SSE refusing to repair Pay as you Go meter

[Deleted User]

misterbarlow wrote: »

They are just using this as an excuse to get a smart meter on the wall whilst on site.

SSE are currently in panic mode over this years smart figures.
Also SSE smart paygo are still currently fitting smets1 meters, they started rolling out smets2 this month but have major stock issues..

Just tell them to insist they want another key meter.

I cannot believe that one of the big six, and one of the better run ones, would ignore a faulty and possibly dangerous electric meter when it has been reported by an account holder.they would not be able to rely on an account holders description of what exactly is the cause of a blank screen prepay meter
When I ve found faulty or tampered electric prepayment meters they are out to get them changed in days,,Its just not how they would work,,too much at stake with safety procedures.
I always report these sorts of meter faults to Revenue Protection Units and SSE actually run a good one unlike EDF, Scot Power and Eon

misterbarlow

Unless it involves a smart meter going in SSE couldn't care less lately...
Key meters going blank after power cuts is a very common issue and has been for several years, they have hundreds go every month..

[Deleted User]

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misterbarlow wrote: »

Unless it involves a smart meter going in SSE couldn't care less lately...
Key meters going blank after power cuts is a very common issue and has been for several years, they have hundreds go every month..

They would be losing revenue so they would care. Personally I ve never known many power cuts hurt any electric meters ,all digital electric meters go blank on power cuts then return ,power surges are more likely to fry a component . I saw the results of a power surge in one area which took out every electric meter in every third house. in the street along with damage to electrical components within the properties
Reading prepay electric meters for 20 years I d say its not at all "common " to find a blank display prepayment meter. I have discovered quite a few over the years but not at all in any numbers compared to the small white digital Ampy credit meter..which is a common fault for it to go blank . It only costs £10 or so , so its a cheap bit of kit and I ve found lots of them.
Suppliers do not lose full revenue when these go blank.
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CSAEnergy

Legacy prepayment meters going blank is usually the result of a power cut hitting the property. It’s a fairly common issue.

With regards to getting a Smart Meters fitted, if SSE no longer stock legacy type meters except for emergencies (this is true for Gas, not so for Electric) , then realistically there’s nothing that can be done.

You could complain but if the above is the case, it’s not going to get you anywhere unfortunately.

[Deleted User]

CSAEnergy wrote: »

Legacy prepayment meters going blank is usually the result of a power cut hitting the property. It’s a fairly common issue.

With regards to getting a Smart Meters fitted, if SSE no longer stock legacy type meters except for emergencies (this is true for Gas, not so for Electric) , then realistically there’s nothing that can be done.

You could complain but if the above is the case, it’s not going to get you anywhere unfortunately.

Nothing can be done ! what, so the occupants get free electricity for years and years and SSE, soon to be Ovo, just totally ignore the properties meter which by all accounts has been reported as "working " but as its blank it can t accept credit top ups. .That is not good business for any supplier
I ve found plenty of tampered electric meters which have been like that for years but once discovered they are promptly changed.

CSAEnergy

Maybe my wording wasn’t exact. With regards to getting nothing done, that would with regards to not having a smart meter installed. It’s the case that they’re getting A smart meter regardless.

With Legacy meters that have broken like this, another power cut will kill the meter. Also it’s the case that the Energy company may use previous usage figures to bill for energy usage if its determined not to be a meter fault.

[Deleted User]

CSAEnergy wrote: »

Maybe my wording wasn’t exact. With regards to getting nothing done, that would with regards to not having a smart meter installed. It’s the case that they’re getting A smart meter regardless.

With Legacy meters that have broken like this, another power cut will kill the meter. Also it’s the case that the Energy company may use previous usage figures to bill for energy usage if its determined not to be a meter fault.

That is exactly what suppliers do with prepayment meters tampered or damaged. They take a bad guess at previous usage...Tampering is more likely than a damaged meter.. .I would say that 9.5 out of 10 meters I find tampered are prepayment meters.
Suppliers take the easy way out with a fit and forget prepay meter.All they do is add the estimated money lost to the debt screen to be repaid weekly..Hard bitten meter fiddlers totally ignore that then tamper the meter again and again etc and the debts never get repaid. I personally have never known a supplier end up taking anyone to court to be prosecuted..prosecutions are rare for energy theft. That is why there is so much of it going off
In the rougher area s meter fiddling is vast.. rare in the more affluent areas. Smart meters one day , when they are all working properly MAY cut the huge amounts of stolen energy..At least the suppliers/DCC would be aware of certain flagged up error codes sent back when the meter itself is entered to get at the cables under the lower cover..Whether the suppliers would do anything about a smart meter reporting back a fiddle is another matter..I doubt it

Michaelw

Ebico/SSE changed my L&G prepayment gas meter when the screen went blank shortly before a day or so the screen had five stars but an engineer wasn't finally sent to the screen had no display,they attend within four hours.The Talexus electricity meter I never had a problem with.

misterbarlow

Houbara wrote: »

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Personally I ve never known many power cuts hurt any electric meters ,all digital electric meters go blank on power cuts then return ,power surges are more likely to fry a component .
Reading prepay electric meters for 20 years I d say its not at all "common " to find a blank display prepayment meter. I have discovered quite a few over the years but not at all in any numbers compared to the small white digital Ampy credit meter..which is a common fault for it to go blank . It only costs £10 or so , so its a cheap bit of kit and I ve found lots of them.
Suppliers do not lose full revenue when these go blank.
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Well in my area, whenever there is a power cut, key meters ranging from 2006-2012 go blank...
there is a crate with literally 100s in the depot every month...
I sometimes replace 4-5 a DAY!
So around here yes it is common!!

All suppliers will have 1000s of used key meters in stock, they just try and 'persuade' people to switch to smart..

[Deleted User]

misterbarlow wrote: »

Well in my area, whenever there is a power cut, key meters ranging from 2006-2012 go blank...
there is a crate with literally 100s in the depot every month...
I sometimes replace 4-5 a DAY!
So around here yes it is common!!

All suppliers will have 1000s of used key meters in stock, they just try and 'persuade' people to switch to smart..

I would have been finding the blank screen key electric prepayment meters all the time in the twenty years of meter reading. if they were going blank after just a power cut ,Instead I ve only come across a handful of genuine blank screen key prepayment meters in all that time.
Maybe you or your colleagues should have been carefully inspecting below the lower cover to see the evidence of human hands at work before dumping the meters and replacing them. The electric prepayment meter is the most tampered meter of them all because its so easy to bypass There is even one up on Youtube to show everyone how to to do it.
I say genuine because lots of blank screen prepays were proved to tampered when BG RPU examined them . I get £10 a time for a tampered prepay but nothing for a faulty one. I reckon your hundreds in a month were just fiddled electric prepays lol.. Fiddled and damaged electric prepays will be dumped in their thousands around the UK..All tampered prepays are scrapped with a new one replaced. Your job meter fitting is secure so long as smart meters don t take over
.Maybe the little white Ampy credit meters go blank by the crate full but certainly not the better made and much more expensive prepayment meters..
I would find one or two every week of the Ampy credit meters, they had a fault somewhere in the electronics. Its the same with all the other digital credit meters, rare to go blank , just the Ampy . Landis Gyr and Siemens also made a version of the same meter with the same poor quality record