Scottish power gas smart meter display not working

Tim92

Update: after a few back and forth emails Scottish power are refusing to carry out any work staying that they receive all the data they need from the meter and it's "working perfectly" to use their exact words. 
As they are not looking to resolve the issue I was going to take it to the energy ombudsman, looking at their website it says to give the supplier 8 weeks to resolve an issue, do I need to wait the full 8 weeks of they're refusing to do anything or can I begin escalation?

MeteredOut

Tim92 said:

Update: after a few back and forth emails Scottish power are refusing to carry out any work staying that they receive all the data they need from the meter and it's "working perfectly" to use their exact words. 
As they are not looking to resolve the issue I was going to take it to the energy ombudsman, looking at their website it says to give the supplier 8 weeks to resolve an issue, do I need to wait the full 8 weeks of they're refusing to do anything or can I begin escalation?

Ask them for a deadlock letter and you can go sooner that 8 weeks. Or you could raise it anyway and tell the Ombudsman that SP are refusing to do anything. Have they closed your complaint?

Zandoni

At the end of the day the owner of the meter has the responsibility under the gas act to ensure the meter is working correctly. If the consumer can't read their meter there is no proof that they are being billed correctly, so the meter is faulty. I'd point that out to your supplier and go down the official complaint road as others have said.

BarelySentientAI

Zandoni said:

At the end of the day the owner of the meter has the responsibility under the gas act to ensure the meter is working correctly. If the consumer can't read their meter there is no proof that they are being billed correctly, so the meter is faulty. I'd point that out to your supplier and go down the official complaint road as others have said.

I don't think there's anything in the gas act or the gas supply licence that says a consumer has to be able to read their meter.

There is an obligation for the supplier to obtain a reading, which it seems they can do, so the licence conditions would appear to be fulfilled.

It's still an unsatisfactory situation though.

Zandoni

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

At the end of the day the owner of the meter has the responsibility under the gas act to ensure the meter is working correctly. If the consumer can't read their meter there is no proof that they are being billed correctly, so the meter is faulty. I'd point that out to your supplier and go down the official complaint road as others have said.

I don't think there's anything in the gas act or the gas supply licence that says a consumer has to be able to read their meter.

There is an obligation for the supplier to obtain a reading, which it seems they can do, so the licence conditions would appear to be fulfilled.

It's still an unsatisfactory situation though.

If the consumer can't read their meter it is faulty and the supplier has a duty to ensure the meter is working correctly.

It's like filling up your car at a petrol station where you can't read the pump.

BarelySentientAI

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

At the end of the day the owner of the meter has the responsibility under the gas act to ensure the meter is working correctly. If the consumer can't read their meter there is no proof that they are being billed correctly, so the meter is faulty. I'd point that out to your supplier and go down the official complaint road as others have said.

I don't think there's anything in the gas act or the gas supply licence that says a consumer has to be able to read their meter.

There is an obligation for the supplier to obtain a reading, which it seems they can do, so the licence conditions would appear to be fulfilled.

It's still an unsatisfactory situation though.

If the consumer can't read their meter it is faulty and the supplier has a duty to ensure the meter is working correctly.

It's like filling up your car at a petrol station where you can't read the pump.

True as a sentiment - but would need to be backed up by some actual documented requirement, and I can't find a relevant one.

Zandoni

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

At the end of the day the owner of the meter has the responsibility under the gas act to ensure the meter is working correctly. If the consumer can't read their meter there is no proof that they are being billed correctly, so the meter is faulty. I'd point that out to your supplier and go down the official complaint road as others have said.

I don't think there's anything in the gas act or the gas supply licence that says a consumer has to be able to read their meter.

There is an obligation for the supplier to obtain a reading, which it seems they can do, so the licence conditions would appear to be fulfilled.

It's still an unsatisfactory situation though.

If the consumer can't read their meter it is faulty and the supplier has a duty to ensure the meter is working correctly.

It's like filling up your car at a petrol station where you can't read the pump.

True as a sentiment - but would need to be backed up by some actual documented requirement, and I can't find a relevant one.

All meters are approved by The Office for Product Safety and Standards I believe now. A part of that approval would be that it can be manually read by the consumer. If the meter was sent for test as a disputed meter it will fail, because it doesn't meet the approval.

BarelySentientAI

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

At the end of the day the owner of the meter has the responsibility under the gas act to ensure the meter is working correctly. If the consumer can't read their meter there is no proof that they are being billed correctly, so the meter is faulty. I'd point that out to your supplier and go down the official complaint road as others have said.

I don't think there's anything in the gas act or the gas supply licence that says a consumer has to be able to read their meter.

There is an obligation for the supplier to obtain a reading, which it seems they can do, so the licence conditions would appear to be fulfilled.

It's still an unsatisfactory situation though.

If the consumer can't read their meter it is faulty and the supplier has a duty to ensure the meter is working correctly.

It's like filling up your car at a petrol station where you can't read the pump.

True as a sentiment - but would need to be backed up by some actual documented requirement, and I can't find a relevant one.

All meters are approved by The Office for Product Safety and Standards I believe now. A part of that approval would be that it can be manually read by the consumer. If the meter was sent for test as a disputed meter it will fail, because it doesn't meet the approval.

You are correct that OPSS approves electricity meters and adds them to Schedule 4 of the Meters (Certification) Regulations 1998.

Their approval is given if a meter conforms to an appropriate construction as defined in Schedule 3 of those regulations and complies with Schedule 7 of the Electricity Act 1989.

Schedule 3 says that the registers must be accurate, but does not define that the reading in the register must be visible.  Schedule 7 doesn't really add anything.

It should fail a meter test under the 'other defect' category - because there is clearly a defect, I'm not disagreeing with you - but again, there is nothing in the regulations that I can find that actually says so.  And that's the important part if someone wants to make a complaint.

Zandoni

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

At the end of the day the owner of the meter has the responsibility under the gas act to ensure the meter is working correctly. If the consumer can't read their meter there is no proof that they are being billed correctly, so the meter is faulty. I'd point that out to your supplier and go down the official complaint road as others have said.

I don't think there's anything in the gas act or the gas supply licence that says a consumer has to be able to read their meter.

There is an obligation for the supplier to obtain a reading, which it seems they can do, so the licence conditions would appear to be fulfilled.

It's still an unsatisfactory situation though.

If the consumer can't read their meter it is faulty and the supplier has a duty to ensure the meter is working correctly.

It's like filling up your car at a petrol station where you can't read the pump.

True as a sentiment - but would need to be backed up by some actual documented requirement, and I can't find a relevant one.

All meters are approved by The Office for Product Safety and Standards I believe now. A part of that approval would be that it can be manually read by the consumer. If the meter was sent for test as a disputed meter it will fail, because it doesn't meet the approval.

You are correct that OPSS approves electricity meters and adds them to Schedule 4 of the Meters (Certification) Regulations 1998.

Their approval is given if a meter conforms to an appropriate construction as defined in Schedule 3 of those regulations and complies with Schedule 7 of the Electricity Act 1989.

Schedule 3 says that the registers must be accurate, but does not define that the reading in the register must be visible.  Schedule 7 doesn't really add anything.

It should fail a meter test under the 'other defect' category - because there is clearly a defect, I'm not disagreeing with you - but again, there is nothing in the regulations that I can find that actually says so.  And that's the important part if someone wants to make a complaint.

I understand where you are coming from but I feel it's basic weights and measures, when you buy any product you must be able to see what you are getting.

Electronic meters have the potential to self register and the consumer needs to be able to check for that if they want to.

At the end of the day the most important part is that the meter is not working how it should when it was approved.

There's far more to approvals than needs to be published, I have many times stopped a gas meter production line when the manufacturer has tried to bend the rules.

BarelySentientAI

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Zandoni said:

At the end of the day the owner of the meter has the responsibility under the gas act to ensure the meter is working correctly. If the consumer can't read their meter there is no proof that they are being billed correctly, so the meter is faulty. I'd point that out to your supplier and go down the official complaint road as others have said.

I don't think there's anything in the gas act or the gas supply licence that says a consumer has to be able to read their meter.

There is an obligation for the supplier to obtain a reading, which it seems they can do, so the licence conditions would appear to be fulfilled.

It's still an unsatisfactory situation though.

If the consumer can't read their meter it is faulty and the supplier has a duty to ensure the meter is working correctly.

It's like filling up your car at a petrol station where you can't read the pump.

True as a sentiment - but would need to be backed up by some actual documented requirement, and I can't find a relevant one.

All meters are approved by The Office for Product Safety and Standards I believe now. A part of that approval would be that it can be manually read by the consumer. If the meter was sent for test as a disputed meter it will fail, because it doesn't meet the approval.

You are correct that OPSS approves electricity meters and adds them to Schedule 4 of the Meters (Certification) Regulations 1998.

Their approval is given if a meter conforms to an appropriate construction as defined in Schedule 3 of those regulations and complies with Schedule 7 of the Electricity Act 1989.

Schedule 3 says that the registers must be accurate, but does not define that the reading in the register must be visible.  Schedule 7 doesn't really add anything.

It should fail a meter test under the 'other defect' category - because there is clearly a defect, I'm not disagreeing with you - but again, there is nothing in the regulations that I can find that actually says so.  And that's the important part if someone wants to make a complaint.

I understand where you are coming from but I feel it's basic weights and measures, when you buy any product you must be able to see what you are getting.

Electronic meters have the potential to self register and the consumer needs to be able to check for that if they want to.

At the end of the day the most important part is that the meter is not working how it should when it was approved.

There's far more to approvals than needs to be published, I have many times stopped a gas meter production line when the manufacturer has tried to bend the rules.

As you say, I wonder if the answer is something in the weights and measures or general sales-type laws.

Definitely the meter isn't doing what it should, I am just well aware of parties being held to the letter rather than the spirit of regs.