Putting the word “Smart” in front of a product or service inevitably makes it stupid. From my direct experiences I think Smart City? Think LinkNYC and its perpetual failures, failing up to the skies now with Link5G. Smart Crosswalks? I recall the crosswalk signal telling me I needed to “change password” before I’d be allowed to cross the street. These are just my limited direct encounters with

When ConEd’s Smart Meters were announced by decree I rolled my eyes. I sighed. I knew this was going to get stupid. And it did.

Since they went in my bills were all coming back as $0.00. According to the Smartness that was because I had credit on my account. This actually didn’t surprise or concern me. A similar situation happened during Covid. They did not do readings for about a year, during which time I cut way back on usage. When they finally did readings again it was discovered that the estimates were way off compared to real usage, and I had a credit of I don’t remember how much but it resulted in $0.00 statements for I think2 or 3 months.

That didn’t trouble me But that was before Smart Meters. When those went in I just had a feeling something would go wrong. The first Smart Meter bill was $0.00, with a line saying I had a negative balance. Unlike the previous instance of having a balance, which made sense to me based on how they had not done readings for a year, this just didn’t seem right. At this moment it appears it was not right.

I called to inquire about these $0 balances. I was told this was accurate, and that I had a credit on the account of over $400. It seemed at least plausible, and the person I spoke to seemed to know what she was talking about.

But them I made what turned out to be  big mistake. I requested, for the umpteenth time, that gas service be disconnected. I never use gas, don’t like having it, and have emailed ConEd numerous times requesting it be turned off. All those requests were ignored.

I’m not going to go into all this in detail, it’s boring and I don’t have time anyway. But it lo oks like some Smart Meter stupidity could have me on the hook for over $1000 in backpayment, because those “credits” on the account were just figments. This is not my mistake but I’m really getting screwed for it at a time when I’m making less money than one who could handle such an unexpected debt.

…

In other news this ConEd nonsense and some dental work have conspired to blast my blood pressure into the stratosphere. Now I’m taking a BP med on top of the earlier BP med, and having just taken it for the first time I think it actually works. I feel that sort of chill and shudder that follows a BP pill that actually works. I feel calm after feeling anything but calm earlier, as I had to explain to ConEdison that I have lived at my place for 24 years, so why am I being issued a letter saying there is no person on file as living at that address? I’ve been there 24 years, never missed a payment, and this letter comes across threatening legal action if I don’t make the gas meter available to them.

All I did was request gas be turned off. The seemingly knowledgeable representative, who said my gas would be shut off at midnight, apparently got it all wrong by ordering my entire account be shut off. It was buried in some fine print that my gas and electric would end on August 31. Gas was never shut off, as promised.

So yes, this and other things have had me rattled, literally. it’s not nice to be a good customer with A+ credit like this and have these stupidass Smart Meters come along and think they really are smarter than me when I suspected their bullshit from day 1. I made the mistake of thinking the human beings at ConEd were right in assuring me there really was a fat credit on the account. THey looked at what the Smartness had to say and they believed it.