An interesting idea , but is it legal ??

[Deleted User]

insanegloss wrote: »

Absolutely, I've seen enough cases of that. A major cause of house fires, anyway I digress. I can honestly sayt that meter reads are checked during automatic processing at supplier level, they have an expected range of values for a meter read, based on previous consumption history. I can hand on heart say this, as at BG it's fairly straightforward (if you know what your doing) to find that expected range. If a read falls out that range, it's flagged for manual intervention, be it by an agent or back office processing teams.

I am amused at the phrase " manual intervention ". If its a meter reader knocking on the door for a quarterly cyclic reading, thats normal practice. The only other "agent " is an RPU officer. We have two such persons operating for BG and Scot Power in my quite large area of DN postcode. Theres little chance of him being able to cover all the large towns all on his own as he is just BGs token effort. So if occupier chooses not to answer the door, or does nt take the card/key to the shop to be topped up, thats as far as it gos.suppliers dont want to spend much money to stop bypassing, its cheaper to turn a blind eye, even though Ofgem has recently told all suppliers to try harder. EDF, etc have ignored that of course, oh yes , and Undaunted, theres no judges getting involved in thieving gas and electric nowadays, they dont go to court unless police prosecute for cannabis farms

insanegloss

I think you misunderstood what I meant. I was referring to the fact that a reading that is excessively different to the expected value is manually worked, ie a person has to check if it is plausible or not. That happens at supplier level (certainly at BG), ie when the supplier has got the read sent by the DC.

Dectecting bypassing is done as you describe above.

[Deleted User]

I know I have digressed from the OP s initial idea about advanced purchase of gas/electric units, onto gas and electric thievery, but if he does go ahead and buys a year or two in advance, if he doe snt open the door to any meter readers, or tells them its an inconvenient time, there will be no one bothering him to check his meter. Ofgem are about to bring in a five year minimum meter inspection rule, advanced from the two year period, at the behest of the suppliers and RPU officers only bother people spending very low annual ammounts, less than £100 a year on energy.

Cardew

sacsquacco wrote: »

I know I have digressed from the OP s initial idea about advanced purchase of gas/electric units, onto gas and electric thievery, but if he does go ahead and buys a year or two in advance, if he doe snt open the door to any meter readers, or tells them its an inconvenient time, there will be no one bothering him to check his meter. Ofgem are about to bring in a five year minimum meter inspection rule, advanced from the two year period, at the behest of the suppliers and RPU officers only bother people spending very low annual ammounts, less than £100 a year on energy.

It is my understanding that the billing algorithm used by the Utility companies will reject a meter reading that the computer 'thinks' is an error and substitutes an estimated reading.

This will happen even if the reading is taken by a meter reader.
The Billing Code section on back-billing covers this:

Where a customer has provided correct readings but a supplier
has rejected them, without investigation as invalid eg. the customer or the meter
reader has provided correct5 dial readings* but the supplier believes the meter
to be 4 dial and ignores without further investigation.

Obviously the with the OP's plan, correct meter readings will not have been supplied.

So my understanding of 'manual intervention' is the same as that of 'insanegloss' in post #23.

Pincher

I find that my consumption is on profile, despite the extra occupants from time to time, so extra baths, extra computer, etc.
If somebody looks into it closely, it's pretty obvious you are fiddling the figures, but I don't think they care. The only thing you should be careful about is the meter reader. In the worst case scenario, you have to deny entry for a few weeks until the reading catches up. Not really worth the hassle, especially in the summer months.

brewerdave

Pincher wrote: »

I find that my consumption is on profile, despite the extra occupants from time to time, so extra baths, extra computer, etc.
If somebody looks into it closely, it's pretty obvious you are fiddling the figures, but I don't think they care. The only thing you should be careful about is the meter reader. In the worst case scenario, you have to deny entry for a few weeks until the reading catches up. Not really worth the hassle, especially in the summer months.

...and no good at all if your meters are on an outside wall!!!:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Pincher wrote: »

I find that my consumption is on profile, despite the extra occupants from time to time, so extra baths, extra computer, etc.
If somebody looks into it closely, it's pretty obvious you are fiddling the figures, but I don't think they care. The only thing you should be careful about is the meter reader. In the worst case scenario, you have to deny entry for a few weeks until the reading catches up. Not really worth the hassle, especially in the summer months.

We ve got people who ve stopped us, and RPU, for over 8 years entry to the meters. I myself havent had a meter reader check my own meters in at least 7 years ( I put my reads on display in the window ).RPU only get involved in super low payments. The suppliers are nt too bothered so long as they get their monthly/ quarterly payments

insanegloss

Pretty much, though not through a lack of caring, biggest problem for suppliers is lack of data, ie reads. Given that they, at best, get 4 reads a year it's not many data points to work with!

Hence the move to smart metering, but lets not open that can of worms here!