G4S AccuRead Ltd

blind_faith

cop out? you're defo right on that point. but look at it from the point of view of the meter reader... if he dont get results, G4S get rid of him. ok i agree the sack is not as bad as being shot by the nazi's for not following orders, but a job is better than no job. and at least a meter reader is n't on the dole and claiming benefits (although benefits Vs. the wages are pretty similar).

i once heard that a manager in another area of the uk instructed the meter readers to, "say anything and do anything to get these meter readings cos this company will live or die based on whether targets are met" this may fit in with the 'safety check' ruse.

meter readers can't win - if they don't read a meter the company is fined for not hitting target, and to read a meter, they have to gain access to the property, even though the majority of ppl read their own meters and submit them online or by phone. and sometimes they simply turn up at an inconvenient time. i once arrived at a property with about 6 cars in the drive so i assumed they were home. i was correct, but they'd all just got back from a funeral.
i wonder if some meter readers desperate for target's would still try and gain access. obviously i beat a hasty retreat.

all this is not the fault of the meter readers, but the fault is in the way the industry works. the utility companies pay millions upfront to the directors and top bosses of G4S, so they want some of it back - hence the fines for not hitting targets. this has to stop.

i wish all meter readers were like me, and just quit the mickey mouse job. apparently seimens have the same way of working, ie. targets are all that count. maybe a seimens worker can enlighten us.

blind_faith

i loved your story... really funny. if a meter reader is sad enough to go through all that trouble for just 1 reading, he deserved all he got. for starters, we were only supposed to work from 8am to 8pm and from 8 to 5 or 6 saturdays (i never worked on a saturday so can't remember).

and he got just 1.5 points for that reading - bearing in mind he needs 800 points per week to start earning a bonus...hardly worth getting out of bed early for. unless it genuinely was an inspection, in which case he would have got a whopping 3 pts, lol. and he would n't have been allowed to call on anyone else til 8am.

2 years ago, EDF sent letters to customers which stated that there would be no more visits from meter readers, and that ppl should submit their own readings. then EDF send meter readers to these exact same properties every 3 months. what a joke this industry is.
thank god i'm out of it.

Padz_2

We had almost the same issue.

I told my elderly Mum not to let people in unless she knew them as there were a spate of distraction burglaries/people pretending to be from water/gas etc companies. The people sent by the company were often scruffy and unkempt and looked shifty. I know they have ID but you have to open the door to see the ID and then a crook could just push it and knock my Mum over. Plus how many of us actually know what valid ID looks like?

Plus the dog bed is in front of the gas mater cupboard and is a PITA to move.

I first of all requested that they telephone to say their reader would be in the area that day. Apparently they have no idea where their employees are at any given time so that wasn't possible.

So I refused them entry every time and happily filled in my own readings. This lasted for two years. At that point they sent a more senior man. I bent his ear for a good 45 minutes about 'bogus safety checks', 'scruffy employees', 'the price of gas' everything lol.

He seemed surprised to find that everything was in order and the meter reading was spot on.

Now they hardly ever come - mind you they wouldn't get in if they did.

Roll on smart meters!

Considered having it moved outside at one point but even enquiring about it was stressful as idiotic employees kept saying it wasn't them and we needed to speak to another company. gave up in the end. Might try again when we have our new kitchen fitted next year.

blind_faith

have i been to your mum's house? read on...

firstly, the last i heard, to move your gas meter outside will cost you at least £600 and for the electric - over £1000.

some jobs i had contained a phone number for the customer to ring in advance, and others contained a password. one woman on my round wanted her meter read quarterly, so she always called out of the window for the phone number on my id - then she rang G4S to confirm i was genuine - then she rang her son who lived nearby (all 6ft 10 of him) - and he came over and let the dog out into the back garden - then he cleared the dogs bed from the understairs area - then he let me in. sound familiar padz? and it was the same every quarter.

lucky i did n't care about targets and bonus cos all that for 1 electric meter read, or 1.9 pts as it was then. all the while i either waited outside or visited a few others in the street. so there are ways around it, but only, as in this case, if the customer wants the meter read.

meter readers forget that they're asking to enter someone's home. this is a big deal for someone who could be mentally handicapped, or a vulnerable oap, or a nervous female, etc. so if the meter reader's not happy with being 'messed about' - then tough!

whitelabel

Padz wrote: »

Roll on smart meters!

my pensioner parent had smart metres fitted at energy companies request, as they were fitting them in the area, eventually after two cancellations, the guy turned up and fitted them and promised no more metre reading etc explaining the sim card would send readings automatically.
3 weeks later when i was visiting, door bell went and it was a meter reader at the door, i told him to do one, as the whole point of smart readers were so it wasnt necessary to have them read "apparently". he said they dont work like that and we still "had" to have them read, i didnt argue I just ok good bye and closed the door on him .

blind_faith

smart meters are another con. British Gas regularly sent me to read smart meters. either because they thought the meter was faulty, based on a reading they've recieved automatically, or i was at the meter to gather information for a 'legal audit' ie. make model and year of meter AND, you guessed it... the meter reading/s. anyone starting to agree with me this industry sucks?

i must add that no other utility company ever sent me to read a smart meter. i was also told that smart meters still needed to be inspected from time to time, so when the whole of the uk has smart meters, some meter inspectors will remain in a job. but that takes us back to the whole inspection debate, and we prob don't wanna go there again, lol.

Padz_2

blind_faith wrote: »

have i been to your mum's house? read on...

firstly, the last i heard, to move your gas meter outside will cost you at least £600 and for the electric - over £1000.

some jobs i had contained a phone number for the customer to ring in advance, and others contained a password. one woman on my round wanted her meter read quarterly, so she always called out of the window for the phone number on my id - then she rang G4S to confirm i was genuine - then she rang her son who lived nearby (all 6ft 10 of him) - and he came over and let the dog out into the back garden - then he cleared the dogs bed from the understairs area - then he let me in. sound familiar padz? and it was the same every quarter.

lucky i did n't care about targets and bonus cos all that for 1 electric meter read, or 1.9 pts as it was then. all the while i either waited outside or visited a few others in the street. so there are ways around it, but only, as in this case, if the customer wants the meter read.

meter readers forget that they're asking to enter someone's home. this is a big deal for someone who could be mentally handicapped, or a vulnerable oap, or a nervous female, etc. so if the meter reader's not happy with being 'messed about' - then tough!

No you have not been to my Mum's house. It is a bungalow.

We don't let meter readers in any more. We just wait two years until they send the middle aged, more respectable 'engineer'.

No one got as far as giving us a quote for the meter moving. No one knew who's job it was to move it. Muppets.

Padz_2

whitelabel wrote: »

my pensioner parent had smart metres fitted at energy companies request, as they were fitting them in the area, eventually after two cancellations, the guy turned up and fitted them and promised no more metre reading etc explaining the sim card would send readings automatically.
3 weeks later when i was visiting, door bell went and it was a meter reader at the door, i told him to do one, as the whole point of smart readers were so it wasnt necessary to have them read "apparently". he said they dont work like that and we still "had" to have them read, i didnt argue I just ok good bye and closed the door on him .

They can't even get that right then! <rolleyes>

Padz_2

Didn't G4S used to be Group 4 who needed rebranding because they were so rubbish? Didn't they 'lose' prisoners and stuff like that?

whitelabel

Padz wrote: »

Didn't G4S used to be Group 4 who needed rebranding because they were so rubbish? Didn't they 'lose' prisoners and stuff like that?

yes but became Group 3 after losing one :rotfl:

when they merged with Securicor, after a while g4s became the global brand from about 2006 i think

have fingers in A LOT of pies and over 600000 employees world wide !