Energy meter reader trespass??

Inspectorman

Indeed - big changes are coming with the roll out of smart. Another reason why perhaps directly employed readers are (generally) better behaved, as it's in there best interest in order to be moved onto different job roles when the time comes. For the agencies they are pretty much on a countdown to when reading as we know it today ceases.

G4S is worthy of an entire thread on it's own in regards to everything it does, along with a couple of other jack of all trades master of none companies such as Serco, who the government put ridiculous amounts of trust in for the sake of a few ££.

Jamie_Carter

uk1 wrote: »

If you are interested watch out for Nick Buckles appearance tommorow in front of the Home Affairs Select Committe.

Keith Vaz and the committee are probably going to focus on the quality of staff recruitment, supervision and in particular the (lack of) leadership provided by Nick Buckles and whether he continues to be a fit person to run a large corporation. He will ask whether his continued tenure is in the best interests of G4S staff and shareholders .... and customers. There will alos be a question about the charitable contribution to the army. It would be a great suprise if he lasts much longer than Tuesday althoug he has displayed a large covering of Teflon.

Isn't he a major contributor to the tory party??

Inspectorman

NeverEnough wrote: »

Npower are specifically the problem in our(Midlands) situation - on discussion with their hopeless CS, they constantly state that the meter readers are NOT employed by Npower and that the service is contracted out to a nebulous, nameless company and that they "simply pass messages on to them" neatly bypassing any responsibility, even though the regulator has indicated that they remain responsible for services they contract out.

Perhaps someone has some inside knowledge as to which companies use their own in house meter reading teams?

Npower do use there own readers in the midlands but in most cases it comes under there metering business name MeterPlus.

Technically all companies outsource the work but as i mentioned eon, sse and npower all have metering companies who they "contract" it out to. This varies area to area as not all operate nationally.

SwanJon

NeverEnough wrote: »

Perhaps someone has some inside knowledge as to which companies use their own in house meter reading teams?

Not inside knowledge, more of an educated guess.
Originally the meter readers belonged to the host supplier.
For gas this was seperated out early, and via Accuread has now become G4S. The electricity ones were slower, but I think they all still became sperate companies - even if they remain under the same group - for example I think MeterPlus came out of npower and Metering Services out of E.ON.

As such, even if they are part of the same group they are seperate companies and the seperation remains.

Inspectorman

List of operators here:

http://www.meteroperators.org.uk/members.php

As mentioned they are seperate companies but the ones that are owned by the supplying companies tend to deal with complaints quicker than when it has to be passed on to a totally different company. An example of how quick it can be - When i was reading i got another reader to try and gain access to a "problem" property that hadn't been accessed for years. He's a big a lad with a loud knock, so he tries the door with no luck (customer is in as are some dogs) - he leaves card and goes about his business. Within an hour the manager is on the phone to him with regards to a complaint from this customer in relation to his loud knocking (apparently he almost made a pedigree dog miscarriage due to it......)

uk1

Inspectorman wrote: »

G4S is worthy of an entire thread on it's own in regards to everything it does, along with a couple of other jack of all trades master of none companies such as Serco, who the government put ridiculous amounts of trust in for the sake of a few ££.

As it happens ..... the company I own (and started) was asked by Serco to assist them - let's say in a consultancy role so as not to let the cat out of the bag ... because of their affinity to another of our clients who they admired and who talked about us . To be honest ... I didn't really want to work with them - but instead of turning contracts down I always place pricing on the potential clients I don't fancy that normally has the effect of pushing us away as "unafordable". This means they aren't upset with us as we have treated their request with respect and they mistakenly think we must be good because we are unafordable.

To my suprise they came back and said they would like to go ahead. The cash was very large and would change my personal fortune .... but I simply couldn't face it. I (we) can't do a job for people we do not want to work with for various reasopns. So when they called and said our bid was 5 times as much as the next one but we had won ... this is absolutely true .... I told them that they would be happier with their second choice as the advice we give often only falls into two categories. Stating the obvious with stuff they already know ..... or telling them stuff they don't want to hear. Either way I explained I felt that they wouldn't like us very quickly.

I sat my wife down and told her what I had done and opened a bottle of champagne and she forgave me. We are still together.

Kernel_Sanders

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

the only people allowed to enter private property if the householder refuses permission, without a warrant are the police and fire service.

In what circumstances are the police allowed to enter without permission or warrant? I am interested because I understand that, bizarrely, if bailiffs have been allowed in once, then they can force entry on subsequent visits.

Inspectorman wrote: »

along with a couple of other jack of all trades master of none companies such as Serco, who the government put ridiculous amounts of trust in for the sake of a few ££.

Capita springs instantly to mind....

uk1

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

In what circumstances are the police allowed to enter without permission or warrant? I am interested because I understand that, bizarrely, if bailiffs have been allowed in once, then they can force entry on subsequent visits.

Google is your friend:

Police can only enter premises without a warrant if a serious or dangerous incident has taken place.


Situations in which the police can enter premises without a warrant include when they want to:

• deal with a breach of the peace or prevent it
• enforce an arrest warrant
• arrest a person in connection with certain offences
• recapture someone who has escaped from custody
• save life or prevent serious damage to property.

Apart from when they are preventing serious injury to life or property, the police must have reasonable grounds for believing that the person they are looking for is on the premises.

If the police do arrest you, they can also enter and search any premises where you were during or immediately before the arrest. They can search only for evidence relating to the offence for which you have been arrested, and they must have reasonable grounds for believing there is evidence there. They can also search any premises occupied by someone who is under arrest for certain serious offences. Again, the police officer who carries out the search must have reasonable grounds for suspecting that there is evidence on the premises relating to the offence or a similar offence.

In other circumstances, the police must have a search warrant before they can enter the premises. They should enter property at a reasonable hour unless this would frustrate their search. When the occupier is present, the police must ask for permission to search the property – again, unless it would frustrate the search to do this.


When they are carrying out a search police officers must:

• identify themselves and - if they are not in uniform - show their warrant card, and
• explain why they want to search, the rights of the occupier and whether the search is made with a search warrant or not.

chanz4

Inspectorman wrote: »

Npower do use there own readers in the midlands but in most cases it comes under there metering business name MeterPlus.

Technically all companies outsource the work but as i mentioned eon, sse and npower all have metering companies who they "contract" it out to. This varies area to area as not all operate nationally.

It depends on area, but I have lowrie beck read my meters, and im supplied by npower.

Terrylw1

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

It doesn't matter when it started. What you as a meter reader, and what the householder think is reasonable may be two different things. But as it is the householders property, then they have the final say, and not you.

There is no point in you even arguing about it, because at any time the householder can kick you off their property...end of story!!!!

I have no affiliation to meter readers as I told UK1 earlier.

It is important to understand when it happened. Why? Because it tells us whether this is a later revenue driven scheme or whether it has always been the standard. If its always been there, it tells us that the governing bodies are also to blame in setting up a privatised industry using previous national standards which are unfair.

You need to know this because you need to know who you are challenging. If you are fighting an in tire industry, you need to know because you will have to ensure you go very high to get anywhere.