How long does it take to change a water meter?

Brie

As in how much lead time is given and how much time does the actual work take?

Back story....
previous thread - water bill in credit!! — MoneySavingExpert Forum

And now 3 months later I contact them to find out what's happening.  Problem 1 is that the only email address I've got is for the sewage company, not the water company that reads the meter.  So I emailed the sewage company who advised me that nothing was showing yet on their systems that any work was pending, that back billing is never done and then gave me the phone number for the water company.

20 minutes wait for someone to answer my call ("you are number 5 in our queue") and then a lot of waiting on hold while they read the notes on the file, consulted with others and then decided I needed to talk to someone on operations. 

Got a heavy breather on the line (can't people hear they are doing that?) who said the easiest thing is for me to go read the meter myself.  I asked if he could tell me where it is - I had suspicions and yes I'm right.  It's not on our property but on the neighbours' drive.  Under a metal plate.  How easy it would be to get in to that I don't know as I'm not in a position to even try. 

So Mr Huffy said he'd need to find out some more details and was this my mobile number and he would call me back in a few minutes.  Frankly I should have stayed on the line.  After a couple of minutes my phone rang once, not enough time for me to pick up the call.  A couple of minutes later another attempt was made but this time the phone didn't even ring.  

So all I know is that the meter needs to be changed.  At some point.  Now it's located as I say on our neighbours' drive.  Plural - as there are 3 houses accessed by a drive beside our house.  One of the people living there is 98 and has an ambulance or bus transport or food delivery most days.  Carers come a number of times a day.  

If the meter is a plug in job, lift the metal cover, unplug the old meter, plug in the new one, done and dusted then that's ok.  Do it whenever and no great inconvenience.  But I suspect it will be an hour or two, maybe longer and I worry about the aged person needing assistance but also that the other 2 places will likely want to ensure their cars are out to the road before anything gets started.  And what if there are complications and things take a day or two.

I'm likely overthinking it all but it's a bit frustrating.  And also I wonder why I'm still having to pay when the meter isn't working, they can't back bill me and I'm just putting money into their bank accounts.