It was great to see you highlight the shortcomings of the smart-meter rollout (“And they call this a smart meter . . .”, last week). I had smart meters installed in my Victorian house three years ago and they have never connected to the wireless network, as they are located in the cellar. I explained this before they were put in, and was told that a ���booster” device would also be installed. That never happened, so I’ve always had to give the readings myself.
It is shocking how the rollout has been managed. The fiasco is undoubtedly discouraging people from moving to cheaper providers and having the opposite effect to what was intended.
PC, Bromley, southeast London
I had a smart meter installed last March. The fitter botched the job and caused a leak in the pipework connecting the meter to the boiler, which he plugged with a piece of putty.
Over the next four months, the putty dried out and gas started to leak from the pipe. As soon as I smelt gas, I called the emergency number and an engineer disconnected my supply. He was horrified by what had happened and spoke to the meter company, asking it to rectify the problem. After an internal investigation, the company accepted full responsibility and offered me £100 compensation. It also advised me to take up the matter with my energy supplier, which denied any liability even though it had subcontracted the meter company to do the installation.
My gas usage increased during the leak but I have received no compensation for that. The error could have had disastrous consequences but I feel that neither company has taken the matter seriously.
FK, via thesundaytimes.co.uk
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I recently had a smart meter installed by Providor on behalf of Scottish Power. The work took about an hour and the meter is working OK.
As far as the display unit is concerned, however, I was given a 30-second demonstration and was left with no instructions. Without these, I would be surprised if anyone could understand what information about energy use is being provided by the monitor, let alone respond to it by cutting consumption, as the government hopes.
Also, it is a first-generation meter, so it will lose its “smartness” when I change supplier.
AP, Worcester
The smart-meter programme was rushed out before the technology was properly established. I will continue to resist requests from my energy supplier to have a meter fitted until the reliability is improved.
The public are paying for this programme through their utility bills and the scheme looks like a licence to print money for the meter servicing companies, with marginal benefit to the consumer.
JS, North Walsham, Norfolk
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Open banking is too risky
I find open banking utterly alarming (“The ‘open banking’ apps have landed. Here’s how to use them”, last week). I am not clear who will benefit, apart from third parties and thieves.
I do not want these automated services, or the inevitable junk mail they will generate. I do not want my bank accounts put at further risk of theft, whether by criminals or purportedly “in error”. There are enough electronic risks to our accounts already.
Do you have a recommended form of words I can use with my banks to prevent them from releasing my account details, making it clear that I prohibit them from taking open-banking action without my express permission? Whether they will listen is yet to be seen.
CW, Alnwick, Northumberland
Anna Mikhailova writes: When a third-party company wishes to access your financial data through open banking, it will ask your permission to do so. Without this, it will not be able to look at your data.
I shall treat open banking with great suspicion. How do these apps, which claim to be able to analyse your spending, work unless you input lots of details first? You might as well keep your own spreadsheet and avoid the security risks.
KM, via thesundaytimes.co.uk
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You can trust an insurance broker
Having spent virtually all my working life in the insurance industry, I was horrified to read the tales of dishonesty and malpractice by a number of the leading companies (“Insurers exposed”, Have Your Say, last week).
Clearly the remedies that were introduced to clean up the reputation of the industry, such as dispensing with the small print in policies and imposing rules relating to “treating customers fairly”, have not gone far enough.
However, the bad behaviour that appears to be endemic among insurers could be remedied if more people used local brokers. The beauty of using a broker is that they are paid on results. They are incentivised to seek the best deal because they want to retain the customer. If they do not perform well, the customer will simply leave them.
DG, Chelmsford, Essex
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