British Gas still using intimidatory tactics for smart meter appointments

Gerry1

mmmmikey said:

Gerry1 said:

Mstty said

Anyway it's definitely worth a little complaint but be careful the words "may be charged" not will be charged £30.

In the image below, BG make it quite clear (after the Bit In Bold) that you WILL be charged if you miss an appointment OR change it with less than 24 hours notice.  The only 'may be' is whether either of the above events actually happens.

So if your appointment is for 2pm on Thursday but some disaster strikes at 3pm on Wednesday (e.g. you or a close relative admitted to hospital in emergency) then you're hit with the £30 penalty.

Good grief - more complete and utter nonsense! Not sure which is dafter - this post or the one about smart meters damaging your boiler!

@mmmmikey We'll have to agree to disagree, but I'll be polite about it.  (FYI, note that the cases were referenced and related to the installation procedure, not to smart meters themselves.)

prowla

TheElectricCow said:

MWT said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Somniac said:

Hi all

I recently got a notification (unsolicited) for a smart meter installation (which I don't want). They had made an appointment for installation with a warning I would be charged £30 if I wasn't in or didnt cancel soon enough. After some struggle,I found the appointment on the gas account not on the electric account. I have now cancelled the appointment. This seems to me to be intimidatory.

Why would it be intimidating? 

I don't usually agree with much of the resistance to smart meter installs, but telling me there is an appointment that I didn't ask for or agree to and threatening a penalty if I'm not in would annoy me as well, and yes, the £30 charge does feel like it is deigned to force customers to accept the appointment under threat of a 'fine' ...

I would be inclined to suggest this warrants a complaint.

Annoying? Absolutely 
Complaint worthy? Probably 
Intimidating? Not impossible to argue, but that’s pushing it.

Threatening to "fine" someone seems pretty intimidating to me.

Scot_39

GingerTim said:

Somniac said:

[Deleted User] said:

Somniac said:

Hi all

I recently got a notification (unsolicited) for a smart meter installation (which I don't want). They had made an appointment for installation with a warning I would be charged £30 if I wasn't in or didnt cancel soon enough. After some struggle,I found the appointment on the gas account not on the electric account. I have now cancelled the appointment. This seems to me to be intimidatory.

What did the notification say? If your meter is end-of-life, then the supplier has the legal right to/ and is required to fit a replacement meter. Under Government policy, the supplier can now fit a smart meter in these situations.

My meter is fairly new. The notice referred to the gas meter (about 3 years old) but I assume they would fit a smart meter to the electric meter also. (about 5 years old). Both meters are outside my flat and accessible without my knowledge or cooperation.

I was under the impression that if the meters are outside your property that they can be changed without your permission. Is that incorrect?

They can be - they are the suppliers property not yours - but some meter fitters ask for the main consumer units to be switched off.

The warrant for internal meters AFAIK is purely about access to change, not the actual right to change.

They are legally obligated to only bill on a valid meter - and many modern Smart meters are now 10 yr lifespan certified.  So people are going to be seeing many more meter changes.

Just about all smart meters will need a new 4g comms hub in next 10 years.

What_time_is_it

There does seem to be some confusion here as to whether the communications from British Gas are saying that they MAY issue a £30 fine, or WILL issue a £30 fine. The examples given earlier in this thread are clear (e.g. see @mmmmikey post at 11.55 on 4th May) - British Gas are saying that they WILL issue a fine of £30 for an appointment that they have made but the customer does not cancel up to 24 hours beforehand. After that point the £30 fine will be issued. There is no "may" about it. The communication is clear. And many vulnerable people would feel intimidated by this. 
Basically, we've set something up without your consent. If you don't cancel we will charge you £30.
Unacceptable.

[Deleted User]

What_time_is_it said:

There does seem to be some confusion here as to whether the communications from British Gas are saying that they MAY issue a £30 fine, or WILL issue a £30 fine. The examples given earlier in this thread are clear (e.g. see @mmmmikey post at 11.55 on 4th May) - British Gas are saying that they WILL issue a fine of £30 for an appointment that they have made but the customer does not cancel up to 24 hours beforehand. After that point the £30 fine will be issued. There is no "may" about it. The communication is clear. And many vulnerable people would feel intimidated by this. 
Basically, we've set something up without your consent. If you don't cancel we will charge you £30.
Unacceptable.

I suggest you express your concerns to:

consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk

TheElectricCow

prowla said:

TheElectricCow said:

MWT said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Somniac said:

Hi all

I recently got a notification (unsolicited) for a smart meter installation (which I don't want). They had made an appointment for installation with a warning I would be charged £30 if I wasn't in or didnt cancel soon enough. After some struggle,I found the appointment on the gas account not on the electric account. I have now cancelled the appointment. This seems to me to be intimidatory.

Why would it be intimidating? 

I don't usually agree with much of the resistance to smart meter installs, but telling me there is an appointment that I didn't ask for or agree to and threatening a penalty if I'm not in would annoy me as well, and yes, the £30 charge does feel like it is deigned to force customers to accept the appointment under threat of a 'fine' ...

I would be inclined to suggest this warrants a complaint.

Annoying? Absolutely 
Complaint worthy? Probably 
Intimidating? Not impossible to argue, but that’s pushing it.

Threatening to "fine" someone seems pretty intimidating to me.

Can't say it does to me, at least not in this context. I acknowledge that other people may read it differently, but to me all it seems like is a simple explanation of their terms. There is a charge for missed appointments - I don't personally see any extra emotion or frightening messaging in that.

Now, whether those terms are right or wrong, or even reasonably enforceable, is a different matter entirely.

SAC2334

Rest of the world (apart from Germany and Sweden) make fitting of utility meters mandatory .When the Labour party were in power all meters were fitted mandatory incl the first smart meters..
I find it pretty bonkers giving Joe public any choice in the matter .They never had that choice before but the Tory's surprised me actually giving anyone the choice. The whole business of fitting smarts has been an economic disaster.
.We had all the old token  prepays in UK replaced in a couple of years flat and the metrics were swapped for the old Imperial s without this fuss . The  DNO s were  in charge doing the fitting   going down each street doing the swaps in bulk . Here we are ten years later still begging people to allow us to fit our meters..Only in UK could this ridiculous situation happen .I have a friend who works for Eon meter fitting and he says he s lucky to fit two meters a day .
France and Italy and Irish Republic have all finished their roll outs because they made it all work by getting the DNO  s to fit them..with a single make of meter 

[Deleted User]

SAC2334 said:

Rest of the world (apart from Germany and Sweden) make fitting of utility meters mandatory .When the Labour party were in power all meters were fitted mandatory incl the first smart meters..
I find it pretty bonkers giving Joe public any choice in the matter .They never had that choice before but the Tory's surprised me actually giving anyone the choice. The whole business of fitting smarts has been an economic disaster.
.We had all the old token  prepays in UK replaced in a couple of years flat and the metrics were swapped for the old Imperial s without this fuss . The  DNO s were  in charge doing the fitting   going down each street doing the swaps in bulk . Here we are ten years later still begging people to allow us to fit our meters..Only in UK could this ridiculous situation happen .I have a friend who works for Eon meter fitting and he says he s lucky to fit two meters a day .
France and Italy and Irish Republic have all finished their roll outs because they made it all work by getting the DNO  s to fit them..with a single make of meter 

I cannot disagree. We have made suppliers responsible for smart metering when they can actually do very little when things go wrong.  

Qyburn

What_time_is_it said:

 The communication is clear. And many vulnerable people would feel intimidated by this. 
Basically, we've set something up without your consent. If you don't cancel we will charge you £30.
Unacceptable

People are challenging the term "intimidation" but does anyone actually think that sort of behaviour is acceptable?

MattMattMattUK

Qyburn said:

What_time_is_it said:

 The communication is clear. And many vulnerable people would feel intimidated by this. 
Basically, we've set something up without your consent. If you don't cancel we will charge you £30.
Unacceptable

People are challenging the term "intimidation" but does anyone actually think that sort of behaviour is acceptable?

They booked in an appointment, gave the OP notification and gave them the time and opportunity to change it to a different date if that was not suitable, with a notification that there would be a £30 charge if they did not cancel or keep the appointment. Under no rational measure can that be classed as intimidation, nor does it seem unacceptable, if the date/time is inconvenient then all one has to do is change the date.