Got smart meters installed 2 weeks ago. Just got a call from someone asking to inspect it. Legit?

loko2468

Guy calls me saying he's from British Gas and wants to inspect the quality of the job done by the engineer who installed the smart meters. On linkedIn, the guy is apparently indeed a British Gas worker.

British Gas didn't tell me there would be an inspection afterwards, and I just called them to ask if this was planned or if they were aware of it somehow and they said aid no, it sounds strange.

greenguppie

loko2468 said:

Guy calls me saying he's from British Gas and wants to inspect the quality of the job done by the engineer who installed the smart meters. On linkedIn, the guy is apparently indeed a British Gas worker.

British Gas didn't tell me there would be an inspection afterwards, and I just called them to ask if this was planned or if they were aware of it somehow and they said aid no, it sounds strange.

Is that not your answer?

imeach

More often than not, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
A different department of call centre will not know everything
There is a good chance audits are done on fitters as they are on meter readers, which is probably what it sounds like he is doing.
Especially if his LinkedIn says he works for BG, sounds legit to me

Very regularly we will be reading meters and the customer will ring the supplier and they will say they know nothing about it!!
We don't just go and do it for fun lol, we only go when they ask us

razord

We've had British Gas come round to inspect work done by one of their installers before - so I think it's just part of their quality assurance system - but he'll have a proper ID card you can call to verify if you want.

jd1000

Yes we had the same thing, the inspection was from by someone from Siemens, who had been contracted to do the installation. They just came, checked the meter was working, and had been installed correctly and the guy had worn a mask etc. You can always decline.

Gerry1

Someone who says they are from Microsoft and that you have a problem with your computer...

Someone who says they are from Openreach and that you have a problem with your router...

Someone who says they are from your bank and that your account is under attack so you need to move your money to a safe account...

Someone who says their name is the same as someone from British Gas who is listed on LinkedIn...

It may well be legitimate, but I'd contact BG via their published methods and get official confirmation.

Grizzlebeard

Almost certainly legit.

If it it was fraud it would need to be an inside job for them to know not only your name and address but that BG had changed your meter recently.

If there was only one of them they couldn't pull the "Can I use the toilet please?" trick for one of them to sneak around unobserved, and the danger of assault would have started the moment you opened the front door.

For extra confidence you could (have) ask(ed) them to tell you the serial number of the meter, and made them wait on the doorstep while you went and checked. (They would almost certainly have this information - probably on a BG app on their smart phone these days.)