How Do I Find Out Who Reads My Meter?

November2

Rather an odd thing, but Siemens came round a couple of weeks ago and said they were checking all the meters and mine was faulty and they made an appointment to repair it. I checked with British Gas if this was a genuine call as I hadn't been given any warning they were coming and they emailed and said yes Siemens work for them. They didn't turn up so I contacted British Gas about it and they have now said Siemens don't maintain my meter but United Utilities do and they have made an appointment to check my meter. Does anyone know how I can check who actually maintains and reads my meters? There's nothing on BG site either generally or in My Account, nothing on the Siemens or U. Utilities sites either indicating which areas they cover. Have even googled it to no avail!

jd87

Probably United Utilities are the company who operate the distribution network in your area (do you live in the north west?) and siemens read the meters on their behalf.

SwanJon

There are a few more companies involved that it first seems.
The company that owns the pipes/wires - the distributor (14 different areas in Britain)
The company that owns, exchanges and fixes meters - the meter operator (UU for you)
The company that reads the meter (and a few smaller, rarer jobs) - the meter reader.
The company that you pay to manage all this (and more) for you - the supplier (British Gas for you).

So it could be that Siemens are your meter reader, and reported a fault with the meter that should have gone to UU to come and fix it.

Oh, and the 2 meter companies have contracts with your supplier, not you so when you change supplier you quite often change your meter operator and meter reader too. Even with one supplier these companies vary by region.

Another company (ecoes for electricity, XOserve for gas) collates all the data,so I suppose they could tell you, but your supplier should be able to do it.

molerat

Not forgetting "your supplier" who you contact on the phone is just a call centre worker who has not got a clue what is going on apart from what appears on the screen in front of him. Ask the computer the wrong question and after lots of deliberation the answer will be 42 every time.