Being Charged for Meter Change

Beancounter

sacsquacco wrote: »

Send your complaint into OFGEM. BG, and all the others, should damn well make sure that faulty meters, because thats what they are, should nt be allowed to be in use when solar panels are fitted.They have all the info at hand with meter serials to know exactly which ones don t have a backstop and which do.
A guy last week with his meter flying backwards as if the kettle was on, was bragging about his 50 p a kwhr feed in tariff. When I told him his meter was running backwards , and it should nt do, and that he should report it, his reply was "get stuffed thats their problem" He was well aware of it happening.Many are not aware at all but a lot are.The suppliers are well aware tho and should take action from day one on PV installs

Do you have the power to report these issues to the supplier?

[Deleted User]

Beancounter wrote: »

Do you have the power to report these issues to the supplier?

Yes, I do..I enter the info on my data collector, but we have a system which does not work whatsoever.anything I report in my notes, be it energy bypassing , faulty and dangerous meters, meters hanging off backboards and meters reversing will NOT get seen by the suppliers for whatever reason. I ve complained to my boss, he says nothing can be done so I have no option but to put the onus onto the occupier. If you PM me I will give you my name and I.D, and in your complaint to the Ombudsman you can say its a common thing. . I read meters for BG, Scot Power , EDF and many little suppliers
Footyguy has a valid point to put to Ovo. The meter is faulty as its not accurately recording the usage so should be replaced free

footyguy

Beancounter wrote: »

We recently moved house to a property that has solar panels on the roof.

We took the opening meter readings on day 1 and called British Gas with these. I then put a supplier switch in motion, switching to OVO. On taking the meter reading when the switch happened it was clear the electicity meter was running backwards! We reported this to British Gas who informed us that we had actually already switched so it was down to our new supplier to change the meter.

I called OVO yesterday who have arranged a meter change but they are charging us £30 for this. Would this be correct? I am assuming that this meter fault didn't just start when we moved in and must have been happening for ages. Indeed, British Gas admitted to us that the meter should have been changed to a digital meter when the solar panels were installed.

Have we got a case to put to British Gas for compensation for the charge we are paying to OVO?

There is normally no charge for a mandatory change of meter (e.g. it is faulty), unless the damage has been deliberately caused etc.

Your supplier is responsible for arranging this.

Where you request a meter change, and the supplier is not convinced, they may initially charge for the meter change pending further investigation.

Usual way to check an electric meter is to have a second 'check meter' installed. A charge may initially be made for this which will be refunded if an error is proven to exist.

naedanger

sacsquacco wrote: »

Yes, I do..I enter the info on my data collector, but we have a system which does not work whatsoever.anything I report in my notes, be it energy bypassing , faulty and dangerous meters, meters hanging off backboards and meters reversing will NOT get seen by the suppliers for whatever reason. I ve complained to my boss, he says nothing can be done so I have no option but to put the onus onto the occupier. If you pc me I will give you my name and I.D, and in your complaint to the Ombudsman you can say its a common occurance. I work for G4S a shambolic sort of company who are badly run who refuse to do anything. I read meters for BG, Scot Power , EDF and many little suppliers

Interesting. Do you know whether, when energy goes missing (either stolen or through error) by backward running meters, bypassed meters etc is the cost of that energy still billed to the correct supplier so they have a strong incentive to take action?

PS I think employers can take disciplinary action, including dismissal, against employees for negative online comments about their business even when those comments are true. (I am not saying that you are wrong to post but you should know the risks.) Of course they would need to identify you first.

[Deleted User]

naedanger wrote: »

Interesting. Do you know whether, when energy goes missing (either stolen or through error) by backward running meters, bypassed meters etc is the cost of that energy still billed to the correct supplier so they have a strong incentive to take action?

PS I think employers can take disciplinary action, including dismissal, against employees for negative online comments about their business even when those comments are true. (I am not saying that you are wrong to post but you should know the risks.) Of course they would need to identify you first.

Thanks, yes maybe I ll delete the G4S quote lol, not that i m bothered about dismissal from them, All my colleagues rue the day that G4S took over us from Accuread, we re currently in a union dispute with them.
I m on extended leave at the moment so I will have plenty of time to inform OFGEM of the farce of backwards running meters and how easily they can be identified..there must be hundreds of thousands of them around.I m about the only meter reader who amuses himself by actually checking for them on a sunny day.
Yes its the crux of the matter in saying will all this free energy get rebilled to the supplier if and when its discovered.I believe its not rebilled otherwise they would actually do something positive to not incur the huge losses. I believe the cost is spread amongst all the honest as higher energy overall energy costs in the same way shops cope with shoplifting

naedanger

sacsquacco wrote: »

I believe its not rebilled otherwise they would actually do something positive to not incur the huge losses. I believe the cost is spread amongst all the honest as higher energy overall energy costs in the same way shops cope with shoplifting

If its not rebilled to the actual supplier then the problem for the honest customer is much worse than with shoplifting, since the suppliers will disincentivized to spend on anti theft measures (unlike shops).

It should be surprising that the regulator is content with such a system.

[Deleted User]

I ve had conflicting info from insiders about suppliers standing all the losses. Many years ago there was a radio 4 program from Liverpool which suffered from unbelievable amounts of energy abstractions from the scouses.A university professor and an expert in the energy business explained how there was no incentive from any supplier to stop it as they do not incur any losses and have a way round of not repaying National Grid who are the big loses. BG RPU people have explained to me that when it was all privatised the gas side was different to the electric in that the gas does not have to be repaid to the grid if its lost/stolen but electricity has to be repaid, and therefore they have little interest in catching electric fiddlers because if they dont get the money back off the bypassers they have to make good the losses to the Grid .Most of the time they don t get the money back off the thieves, hence their lack of interest in the electricity side of it.. I get a £10 incentive payment for catching a gas fiddle, nothing for an electric fiddle..which says it all

naedanger

sacsquacco wrote: »

I ve had conflicting info from insiders about suppliers standing all the losses. Many years ago there was a radio 4 program from Liverpool which suffered from unbelievable amounts of energy abstractions from the scouses.A university professor and an expert in the energy business explained how there was no incentive from any supplier to stop it as they do not incur any losses and have a way round of not repaying National Grid who are the big loses. BG RPU people have explained to me that when it was all privatised the gas side was different to the electric in that the gas does not have to be repaid to the grid if its lost/stolen but electricity has to be repaid, and therefore they have little interest in catching electric fiddlers because if they dont get the money back off the bypassers they have to make good the losses to the Grid .Most of the time they don t get the money back off the thieves, hence their lack of interest in the electricity side of it.. I get a £10 incentive payment for catching a gas fiddle, nothing for an electric fiddle..which says it all

It definitely seems that the suppliers have no incentive to catch those fiddling their electricity meters. Perhaps National Grid should be employing its own RPU, but I guess they may not have any authority to check consumers' meters.

[Deleted User]

naedanger wrote: »

It definitely seems that the suppliers have no incentive to catch those fiddling their electricity meters. Perhaps National Grid should be employing its own RPU, but I guess they may not have any authority to check consumers' meters.

The DNO in my area is Northern Powergrid.They have their own RPU and offer its services to any suppliers who wish to take advantage of it..
British Gas run their own RPU and find 80% of the total gas thefts in the whole of the UK, so the rest of them are obviously doing very little about it and expect the consumers to shoulder the burden.They effectively turn a blind eye to gas/electric theft with all its dangers.

lstar337

AFAIK, OVO cannot make you pay for a meter which THEY deem necessary to change. So just say "Nah don't worry about it" then when they tell you it has to be done for safety reasons, just say "That's your responsibility not mine, so you can pay for it".

Unless you requested a meter change for your own purposes, OVO cant charge you squat!