Well, look at the bright side. You're not listening to music for a half hour to talk to a scratchy phone recorder or someone in India or Pakistan.

As gadgets continue to replace people it can only mean pain for all of us as we become victims of the gadgets and the increasing, uncaring ineptitude of those in control of the gadgets that rule our lives.

You gotta love it....always re-inventing the wheel so to speak....and this New and Improved technology is screwing everyone--regardless of politics-religion-race....

So what do we do now...vote in someone thats going to take on these rapists of the public--or keep the ones that we have in office so that one day-they too can become lobbyists for the rapists....

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

rwestfall:  my old boss used to begin some of his lectures with a quotation from Baudelaire which, translated, means that technology will eventually do us in. 

Customer Service for the most part is gone. We've become a society of throw away items. Pride in workmanship seems to be gone and caring about your customers along with it. PG&E knows there isn't much can be done. It's not like we can find another utility company unless we move out of their area. And the PUC sure doesn't seem to care. Ok i'm done ranting.

You really are obsessed with something that at this point is just eye candy. As long as they read your meter correctly for the bill, why do you care so much about the daily graphs, which at this point serve absolutely no billing purposes?

Edit: And it's bloody easy to make sure your meter is read correctly for the bill. Pull out a previous bill and look at your Serial letter. Go to www.pge.com/myhome/customerservice/meter/reading/ and look up your letter. On that day, go out to your meter and write down the kWh total when that screen finally rolls around. When you get your bill, make sure it's within your daily usage (since you won't be reading at exactly the same time of day as PG&E). If it isn't, call them up and ask for an adjustment, giving the amount you read as proof they're wrong. If you're super paranoid, take a picture of the meter that embeds a time code on the image and use that as proof.

Second edit: My daily graphs haven't worked at all. My meter has been "off network" all summer. They sent a person out to read my meter instead. I saw him every month like clockwork. They didn't send him out the last two months and I'm currently in the process of getting my bill adjusted. It was relatively easy to start the process since my current meter read three weeks later when I got the bill was LESS than the billed meter read. I just told the 800 number rep that and the process was started, no hassles. The big thing is to make sure they send a person out if your meter is off network and they don't just send an estimated bill.

I'm not as obsessed as you seem to be thinking you have the answers to everything. You need to get out more.

The whole purpose of the smart meters is so we the customers can track our energy usage and use the graphs to figure out when we are using more and attempt to save money. The whole reason for these upgrades were better communication. We the customers paid for these new meters and I think they should work as advertised. I don't give a darn if your graphs work or not. I happen to use mine to see where I am using more energy.

Reading my meter local isn't going to help. Because they attempt on several tries to get a good read how do you know at what time that read is going to be good? And I've not seen a meter reader in months.

Get over yourself Shwaine you aren't that smart. If you don't like what I blog about or post do yourself and me a favor and pass it on by.

ALICEN my old boss used to begin some of his lectures with a quotation from Baudelaire which, translated, means that technology will eventually do us in. 

it already has..pre computer age in the oilfields there were hundreds of contractors earning a living..then they developed AWT sites etc that do all the monitoring via inline devices computer data and  radio controlled sites that sent the data to a central location...it cut back on tank crews line crews et etc.thus putting many men standing inline at the unemplyment office..

.I was  installing the equipment and the closer to the end of the project the more you hated looking your friends in the eye...but somebody was going to do it,,even at that once it was installed they cut back to just the tech crews..ya technology sucks in the real world....

sioux:  you're right.  It already has been dropping people from employment posts, and it will continue to do so as long as people keep inventing better mouse traps.  What I think about when I remember that old quote, though, is technology as in the form of atom bombs which, if madmen control them, surely will be the downfall of mankind as we know it. 

One of the aspects of technology, in any field, is that while it may destroy the livelihood of one group, it requires the assistance of another group to see that it keeps going.  What I mean is, somebody needs to "run" the technology.  Sort of a vicious cycle, in the long run. 

I'm not suggesting we should go back to pumping water from a well with a hand pump, or dropping a bucket down into a well and bringing it back up so everybody can drink out of the same cup, but some things were better without the newest technology.  There are those who might argue with me about that.  I don't think rwestfall is one of them, though, at least with respect to that energy billing problem. 

At least I'm trying to be constructive rwestfall. And despite your personal attack against me, I will answer one of your questions about timing the manual meter read. You go out on the day scheduled (from that link I posted) and read your meter. You're not going to measure it at exactly the same time PG&E does, but that's okay. You might be off by a few hours or even a day, but you should at least be in the ballpark. You can even read the day before and after if you want to have multiple data points for comparison. You're not going to be exactly the same, but you'll have readings that are "close enough". If what they bill you is wildly different than what you read, you know there's a problem. In my case, they billed me 500 kWh more than what the meter read, so it was pretty clear there was a problem and PG&E gave me no hassles when I called up to get it fixed. 

I'm willing to bet my reads are transmitted and not read by a person. Like I said I've not seen a meter reader in or around my neighborhood in a long time.

Is it wrong to expect something to work that I and other customers have paid for? When I was called by Denny Boyles after the meeting they had and the complaint I had made with the PUC he said that problem should have been fixed with the newest meter install. And went over how it transmits the data now and how each meter is like a relay station for other meters in that area.

And for the record that wasn't a personal attack. You might want to read some of your own past posts where you act like nobody knows anything except you. It's like you are trying to school somebody. Comes across very condescending. You are the one who said 'You really are obsessed with something that at this point is just eye candy." Trying to be constructive after calling me obsessed? Right thats not going to get a comeback from me. I guess my idea of eye candy and yours is different.

Alicen along with this technology comes software that runs it and they have bugs. Some worse then others. That means patches,fixes. And with computers comes hackers. But I'm one of the ones who takes care of the technology. I started out my career working on the AWT's and LACT units siouxcity mentioned. I knew electronics and programming was the future.

I do miss the old days when things were simpler and consumer products were made better and lasted longer. I guess I'm at somewhat of a lose about business though. You don't throw millions of units out into the masses and not make sure they are working correctly.

The offshore platfrom I work on when we do upgrades it is budgeted and we don't get to pass the cost onto the people we sell our oil and gas too. It must be great for these publicly traded companies to pass their expenses onto us the consumer along with upgrades they want to do.

This post wasn't so much about my meter not sending data but the customer support that I received and the non caring answer given. But I was told by Denny Boyles that the updating problem should have been fixed with this newest upgrade.

RWESTFALL

one of the major reasons for the smartcustomerrapemeter, was to get rid of all the part time positions of the meter readers...

ive had some jacked up bills in the past.  i would call, i would give them the numbers i could read on the meter, and it would be re-adjusted

now with the jacked up bills on the customer rape meter, they dont even want you to tell them the numbers because they claim they can see them. I asked the customer service rep to tell me what they were on...and SHE REFUSED...

THANKS A LOT SENATOR FLOREZ FOR RAPING THE PUBLIC, THEN ACTING LIKE YOU CARE BY TROTTING OUT A DOG AND PONY SHOW STARRING PG AND E AND THE PUC

When people show lack of understanding, they need to get schooled. So if you don't want to be schooled on a subject I have some knowledge about, either block me or don't start going "Get over yourself Shwaine you aren't that smart" and get upset when you do get schooled. Why do you keep posting your charts every time there's a glitch? That's what seems obsessive from my perspective. It was an observation based on your behavior. It was no more an attack than your "Get over yourself Shwaine you aren't that smart" (since you now want to claim that's an observation... what's good for the gander is good for the goose).

New technology has glitches. It is not going to function correctly "out of the box". It is going to take time to be fully deployed. It is going to go down from time to time. Chill out, be patient and give it a little time for all the glitches to be ironed out. As long as you are not being overcharged, what damage is it to you to give the technology a little time to be fully deployed and functional? They haven't even finished installing the meters across town yet, so the deployment is still in progress.

he posted his chart Schwaine, to show us that there was no recorded energy use the last 3 days.

remember, he posted that in his first post on this blog.

 and this New and Improved technology is screwing everyone--regardless of politics-religion-race....

How can something be improved if its new?

If only it were the first time he'd posted his graph or copies of his emails from PG&E Learnem.

All I can say from reading other posts of yours is you have the same effect on others it seems. There is one thing I've never cared for and that's someone who thinks they know it all. You go ahead and think what you will this is my blog and I'll post whatever I feel like posting along with graphs. You are the one who needs to pass it on by if your going to be rude. Now that I know it seems to upset you I may have to do it monthly.  

Hey...I remember MAG wheels on my 60 Chevy...now they have SOMETHING that looks like wagon wheels from the old prairie schooners in the old westerns....

Nasty.....