British Gas:now phoning customers for meter readings

[Deleted User]

They have been emailing and texting customers for readings for quite a while now,but they ve gone one step further and started making unsolicitored phone calls for the quarterly readings ahead of the time that we (the meter readers) come to collect them.
Thats fine but the call centres involved have no idea of the health or capability of the people at the other end of the phone.I have met fragile old ladies in their nineties who have fallen over attempting to get the readings with meters in awkward places such as high up over the door.one lady fell over on crutches trying to get the reading in an outside box above the rockery.
My question is, would British Gas be liable when someone gets injured trying to do their bidding to supply a meter reading, as they surely will, and proberbly already have.The call centre staff, I have been told can be quite pushy,saying they will call back in 10 minutes.Any advice welcome as one daughter I met was soon on the phone in disgust at these people phoning her confused elderly mother who could barely get out of the chair let alone clamber under the stairs looking for the gas meter. I might add that the call centres are not beyond straight lies to get the readings such as the usual gas man is nt coming because we re short staffed.I wonder what the " no win no fee " brigade can charge for a broken hip, £20,000 poss and upwards.British Gas as far as I know are the only supplier trying this aggressive data collection.These are not opening or closing meter readings they are your bog standard quarterly bill reads

Terrylw1

Its a tricky one. In terms of law, the person has the right to refuse to protect their safety, but people can be very pushy in highlighting the negatives and scaring the elderly and lets not forget more vulnerable adults.

The process of contacting customers like this is becoming more common place in response to keeping their RF targets. The industry 97% project kicked all this off by forcing all suppliers/agents to achieve this or face a kicking. In a large number of cases, settling on an EAC was due to inside metering and customers that work or are otherwise out. Suppliers could use mailing, calls, etc to do this and they were doing what they had been instructed to do to improve data quality in the industry which all translates to smoothest CoS, CoA and billing processes.

Another benefit is that a COR can be sent to the DC. Now if suppliers are clever enough and efficiently run the practice of COR they could renegotiate your contracts to less visits, so less cash. Lightly ahead of smart metering, if they could get it to float.

Also, transposed reads are becoming quite an issue hence suppliers are trying to be proactive.

There is nothing stopping your NHHDC/NHHDR raising this at industry level via your economic regs people. Then all parties can air a view although I think its for a wider audience of customer protection groups.

For me, if I was going to set up a project to initiate this it would require an analysis of what is required to talk customers through. This would involve a basic risk assessment as well as the ability to advise his to read the meter. The former would require assistance from the HSE surely and the latter just doesnt exist for suppliers since they split from their LDNO/NHHMOPs.

However, a couple of thinks prevent a common sense approach such as a completely selfish view if why they want the reading, money and lets not forget the fact the industry bodies are pretty poor at protecting the consumer...and always have been.

spiro

The other thing that lots of people forget is that some (all?) suppliers have a requirement in their T&Cs for customers to provide a reading twice a year. This is in part to stop the issue of 'catch up bills' which can cause customer problems if the bill has been estimated for 2 years.

Also all suppliers are looking to cut their costs and having someone read a meter is not cheap so they are trying to cut back on it and as has already been said they are also looking forward to smart metering which will hopefully (HSE to agree) remove the need for the 2 yearly inspection.

Boxman

Anyone else completely bewildered by post #2 because of all those initials or is it just me (quite possible I accept)?

Sorry Terrylw1, perhaps I have accidentally split from my LDNO/NHHMOPs!

[Deleted User]

yeah, you got it spiro, B,G are looking to cut their costs which is another way of saying increase their profits.They are on a roll at the moment going from £8 per customer profit per year last year to over £100. These are bog standard quarterlys aimed at the elderly in particular who are not online and not texters.People who have been happy to see the gas man and a bit shocked to have a pushy call centre kid badgering them.From what they tell me they are not very well mannered either and not adverse to lies to get the old dears to get the readings.Brit Gas have gone a step too far in their greed for more profits.I would like to make a complaint to the regulator about this practice but there seems to be no avenue on the website to make a direct complaint as they say make your initial complaint to supplier first.I think I will sit back and read about it in the newspapers when the no win no fee mob will make a bomb.Actually, I think I will contact the Daily Mail myself (or BBC Watchdog,) i can see the headlines now "95 year old dies trying to read the gas meter to boost BG profits".BG at the moment are restricting the cold calling on the phone deliberately to the small middle class type of towns with high numbers of retired folk which makes it all the more cynical.I personally do not have any objection to the online reading avalanche, it makes sense I suppose ,freebie reads for the suppliers but also load s of mis reads and encouragement of meter fiddles if they know no ones going to check the meter for years and years, which they dont now.Oh, and by the way spiro, I found another stopped meter this morning, electric still on 00002 from new, house only 2 year old and occupied throughout.Did the occupiers say anything about it,no chance.they hardly ever do.Then they have a moan on these forums and quote the back billing rule

Terrylw1

Boxman wrote: »

Anyone else completely bewildered by post #2 because of all those initials or is it just me (quite possible I accept)?

Sorry Terrylw1, perhaps I have accidentally split from my LDNO/NHHMOPs!

I understand its quite a painful experience!!!

Terrylw1

The problem is you are not making a complaint, rather challenging an entire commercial decision. So, normally suppliers/agents do this via their economic regs or market compliance teams depending in whether it is ofgem or elexon they are aiming at.

I'm not sure a process really exists for this and it normally include detail of a complaint. So, you would have to ask ofgem, since this would be outside of elexons governance of the BSC.

I've not read the whistleblowers policy though, maybe that may cover an employer complaining about supplier practice causing impacts to the elderly?

CAB have spent a lot of time raising public examples over the years.

[Deleted User]

for any of you barrack room lawers out there,- are Brit Gas liable, if a call centre kid badgers a 90 year old lady ( who I met) on the phone for the meter readings and she subsequently falls and injures herself in doing so.The frail old dear I met said she tried to get the electric reading for them from a high meter above the door and failed as she felt unsteady on the wobbly chair.I would like to have some idea on this before I take this further

Terrylw1

That's an interesting issue.

There is nothing in industry market domain that tells a supplier about dangerous or inappropriate situations like this. The list of meter positions is too basic.

I did an assessment of aborted visits some time ago and one of my recommendations was to introduce a marker or expand the current list to be more accurate e.g. meter is above X feet high which would stop suppliers sending out visits to put prepay meters in and having to abort as it would be above the HSE safety height. I also recommended call centre training to ask about this when booking them.

So, in your example if they had taken information about this saw the customer was in PSR or had say, an elderley market on the account, mbr reading processes could prevent calling them knowing its inappropriate and potentially dangerous.

It also saves on all the warrants and pre warrant aborts.

Will it happen, not sure. I'm hoping that that savings to a supplier would argue it, but you have to spend a little to save a lot and these companies are so often firefighting!

Sloppy processes and management in your case though as the company should protect its customers by making sure their processes prevent things like this...not sure if any do it though. Can you pose it direct to ofgem?

[Deleted User]

I am sure B.G. would have issued some sort of guidelines to their staff about phoning direct for readings, just to cover themselves. I just think the staff are taking no notice of it because they will be on some sort of incentive bonus to get the readings, thats how we work anyway.They are also not too good on manners from what I have been told, one old lady said the caller got agitated with her because she was taking too long to get the reads and slammed the phone down on her, which makes me think its an outside contractor, possibly Ventura.Personally I think I am doing B.G. a favour having a moan at their latest data gathering method.BBC Watchdog will love this sort of thing, they are always keen on Brit Gas stuff and feature them regulary.The number of elderly people I have met who ve had these phone calls suggests that someone must have come a cropper by now. BG will be getting one of their bosses squirming in the spotlight facing Anne Robinson once again over this

aliasojo

At the risk of being far too simplistic, couldn't the old lady simply say she was unable to get to the meter due to health issues and they would either have to send someone round to read it themselves or wait until a visitor was able to read it for her?