Meter issues

C_Mababejive

Terrylw1 i hear what you are saying and it is symptomatic of private industry but thats what the people want and thats what they got. How often did the "people" bleat about the buses/British Rail/The Gas board/the electric board/BT...and a host of others..?

By the "people" i mean of course the red top acolytes, the ones who are mere puppets and who are ministered to daily by the gutter press such as the DM.

Bottom line is,if work is done,there is a cost.

The best i can sat for the OP is that she should either try to cut a deal with her suppliers by saying she will switch and if they blank her,she should seek a supplier who will absorb some/all of the swappeage costs in return for her custom.

Failing that,swap via quidco to get some money back which could partially/fully fund cost of swappage.

Terrylw1

In terms of the "good old days", the industry was just as messy back then and all those so called "experts" built an industry full of holes. The newer breed have spent the last 12 years fixing all that. So, I question the knowledge of the experts of yester year. I don't mean engineers, I mean office/management people who just don't have the knowledge they thought they did.

There is a regulator who achieves little and only does anything based on pressure, afterall, they only ensure parties upgrade systems and processes inline with SLC's, but they never audit it to ensure they actually follow it.

Given how councils operate now, I don't think remaining a public utility would prevent such charging and the customer would have no way to fight them then.

C_Mababejive

Well in the good old days we had one nationalised gas industry. It was a world recognised centre of engineering excellence and a well respected research and development centre. One single joined up industry with showrooms where people could go,speak to someone,buy stuff,interact. It was pretty much the sole source of gas engineers..very well trained in state of the art training centres with all the latest kit. People got lots of stuff done for "free" becuase one bit cross subsidised the other. Free new gas service pipes,free meter,heavily subsidised servicing costs for pensioners etc etc,free gas leak service with an attempt to fix for free up to a time limit. The ability to pay for appliances,spares,repairs on credit (often free credit).

In those days there was no need for GSR schemes because the fact that you were a BG Corporation engineer was enough.

There are still far too many "seat warmers" drawing fat wages and benefits for doing nothing save for creating chaos and messing stuff up.

Terrylw1

Totally agree on the "seat wamers", I largely class Ofgem and Elexon as that!

I came from the elec end rather gas and it was much more joined up, but more on an regional basis. Those same people tore the industry apart by leaving holes all over the place! Not to mention the civil servant salaries they were claiming for doing very little just because they had been there a long time.

Again, my comments relate to management, executives and office based people in the various agencies...I have a lot of respect for the engineers.

With progress though, how long before they did squeeze people? Is it just the public sector wasn't efficient? I can say yes from what I've seen, but luckily for customers, these companies have yet go catch up with other industries in terms of service charges.

chanz4

I see a lot of meter change invoices, it is £65 for a mop and a hell of a lot more if a dno/rpu engineer does it

Carrot007

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Suppliers are not allowed to transfer customers to their meter operators (seperate companies).

Not that that means they don't ;-)

Terrylw1

Carrot007 wrote: »

Not that that means they don't ;-)

Ah, dumped calls eh?

Terrylw1

chanz4 wrote: »

I see a lot of meter change invoices, it is £65 for a mop and a hell of a lot more if a dno/rpu engineer does it

The highest I've seen in recent years for MOP is less than that and most agents were £10 cheaper still.

chanz4

depends on the mop etc, Lowri beck are cheaper than say meter plus.

Terrylw1

Exactly, so the supplier should be charging based on region/agent contracted or reduce the cost to make more on cheaper regions and less on the more expensive ones. I doubt anyone has looked at this until the complaints take off and suppliers have to defend the charges.