Engineer late for Smart Meter installation - Guaranteed Standards compensation

smartmeter56

Hi all,

Last week I had a 11:00-15:00 slot with Scottish Power for a smart meter installation. The engineer showed up until 15:03. He then looked at my smart meter, opened it up for a couple of minutes, and told me that it would be a 2 hour job (rather than the estimate of 1 hour given), so he would be working until 17:00. I had to be out the house before 17:00, so I unfortunately had to abort the appointment and reschedule.

This is in part my fault as I clearly didn't allocate enough time for the engineer to arrive last minute and for the installation to take longer than anticipated. However, my understanding is that one would be entitled to the £40 Guaranteed Standards compensation if the appointment is missed or late. I was wondering if my 3 minute delay would qualify me for the compensation. I appreciate it wasn't late by much, but it still feels a bit ridiculous to miss the window when it's 4 hours long! For what it's worth, there are no accessibility issues between parking up and knocking on my door and he arrived on my doorstep without having stopped to bring anything in with him.

If I am entitled to compensation, I read online that there is further compensation due if they do not pay out within 10 days. As such, is it in my interests to wait 10 days before raising this with Scottish Power?

Thanks for any replies / advice!

Qyburn

smartmeter56 said:
...
 I had to be out the house before 17:00, so I unfortunately had to abort the appointment and reschedule.

Sounds like it could have ended up the same way even if he'd turned up just before 15:00. 

smartmeter56

Yes, I agree about the outcome likely being the same, but either way the outcome is irrelevant to the fact that the engineer arrived late. With regards to the Guaranteed Standards, is there tolerance for being slightly late or is it a case that if they're late, they're late? I would argue they missed the agreed slot, if only by a small margin.

The relevant legislation reads as follows:
(I would link directly to it but my account is unfortunately too new)

(2) Where this regulation applies, the requirements on the supplier set out in paragraphs (3), (5), (7), (8) and (9) are each an individual standard of performance.
(3) The supplier must within a reasonable time offer the customer an appointment that—
(a)is on a date that is itself within a reasonable time; and
(b)takes place within a specified period of time that is—
(i)no more than 4 hours long; and
(ii)during working hours.

...

(8) The supplier must keep an appointment offered in accordance with paragraph (3) and accepted by the customer, or agreed in accordance with paragraph (5) 

debitcardmayhem

Late , on time or early are absolute, however it depends on the accuracy of the time source.

david29dpo

I had an appointment with BG to fit a smart meter December 2023 and still waiting!!!!    still have Email to prove!! Heard nothing since.
I look forward to my £100000000000000 compo

Qyburn

Looking at the appointments I've been given by Octopus they've all been described as "8am -5pm". I've always assumed that means he'll be finished by 17:00, not arriving with maybe two hours work to do.