Who is allowed to access your meters?

spiro

Giddytimes wrote: »

If you live in EON's area they will read your meters regardless of which company you pay for your supply, so he may have legitimately needed to check the serial numbers.

Wrong - the meter will be read by whoever the supplier appoints to read the meter. As an example BG only use 2 companies to read meters.

ian-d

I'm in the Crewe area and with British Gas. It has always been the same couple of guys for the meter readings themselves, which is why I was confused when a fully badged up EON guy arrived!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Ian

Sorry our guy wasn't particularly helpful but at least he was legit.

To be honest, could be several reasons why a visit was arranged. I would ask your supplier as it may have been them who initiated the visit.

If not, they'll be able to find out why the guy turned up.

Malc

chanz4

ian-d wrote: »

Thanks for the reply EON, the guy was wearing the full EON kit and did have an id badge, though he made no effort to show it and just expected me to open up my property for him to check the serial numbers. It was more a case of him not being willing to explain the reason why, other than to say he needed to check against their customer records, of which I'm not and have never been an EON customer, and at first was reluctant to say which meter he was there to read. All a bit dodgy to me so if EON need to check the serials, they'll have to ask my permission, not have someone come to the door.

chanz4 - No, I've not been illegally switching meters (what a stupid suggestion) and have had the same meters and same service provider since the house was build 5 years ago!

Its not a stupid question as people do switch them to steal.

cbrpaul

this is an interesting point raised i think

A while ago , i had a meter reader guy turn up, no uniform , he had already read my exterior gas meter on my drive, before even knocking on my door to ask, and now wanted internal access to the electrical meter.

i asked for id , he showed me a supplier company id card , that i was not with , and i told him this.

He asked who i was with , i said surely you should know , he then took a moment to ponder and pulled out another ID card and said " this one"

sure enough it was a ID card for my supplier !!

All in all a very concerning experiance !!!

Swipe

I really wouldn't waste any more time concerning yourself about it. If it's important EON will be in touch.

C_Mababejive

chanz4 wrote: »

Its not a stupid question as people do switch them to steal.

Yes..if you need a spare gas meter, there are plenty of them on Ebay,many possibly from dubious sources. Ebay dont seem bothered about stolen goods being sold on their site.

ian-d

Well, following on from this, the same guy turned up again today, but I was on the phone to a customer so couldn't get to the door...I continued with my call only to then realise the guy had scaled my 6 foot LOCKED fence, despite giving him no permission last time; he has therfore illegally broken in to my property and I might be involving the police.

He parked around the corner in an unmarked (new) car and disappeared before I had to chance to catch up with him.

I phoned British Gas and they have said no one from EON should be visiting, and have spoken to EON and they cannot see any reason, but have passed the information on to the data team to see if they have someone in the area.

I would welcome any comments with suggestions that might help me understand what is happening. It might not be untoward because there are many houses easier to access the meters than mine (front of house for most) but would like to know why someone would go to that length to get some info from the meters.

davidgmmafan

Well I was going to take a shot in the dark and say sometimes meter serial numbers a mixed up, duplicated, or just plain wrong. However I'm staggered by your last post. What is this guy playing at?

If it was the case that for example they suspected there was some error regarding the meter number then it wouldn't be difficult to say that.

SailorSam

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Yes..if you need a spare gas meter, there are plenty of them on Ebay,many possibly from dubious sources. Ebay dont seem bothered about stolen goods being sold on their site.

If we're all getting new smart meters who'd bother going to the expense of buying an 'iffy' one.