Electric meter help

Tracey1209

Hi all, I'm new to MSE and I’m looking for some advice. I topped up my old style pre-payment meter as advised on the money show before the prices went up but now my energy supplier, Utilita, have sent me a letter stating:

“Utilita has reviewd your account and it appears your electricity meter may have developed a fault, consequently causing a safety concern within your property”.

I feel like they’ve noticed we haven’t topped up our meter since April and now they want to send an engineer out who might adjust the meter to the new prices. I’ve been given 2 weeks from the date of the letter to arrange an appointment so they can access the meter.

I don’t think it is a real safety concern because I wouldn’t have thought they give you 2 weeks to contact them if it is.

I’m not sure what my rights are for refusal?

Has anyone else had this happen to them? Any advice is appreciated. 

Thanks in advance.

Mstty

Hello and welcome to the forum.

How much of the credit have you got left from your top up pre April?

The reason being if it's not a lot of credit left probably not worth making a fuss and booking the appt for two weeks time.

Tracey1209

Mstty said:

Hello and welcome to the forum.

How much of the credit have you got left from your top up pre April?

The reason being if it's not a lot of credit left probably not worth making a fuss and booking the appt for two weeks time.

I've got about 130 on the meter and another 100 on the key waiting to go on so its quite a significant amount I'd like to keep.

MattMattMattUK

Tracey1209 said:

Mstty said:

Hello and welcome to the forum.

How much of the credit have you got left from your top up pre April?

The reason being if it's not a lot of credit left probably not worth making a fuss and booking the appt for two weeks time.

I've got about 130 on the meter and another 100 on the key waiting to go on so its quite a significant amount I'd like to keep.

You will not lose any credit because of a meter check. At most your unit rates will adjust to the correct rate, but even that might not happen.

Gerry1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6358947/utilta-dumb-meter-fault-letter

QrizB

Tracey1209 said:

Hi all, I'm new to MSE and I’m looking for some advice.

Welcome to the forum.

There was someone else with a very similar question a couple of days ago:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6358947/utilta-dumb-meter-fault-letter

They seem to be in a similar position to you; they mention that the letter came from a "revenue assurance analyst" which does make it sound like it's to do with credit and tariffs.

Edit: I cross-posted with Gerry1 which isn't for the first time!

Gerry1

You didn't know you had an evil twin...

Mstty

Some good links above from the other post @QrizB

For the OP

Is your letter the same as the one in the link above. Stating legal proceedings?

If so it might be worth just booking them in as late as possible and enjoy a couple more weeks of cheaper energy👍

EssexHebridean

If it were me I’d be inclined to write back to them - hard copy, and sent by second class post, obviously, asking if they can give you more information about the fault please as it seems to be working fine, your credit seems to be dropping as normal…

I wonder if this is happening because people have gone out of their “usual” pattern for topping up and so the company are concerned that meter tampering is happening?

Tracey1209

Thanks all for your responses, yes my letter is the same as the other posters. I'm going to email them with photos of the receipts for the electricity, a photo of the meter when I first topped up and one now so they can see that credit is being used and that the meter looks fine, no tampering. Hopefully that will be enough for them or delay them long enough to use my credit. Thanks again for all your replies. 

Tracey1209

Hi all, thought I would give a quick update, hope it may help someone else if they come across this. So I sent an email a few days ago and hadn't heard anything so my husband phoned them this afternoon. Explained to them what the email said, and that if they changed the meter that would change the rates but they have to honour the price we paid for the electricity, they then came back and said it isn't a fault but the age of the meter (it was fitted in 2010, so not that old really), he offered to call them when we've used nearly all our credit, they can then come and change the meter. They agreed to this. Still didn't explain how they came to "find a fault". Probably just a scare tactic to let them in sooner. But we'll never know for certain. Thanks again to all who replied.