Gas meter replaced; muddle as old reading not taken

madeinchina

If you do not have much time to read the whole story, my question is; is a new GAS meter (U16) always at 000000 when it is installed? The exchange of meters was flawed and I doubt that proper readings have been saved i.e. the old meter and the new one after installation.

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Background:

My meter was replaced at my request as old one not sufficient to deal with gas demand.

There was a 2 week period when we were without gas as the new meter hadn't arrived after the old one was removed (Long story)

We have now moved out, but I noticed after taking the final reading that it seemed we would be charged a huge bill and I questioned that the new meter must be very very wrong.

I have since discovered that the gas supplier was unaware that the old meter (imperial) had been replaced with the new metric one at the start of September.

To make matters more complicated, there is no sticker on the new meter that says what the old reading on the old meter should have been.

The old meter was last read in May and the rest have been estimates until the new meter was read (incorrectly) as "12" in November; but they would have thought it was still the old 4 dial imperial meter so I think that reading was wrong anyway as they probably missed a digit or two. So the November bill cannot be seen as an accurate record.

Now they will have to try and work out what the gas consumption has been since May until change over one week ago. Another complication is that we had a gas boiler changed in October so our use should be more efficient now.

I don't think they will be able to find out what the old meter reading was; its probably lost; they have said as much.
Is it fair to assume that the gas on the new meter was zero also. How can they prove it was?

Any advice on how to agree what is a fair bill is in the circumstances?

I have had some real stress worrying about the size of the last bill because of this company's inefficiency. I just want this sorted. They are currently checking what the new meter number is and that will take 10 days to get onto the system.

Inner_Zone

THe new meter would have had a reading below 0 but will be billed as from 0. The person whom exchange the meter would have noted the old meter reading assuming it was an authorised installer. Surprised you did not also.

madeinchina

Inner_Zone wrote: »

THe new meter would have had a reading below 0 but will be billed as from 0. The person whom exchange the meter would have noted the old meter reading assuming it was an authorised installer. Surprised you did not also.

Thanks for your reply; please can you explain how do you know this to be the case regarding new meter reading below zero (eg you are a registered meter installer ?)

Yes it was installed by the company who supplies the gas and took three attempts and they still don't know that it was exchanged on their records.

Regarding taking a reading ourselves, it was a case of "I thought you did it".:o

chanz4

Not always, sometimes it could be a refurbed meter so does not mean it would be zero. When ngrid or your network install they place all details via flows to your supplier.

Your supplier is not always at fault with the flows however, sometimes say its done by a contractor or emergencys have to chase them from them instead.