British Gas:now phoning customers for meter readings

[Deleted User]

just to add my final comment about this thread, this is a new idea from BG starting about 9 months ago.this is not about trying to contact customers who havent had readings lately, or need to make appointments or have had too many estimates,It is about call centres routinely phoning THE WHOLE TOWN who are with Brit Gas, who havent been contacted by email or text message, for the bog standard quarterly readings.With this en masse phone avalanche will be,and are a section of folk who are not at all suitable to be contacted by this medium.It is grand scale quarterly readings designed to beat the regular meter readers for a profit boost.The call centres are on commision for this and are pushy and indiscriminate so long as they get their reads.

davehsug

Then I apologise sacsquacco. I have clearly misunderstood the main thrust of your argument. I have, in the past, been in a position of contacting customers for readings. You would sometimes have an older person say, "just hold on, I have to stand on a chair", at which point I would always say that they must not do that & try to agree a time for a reader to call. If BG are aware of this sort of thing & still carrying on, it is wrong.

Terrylw1

Heh sacsquacco,

Are they still sending you guys out to take the reading anyway? Is so...

It will annoy the customers pretty quickly, not just the vulnerable ones.
They are paying people to do a redundant role and commission for nothing.
Are they doing it on all the outside meter positions that you have no trouble reading?

Also, what they could do is run this as a pilot exercise for say 6-12 months, then evaluate the difference in results between them and you guys to determine who gets the best access rates and the most accurate data. They could split that down by removing the outside meter positions and evaluating it based on post codes. Then they could reduce contracting costs.

Getting more accurate and frequent readings into settlement will also mean they make their bottom line settlement payments more accurate. The industry has been on at suppliers about that for a long time, so other suppliers may try it. If the industry wanted it though, it would follow the industry change process for all parties to comment. Not heard anything myself though.

spiro

sacsquacco wrote: »

disabled,ill,VERY aged,unsteady,dementia sufferers,frail etc

The problem is how many of these have registered with their supplier or DNO that they are in this position. Lots of people appear not to want to go on the Priority Service Register for whatever reason.

[Deleted User]

Hi terrylw1, yes they are sending us out, and yes its certainly annoying the customers, some are livid,they v had their bills and paid them.We can t work out what the hell B.G. are playing at, so we just go in again quoting the meter inspection read otherwise B.G, fine my company for not hitting contractual targets, which they have done lately.a lot of these are onliners but once again today I have been out to S!!!!horpe today where 3 very aged B.G. customers complained to me that they had been phoned direct for their reads last week and all failed to be able to get to the meters.an 82 year old man couldnt get read from about top of the front door height, but he tried and was very apologetic about it also.you could be right about it being an experiment, personally I would like to see the guy who thought this plan up ,sacked, or better still to quote Jeremy Clarkson " shot in front of the family in the front garden" ( and like Jezza said, thats a joke!)

Terrylw1

He won't be having anymore kids then if they shoot him in the front garden!

Whilst you couldnt post it on here, since its affecting your service you could get your contract management team to approach theirs to find out why they are doing it. To me its counter-productive and it will cause complaints of duplication so the motive won't be service related, more bottom line or for analytical purposes.

Sadly, such things are usually from senior management or their projects that fail to understand what it really like on the shop floor.

[Deleted User]

You ve got it spot on Terrylw1, its senior management not in touch with the reality of life in the slow lane,very old and disabled people being phoned.I thought it was smallish towns and villages they were phoning but I ve been out today to a large steel making town and once again I ve had several O.A.Ps. complaining about B.G. trying to get them to get to awkward meters.One was going to phone cust services and tell them to stop it or she s switching.B.G. are an absolute shambles going down this route.I hope they get sued to !!!!. In fact I will appear in court as an expert witness if anyone needs me.am not too bothered about upsetting B.G as I am coming up for retirement myself and becoming an old dodderer, thats prob why I have got a bee in my bonnet as i can relate to the housebound and ailing folk being harassed by call centre kids.Thanks for your comments Terrylw1, now its time for a bit of media help