Reading own meters

mallard

Yet another estimated bill has arrived and of course BG would be happy for me to read (their) meter and phone the usage in. Having had the same problem as many others in that both gas and elec seem to pick an estimated usage out of the air i am getting fed up of bills with estimates. So perhaps it is about time we started charging them for us providing an accurate reading in order that the eventual bill is accurate. How about £20 for the time taken to read and ring it in plus obviously use of materials and phone?? Anybody had a go at trying this?

Mallard

davetrousers

When my estimated bill comes through I simply go to the relevant meter and phone the free phone number with the actual reading. A few days later a revised bill comes through.

Not sure what your gripe is.

mallard

Gripe is exactly what you have said. They keep putting up the bills and we do the work for them. Can't remember ever seeing a discount for reading their meter.

spiro

What you have to remember is the law only requires them to read a meter every 2 years, in the interim it is in your interest as the consumer to provide readings to ensure you get billed accurately and not get yourself in debt as a result of numerous low estimates. Up to you what route you take but you'll see numerous threads on this site that are all the result of people not bothering to check their bills for years and then suddenly getting hit for 000s of £ when the supplier finally gets an actual read.

DGJsaver

another example of people wanting to be be babysat by their suppliers

mallard

Yes thanks - am aware that they only have to read it so often and yeh i do send in my readings to try and make sure we get accurate bills. But the point i was trying to raise is that we (customers) are doing the work for them as they know they only have to read once every couple of years. So given that we do the work for them then presumably we can charge them for our time?

TotallyBroke

I actually prefer to do it myself. Only when they do come it's normally when I'm sat eating my dinner. Plus if it is ever read wrong I only have myself to blame.

espresso

mallard wrote: »

So given that we do the work for them then presumably we can charge them for our time?

No, however you could change to a supplier that actually reads them more often e.g. every six months

DGJsaver

The way the world is at the minute consumers should be on the ball with things like this anyway

1carminestocky

To be fair to the OP, he's probably (like me) old enough to remember when you couldn't walk out of your door in a morning without bumping into a meter reader. Of course, that was in the glory days when we had full, non-minimum wage-earner dominated employment and an energy industry with one supplier and one shareholder (the Govt.).

DGJsaver

1carminestocky wrote: »

To be fair to the OP, he's probably (like me) old enough to remember when you couldn't walk out of your door in a morning without bumping into a meter reader. Of course, that was in the glory days when we had full, non-minimum wage-earner dominated employment and an energy industry with one supplier and one shareholder (the Govt.).

...and two powercuts a week....