To be worried about the man at the door

[lalalalaloo]

Heard DH talking to someone (I was upstairs) and then the door slammed.

I saw the back of a man (older) walking into my dining room with DH, carried on with my business upstairs then when I heard him leave I came downstairs.

DH said he had come to 'read the meter' but we don't get meter readings, we have a smart hub.

Said this to DH and he said 'well he went in the cupboard and wrote something down'

Contacted Ovo they said 'no we didn't send anyone'

DH said he had flashed him some ID and he just automatically let him in the house.

Does anyone know who this could be? I.e some independent meter reader or has DH just let a potential petty criminal into our house?

DH made sure he watched the man the whole time but nothing happened and he left.

They have to do a visual check on the meters even if they are read and sent meter readings via the smart meter.

They have to do these checks to make sure no one is tampering with the meter, that the tails are still secured (the wires going into the meter) that the crimps on the wire securing the meter closed are still in place, these crimps should have a little number stamped into it as each engineer has their own tool with an individual code on, that there is no discolouration or leak etc. This used to be the meter owner ie your local supplier. After the market opened up and you could get your bill from anyone it was outsourced but they should have full ID with them.

I used to work for a utility company. I haven't worked for them for a long time but the "smart" prepayment meters would send an SOS to us if someone tried to tamper with the meter

@draughtycatflap

If there is no record of him he could have been an extra terrestrial researching human culture. They usually give themselves away though. Did he doing anything strange like mistake the cat for a relative or let out a scream near a pot plant?

Does anyone know who this could be?

How on earth could we know?

Local uni sent our warning to students about this. Guy pretended to be meter reader and they got robbed

I was surprised by a guy turning up to 'read my meter' when we'd switched to a smart meter, but I'm a bit too trusting and didn't realky give it another thought. I was with him the entire time and nothing terrible happened - that was 2 years, or so, ago. The only thing that struck me as a bit odd at the time was how unkept he was, but 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m with o o simply because they are the cheapest. But what a pain they are. They sub contract the meter readings out to more local companies so your never sure who they are. It’s actually down to the sub contracted company when / if they come to read your meters often will update o o of the visit after they’ve been. I don’t have a smart meter with them but they have rang just this morning trying to get me to have them installed. I said no I can’t say when I’m going to be in as work is as needed at the moment.

It used to be (all those years ago when I worked at a utility company) that anyone living somewhere accessible ie a town/city would have their meter read twice a year, the other 2 times it was estimated. If you lived somewhere rural then it was once a year, at least I think it was from memory.

If you don't have a smart meter please provide meter readings every time you get an estimated bill, even if it is really close to your actual readings. That way if something goes wrong with the meter they can apportion the bill based on your actual consumption. Sometimes they will piggyback a meter if they think it is faulty, so they fit another meter alongside yours to check its accuracy.

If you do have a smart meter, as I said above, they still need to do visual checks.

Having seen photos of people in full yellow rain coats, wearing heavy rubber gloves and wearing wellies, lay on their backs whilst a paramedic treated them for electric shock and them swearing they never touched the meter despite the cables having been pulled out the bottom of the meter, you would be amazed at how many people try to tamper with it. Also that if your meter is under the stairs and you cram everything in front of it, when it leaked gas, you wouldn't smell it as it is muffled by all the crap you have stored in front of it.

As part of my training I have been out with the meter readers/meter changers, seen a meter change so that we know how much work is involved for when we booked them, saw where some of them are situated and also went out with the debt recovery people, fortunately not when they had a warrant to break into the house to access the meter that legally belongs to utility company, and then leave a note on the door telling them to contact us for their new keys as we had to bust the lock to gain entry which is covered by the warrant

I would inform the police. I had someone come round who was clearly dodgy as fuck asking to read the meter. I said no. Apparently they were trying to get a look in people's houses to see if you had anything worth stealing.