Atlantic Electric & Gas Meter Readings

Stompa

I've just switched to Atlantic and they've asked me to provide initial meter readings.

On their 'How to read your gas meter' page it says: "If your meter looks like this example (imperial meter), use the first four numbers. The reading on this example is 1234". So you enter 1234 on their online form and you get a message saying: "A reading must contain 5 numeric values!".

I'm guessing that they must be expecting me to enter 01234 (despite the fact that my meter doesn't have a fifth digit, does anybody know if this is correct please?

I'm hesitating slightly because their 'How to read your gas meter' page implies that imperial meters have 4 digits and metric ones 5 digits, and I don't want them to interpret the fact that I've entered 5 digits as meaning I have a metric meter!

Thanks

Stompa

Hmmm, I figured I'd ask Atlantic the question, so I filled in the form on their 'Contact us' web page, hit the 'Submit' button - and nothing happens. I thought their customer service was supposed to be fairly good - it doesn't seem like it to me so far.

macman

You expected a response in less than 15 mins?
I've always found their telephone CS very good, and never had to wait too long to get through.

Stompa

macman wrote: »

You expected a response in less than 15 mins?.

Not at all, I just expected the form to work. It turns out it does work (sort of), it's just poorly designed and doesn't tell you clearly that an error has occurred.

macman wrote: »

I've always found their telephone CS very good, and never had to wait too long to get through.

Yes, I did briefly start trying that, but it sounded as if I was going to end up going through numerous menus, entering customer numbers etc. before I could reach a human being!

espresso

I can't believe that you need to ask a question about this. Simply enter your readings using a leading zero when necessary. Obviously entering the required five digits does not imply that you have a metric meter!

Stompa

espresso wrote: »

I can't believe that you need to ask a question about this. Simply enter your readings using a leading zero when necessary. Obviously entering the required five digits does not imply that you have a metric meter!

Yes, I'm sure that's the answer I will get from them. It seems utterly bizarre though that the form won't simply accept 4 digits.

Actually it wasn't really the metric issue that concerned me, more that by entering 5 digits I might be somehow be indicating that my meter also had 5 digits - which may at some point in the future have unwanted consequences when my meter finally wraps back to 0000!