Visit to check the safety of the electricty and gas meter

[Dumdidums]

Hello i have just had a letter from e.on energy saying that they are sending someone round to check the safety of my electricity and gas meter .

In all my years of living i have never heard of an energy company sending someone round just to check to make sure the meter is in a safe position. Even when i was a child i don't remember this ever happening. The position of the meters has never ever changed . The letter says they want to make sure the area around the meter is safe ? what exactly does this mean ? Do they want me to rearrange my furniture and what is the criteria for safety

Has anyone else had this sort of visit and should i be concerned ?

No but being a cynic, I suspect they want to move you onto a smart meter. Before we switched, we definitely had something from our provider about how our meter was “out of date” and needed to be upgraded, when the bazillion offers to put in a smart meter received no response.

Call the company to confirm just in case it's a scam. Don't use the number on that letter, look it up online.

I'm in Ireland so it might be different in the UK but I've never heard of that, someone only ever calls if the smell of gas has been reported.

We keep being hassled

My meter still works thank you

I take it you don't have a smart meter?

I had to block my energy supplier, the harassment was really irritating.

No i dont have a smart meter. I am now wondering if they are going to come round and say the location isnt safe so they need to remove the meter and then put in a smart meter

On another point i am on a variable rate tarriff, i'm told fixed rates are cheaper but every fixed rate tariff i find from the company seems to require you to agree to a smart meter installation

Yeah I can't get on any of the good tariffs either. They're quite insistent on us having these things and anything that aggressive isn't for our benefit.

If they change the meters are they much smaller?

They want to change all the meters to smart meters. My meter was changed less than 2 years ago and I've been getting letters as well.

Traditional meters do ‘expire’ after a certain number of years, and they are obliged under Ofgem to check these.

You can still refuse a smart meter if you wish but the government have made it a lot more difficult for suppliers to install new ‘traditional’ meters as they are pushing the smart roll out. There really isn’t any big reason not to have a smart meter though - when they work they are very helpful to most customers.

Please contact the company as detailed on their website OP (not any details off the letter). There are some extremely convincing scam letters out there. Just check it's definitely them.

my parents were in their house for around 40 years and noone ever contacted them to suggest their meter was expiring

There's a regulatory obligation on suppliers to check meters every two years, so this does happen especially with far fewer meter readers these days. It's a safety check mainly, but no harm in checking with supplier as suggested earlier.

This sounds extremely suspicious and dodgy. And as previous posters have said, this is almost certainly a tactic to try and change your meters to smart meters.... I've had loads of letters telling me 'a smart meter appointment needs to be booked,' 'you want a smart meter,' 'you are due a smart meter,' 'you need a smart meter,' we will come and install a smart meter - make an appointment for a smart meter!' Probably once a month for about three years!

Until last year when my electricity meter broke. They said they haven't got the part for it 🙄SO they're going to come and replace it with a smart meter. I said 'I don't want a smart meter. I do not. I do not. I do not.' I told about 7 or 8 different people over about 12 different phone calls over 8 days. 'I do not want a smart meter.'

I actually got quite angry and upset as they would not let up, and refused to fix my electric meter, and would only install a smart meter! I got fed up of being bullied, and in the end decided to shame them on Twitter. I got a lot of support from a lot of people on there actually - and I said 'put the bloody smart meter in then, but the second you do, I am changing suppliers!'

In the end they said they'll replace it with a meter that isn't a smart one, but insisted on putting a pay-as-you-go one in, just to make things a bit awkward for me. I said 'while you're there - you might as well change the gas meter, make that pay-as-you-go too!' I pretended like they were doing me a favour. (I have got used to the pay-as-you-go meters now, and actually prefer them!)

People on the phone - and the gas engineer as well - insisted on an explanation as to why I didn't want smart meters. I said 'isn't the fact I don't want one a good enough reason?' They said no.... So I said 'I've heard of so many people saying they've had so many problems with them - but also I live in a very rural area with such a bad signal, that 2 out of 3 of my phone calls (to my phone) go straight to my voicemail, and I have to ring people back - unless I'm in the garden. Also, I've known 5 or 6 people have smart meters in my village and every single one of them has had it changed back to a normal credit meter or a pay-as-you-go meter, within a year because they have had so many problems because of the lack of a signal in the village.'

I got fed up of being harangued and harassed and bullied. I said 'put me on some kind of list that says 'do not send this person anymore smart meter letters!' In the past 12 months, I haven't had another letter. I'm hoping that they leave me alone now. I won't be bullied into something I don't want...

why is there such a push to get the whole population on a smart meter. Is it more environmentally friendly or are they getting tax incentives ??

The push is mainly to help familys save energy by understanding their energy use better.
But here is a full list of pros and cons: https://www.smartme.co.uk/good-or-bad.html.

Just tell them not to come. If they do refuse them entry. They're just trying to force a smart meter on you.

Both. It's entirely normal to have a meter inspected and yes, they do need replacing every so often.

Though the responsibility to the companies is to keep trying to make contact. If they do and can prove it and you opt not to allow ot and something happens such as an incident due a gas leak, that's your responsibility.

If my gas meter was in a basement I would 100% allowing the checks as often as they liked.

Before we changed to a SM (which we love and has never given any trouble) we would give our own meter readings but every couple of years the supplier would take readings themselves (we had to be in to facilitate this).
Have also had a meter changed as it was out of calibration.

Agree to check with your supplier (using a number you found from the website) but I don't immediately see anything sinister in this.

As for the SM debate, personally we love them.
My late M&D were amongst the first to get one back in the day, they were impressed and apart from having to have it upgraded once, it never gave them a moments problem
We have had ours for about 6-7yrs and again, cannot see the issue. We have accurate bills, pay by DD, have built up a healthy surplus and have access to a range of tariffs where we are shown the projected costs/savings before we swop.

I've had that and just ignored it. The meters are only about 10 years old.

Current generation of smart meters don't need a mobile phone signal.

Absolutely. We have had one since 2018 and it has been totally fine up, no more estimated readings, handy little monitor gadget to see power usage. That was until recently. They use cell-phone technology to 'phone home' with the readings, and ours stopped doing that in mid-2023. Still shows up on the in-home monitor gadget. Apparently it is a known issue with lots of early smart meters. British Gas started emailing us asking for readings on the first of every month. Now our gas meter has decided to freeze at the reading of 26th May. We have had 3 appointments with British Gas to get new ones fitted (gas & leccy) and 3 times they have failed to turn up ('technical issue', 'engineer shortage', and 'vehicle issue'). Each time they credit us £30 off our next bill. I can't really see why anyone would not want one, as long as it works properly! Are people getting them mixed up with pre-payment meters?

Not entirely true. They want to switch me because they are unable to switch off my electricity from outside the house. They are desperate to be able to do this. When they needed access to make emergency repairs following storm Arwen, we were happy to let them in, but otherwise I prefer to keep control myself. If I stop paying they’ll soon get a warrant for access anyway.

I kept getting ones saying my meter needed replacing
I held off until they offered me £75 per meter to change to a smart one

I don't want one as our current ones work fine. No estimated readings, it takes a couple of minutes to read and input once a month. When I last checked, appointments were in my working hours so would cost me in lost annual leave. You say you have had three missed appointments? I don't want to waste three days holiday waiting in for people!

£30 credit would not cover my time off work.