MeterPlus want to change my meter, I'm a non-Npower customer??

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  • Meters run for years, Some are over 50 year old.
    Thomson 757 Man
  • far
    far Posts: 340
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Meters run for years, Some are over 50 year old.

    I'd be surprised if a large proportion of meters are over 30 years old, let alone 50. They have a risk of becoming both inaccurate and unsafe as time passes by. If someone is injured or killed in a house fire caused by a faulty electric meter or suffers the same serious consequences as a result of an explosion from a faulty gas meter just who do you think is held responsible? The answer to that question is why utility companies change meters. The notices start coming at least a year before the meter change is due but if you don't respond and/or stall for that period, be aware the utlity companies can and will gain a court order on safety grounds to break into the property and change the meter.
  • I know they will 'kick a few doors in' Iv'e seen them do it.Lol
    Thomson 757 Man
  • The electricity company will normally say this if they suspect that something dodgy is happening with your meter and need to retrieve it for closer inspection. This is to say that they may suspect that you are tampering with the meter.
    The electricity companies normally monitor and compare your bills with previous ones. If they see that your bills have dropped significantly they are alerted to this. Even though you may just be getting more careful with your usage.
    They will come and check your meter for filled in holes, Missing seals, broken components, Dust and scratches on the spinning silver wheel, Scratches to the leads entering your meter, and the smell of burning that can be caused by reversing devices. If they see any of these things they will ask you there and then if you know how they got there. They will replace the meter if the meter has been in the house longer than you and will monitor the new meter closely. If they do find the above mentioned anomalies on a meter that has been replaced whilst you are living there this is grounds enough to start court proceedings for the illegal abstraction of electricity.
    If you have been caught tampering with the meter they used to say that if you admit to it and pay a revised bill they will not take it any further (Revised bill = whopping bill). Although i witnessed that in every case that I saw they ALWAYS TAKE LEAGLE ACTION!
    Hope this doesn’t worry you but like I say I used to work as part of the anti tamper team for one of these companies about 10 years ago.
  • mattcanary
    mattcanary Posts: 4,420 Forumite
    There are plenty of electric meters around that are more thatn 30 years old. Trust me, I know - I'm a meter reader.

    London seems to have a particualrly lareg number of old-style dial meters still in place
  • i cant wait for a whole new "LEAGLE" industry to spring forth .. having said that.. i know people who have had their meters changed 3 times in a year because the computer systems are triggered to activate a change,
    Why??
    because of no or little usage
    the reason was they were flooded out in the summer of 2007 and the time spent renovating triggered the computers of british gas and npower in particular into thinking that there was a faulty meter. it got to the point where both these companies had representatives on these estates daily, walking round calming people down.. what fun.
  • Swipe
    Swipe Posts: 5,064
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
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    Yeah, OnStream insisted on replacing mine even though it was less than 12 months old and replaced it with an identical one. Being a very low user, I now know they must have suspected a faulty under reading meter or me tampering. I tried my hardest to wriggle out of it, ignored their letters, phoned them to say it didn't need doing as it only had 1900 units on it from new. In the end they wouldn't take no for an answer and came and replaced it at my desired time, 6pm. My usage hasn't changed so I suppose it was a big waste of their time (and mine) in the end.
  • Everyone chill.

    npower ARE MeterPlus, likewise...EDF are LondonElectric and Lowri Beck...Back before energy was competative all of these companies used to just operate under their trading names like "northern electric, british gas" etc...But when people could choose their supplier, these companies had to rename their metering engineers so that people who were (for example) with npower changed to BGAS they wouldn't be like "what?!" when npower came to fix their meter...Its all about territory.

    Basically, npower look after the north, EDF look after London, Scottish Power look after scotland (duh) and so on...
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