The saga of the 'complex' electricity meter

benillus

Hello everyone,

I am hoping somebody out there may be able to give me some advice on our current electricity supply situation.

We moved into a property on August of this year, we tried to move our energy accounts from our old supplier (Scottish Power) but they we're unable to take on the electric supply and advised us this was controlled by nPower so we should contact them.

We called nPower to give our details and get the new account setup, at which point we we're advised that 'the system was showing that we have a complex meter' - the person on the phone couldn't tell me what this was, only that it had to be referred to another team to complete the setup. During this call we we're told we'd have a second meter somewhere in the property with another reading on etc. but we were not aware of another box.

We have also been on a duel fuel account in the past, and expected to get this setup in our new home, but were informed that a complex meter can only be on a standard tariff.

Weeks went by and I called again to nPower to find out what was up (we we're getting concerned as we had no idea what tariff we we're on, how and when we'll be expected to pay). We were advised that the team looking into this were not going to get around to it until January 2016 - the lady on the phone advised us to 'put a bit of money aside each month' to pay for the eventual bill...which is completely unhelpful to say the least!

Another few week's went by and we were resigned to wait until we heard back, when an nPower meter reader arrived to take our reading. She did so, we explained the situation, she took one look at the meter and told us it's not a complex meter and that we should call nPower and get it sorted out!

Again, I called and quoted our account number, explaining the whole situation (again) at which point the call center worker started to take all my details 'to setup your account' - but you already have all this, I've given it several times, surely the account is already setup?

Completely frustrated with nPower I gave up, called our gas supplier British Gas, and asked them to take the electricity account.

Again, several weeks past with the account on 'pending setup'. I emailed to find out what was going on, then they cancelled the order and advised that they have been unable to take hold of the account from the current supplier.

It seems now that I have to go back and call nPower to try once again to find out what's going on. Does anybody have any similar experience with any of the above? Do you have a complex meter? What is it, and are our supplier options really so restricted?

Thank you,
Ben

[Deleted User]

Just to clear up the complex meter issue, ( can t trust a meter readers word ) does your meter have either a button or scroll round different readings. If its a single rate meter there would only be one reading on the meter.A complex meter could be eco 7 or eco 10. There are plenty of legacy night storage meters around now where the storage heaters have been scrapped years ago.

Pincher

Have you ever seen manuals where the explanation for MMX ENABLE/DISABLE is "This option enables and disables MMX"?


Call centre staff are just people.
They managed to get two GCSEs, so they can read what is on the screen. If it says Semtex timer, that's what they will regurgitate.


Apart from two rate E7, it is also possible that there are sub meters, on top of the main meter.


If you can post a picture or two, maybe somebody will recognise it.

billycasper_2

Can the previous owner/tenants shed light on the tariff. There are complex tariffs such as heatwise and weekend tariffs with boost options that are no longer available and so moving to a new supplier can be tricky.
It can depend on what part of the uk you live as to what the tariff is called and usually involves complex wiring situations which stop a direct meter change.
contactors, more than one meter etc...