Stupidity of meter reader

littletommytucker

Vet8 can i just ask if you still feel the system is stupid after reading all these posts? I really never saw your logic.

I had some stupid old man on the phone the other week screaming at me because British Gas had left a card through his door asking to read the meter when someone already read it last quarter... He though that he was good friends with someone at the BBC that was going to get British Gas on Watchdog for leaving the card asking to read the meter! Some people will kick up a fuss about the smallest things!

lemontart

KimYeovil wrote: »

It's once every two years. But I agree they should concentrate resources on having one reading IN THE EVENING once a year rather than wasting money fruitlessly chasing the other three daytime reads.

a lot of people are out for one reason or another in the evening

vet8

littletommytucker wrote: »

Vet8 can i just ask if you still feel the system is stupid after reading all these posts? I really never saw your logic.

I had some stupid old man on the phone the other week screaming at me because British Gas had left a card through his door asking to read the meter when someone already read it last quarter... He though that he was good friends with someone at the BBC that was going to get British Gas on Watchdog for leaving the card asking to read the meter! Some people will kick up a fuss about the smallest things!

Yes I still think the system is stupid and if you don’t get the point then Er.. you must be missing something. I will explain again.

I read my own meter every quarter and e-mail the readings so at all times the supplier knows what I say the readings are. In fact I last did this about 3 weeks ago so they have no need to read my meter as they know what it says according to me. The only reason they send someone round is surely to check up and see that I am not pulling a fast one. I am sure it says in the T. & C.s that they have to read it every year.

There are two points here. The first is that as this guy needed to read the meter it would be far more efficient if he came at a time when there was certain to be someone in. I have spoken to my neighbour, who is in neighbourhood watch and sees everything. She said she thought he was a burglar as he drove along the road in a car and stopped at every house to check the name until he reached mine. Finding no- one in he drove off and he then came back again in the afternoon and went to my house and again found it empty and drove off. I live in an unadopted road on the outskirts of a small village so this guy clearly came some way to read the meter. It would have saved him time, effort and petrol if he had arranged an appointment. It is different with a normal meter reader where he is doing loads of houses in one road, he calls at them all and if someone is out it does not matter, but this guy was trying to read my meter only.

The other major point, which I would have thought was obvious was that he was checking on my reading of the meter and so needed to actually read it himself. Asking me to read it again achieved nothing. If I have given fraudulent reading before I would do so again.:eek:

SwanJon

The meter reader works for a different company to your supplier.
He has no access to the readings you have been giving your supplier.
He has no way of knowing if you have been giving readings to your supplier or not.
There is no reason to suspect he has your phone number or even when you'll be in so he can call and arrange an appointment for when you're in (hmmm).
As mentioned before, the visit is not just to check if you are fiddling them, it is also to check for safety. He came round twice to try and read your meter. The next step will probably be for the supplier to call you and arrange a much more expensive (for them) planned visit. This is not the end of the process.

Gavioli_UK

SwanJon wrote: »

The meter reader works for a different company to your supplier.
He has no access to the readings you have been giving your supplier.
He has no way of knowing if you have been giving readings to your supplier or not.
There is no reason to suspect he has your phone number or even when you'll be in so he can call and arrange an appointment for when you're in (hmmm).
As mentioned before, the visit is not just to check if you are fiddling them, it is also to check for safety. He came round twice to try and read your meter. The next step will probably be for the supplier to call you and arrange a much more expensive (for them) planned visit. This is not the end of the process.

SwanJon as I understand it the meter reader does have quite a lot of information on his hand held computer to help him get an accurate successful
read.

Not sure if the information would cover everything raised in this thread, but there is the facility for free form notes that a customer can have added to
help the meter reader.

Maybe someone could give us the information.

Rob236

Information we have:

- Customer name
- Customer address (especially inaccurate for businesses)
- Meter serial
- MPAN/MPREF
- Account number
- Meter location (mostly "unknown" for gas)
- Notes (most are 15 years out of date / anything added by us doesn't get put on)
- Supplier
- Last read date (records last attempt to read only)

There's nothing useful like a phone number, last reading, last read time or meter reader notes.

If the read is pre-warrant we do get a phone number.


Rob

Gavioli_UK

R!!!36 wrote: »

Information we have:

- Customer name
- Customer address (especially inaccurate for businesses)
- Meter serial
- MPAN/MPREF
- Account number
- Meter location (mostly "unknown" for gas)
- Notes (most are 15 years out of date / anything added by us doesn't get put on)
- Supplier
- Last read date (records last attempt to read only)

There's nothing useful like a phone number, last reading, last read time or meter reader notes.

If the read is pre-warrant we do get a phone number.
Rob

Thaks for that Rob.

I worked on projects introducing hand held units for meter readers in 1995/6 and it was a requirement that meter readers notes appeared on the hand hlelds. This included where to get keys (eg communial intake rooms, chuch halls etc), notes that the customer was deaf or disabled to give them extra time to answer and anything else to make your job easier.

I thought you had to have an indication of a customer with special needs, and a trigger to use the password system. Has this now gone?

The other requirement was that you should record that you had carried out a visual safety check. At the time this information was a definate must to be used as a defence if litigation followed the equipment starting a fire, or someone being injured because of exposed live equipment. Has this also gone?

In 1998/9 I was involved in cleasing customer data and your comment on business addresses brings back memories of the confusion that we found. There was so much bad data that we ran out of time. My contacts in the industry say the records still leave a lot to be desired, and the discrepancies mean many are not billed correctly.

I also worked on the standard industry data flows (a common standard used by all parties in the industry) and there is the facility for you to record useful information that would appear on the hand held of the next guy to visit and make their job more effective. Sounds like this has fallen by the wayside.

Rob236

The special customer details, including passwords, do still work and are accurate.

As for keys: There’s a screen that’s supposed to list all the keys needed for the day but that’s always empty.

I think just the fact you input a read says you’ve done the safety check. Occasionally it asks to check various things (spincap, bypass, corrector, etc).

As for business addresses, I'm surprised we manage to read so many of them as the addresses are so bad. I won't use specific examples, because of data protection, but here’s one:

Mr Abcd, Xyz Road, Town, Post code

There’s no clue as to what the business is or where it is on Xyz Road. It seems the business name has been replaced by the name of the treasurer. When I find the mystery business I update the address and add to the notes requesting the address is updated. Three months later and it comes back the same. If they gave us the power to clean up the data we would.

As for the notes: Everything functions in the recording of the notes. It's just they don't come back 3 months later. The people who process the data maybe don't allow them to be changed.


Rob

wr1ght

R!!!36 wrote: »

The special customer details, including passwords, do still work and are accurate.

As for keys: There’s a screen that’s supposed to list all the keys needed for the day but that’s always empty.

I think just the fact you input a read says you’ve done the safety check. Occasionally it asks to check various things (spincap, bypass, corrector, etc).

As for business addresses, I'm surprised we manage to read so many of them as the addresses are so bad. I won't use specific examples, because of data protection, but here’s one:

Mr Abcd, Xyz Road, Town, Post code

There’s no clue as to what the business is or where it is on Xyz Road. It seems the business name has been replaced by the name of the treasurer. When I find the mystery business I update the address and add to the notes requesting the address is updated. Three months later and it comes back the same. If they gave us the power to clean up the data we would.

As for the notes: Everything functions in the recording of the notes. It's just they don't come back 3 months later. The people who process the data maybe don't allow them to be changed.


Rob

same here we can spend time updating address and customer information in some cases we are still working off plot numbers from 8 year old new builds, it takes time to enter this information and then 3 months later it comes back with no information added. we do have a safety check screen for every job we do.