Gas meter problem - SERIOUS

viktory

I have a different problem with my gas meter. It is showing a blank screen and has been for months. My supplier is aware of the problem and are dragging their heels over changing it. Suits me, I pay £35 a month DD for gas and there is no way they can charge me extra as there is no way of proving my gas usage. Hope this continues through the winter.....:D

NovaBlack_2

im well confused :S how do some ppl pay £30 - £45 per MONTH n some pay £45 every 6 months....

i mean i know obviously it depends on how much of the house runs on gas but.. hmm. seems well random. we had electric shower and oven, and still paid at least £20 a month with a house of 3...

egamar

Ask my wife.

I turn the thermostat down, she turns it up. She runs the hot tap to rinse a single plate, I wait for a bowlful. I shower, she takes a bath in the great big claw-foot thing. I tumble-dry slowly with cold-air overnight, she tumble-dries with hot-air during the day at the weekend (no it's not gas, but you get my drift) ...

Truly, ymmv ......

Glenn_likes_2_help_others

First thing to check is the serial No. on your meter.. Is it the same as the one on your bill (just under the dials are a series of letters and numbers). Do you have the meter 'inside' your property (lots of flats have them outside) How old is it?? (most have a date on them). Metric and imperial are relevant as quoted in the other posts. And finally have a lot of your bills been estimates, if so under-estimating is a huge problem if you've moved in fairly recently.

Tampering will be obvious to an engineer or reader (there is only one way with gas meters). If the governer is faulty that would be a tough one to prove, my guess is that you would have to come to some sort of arrangement with the supplier.

Yup you guessed correctly I'm a meter reader.
Post the serial no. and i'll tell ya more about it.

Regards
Glenn

ic

When I lived in a flat that had a combi boiler for the central heating and hot water taps (washing machine was cold feed only and cooker and shower were both electric) I used just £2 worth of gas over the six months through summer! :beer:

Terrylw1

Cardew wrote: »

Several possibilities.

You have been charged for a metric meter, when you have an Imperial meter.

They might think the meter has been tampered with.

Your meter readings incorrect.

Mechanical fault with meter; other than by tampering.

There are more qualified people than I on this forum, but my understanding is that they can demand retrospective payment for proven underpayment.

The £64,000 question(not literally I hope!) is how much was the underpayment?

How much gas are you using?

They will determine the point where it went wrong and estimate based on new usage on a new meter usually if they don't have enought to go on. So, it can take some time to be resolved. There is nothing stopping them doing this however they will most likely not go back too far in fear of a complaint to Ofgem. Faulty meters are very difficult to estimate for since you really don't know when they go wrong.

The only thing could be with yours if your readings are advancing is that the meter has been set too slow. This sometimes happens as there is always a required speed limit to a meter.

Or has it stopped recording completely?

Faulty meters are rare, stopped ones or faulty timeswitches are not.

As Glenn says, does you meter number match to your MPRN and does your readings on the meter currently match that on the bill?

There's also a strong chance that it's an incompetance issue with the Supplier. So, check you bill - do you readings match. If not, could they be estimating too low and think your usage is suspicious.?

Terrylw1

kitchen_buff wrote: »

Ask them if the metre is faulty how can they estimate what the correct amount should be? If they try and shaft you tell them you are going to switch suppliers to southern electric

They can change the meter and work it out based on your new meter consumption. Also, you have to think "how can I dispute their estimate", how can you prove your usage to them? Ofgem will happily back the Supplier is they make it reasonable.

Some Suppliers don't even fator in seasonal differences as they can't with this, so if your meter get picked up in the summer, they estimate your winter quarters as summer ones. So, sometimes you win.

You can change Suppliers, however you can't evade the rebilling as you have been using the supply.

Terrylw1

viktory wrote: »

I have a different problem with my gas meter. It is showing a blank screen and has been for months. My supplier is aware of the problem and are dragging their heels over changing it. Suits me, I pay £35 a month DD for gas and there is no way they can charge me extra as there is no way of proving my gas usage. Hope this continues through the winter.....:D

This will make it very difficult for the Supplier. If the display is blank, they cannot get the readings so on a digital meter, it's a potentiall a write off situation.

Some Suppliers will ask you to monitor your consumption on a new meter and then attempt to estimate it. Now, a crafty person just doesn't report it, then once the meter reader reports it, the Supplier tries to resolve it but has no date for when it became faulty. Hence if say you had it reported 6 months after it originally stopped, they don't know that and assume it's gone wrong on the date they are notified.

Without confirmation from you, meter reader or metering engineer, they have no proof otherwise. So, I've seen plenty of customers end up with 6 monthg free in the case of electricity in these cases...so you may get lucky on this one.

dollarjon

viktory wrote: »

I have a different problem with my gas meter. It is showing a blank screen and has been for months. My supplier is aware of the problem and are dragging their heels over changing it. Suits me, I pay £35 a month DD for gas and there is no way they can charge me extra as there is no way of proving my gas usage. Hope this continues through the winter.....:D

Even though the display is blank the reading is still stored on a memory chip in the meter. They can recover the reading and charge you the correct ammount.

stewie_griffin

dollarjon wrote: »

Even though the display is blank the reading is still stored on a memory chip in the meter. They can recover the reading and charge you the correct ammount.

Yep the chances are its just the battery that has gone and the meter is still recording fine. The supply should be able to book an appointment to get the battery replaced.