Wee rant about meter readers.

[Brandane]

Both my gas and electricity are supplied by N-Power. They contract out the meter reading for both gas and electric meters to a company called Lowri Beck.

About a week ago I got home to find that someone had called to read my meters (plural), but as I was out they had left a card asking me to either return the card with the readings on it, or use their website to give them my readings. I used the website option as it is easier and quicker. I gave them both gas and electric meter readings.

So today I get home and there is another card on the doorstep. This time for some reason it is only the electricity meter reading they are interested in. As I was out, I now have to provide them with the reading from my electric meter.........

This is not by a long way the first time this has happened. Is it just me? Grrrrrr.....

 

[Paulus]

Just posted on the other meter topic, but my meters are read by Siemens, on behalf of Southern Electric and the reader called two weeks back, it was the first time for two years that the meter was read. I have provided my own readings to try to keep things on an even keel, but I wait for the bills with a lttle trepidation.

 

[Arch]

I'm with n-power, and we don't get meter readers any more - I get an email telling me when to read it and enter the reading online. The hardest bit is remembering where I put the carriage key each time. That and making sure I enter the day and night bits in the right boxes.

 

[cisamcgu]

I'm with n-power, and we don't get meter readers any more - I get an email telling me when to read it and enter the reading online. The hardest bit is remembering where I put the carriage key each time. That and making sure I enter the day and night bits in the right boxes.

Just hit the carriage return key - brings it back everytime

 

[Moodyman]

With Scottish Power and one of their meter readers popped round a while back.

We'd recently moved in and had new carpets fitted. Meter readers shoes were dirty so I asked him if he could take them off. He said he couldn't. I said you can't come in then and turned him away.

 

[Speicher]

Just hit the carriage return key - brings it back everytime

It is too easy to make a hash of that!

 

[Fiona N]

I probably should have ignored this thread as I've experienced meter readers stupidity and the years it takes to get their mistakes put right.

A few years ago, the electricity meter at the house was replaced. The engineer was quick, efficient and left a card with the old meter reference number and reading, and the new meter reference number and reading (zeroes, clearly). No problem and the bills for the next year all tally with usage starting from zero units after the meter change.

About 15 months later however, I get a knock on the door and it's a meter reader to ask if I have a new meter. Yes, say I, last year it was changed, and retrieve the card with the information left by the engineer. We both go out to the meter box, check said meter and (I thought) he took a new reading. Didn't think anything more about it.

Next (quarterly) bill was normal but then the one after that is humongous. So I look at the online information to find that the last meter reading but one (i.e. the one with the visit by the meter reader) was entered as zero so the following meter reading was correct but, since the meter had been effectively zeroed again, all the usage for the last 18 months is billed for despite having already paid for 15 months of that usage.

It took 5 years, about 50 phone calls, emails and 5 or 6 letters, to get this sorted out as the people in the call centre could never understand what the problem was. I even at one stage got an engineer on the helpline who did understand the problem, could see that problem in the usage data (I mean, 18 month's usage appearing on one quarterly bill does look pretty aberrant - you'd think I'd started up a weed growing operation except the usage went back to normal next quarter) and said he'd get someone to do something. To no avail.

Finally I had to go through the company complaints procedure which again got nothing happening until I copied a letter to the Utilities ombudsman to the power company. Then the problem was sorted in a week. Although all that happened was that I was credited with the 15 months of usage paid for twice, no interest on the loan I'd given them (I pay by DD so the amount was immediately increased to 'pay off' the big bill in a few months), no compensation for the hours of time and phone calls, no admission of a mistake.

 

[Jenkins]

Argh - nPower & Lowri Beck - possibly the worst combination imaginable.

I had a day off work a few months ago and was indoors for the morning doing domestic tasks but popped into the back garden for a couple of minutes to hang the washing out - guess when they called to read the meter! A card was left so I filled out the readings online. Two days later I received a bill using a completely different reading to the one I had given. The day after that I came home from work to find another card left saying they had called to read the meter!

Last week I received a badly phrased letter from them sating they "had been unable to gain access to your property" as if I had refused to let them in when they called. So I made an appointment for their reader to attend last Thursday or Friday morning as I was off work, stayed in and...

Guess it will be another estimated bill then!

 

[summerdays]

Hmm... how come we get our meter read frequently then.... ours is at the back of the utility room behind loads of junk ... so usually I have to try to get vaguely near and shout the reading to them... I hate it when I see them (yes I know there is a solution - clear the utility room - but every time we do that someone (well plural) fill it up again almost instantly. Anyway looking forward to the next bill as it should be lower.