Meter Reading

Tracey6773

Hi there

Im new to this forum thing but can anyone tell me if a gas company can put 'we read your meter' on your bill and then when you call to querey it ask 'Did you see someone read your meter as they might not have actually done it!!'

This seems fraudulent to me, however, I have tried to speak to British Gas and I have been told its not fraud.. Confused.com
Thanks
Tracey x

JJ_Egan

Even more confused .


We read your meter but you say they did not ??


Thats one good reason for you to take your own meter readings monthly .

[Deleted User]

British Gas meter readers ( who also work for dozens of other suppliers )cannot fraudulently enter meter readings that would make any sense if that is your worry. They do not have available any previous readings to have a guess at the next reading.
The term for this is "kerbside readings " There has been meter readers just entering any reading they care to guess but they would be meter readers who were terminating their employment that week.. Any random numbers they would enter would get rejected by the auto billing system
This used to be possible when we could bring up the last reading but that was stopped over a decade ago which ended the kerbside reading opportunity
Npower meter readers still can bring up the last reading on the electric meter AFAIK

dj1471

Is the reading sensible / correct? Where is your meter?

Meter readings are done by a third party company so it's possible for them to just make up a number and not bother reading the meter, perhaps BG have seen some cases of this recently.

[Deleted User]

dj1471 wrote: »

Is the reading sensible / correct? Where is your meter?

Meter readings are done by a third party company so it's possible for them to just make up a number and not bother reading the meter, perhaps BG have seen some cases of this recently.

I ve worked for them for 20 years and we have had many instances of rogue meter readers or disgruntled agency employees who are ending their employment just entering any old 4 or 5 digit numbers .
They would have to be extremely lucky for the reading to make sense to the automated reading system which rejects all numbers which do not follow on from the last reading/estimate in an expected manner. I think we can discount fraudulent meter readings reaching the customer..
Mistaken readings with certain parts of the reading wrong is definitely possible and happens often as well especially with dial meters and Secure Liberty meters