWh 🙄)

I'd suggest that if your account is showing estimated readings then something isn't quite right. Make sure the smart meter is set to send readings every 30 minutes. Or it could be something more complicated with the communication...

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I’ve been in contact with British Gas again today, extremely painful call as I only seem to ever get through to someone not in the UK.

Today I was told that my meter was working fine initially and then I was told it had not polled since 13th April. I was then asked for todays meter reading so they could generate a bill. I asked how they intended to know what was peak vs off peak usage and I was told it was ‘calculated’. I pressed on at the agenet, and eventually she changed her tune to say that they would need to investigate further.

After a long period on hold they eventually transferred me to someone in the smart meter team who seemed to know more and was concerned that i didn’t have a dual rate meter and that my meter wasn’t polling - has promised to call me back and has suggested a meter change towards the end of May.

 

I am sure it’ll all change - they are utterly useless but do feel like I am at least making a tiny bit of progress today.

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I’ve been in contact with British Gas again today, extremely painful call as I only seem to ever get through to someone not in the UK.

Today I was told that my meter was working fine initially and then I was told it had not polled since 13th April. I was then asked for todays meter reading so they could generate a bill. I asked how they intended to know what was peak vs off peak usage and I was told it was ‘calculated’. I pressed on at the agenet, and eventually she changed her tune to say that they would need to investigate further.

After a long period on hold they eventually transferred me to someone in the smart meter team who seemed to know more and was concerned that i didn’t have a dual rate meter and that my meter wasn’t polling - has promised to call me back and has suggested a meter change towards the end of May.

 

I am sure it’ll all change - they are utterly useless but do feel like I am at least making a tiny bit of progress today.

 

A little late to this thread/forum which I only happened upon today whilst searching for an answer to another question (I’ve made a note of this at the end of this post in case anyone can help). 

I hope you get your problem sorted as hoped by getting a new meter soon but I couldn't help but share my own recent experiences, which whilst I can’t offer any help regards the issue of you not being able to get full readings on your peak/off-peak usage following your switch to the Bgas Electric Car Tariff, your experiences with BGas largely mirror mine since late last year - which include a switch to the Electric Car tariff in March this year also. It seems to me they are in a total mess as a result of the new system and have been since November last year.

My gas and electric accounts were switched over to the new system on 31 October 2022 and frankly since that time billing etc has been something of a mess compounded with the fact that communication with British gas is challenging to say the least, so much so at the point the accounts were switch to the new system I had gone to OFGEM over their handling of my gas account, but that’s another story entirely.  however, invoking the Ombudsman card did get me speaking to someone who seemed to be clued up within BGas and they admitted that the new system was causing problems and that they were no longer transferring customers (this was in January) until issues had been resolved. As far as I can tell these issues remain as when log into my account the information available is still limited and regular manual reading of the electric and gas meters has been necessary to keep on top of usage as this info isn’t being relayed to the website or indeed my indoor smart display.

Moving on… the process of switch from a standard variable tariff to the Electric Car tariff (like you in anticipation of the arrival of an EV was simple enough but yes… I got emails and letters saying sorry you are leaving, although I’m in the south of England so there was no change of supplier name. I also get the same message saying ‘we hope you come back soon’ when looking at my ‘old’ now closed and paid off standard variable tariff account.   I have a new account number for the EV tariff which was opened up on the older system, not the newer wonky one. Being on the older system I thought was good new but….

Firstly since the switch took place my indoor display has not shown anything like correct information, the displayed tariffs, both day and night have never been right (at one point the overnight tariff, which at the time was 12p per Kwh was displaying as £1.20 per kwh – now its apparently free ay zero pence per Kwh!).

Secondly on the website it says I am on the standard variable tariff…

I was in email contact with the complaints department in March who told me that ‘after the transfer from the old platform the communication dropped between us and the coms hub which is what sends information back and forth. Hence the in- home display is showing the wrong information. Our smart team (coughs) are working in the background to reconnect with the coms hub to allow us to pull accurate readings and should hopefully be back up and communicating with us soon.

As nothing had changed by mid-May I have emailed Bgas again but am still awaiting a response to their previous repose and to tell them that my first bill after one month only charged me for the daytime units (at the wrong rate) which meant as I also have solar this was a significant under charge.

Mercifully my Smets2 electric meter however is showing current figures for both day and night usage, so I do at least know where I stand and I have sent Bgas a corrected bill of my own so I sympathise with your plight of not being able to read the overnight rate on your meter but hope that my own experience at least sheds some more light on some of the issues you are experiencing.

Finally (i hope you have lasted this long!)

If I may I wonder if anyone knows if there is somewhere that British Gas has a list of their historical tariff costs ( a bit like how banks list out old savings interest rates)? Try as I might I cannot find anything online.

My EV Trariff started out at 12p Kwh overnight, but seems to have changed to 10p Kwh poosibly on 1 April and when I looked last night its now 9.5p per kwh (daytime rates and daily charge rates have also moved at the same time). British gas have never notified of any change I have just noticed them when looking at their current tariff page at various times, but this contains no info on date of change or what the previous rates were, (you would have thought they would be pleased to show they had reduced them).

Thanks

 

 

 

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I’ve been in contact with British Gas again today, extremely painful call as I only seem to ever get through to someone not in the UK.

Today I was told that my meter was working fine initially and then I was told it had not polled since 13th April. I was then asked for todays meter reading so they could generate a bill. I asked how they intended to know what was peak vs off peak usage and I was told it was ‘calculated’. I pressed on at the agenet, and eventually she changed her tune to say that they would need to investigate further.

After a long period on hold they eventually transferred me to someone in the smart meter team who seemed to know more and was concerned that i didn’t have a dual rate meter and that my meter wasn’t polling - has promised to call me back and has suggested a meter change towards the end of May.

 

I am sure it’ll all change - they are utterly useless but do feel like I am at least making a tiny bit of progress today.

 

A little late to this thread/forum which I only happened upon today whilst searching for an answer to another question (I’ve made a note of this at the end of this post in case anyone can help). 

I hope you get your problem sorted as hoped by getting a new meter soon but I couldn't help but share my own recent experiences, which whilst I can’t offer any help regards the issue of you not being able to get full readings on your peak/off-peak usage following your switch to the Bgas Electric Car Tariff, your experiences with BGas largely mirror mine since late last year - which include a switch to the Electric Car tariff in March this year also. It seems to me they are in a total mess as a result of the new system and have been since November last year.

My gas and electric accounts were switched over to the new system on 31 October 2022 and frankly since that time billing etc has been something of a mess compounded with the fact that communication with British gas is challenging to say the least, so much so at the point the accounts were switch to the new system I had gone to OFGEM over their handling of my gas account, but that’s another story entirely.  however, invoking the Ombudsman card did get me speaking to someone who seemed to be clued up within BGas and they admitted that the new system was causing problems and that they were no longer transferring customers (this was in January) until issues had been resolved. As far as I can tell these issues remain as when log into my account the information available is still limited and regular manual reading of the electric and gas meters has been necessary to keep on top of usage as this info isn’t being relayed to the website or indeed my indoor smart display.

Moving on… the process of switch from a standard variable tariff to the Electric Car tariff (like you in anticipation of the arrival of an EV was simple enough but yes… I got emails and letters saying sorry you are leaving, although I’m in the south of England so there was no change of supplier name. I also get the same message saying ‘we hope you come back soon’ when looking at my ‘old’ now closed and paid off standard variable tariff account.   I have a new account number for the EV tariff which was opened up on the older system, not the newer wonky one. Being on the older system I thought was good new but….

Firstly since the switch took place my indoor display has not shown anything like correct information, the displayed tariffs, both day and night have never been right (at one point the overnight tariff, which at the time was 12p per Kwh was displaying as £1.20 per kwh – now its apparently free ay zero pence per Kwh!).

Secondly on the website it says I am on the standard variable tariff…

I was in email contact with the complaints department in March who told me that ‘after the transfer from the old platform the communication dropped between us and the coms hub which is what sends information back and forth. Hence the in- home display is showing the wrong information. Our smart team (coughs) are working in the background to reconnect with the coms hub to allow us to pull accurate readings and should hopefully be back up and communicating with us soon.

As nothing had changed by mid-May I have emailed Bgas again but am still awaiting a response to their previous repose and to tell them that my first bill after one month only charged me for the daytime units (at the wrong rate) which meant as I also have solar this was a significant under charge.

Mercifully my Smets2 electric meter however is showing current figures for both day and night usage, so I do at least know where I stand and I have sent Bgas a corrected bill of my own so I sympathise with your plight of not being able to read the overnight rate on your meter but hope that my own experience at least sheds some more light on some of the issues you are experiencing.

Finally (i hope you have lasted this long!)

If I may I wonder if anyone knows if there is somewhere that British Gas has a list of their historical tariff costs ( a bit like how banks list out old savings interest rates)? Try as I might I cannot find anything online.

My EV Trariff started out at 12p Kwh overnight, but seems to have changed to 10p Kwh poosibly on 1 April and when I looked last night its now 9.5p per kwh (daytime rates and daily charge rates have also moved at the same time). British gas have never notified of any change I have just noticed them when looking at their current tariff page at various times, but this contains no info on date of change or what the previous rates were, (you would have thought they would be pleased to show they had reduced them).

Thanks

 

 

 

 

While not being able to help directly with your plight, as you are with mine it’s another example of British Gas extreme failings to their customers.

 

An update which I should probably have posted is that  I have my smart meter re-installation appointement booked for the 2nd - however - I don’t think there is any issue anymore!

On/Around the 30th April I have noticed that my in home display, whilst still showing zero usage of Gas (I actually think it is showing usage but the price is £0.00 therefore shows daily as zero. A second rate appeared on my in home display and meter, Rate 1/Rate 2 and my in home display started showing the correct rate, 44p peak 9.4p off peak - may it have miraculously reconncted it self and is behaving?

 

I have started taking daily meter readings and tracking on a spreadsheet as there is a real lack of trust from me on this. Everything was fine except one day, having charged the car and had the tumble dryer on from midnight my usage read £12 by 9am - something like 27 units consumed, and while my car was plugged in and set to 0000-0500 charging something went wrong, I assume with the tumble dryer where it must have just kept coming on even though it has an ‘end in’ setting - maybe I need to invest in a smart plug to ensure power is cut to it at 0500?

I do now think things seem to be working better although the British Gas website is still a shambles, I log on and it tells me i’ve left, I can select my old account which says there is an error, but then shows me I am on an EV tariff and has been displaying some meter readings, although when I go into the meter readings it shows Gas twice and Electricity Twice.

 

This is what it displays under the generl readings tab and seems pretty accurate.

 

Meter Readings and history

Latest smart Gas reading: 04153 *although I am currently at 4159
Latest smart Electricity reading (unknown): 301 *although I am currently at 318
Latest smart Electricity reading (unknown): 15250 *although I am currently at 15254

 

I also noticed that my rate has changed from 44p peak and 61p standing charge to 38p peak and 59p standing charge - which I can’t find a record for or confirm when it happened, I think on or around the 18th May.

I have no clue when I will get my next bill but from my calculations around 202 units (£89) will have been billed to me at the wrong price (£19), but if I need too and it means I don’t have to speak to their inept staff again i’d probably suck up the £70!

E
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I am encouraged to hear that even before any new kit has been installed that your home display is starting to show some correct information  - gives me some hope and it will be interesting to finally get a response from my last email to them.

However, the British Gas right hand does seem to have a long way to go to know what its left hand is doing, and like you I shall be sticking to my spreadsheets!  At least (for now) they have billed in my favour rather than over charged – did I mention the £75k Gas meter reading on the website that I had at one point late last year?! That was so ridiculous we laughed a lot about it at the time but for some I know it would have been a stressful thing to have seen…..

I’ll let you know what I get by way of a reply regarding what the ‘smart team’ are up too but in the meantime thanks for the indication as to when the that might have dropped to the current charge (seems like another thing to regularly check as well as the outside meters…)

E
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Good morning Carbon Cutter

i said i would update in my last post - not quite sure where to start! British Gas seem to be making and even bigger mess of things.

Having had no response from them I noticed today that they have now (was okay yesterday) placed my Electric driver account onto their dreaded new ‘system’ and from meter readings I took this morning its clear that they have moved me from the day time night time split of the ED tariff to a single 24 hour reading at the standard variable rate ……. charged the car up between midnight and 5 am this morning and all 31 kw of charge are showing under rate 1 (daytime) and the night time reading is unchanged from yesterday mornings reading.

Might be worth double checking yours?

In the mean time another email to the complaints department and the Ombudsman on standby.

 

 

Blastoise186
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I heard that the new system BG was using is said to be terrible but sheesh… That’s just wrong.

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Hi Blastoise186,

Yes its been a real disaster - I had big issues with my gas account last year when that was switched to the new system. Eventually British Gas admitted to me that the new system was causing many problems and they had stopped migrating people to it (that was in January this year) . However, they presumably now think the issues with it have been sorted and are now migrating people to it once more……. 

 

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Where do I start with my latest update….

 

My appointment for smart meter swap out on the 2nd June came and went, nobody showed and I got a cancellation at 11:17 on the day. Livid was an understatement and spend around 90mins on the phone trying to get anyone who was able to read the notes on my account and figure out what was going on - however not one single person knew why my I was actually getting my meters swapped out.

 

They agreed to give me £30 compensation for the missed visit, they then made some form of mistake and added that again. Again though with no real confidence that anything was correct. I emailed the complaints team again.

 

The complaints team contacted me and agreed they had issued £60 compensation and I explained that I wanted them to cut me a bill early so that i could confirm both Rate 1 and Rate 2 was appearing on my bill and being billed at the right time, I said that if what I thought was going to happen (my usage 27th March to 30th April being billed at peak) I will have been overcharged £70, the chap agreed that my £30 + £30 and another £30 would cover that and I agreed it probably would. At that point though I couldn’t see my bill and therefore said that before closing the complaint I would like to view it, it was agreed he would call me back the next day, of course I am still waiting although when looking at the bill it does look right.

 

I contacted them just yesterday saying I was still waiting for my call back and someone has emailed today offering me £55 more which I am going to take.

 

I am still doing daily meter readings (the neighbours must think I am bonkers) and tracking my usage so all appears as it should!

 

hopefully they don’t try and put me on the new system again...

Blastoise186
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I’d take the money and run if it were me, but only once the compensation has been paid.

They’ll move you again eventually, so I’d say vote with your feet.

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Patiently waiting for OVO to support either Volvo C40 or Easee charger.

Blastoise186
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More Volvo support is something that I believe is on the radar. :)

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I shall be pushing for some reasonable compensation given the time and energy spent (no pun intended) trying to get BGas to correct their shortcomings over the past 9 months. 

RSCosworth, you did well getting the compensation you did - I accepted a nominal £30 at the beginning of this year for previous issues with my gas account - after the intervention of the Ombudsman that was required to stir BGas into sorting matters at the time - the ‘joke’, 5 months later, is that they have yet to credit my gas bill with the £30. Will mention that when i next have to refer them (i cant help but feel this is inevitable) to OFGEM.

In the meantime I too will continue to take daily readings (the last reading they took remotely from my smart meter according the my online account was in March….)which I have felt necessary to do for the past 4 months - I feel like i’m doing BGas’ job for them…….maybe they would like to refund me several months worth of the daily charge too!

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