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AIBU?

to not let the gasman in to read the meter?

21 replies

Awenamanger · 11/12/2007 16:01

does the f standing for fecking or father??

Have had the meter read LOADS of times, been here for 4 years so everytime they come around they have read it. However every bill we have show an estimated reading and not the correct one. I have called british gas to sort etc and they still dont update their records. Am pretty sure we actually owe them money.

Fed up of moving loads of things and have them trapse dirty boots through the house for them to read th emeter and not update their records. Apparantly ours is a 5 digit thing and their computer cant cope with it being different. I find it irritating as I end up trying to sort out over phone and they still dont sort it.

Rant over.

OP posts:

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SquonkaClaus · 11/12/2007 16:03

the f stands for festive

and YANBU. They're all a pita to me too.

fingerwoman · 11/12/2007 16:03

change gas supplier. british gas suck

SueBaRoomForAMincePie · 11/12/2007 16:07

As far as I recall, I think the meter-reading is done by the people who own the meter, which isn't the same neccessarily as the people who supply the gas.

Which is bloody stupid, of course.

mummytheresa · 11/12/2007 16:13

My meter is a pita to get to so if I dont feel like it I dont let them in to read it.
MY meter MY front door MY decision.

Weegle · 11/12/2007 16:15

I had the same problem. They are allowed to come every 12 weeks - so I started marking it on the calendar and if it was less than 12 weeks I refused entry.

If it was more than 12 weeks I opened door, pointed to where metre is and told them they would need to move things to access it (washing machine needs moving over, my plastic bag collection , tools and potatoes). I go back to whatever I was doing making it perfectly clear that it's inconvenient. Every other tradesperson makes and appointment, doesn't just turn up on your doorstep. So YANBU, makes me mad too.

MellowChristmasEveryone · 11/12/2007 16:20

Oh we had one come at 7.30am last week.

I said " No, no way are you coming in at this time, I have to move things to get access to cupboard and its too early for all that nonsense".

bah bloody humbug!

bumpybecky · 11/12/2007 16:30

YANBU and you don't have to let them in if you don't want to I've been refusing entry for over a year as powergen never use the readings just pick a number out of the air!

SueW · 11/12/2007 16:43

I never have these problems. If I'm in they drop a card through the door. I then enter the reading online.

I don't get why you all have a problem with allowing someone to read your meter.

SueW · 11/12/2007 16:44

If I'm not in that is.

gizmo · 11/12/2007 16:50

SueBaroom

It's worse than that...it's likely that the meter is owned by a different company to that which supplies gas and also possible that it is read by yet another company. Who send the data back to the gas supplier.

Trouble is, although it's a pain reading the meter or letting the reader in to do it, if you don't give them an actual read then they will have every excuse to get it wrong. Like they need another excuse.

Roll on smart metering, that's wot I say.

mrspnut · 11/12/2007 17:06

Both my meters are outside thankfully but I used to regularly refuse to allow the meter reader in at our old house because they always turned up at 7:30am and I was never dressed at that time.

Awenamanger · 11/12/2007 20:16

Sue - I have given them reading via net and online. I have also let them repeatedly read thje meter. Do they update their records tho? Do they feck

OP posts:

mumzyof2 · 11/12/2007 21:36

Its not too bad for me, at my last house the meter was outside, and here it is right by the front door, but i know it can be annoying.
And the ones tat come at 7.30! Who would have the nerve to start banging on doors that early.
Heres what you do; all you need is an air rifle, some pellets......

LIZS · 11/12/2007 21:41

I got so annoyed I sent a digital photo of the meter , as they had it recorded one digit out and then couldn't marry up our readings. The same readers seem to do all suppliers around here (Siemens iirc) and sometimes I think they don't bother to even look , just punch a random number in or not at all. They have a legal right to read them every so often though.

WashSantasRedSuitErsaurus · 11/12/2007 21:50

I understand . We have the same problem, the meter is read approx every fortnight and we only ever have estimated readings on our bill.

I got fed up with letting strange men into my house when I am on my own with my children, so I questioned the last man that called as to why this happens.

Apparently, because there are so many energy suppliers now- each employing their own meter reading folk, they just randomly read as many meters as they can regardless of who your supplier is.

I mostly don't answer the door during the day now as it is only every someone either wanting to read a meter, a religious preaching type person, or those pesky market researchers!

ExDhsNutsRoastingOnAnOpenFire · 11/12/2007 21:57

Actually one came round here the other week and was really quite intimidating when I said he couldn't come in. Admittedly it was the middle of the day but I was late putting ds down for his nap and it was really really bad timing. He was very rude and muttered about how he had to do two readings that afternoon on our road or something - I'm sure he wasn't meant to say that and of course my response was that's not my problem. Was a very odd episode as I don't get intimidated easily but he was really trying to use his body language to persuade me - hard to explain.

MrsWeasleysmagicmincepies · 11/12/2007 21:59

They only need to read the meter once every 12 months! YANBU

lizziemun · 11/12/2007 22:21

I had a card put through the door asking for access to my house to read the meter.

I phoned to query as to why they needed access to read the meter, I was told it hadn't been read for 4 years so they need to read it asap.

I replyed fine but A) the meter is outside and the house was only 2 years old .

lou33 · 11/12/2007 22:23

i had one turn up at 7pm the other night to read mine

SueW · 11/12/2007 22:49

How bizarre some of your meter reading services are! I can understand your frustrations if you have people turning up more frequently than they should do.

Here they turn up every few months and we get billed after they've been round, either with an estimate, a customer reading or an actual reading depending on whether someone was here to let them in, whether I did anything with the card if I wasn't, etc.

So it all works as it should.

Ubergeekian · 12/12/2007 11:54

Scottish Power fitted a new meter, didn't take its initial reading (it wasn't at zero) and then tried to hit us with an electricity bill (one bedroom flat, nine months) of £75,000. After a lot of argument they have cut this to £200 ... but not a word of apology or explanation. They have read the meter regularly but despite that every bill for eight years has been based on estimates.

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