Faulty gas meter

Leej5

Hi, new poster here and hoping someone can give me done guidance.
I have just had my British gas annual visit to service my boiler, the 2 engineers have informed my wife that the gas meter appears to be faulty in our favour. They claimed it is only clicking 8 out of 11. As a result they were unable to carry out the annual check and have told us to contact our supplier, also British gas and get them to check it out. My big fear in all this I am going to end up with a big bill from all this! This problem has not been picked up on previous annual visits. What would my best course of action be and what is the likely outcome in all this?
Many thanks,
Leej5

C_Mababejive

Did they show you what was happening? Is your meter metric or imperial,analogue or digital?

Leej5

It's a metric meter. They never showed my wife what was happening but they explained it to her it was ticking over correctly for 7 turns then missing out 3 turns then it would start the cycle of 7 again, hope this makes sense!

[Deleted User]

Not quite sure what you mean by clicking 8 out of 11 ? The only thing I can think you mean is the index cogs , which advance the digits, are missing 3 teeth of the cogs. If this is the case it can only be a case of gas theft and someone has had the meter index apart and cut 3 of the 11 teeth off. This scam has been around for a few years now, a favourite with fast food and takeaways.

Leej5

The dial only turns 8 out of 11 according to the engineer. It's nothing to do with tampering with the cogs. The house is only 6 years old and we are the only people to have lived here.

[Deleted User]

OK, I m baffled also, best let BG have a look at the meter. The fault/tamper I m on about is visable when gas is flowing and the last digit of the 8 digits ( the 100 ths of a unit ) will go around in a stop/start jerky fashion instead of a smooth constant motion

chanz4

i bet the cogs inside have been growned down , I would contact your supplier. unless you want revenue protection on your back for theft

Leej5

Bit more information on this. Basically the engineers put the boiler on the highest setting so the dial on the meter would be constantly going around. He explained that the dial would move on 8 digits then stick for 3 then move on another 8 then stick for 3 etc. I've notified British gas by email and will try to ring their customer services in the morning. I'm just concerned by the repercussions of this and how long the problem has existed. No one wants a large gas bill appearing christmas week! The problem was not detected during the annual visit in January and I'm just hoping if their is a problem they won't be able to go back further than this in clawing back any shortfall.

[Deleted User]

Leej5 wrote: »

Bit more information on this. Basically the engineers put the boiler on the highest setting so the dial on the meter would be constantly going around. He explained that the dial would move on 8 digits then stick for 3 then move on another 8 then stick for 3 etc. I've notified British gas by email and will try to ring their customer services in the morning. I'm just concerned by the repercussions of this and how long the problem has existed. No one wants a large gas bill appearing christmas week! The problem was not detected during the annual visit in January and I'm just hoping if their is a problem they won't be able to go back further than this in clawing back any shortfall.

I don t think there can be any repercussions on you if you have reported the fault. B.G Revenue Protection Unit would be the only people interested in looking at the meter and finding out where it had come from before it was installed in your property. If anything untoward has happened to the interior of the meter the blue plastic seal would ve been dug out , damaged whilst doing so , and replaced with a fake inferior looking government seal which may be a poor fit. Other than a tamper, which could easily be proven when BG examine the meter I suppose it could just be a faulty cog. If the meter is unrecording the true amount of gas delivered the suppliers always err on the side of the occupier and may just write off the difference.

Leej5

sacsquacco wrote: »

I don t think there can be any repercussions on you if you have reported the fault. B.G Revenue Protection Unit would be the only people interested in looking at the meter and finding out where it had come from before it was installed in your property. If anything untoward has happened to the interior of the meter the blue plastic seal would ve been dug out , damaged whilst doing so , and replaced with a fake inferior looking government seal which may be a poor fit. Other than a tamper, which could easily be proven when BG examine the meter I suppose it could just be a faulty cog. If the meter is unrecording the true amount of gas delivered the suppliers always err on the side of the occupier and may just write off the difference.

Thanks for your input. It has reassured me a little.