Faulty meter and no refund from Scottish Power

brig001

Our E7 electricity meter was faulty and was changing between day and night at the wrong times. This led to us being overcharged by approx. £260. Scottish Power have admitted this, but told me that they do not refund if the meter timing is faulty. I can't believe that this is legal and am going to the ombudsman about it.

Moral of the story: check your meter and don't use Scottish Power

Brian

House_Martin

This is happening all the time and mostly go` s unnoticed by the user. I work for Scottish Power as a meter reader and they are the only supplier who want to know if the timer switch is more than 2 hours adrift of the correct time ..When I spot the meter timer switch so far out I try and tell the user about it. I have seen many meters switching over to night rate at all hours in the day.. I don` t think Scottish Power, or any supplier , are liable for faulty timer switches and it will be interesting to hear how the Ombudsman deals with it..Not many customers I met understood the timer switches and most meter readers don`t neither..The other suppliers I work for, British Gas, EDF and EON never bother themselves with timer switches burying their heads in the sand which makes me think they are not liable for these old analogue timer switches. Smart Eco 7 meters would banish this common fault..Radio Teleswitch timers are always correct but digital timers built into modern meters are also drifting as much as 4 hours out when their clocks go out of time.

brig001

It wouldn't be too bad if the meter had a contact that controlled the load, but the old one didn't and neither does the new one. I can't help thinking that they have fitted the wrong meter type twice. This means that I am relying on their timer matching mine for the heating and hot water. I am aware of the issue now, so keep checking, but it doesn't feel like progress

molerat

Their meter will be set up for switching the load, it is your side of the system that is not compatible with E7 metering. If you supply a split load / 2 consumer units with tails they will wire it in correctly to the meter. The supplier can only work with what they are given, what comes after the meter is not their responsibility.

shale186

Thanks for posting this brig001, as I discovered on Saturday that my time switch was faulty.
I took my monthly meter readings for Scottish Power & noticed that my day usage was much higher than usual & my night usage was much lower.
I kept an eye on my dials & Low / Normal indicator to work out what the issue was & finally realised yesterday morning that my time switch was roughly 8 hours behind the current time - the switch is hidden behind coats, so I didn't notice it straight away. The village I live in had a power cut two Thursday's ago that lasted just over 8 hours, so I guessed that was the cause for my "night" hours now being from 9.40am to 4.40pm.
Needless to say, I changed the timer for the immersion heater as soon as I realised & my washing machine & tumble dryer were on pretty much non-stop between 10am & 4pm yesterday!
I phoned Scottish Power this morning to ask if someone could come out to correct the clock & was told it'll have to be replaced, without indication of how long it may take to get an engineer to my house. I am rarely home during the week (hence the desire for Economy 7), so arranging a "suitable time" will be tricky, as I'll need to ask my *$*k of a line manager for a day off work at a time when I'm incredibly busy. I didn't even get round to asking for my bill to be amended to reflect this fault & judging by your post, I'm glad I didn't waste my breath!
Reading up on the situation now, I understand that my time switch must be so old that either the back-up battery or spring reserve are long gone & a replacement is the only option. However, how can old (read knackered) time switches not be the responsibility of the energy supplier? I had assumed that my electricity supplier would contact me when the time switch would be reaching it's sell-by date, but it seems like the time switches are an inconvenience & will only be replaced when it becomes absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, consumers are having to pay more for their electricity for the 2 weeks, or however long it takes, from the point they notice the issue. Almost certainly, there has been some period of time that the electricity has been charged at a higher price than expected before the issue is even noticed. It doesn't seem fair to me. However, I'm sure it's not just Scottish Power that have this policy.

House_Martin

I will be surprised if they adjust or replace the timer switch..There is a spring reserve on it which over the years will run down, no back up electric is used..They are not available new.I think they will be replacing the meter for a digital one such as an Ampy meter. Its very common to have this happening and it can cost the occupier a lot of money.. I have met people who are diligently waiting for the assumed cheap rate time to have their electric showers and ironing/drying only to be in the high rate because of these old timer switches.. The night storage heaters are probably wired to come on only when the cheap rate is on where ever it may be in the 24 hrs.

shale186

House_Martin wrote: »

I will be surprised if they adjust or replace the timer switch..There is a spring reserve on it which over the years will run down, no back up electric is used..They are not available new.I think they will be replacing the meter for a digital one such as an Ampy meter. Its very common to have this happening and it can cost the occupier a lot of money.. I have met people who are diligently waiting for the assumed cheap rate time to have their electric showers and ironing/drying only to be in the high rate because of these old timer switches.. The night storage heaters are probably wired to come on only when the cheap rate is on where ever it may be in the 24 hrs.

The woman I spoke to said it would be a straight like-for-like swap, because I asked if I would be forced to have a smart meter, or if the time switch would be a more reliable model. I didn't then realise that the time clock was out because there is usually a back-up which has now been used up. I thought that all older style time switches go wrong after every power cut, but now I know better.
I don't have night storage heaters, thankfully, but I do use the delay start on my washing machine, tumble dryer & dishwasher to make sure they are running during the Night rate. Just two weeks of unwittingly paying the Day rate for what had 2 weeks ago been Night has cost me a good few extra quid & will continue to cost me more than normal until I can get the replacement. I'm only at home between 09.30 & 16.30 on a Sunday, whereas I'm at home between 23.30 & 07.30 7 days a week.
Why should I, or any customer, be out of pocket for machinery breakdown outside of our control, for equipment that isn't our responsibility, when this could all be avoided with proactiveness?

House_Martin

The suppliers do not "own" the meters or the attached timer switches. These were the property of the local DNO in your area..Transferring ownership every time one switches supplier, and that can be every year with me is too complicated..The occupier has some responsibility in keeping check of the electrical equipment in their own property and even if they profess a lack of knowledge it is still not wholly the fault of which supplier you happen to choose..I would like to hear OFGEMS take on this subject therefore I hope you pass it over to them for clarification..lucky you only had a short while before you noticed. I have seen people going for years not knowing their timer switches were way off..They did nt understand it and just assumed it was ok.
I have been carping on to my bosses for 15 years about timer swtiches being so far out of time but nothing was ever done.Only Scottish Power started about three years ago to want to know of these faults from meter readers and from what I have read they can actually come out and fix the timer switches but at a high cost. I have one in my garage and keep meaning to have a look at it. I have seen one that had been adjusted back to the correct time, which is GMT, not BST as all timer switches are. One of my suggestions of making suppliers at least email/post info on old timer switches..They know from the meter serial numbers if an analogue timer switch is installed and they know they run out of time for many.
There is nothing wrong with digital Eco 7 meters, it is only very old ones which can start drifting..Best by a long way would be Eco 7 smart meters which Liberty Secure meters now use, OVO, Utilita and Eon have started using them.