NPower/Meterplus advice please?

VJH1978

I've been waiting in this morning to have my prepayment meter changed to a standard meter. I requested the first appointment, but they told me this couldn't promised. So after a while I decided to phone npower (using 0800 no!) to find out if they knew what time the meter people would arrive. Turns out that Meterplus had never received details from NPower even though NPower say they have sent it through.

Now NPower tell me I have to wait 72 hours for the information to be passed through to Meterplus. Then I have to ring back to reschedule the appointment. And because I need to have a morning appointment I have to wait a further 12 days.

I've already waited 2 weeks for this appointment, so I don't want to have to wait again, but they say there isn't a way they can get the appointment made sooner. Is this true or are they telling me porkies?

They are sending me a cheque for £20, but it doesn't make up for it, as now I'm late for work, got to go and top up the meter as I'd run it down as it was going to be changed!

Can anyone suggest anything I can do other than write a letter of complaint to NPower? Does anybody know how to contact Meterplus?

Terrylw1

Hi,

You can't contact Meterplus as they are your Supplier's contracted agent, not yours so they will just refer you back to Npower. Any agent would unless they had asked for direct contact with you for some reason.

£20 is the Ofgem compensation.

They have to book you an appointment within 10 working days or tey are failing the accepted standard that has been in place since de-regulation. However, Suppliers often try and blag customers like this so they don't have to work that bit harder for you.

The big joke in that they can't get an appointment is really that Npower actually own Meterplus! They have lots of special arrangements with them but they will often try not to use them to help you.

Don't accept anything less than 10 working days from the date of your call, which is the accepted compliance in the elec industry for a visit to a property upon speaking to a customer.

They can't give times, but they can give 2/4 or 8 hour timebands. They won't know when the Meter Operator (Meterplus) will call since they just book you into these timeslots.

It sounds like whoevery you asked to book this never did it.

You could write a letter of complaint to the complaints address on the back off your bill. Sadly, Ofgem only make they pay £20 (and then £20 more if they don't refund you quick enough) so it's down gestures of goodwill from Npower if you want anymore.

VJH1978

Thank you for the information. I'll see what happens when I phone back to re-arrange the appointment. The service I've had so far from NPower has been very bad. Just hope it gets better!

sniffercat

have they told you how much they are going to charge for this meter. the reason i ask is two years ago they promised to change my meter to a pre-payment meter as i was having trouble paying my bill at the time, and all that happened is that they took my old meter out (while i was at work) and left me without gas and as it was a friday they were unable to be contacted until the next week. anyway they agreed to fit me a new meter but put me another bill payment meter in and charged me two lots of £225 for something i didnt ask for.
I am now in more debt with my gas bill and am waiting for another pre-payment to be fitted.

Terrylw1

Sniffercat, was that a security deposit? If so, did they give it you back then?

The actual engineers visit costs them a lot less than that so it hopefully was a deposit and you can get it back.

sarah_lou22

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Hi,

You can't contact Meterplus as they are your Supplier's contracted agent, not yours so they will just refer you back to Npower. Any agent would unless they had asked for direct contact with you for some reason.

£20 is the Ofgem compensation.

They have to book you an appointment within 10 working days or tey are failing the accepted standard that has been in place since de-regulation. However, Suppliers often try and blag customers like this so they don't have to work that bit harder for you.

The big joke in that they can't get an appointment is really that Npower actually own Meterplus! They have lots of special arrangements with them but they will often try not to use them to help you.

Don't accept anything less than 10 working days from the date of your call, which is the accepted compliance in the elec industry for a visit to a property upon speaking to a customer.

They can't give times, but they can give 2/4 or 8 hour timebands. They won't know when the Meter Operator (Meterplus) will call since they just book you into these timeslots.

It sounds like whoevery you asked to book this never did it.

You could write a letter of complaint to the complaints address on the back off your bill. Sadly, Ofgem only make they pay £20 (and then £20 more if they don't refund you quick enough) so it's down gestures of goodwill from Npower if you want anymore.

Npower dont own Meterplus they are our contractors. :rolleyes:

Terrylw1

sarah_lou22 wrote: »

Npower dont own Meterplus they are our contractors. :rolleyes:

They are contracted as an independant because they have to be able to be appointed by other Suppliers but they are a member of the RWE group and a division of Npower.

They bought them out a few years back.

EPultra

Although nPower may own MeterPlus, it is at the stipulation of Ofgem that they cannot have special arrangements in place with them as this would be seen to favouring one supplier (the company who own them) over other suppliers who use their metering services and be seen to give them (nPower) an unfair competetive advantage over other suppliers. The same applies for other metering contractors owned by the dominant local supplier

MikeR71

Glad I found this thread so I don't have to open a new one.

I have been getting letters from MeterPlus since last year regarding my gas meter, which apparently needs to be changed. I phoned up a few times and arranged a date late last year. But on the agreed day the engineer never turned up. I received a number of letters one which was threatening to obtain court order to enter my property and then I would be liable to pay the court fees. I called to arrange a date again but couldn't agree on a date that suited both of us.
So yesterday again I received a letter from Meterplus saying they are applying for a court order to enter my property in my absence unless I call to arrange a date before the 26th of April. So I did and now I am expecting a visit from them on the 7th of May.

Now my question is, why does my meter need changing? It's been fine so far. Am right to be suspicious about this? How will I know that they are not going to change my meter for one that runs faster? Am I just being paranoid?

undaunted

Given the date of the original post have you now resolved this?

sarah_lou22 wrote: »

Npower dont own Meterplus they are our contractors. :rolleyes:

That isn't an Npower site advertising Meter Plus jobs then? :rotfl:

http://www.npowerjobs.com/Energy-services/Meter-plus/Default.aspx

Npower don't say here

https://customerservices.npower.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/272/~/what-is-meterplus%3F

" What is MeterPlus?

MeterPlus is part of our Energy Services business and provides a range of metering services to our business and domestic customers in the North of England and the Midlands."

and their registered name & address at companies House isn't the same as RWE Npowers is?, ie

METERPLUS LIMITED
WINDMILL HILL BUSINESS PARK
WHITEHILL WAY
SWINDON
WILTSHIRE
SN5 6PB
Company No. 03020536


Maybe you're just a typical Npower employee & didn't know any of this / bother to check before "rolling eyes"?

SwanJon

Now that Undaunted has got his rant out of the way...

MikeR71 wrote: »

Now my question is, why does my meter need changing? It's been fine so far. Am right to be suspicious about this? How will I know that they are not going to change my meter for one that runs faster? Am I just being paranoid?

The meters need to be changed at the end of their certified life. This is to ensure that the meters are reading the correct amount. (They's probably remain accurate for a lot longer, but...)

You have no need to be suspicious, it is perfectly normal.
It is more likely that the new meter will be more accurate than the old one - so it is possible that it will be faster if your old one was running slow, but this is a very small possibility.