British Gas: GAS LEAK BEHIND GAS FIRE!: I advise you to keep old bills and take photos of meter

CSI_Yorkshire

Annemos said:

I would have thought something along the lines of.... "We have noticed that your usage has suddenly gone really high. One of our team will contact you to discuss this." 

Followed by hundreds of complaints about busy-body energy companies spying on usage and harassing people who they think are using more than should be allowed.

Gerry1

There's a Mysterious Third Party that goes through meter readings with a fine toothed comb when you switch suppliers.  It's a slow and complicated process.

https://help.so.energy/support/solutions/articles/7000046241

Wonder why they don't have a similar system to detect obviously silly regular meter readings.

Annemos

My personal thinking is that she should be on the Vulnerable Customer Listing. 

But she won't hear of it! 

Annemos

QrizB and Gerry1. Thanks for the links etc. 

I just noticed I did not reply to one question. The account basically shows her monthly readings. Occasionally there is one where they do a 9 day or 3 day interval. 

Also. I have just looked at some of those old posts. Absolutely fascinating. One has a photo of where the b is for the battery failing.

As is usual in life, my friend sent me a photo of her meter reading earlier, but it is only showing the meter reading numbers and not the rest of that horizontal box that would show the b if there is one. 

I will ask her to check for the b! And next time to take photos of the whole box from left to right. 

Incidentally. Friend's sister just had a new Electric smart meter fitted. Was sent a first bill for 7000 pounds usage. Further investigation found that the meter "had been wrongly installed". 

Spoonie_Turtle

Annemos said:

I just noticed I did not reply to one question. The account basically shows her monthly readings. Occasionally there is one where they do a 9 day or 3 day interval. 

Also. I have just looked at some of those old posts. Absolutely fascinating. One has a photo of where the b is for the battery failing.

Those may be estimates at the change of tariff, perhaps (assuming she's on the standard variable which now changes every 3 months).

If she'll consent, you can set it show half-hourly usage and then it will show where any spikes are occurring.

Annemos

Good morning Spoonie_Turtle. 

Yes it was when tariff changes occurred or if she had telephoned about wanting a paper bill, I believe. 

An interesting thing. When she checked for the battery "b", there is no b, but there is a card that says "This meter is due to be checked in 2024".


I do not have a Smart Meter. I can see in her account that her meter is set up to take half hourly readings. 

Is there a place she can see that usage, if she does not have the little living room box?

(I dare not ask her to touch anything on the meter itself. I do not know what I am doing and neither does she!) 

In her Account I can only see those monthly meter readings and it says something like "we only show the meter readings which have been used to generate your bill."


She is running the "gas off" test. She is using no gas or hot water at all. Maybe her boiler pilot light is on, I don't know. 

But at 7pm last night her meter read  4988.115

At 09.15 this morning it is reading  4992.760

X11.192     That gives 52 kwh of use in just over 14 hours. 

She is due to finish the test at 7pm tonight. 


Then, I am going to have to severely escalate this with British Gas on her behalf. 

(Reading those links and the problems that people have had getting the issue addressed, does not fill me with joy. I have my own 6 month battle on with British Gas and have had a horrible 4 years Insurance Claim where I had to fight all the way. All we can do is battle on, these days. Maybe British Gas will surprise me in her case.)

Am I correct that I should push for a British Gas Engineer to come out as soon as possible to check for any leak? And then take the meter away for testing? 

She is so worried about the money that is now being required to be paid, she has gone into quasi panic mode and suggested she might just have to have the gas completely cut off at her property.   (I say again...she is 80!  These "incorrect readings?" are now causing direct debits of half her pension which is state pension level.) 

Gerry1

There are various apps such as Bright, but others can advise better because I have a good old bellows meter that will never go rogue with a dodgy battery !

Annemos

Update for everyone. We are starting the 24 hour test again with the Gas Lever at the meter turned OFF. 

(Thanks Gerry1) 

(Batteries for cars, batteries for smart meters.... where will they all come from!) 

Gerry1

The test will be chargeable if the meter is found to be OK.  I understand that before testing it they leave it for a month to see whether the reading increases.

BG would be more likely to help (e.g. turning the boiler back on or waiving the meter test charge) if she were on the Priority Services Register.  Try a little gentle arm twisting...

Annemos

Called British Gas. Explained the whole situation. Very sympathetic call handler.

Now she has been put on the priority register. That applies, too, if people are over 75, he said. 

They will wait until we have finished the test.