E.On, for one, have been using all kinds of tricks to con customers into "upgrading" to a smart meter. They were in the news about this recently (and, yes, we did get that "badly worded" letter from them giving us the impression that we had no choice in the matter and that our meter had to be upgraded.)
British Gas is another major offender in this regard.
When big organisations try very hard to get you to do something, and even try to trick you into complying, the first response should always be, "Whoa! Hold on a second!" and not, as the average muppet on the street does, to say, "Of course, if you say that's better/easier/cheaper for me".
But I love the terminology. Anything new is always an "upgrade", not a give-us-more-control modification or a help-us-better-screw-you change or a help-us-make-more-money switch.
Six reasons to say No.
In addition to those reasons, I could come up with several others. For example, if someone can tap into your usage data they know when you're at home and when you're not. That alone is valuable information that could be sold to, among others, your local burglars.
Installing a smart meter is giving the provider a lot of valuable data on your usage and pattern of usage. If I'm giving data that could make them or save them money, then they've got to pay me for it! And none of them are offering a monthly fee for that data.
They've also got to sign a legally binding contract to never use that data against me (differential pricing, for example). Neither E.on nor British Gas seemed very keen to sign my contract.
