"Urgent: Notice of Gas Meter Exchange" letter

SpunkyMcPunk

I recently received a letter through the post from TPD Ltd. (some kind of plumbing contractors), addressed to "The Occupier" (which always makes me suspicious) with the following contents:

"We wrote to you previously regarding the need to have your existing gas meter exchanged. It is a legal requirement that this exchange takes place. The gas meter in your dwelling is the property of your gas supplier and they have requested that we carry out the exchange.

"The work will be carried out completely free of charge by one of our qualified and skilled engineers..."

etc. etc. going to say book an appointment and stuff.

At the footer of the letter are all the logos of SSE and their subsidiary companies, who do our billing (we are with Equipower).

Do you think they are trying to fob us off with a Smart Meter? If so do I have cause to complain to OFGEM about their misleading line "It is a legal requirement that this exchange takes place", as there is no legal obligation for anyone to have a smart meter (source: gov.uk/smart-meters-how-they-work)?

Has anyone else had anything like this?

penrhyn

You cannot have a Smart Gas Meter unless you also have a Smart Electric meter. The communications hub is wired to the electric meter and talks to the gas meter via the home Area Network, The WAN operates over one of the mobile networks, the trillian hub usually has up to three SIMs.
So looks like you are just getting a new bog standard meter.

Smart meters in BGs case tend to go to established dual fuel credit customers with a good payment record.

dogshome

Make damned that the meter change crew leave a card on which is recorded the reading on the old meter as it was removed, and the reading on the new meter as it was installed - They are supposed to do this, but some times don't which leads to all sorts of problems with your billing

Look immediately at your old mete to see if it is marked ft3 which denotes it as an Imperial meter - Your new one is likely to be a Metric meter which is marked m3 - If it is contact your supplier to check that they have recorded the change of meter type

fira

That’s great advice dogshome. I’d a nightmare experience with this and British Gas.

The day I moved into this place there was a strong smell of gas coming from the cupboard where the gas meter is. Called the emergency number and an engineer came out and removed the old meter and replaced it with a new one. He thought when the previous owners moved out the day before they’d carried stuff from the cupboard and when doing so damaged the meter or pipe to it.

The lad did put a yellow sticker showing the details of the old meter, its reading and also the reading for the new meter i.e. 00000.

A month later I got the first request for a reading from Scottish Gas. Easy peasy. Input the details online and a few days later got a bill in excess of £2000! Scottish Gas said they weren’t aware that the meter had been changed and calculated the units from the old meter against the new one which was only 00039.

The best thing was that yellow sticker!

All that said, it took almost two years for Scottish Gas to start using the new meter number on my bills and usually when a meter reader came his handset hadn’t been updated. So, once again the yellow sticker came in handy because the enormous bills re-appeared.

I’ve just recently moved to EDF and there’s a problem. They found that the gas meter for this property was still registered as the old one on a meter database! So, camera out and that yellow sticker was photographed as was the new meter. Hopefully will soon be at the end of this mad journey but hate to think what would have happened if those details hadn't been left by the engineer .

Bill

chanz4

SpunkyMcPunk wrote: »

I recently received a letter through the post from TPD Ltd. (some kind of plumbing contractors), addressed to "The Occupier" (which always makes me suspicious) with the following contents:

"We wrote to you previously regarding the need to have your existing gas meter exchanged. It is a legal requirement that this exchange takes place. The gas meter in your dwelling is the property of your gas supplier and they have requested that we carry out the exchange.

"The work will be carried out completely free of charge by one of our qualified and skilled engineers..."

etc. etc. going to say book an appointment and stuff.

At the footer of the letter are all the logos of SSE and their subsidiary companies, who do our billing (we are with Equipower).

Do you think they are trying to fob us off with a Smart Meter? If so do I have cause to complain to OFGEM about their misleading line "It is a legal requirement that this exchange takes place", as there is no legal obligation for anyone to have a smart meter (source: gov.uk/smart-meters-how-they-work)?

Has anyone else had anything like this?

Its a policy update, and to ensure the accuracy and working of a meter it only has a certain shelf life. Remember its there meter.

Wail

It looks like a Policy Meter Exchange.

It looks like this firm are doing it on the behalf of your supplier. The aim is to replace gas meters to ensure that they remain safe and accurate.

You can ask your supplier to confirm the situation with regards to your meter and the type of meter installed.

lisa701

Lived in my house for 14 years and had 3 of those "we are coming to exchange your gas meter" letters. Despite making arrangements for them to do the work 3 times, they have never bothered to turn up or contact me to say they need to change the day.

Same happened with my electric meter although on the 3rd occassion the guy actually turned up and replaced it.

Wonder when the 4th letter will arrive??