Transco gas meter fiasco

petepaget · 14 February 2009 at 2:48PM

A couple of weeks ago, my mother had the gas meter in her flat changed by Transco. When the work was finished, they disconnected her gas appliances and told her they were condemned. Naturally she was very worried and called out a (CORGI registered) gas engineer who purged the gas at the water heater and re-lit the pilot light. He said that this should have been done by Transco before they did any work on the meter, and that her appliances were perfectly OK. He's advised her to send his bill to Transco.

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

Lewie · 14 February 2009 at 3:05PM

I had loads of hassle with Transco.
I eventually called Corgi and explained.
They sent a bloke round and he got it sorted.
Give them a call, explain your situation and they will advise.

Premier_2 · 14 February 2009 at 3:24PM

How many gas appliances does your mother have?

What were the reasons given for each being condemned?

When the transco guy arrived he only need to ensure the appliances were turned off before replacing the meter. What was there to purge, and more importantly what with?

Once the meter had been replaced, it was the transco guy's responsibility to relight each appliance, purging the supply line if neccessary to expel any air trap he may have created. (assuming he hadn't noticed any other reason to condemn the appliances)

If a simple purge of the gas supply was all that your corgi engineer found was needed, then I would do as he advised, and send his bill to transco for reimbursement.

Before we get too carried away slagging off Transco & singing the praises of Corgi, you do both realise that any engineer, transco or otherwise, that worked on your meter should have been corgi registered himself, don't you? Did you check?

Lewie · 14 February 2009 at 5:59PM

No getting carried away here.
If I had a week i would tell you the full story.
In a nutshell, Transco were c*ap and CORGI sorted it.
I take it petepagets mother is elderly and I doubt wether she would know that someone should be CORGI registered, what do you think?
It sounds to me like Transco left this womans house without proper explanation.
If a CORGI registered engineer has subsequently been round and purged (with gas of course) the appliances and they are fine then CORGI definately need to know that someone who sounds incompetent has been messing where they shouldn't.

Pete, phone CORGI and let them give you advice. It is free. They will visit the property if they see fit, that is also free.

petepaget · 14 February 2009 at 8:55PM

Thanks, Lewie. Yes, she is elderly and the Transco visit caused her a lot of stress. I'll follow your advice and see what develops.

Thanks again.

DaveBgas · 19 February 2009 at 2:31PM

I think it shows just how out of date you all are considering 'Transco' as they were known haven't existed since June 2006.
They now comprise of IDN (independent distribution networks) - National Grid Gas, Northern Gas Networks, Southern Gas Networks, Scotia Gas Networks and Wales and West Utilities.
I suggest you find out which respective transporter covers your area and ask for details of the engineer, as what you find is that most of these companies do not employ meter installers themselves and have a separate contractor doing the work for them.... In some cases, such as the north east, the gas transporter - Northern Gas Networks do not undertake any routine meter exchange as the contract was awarded by the gas suppliers and MAM (meter asset manager) to Enterprise PLC and for British Gas, they use their own meter provider OnStream.
People may have had bad experiences with the everyday 'plebs' of Transco, but as a Gas Transmission engineer dealing with 90+ bar pressures for many years, I resent the slur on the name Transco, whom without, no CORGI engineer would have a job to berate them.
I'd like to see a combi boiler repairman live welding a transmission pipeline.

lemontart · 19 February 2009 at 3:11PM

Lewie wrote: »

No getting carried away here.
If I had a week i would tell you the full story.
In a nutshell, Transco were c*ap and CORGI sorted it.
I take it petepagets mother is elderly and I doubt wether she would know that someone should be CORGI registered, what do you think?
It sounds to me like Transco left this womans house without proper explanation.
If a CORGI registered engineer has subsequently been round and purged (with gas of course) the appliances and they are fine then CORGI definately need to know that someone who sounds incompetent has been messing where they shouldn't.

Pete, phone CORGI and let them give you advice. It is free. They will visit the property if they see fit, that is also free.

Or it could be a simple case of the house holder not understanding or remembering exactly what the meter installer be it a NATIONAL GRID (transco no longer exist) or other company had told them.

Lewie · 20 February 2009 at 10:32AM

DaveBgas.
Ok, lets replace Transco with National Grid, it doesn't change the fact that many people have hassle with their installations. No matter who does the work, be they contractors, whatever, those employing them are responsible.
Don't know why you are bothered about any slurs?
Neither do I understand why no CORGI engineer would have a job without them. Educate me (my nephew is one so i'm interested in the history).
As for comparing what you do with someone else, I doubt a midwife could perform brain surgery, it is down to training, not a born skill.
BTW, I am not praising CORGI either, they just sorted my problem, I think the way they force people to join their boys club is a disgrace, had I had another route to choose I would have.

lemontart (you've made me hungry now!)
I'm not disputing that one, that may well be the case.
It costs nothing and harms noone to get these things checked, better safe than sorry.

Pssst · 20 February 2009 at 10:34PM

Hang on. If the meter worker "condemned" the installation,he would have issued a standard carbon copied warning notice. One copy is left with the customer. Have you got this and if so ,what does it say on it?
There must have been a valid reason for disconnection. I'm sure he didnt want to give someone a hard time for no reason??

Also what do you mean by "condemned"? did he disconnect the supply at the meter? Did he disconnect a particular appliance? Did he disconnect nothing but just issue an advisory notice?

It is not unknown for contractors to try and line their pockets by billing a customer,making up some kind of tale about "transco" to justify their bill,and then advising that they send their bill on to them.

They will not pay anyones bill without a thorough investigation.

They are not a state owned company. They are a publicly quoted plc and are not in the habit of giving money away for nothing.

Chris2000 · 21 February 2009 at 11:10AM

My gas meter was changed last year by a contractor from Siemens on behalf of British Gas. He was aged about 20 and gave me a warning notice regarding inadequate ventilation for my gas fire because the air vents in the room can be closed.

I showed him the sales brochure which states clearly the fire is a non-vented model, but he was having none of it. Such things don't exist.

The manufacturer and the CORGI fitter have both confirmed that I do not require air vents for that particular model of gas fire.

Luckily the meter monkey posted his original copy of the warning notice back to base without writing an address on the envelope (idiot!) and the royal mail opened it, saw my address, and delivered it to me. I enjoyed shredding that piece of paper!

Lewie · 21 February 2009 at 3:05PM

My nephew has recently passed his exams for working on gas.
The rules and regs are ridiculous.
I'm not surprised they get confused.

Transco gas meter fiasco

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