a question about prepayment meters

spiro

There is a fundemental difference for the 2 year rule between gas and elec meters. For gas it is every 2 years but for elec the clock is reset every time there is a change of supplier. So for elec if you changed supplier every 18 months your meter would never be inspected.

[Deleted User]

I did nt know that one spiro, it gets worse. Since deregulation things have got brilliant for the dedicated free energy followers. No one sets foot in your house to spot your re-wires or the many gas prepay bypasses. The suppliers ( the billers and customer service companys ) concentrate only on profit and loss. Can you imagine how lax these small outfits like utility warehouse etc are, as they only show their faces knocking at the door once a year or so. I have just located a bypassed gas prepay meter of over two years for them. I emailed them and never even got a reply. I bet next time I go to that property nothings changed and the drunken Russians in the house will still be marvelling about how great our country is.Every thing free in the U.K.!

chanz4

Utility warehouse are owned by npower, sainsburys is scottish & southern. We mainly work on police / tip offs or old leads that have gone quiet

[Deleted User]

Thanks chanz4, have sent you a pm.I bet these smaller suppliers never actually contract a meter inspection at all with prepays.I do read for a few of them on a yearly basis but only on credit or business meters.
More and more people have now switched to using prepays for debt and fear of the big bill reasons. The fact that they are now immune to proper two year safety inspections (code for bypass checks ) is illegal. OFGEM may as well not be in existance.

chanz4

A lot of these small firms are under others license, co-op is another its just resold energy. They dont even have their own rpu

SwanJon

chanz4 wrote: »

Utility warehouse are owned by npower, sainsburys is scottish & southern. We mainly work on police / tip offs or old leads that have gone quiet

UW isn't owned by npower, but does re-sell their energy
Sainsbury's has been paired with a few suppliers (ScottishPower, then EDF, and currently British Gas - not SSE (yet).

I guess that in suspect cases visits may not be outsourced to MRAs so you're not seeing these ones.
There's a huge amount of information flow between the meters & suppliers to raise suspicions.

[Deleted User]

Yes Swanjon, theres plenty of info flowing on your normal prepay who s topping up, but it ends there.the ones that are a bit clever and do minimal top ups,or the brazen ones who just don t bother topping up for years are getting away with it. the main point of this post is the fact that the prepays are not getting the regulators license stipulation of a two year visual inspection at all,Somehow Brit Gas and others are getting around this rule because its too expensive to get warrants and locksmiths involved in getting into the vast numbers of properties who we never get into.Brit Gas revenue protection men have only just recently got new software to identify the very low and none purchasing prepays and have set about knocking on a few doors.In one of the first streets tried with this method two bypasses were located.Its very slow work and there is only one RPU man in my area to cover a huge postcode.Another 10 are needed quickly. I notice even the toothless OFGEM is getting a little concerned with a recent press release in March asking the suppliers to increase their derisory efforts to locate meter bypasses. Only approx 3000 gas tampers reported in the whole of the U.K last year.I found 2 gas prepays damaged and bypassed in one street last march and that was from the ones who actually opened the door to me in that street, as most never do.

chanz4

Think the problem is , if suppliers catch them and cut them off consumer focus are on the phone next minute to reconnect them. Also when taken to court suppliers dont get hardly anything back. Suppliers can submit a reds claim , but each has to come with a crime ref

chanz4

SwanJon wrote: »

UW isn't owned by npower, but does re-sell their energy
Sainsbury's has been paired with a few suppliers (ScottishPower, then EDF, and currently British Gas - not SSE (yet).

I guess that in suspect cases visits may not be outsourced to MRAs so you're not seeing these ones.
There's a huge amount of information flow between the meters & suppliers to raise suspicions.

I think they own something stupid like 20%

[Deleted User]

Brit Gas dont cut them off chanz4, nor do they prosecute unless the police are involved like with the THREE cannabis farms within a couple of hundred yards of each other round the corner from me in my hometown. .As it happens one of these houses was a BG supply I had been knocking on for years with no access.This is the sort of thing whats happening because of the suppliers failure of their responsibility. I spoke to a couple of police officers recently and they were amazed that they dont prosecute on meter tampers and that they would if Brit Gas passed on the info,which they dont.Brit Gas and EDF definitely dont prosecute,its too expensive, and too many get-outs. they re just happy to get money back. One big surprise though to the tamperers is that the cost of a new electric prepay installment etc is £450 slapped on the debt on the new prepay along with estimated cost of fiddle, so theres a financial deterrent at least to bypassing