Prepayment meter removal help me

KimYeovil

No, this seems an eminently sensible policy. Advice to everybody is to use Scottish Power.

It is not sensible for a supplier to allow defaulters to revert their meters. They have no guarantee you are moving. It is more a case (which you admirably admit yourself) that you should not expect to sponge off Scottish Power's other customers and get their other customers to pay for your mistakes and line your pockets.

Yes, it is a bother involving another party and having to pay a premium for the landlord's agent to extort an extra layer of charges for the change. But perhaps you should have thought of this and other consequences at some time during the five or six months (at least) over which your original problem arose.

Perhaps in the future you will not be so laissez-faire over keeping up with bills.

(If you have time one possibility is to change your supplier from Scottish Power. A new supplier may be happy to subsidise a change back to a credit meter. Not fair to the new supplier's customers - but to your credit you at least admit you are responsible for the costs.)

+Oops, sorry, just noticed you're moving next week. Too late to change supplier.

lemontart

If you are moving next week it ia little late in the day to get it changed as these things come under programmed work for metering engineers, which means the companies metering assest management company whom ever they are have to plan it in, which is unlikely to be with in a week also they are going to need access to the property once payment for the work is cleared.

You are going to have to pay as it is at your request and not a policy meter exchange, and as you state you have a clause in the contract that says make good so not the landlords responsibility

the costs involved for the company are as follows

admin the man hours taken to arrange said change
the engineers time. vehicle costs such as diesel
cost of the replacement meter
and thats just the basic summary as there is so much that goes on in the background to enable the engineer to be there doing the job that all has to be taken in to account when costing all works from ensuring vehicles mot'd to ensuring engineers legal to work and have the current exams and licenses as required by government.

Your supplier is a business and not a non profit organization
You could perhaps come to an arrangement with the supplier and your landlord so that he registers as occupier and you let him deduct the amount required to change over to a credit meter from you deposit for the property.

devilchef

I am not nieve as to the cost of what goes into swapping or exchanging the meter but was not told in the beginning of our contract with S/P as to our rights, costs or what is involved when it came to taking or replacing the meter in the future, in facct we didn't recieve any T's and C's when we joined S/P and im pretty sure they have to supply all these details in some form of writing?

digimate

devilchef wrote: »

Hello to all you MSE's. I am a customer with scottish power for both gas and electic. We are moving and need to have our gas meter removed (we added the gas prepayment meter at our request when we moved in to pay previous bill off). I have phoned scottish power just a couple of days ago and was told it would cost me the nice sum of £150! I was shocked really, we have been with them for years, are in credit and want to charge us. Anyway i thought i would phone again just today. Suprise suprise, i was told something even more wierd and completely different from the first call "its against scottish power policy to remove the meter whilst we were still there". They refuse to remove the meter whilst we are living there. I explained that we are moving and that our landlord is going to sell the place, but they still wont remove it until we are gone. Is there any way to find out official policy of scottish power removing meters? How much would it cost and if not who can rip them out? cheers and help we move next week.

Hiya

Re your post above, there is a security deposit of 150.00 to remove the meter, on top of that, there is the charge to cover the cost of the meter, the 150.00 deposit is payable to yourself after 1 year or if you move out before that period of time. Normally if the property is rented/tenanted, scottish power are unlikely to remove the meter, however if you do wish the meter to be removed - You will need to pay this!!

Please be advised, even if you do switch to another supplier, eg british gas etc, then the process can take anything from 4-6 weeks.

Re your other post, you can request the meter removal charges etc in writing.

Hope this helps.

D:T

wee_scot_lass

I moved into my flat nearly 3 years ago. I phoned scottish power for a prepayment quantum card as there was a prepay meter in the flat and i didn't know what type of cooker i was getting. in the end i got an electric cooker and didn't need the gas. my landlord had the gas supply capped for safety reasons. i recieved a bill from scottish power and they said it was for standing charges. i phoned them up and was told if i didnt want anymore standing charges get my meter removed at a cost to me. my landlord was putting in gas central heating so i didn't get the meter removed. i got my central heating in on the 11th august 2011, and guess what, my gas card arrived that day. there was a debt of £108.51 of standing charges on the meter. I'm still having to pay for just having a meter in my cupboard collecting dust. so yes it's a rip off. thats how they make their money though.

Mr_Ted

I sympathise with your dilema

I bet they didnt charge you to have the meter put in

Just another rip off Britain scenario