Smart meters

[BWSS]

In South Australia they are currently doing a rollout of Smart meters, it's not a SAPN initiave but an AGL one, funded by AGL, no cost to the consumer. It's looked after by ActiveStream so if your meter goes wrong ActiveStream automtically knows it and if needed, on line fixes it or pays us a visit. Why am I mentioning it, well, when you go to on line chat to say your meter is playing up your passed to the 'Resolutions Team' who absolutely have not got a clue about smart meters and believe they are looked after by SAPN, it's as if they are not trained or know anything about it, I did a little bit of research and actually talked to ActiveStream who were great to talk to and obviously knew all about it.

So, to my next point, mt AGLIQ, every one in my street I have talked to who is with AGL and got a smart meter on the same day are up and running and can view all the goodies on useage and stats etc., everyone except me, try chatting to AGL to get a reason why and I go from one department to another but at the end of the day they give me the same answer, wait and one day it will work for you.........great answer but not one I was seeking.......surely in this day and age some smart person can be really helpful and put on the AGL website a general screed which outlines how it all happens, it wqould save heaps of time of both parties to keep us up to date.

Second problem, I go to the website and go to my favourites and I'm no sooner there than I get that infernal pop up asking if I want to chat, and I'm forced to say no, every time, so I go to the chat and say..... Stop freezing my screen and forcing me to accept or reject the chat section, most of us are capable of seeing the chat request to the right of our screen so no need to keep forcing us to go through this ridiculous and time wasting procedure. Stop freezing my screen and forcing me to accept or reject the chat section, most of us are capable of seeing the chat request to the right of our screen so no need to keep forcing us to go through this ridiculous and time wasting procedure.

I get lots of apologies but no result.......surely it's not too much to extend me the courtesy of a button to say........NO MORE CHAT REQUESTS......is it asking too much?

 

[JeremyH]

Hi @BWSS, welcome to the Community!

We appreciate your feedback in regards to your webchat popup experience and we'll take it on board.

In regards to your smart meter, you are correct in suggesting that meter faults are handled by ActiveStream and not by SA Power Networks - we'll pass your feedback on to the team in regards to this.

Unfortunately, with limited information we are unable to determine why you may be having difficulties with your smart meter and with AGL IQ. If you wish, we can arrange for an inspection of the meter to determine if it is functioning correctly. Shoot us a PM here and we can follow up with you to get this arranged.

[BWSS]

So, Jeremy, in your reply you ask for more info and ask me to 'shoot' you a PM, which I did so and received no reply from you and then I get an automated message from the good old 'not reply email asking if I am satisfied with the reply, well, I am not and still awaiting your reply from the PM I sent you. 

[JeremyH]

Apologies for the delay @BWSS and thanks for following up. We're taking a look into your this now and we'll be in touch with you soon to answer all of the questions that you have in relation to your and your account.

[BWSS]

Perhaps also you could look into the chat below, for a long time now I looked for a way to get my Electricity to come up first considering that I would think most of your customers with AGL have both gas and electricity with you, but whatever the software does, according to who you are, which account number is greater or whatever the reason, it seems that when you have both accounts and they are separate by virtue of account numbers, bearing in mind that when you set up say Electricity first on your website it does suggest if you have gas also then you can do that one as well. Problem is for me and others, with two, Gas comes first when you log in. One AGL agent tried to delete GAS, then add Gas in again, still defaulted to Electricity, she tried to do the opposite, still no go, in the end we decided to delete GAS altogether. Talking to 'Heart' as below, she was adamant I would be happy if AGL 'consolidated' both accounts into one account number, turns out she was perfectly correct, a bit pat on the back for Heart for taking an interest and knowing her job. I often feel like with AGL the left hand does not tell or inform the right hand what it's doing or sharing it's knowledge. Consolidation is so much easier and logical. You: I also have Gas with you but do not use it on line as AGL do not have the ability to default my Electricity account first, making me change from Gas to Electricity each time which drives me nuts. Heart: If we will consolidate the account into one, you will have 1 account number for both gas and electricity. You will still receive 2 separate bills. You: ok, I'll try it your way but if it goes wrong I will be just a tad upset, when I login to my AGL I wish to see my electricity account come up first, not the gas and I thus don't want to see gas first and have to then click buttons to go to Electricity, can you understand this? Heart: I understand. You have an option to select which page or plan would you like to check. Heart: To consolidate it, I can call you now and transfer you over to our Resolution Team. Heart: Can I call you on your contact number now?

[JeremyH]

Not a problem @BWSS, we'll be more than happy to organise a consolidation of your accounts. We'll get started on this now, and we'll also provide you with answers to your previous queries soon.

[BWSS]

This nightmare just gets worse, did it occur to you to read carefully the conversation and to wonder if I actually did go ahead and do the consolidation as Heart suggested.........did you think to look at my account first to see it it was already consolidated...........why would I go as far I did with Heart and then not consolidate?????  

[JeremyH]

Apologies for the confusion, the post was interpreted as though Heart was yet to consolidate the accounts for you. Nevertheless we're looking into the aforementioned queries now and we'll be in touch.

[BWSS]

Well, Jeremy, it's been close to a week now, no reply, no follow up, no reply on private message, when do you suppose I will hear back from AGL?

THis is now a general question, although it's based on me and you have absolutely all my details on account number, address, circumstances etc. it's still a generl query so that anyone who has an AGL installed and owned smart meter in SA can learn from this.........today the guys are installing Solar on my roof, not AGL as your far too dear but by another contractor. I'm told code 3 on my meter is my actual reading and code 13 is the Solar input reading.

When it's installed today I'm assuming it will start the reading of code 13, maybe, maybe not, does this indeed happen or has something else have to happen, do my contractors actually have to contact AGL in order to instigate, if so, how is the contact made, in detail please as they find it very difficult getting an answer through general chat?

Do I have to do anything? 

I spoke to AGL sales and they supposedly put me on a Solar tarrif, I assume straight away but I'm sure you can verify that, right?

[NathanB]

Hi @BWSS truly sorry that you have not received a response yet in regards to your previous queries and I see that you have contacted our web chat team today in regards to your solar panels and solar feed in tariff. I hope that you have some clarity now in regards to that.

In regards to your AGLIQ service - Unfortunately, at this stage we don't have a concrete time-frame for when your AGLIQ will start working for you. We are currently doing our best to lock down a time-frame for you and will continue to do so and report back once we have further information for you.

We can also confirm for you today that you are to receive your bills through e-billing and your mother-in-law has her account set to paper bills. If you have any further issues with this please let us know. ~Nathan