Electrics meter

[ban-all-sheds]

It must be, otherwise why would they have done it?

Surely you don't think that a Government would make things worse for people for purely selfish ideological reasons, do you?

 

[Yukster]

Does your energy supplier know he's interfered with their equipment?

No

 

[RF Lighting]

Don't tell 'em pike

 

[Yukster]

Don't tell 'em pike

It seems to me that doing noting isnt such a brilant idea becuase the meter isnt sealed and i dont want to apear to have stolen electricity. It seems like i have two options: 1. remove the meter and ask them again to come and fit it or 2. tell them it has been moved an electrician and ask them to come and seal it. What do you advise?

 

[PBC_1966]

That's because it is more efficient, and leads to lower prices and better service for consumers if the companies who make the electricity, who own the distribution infrastructure, and who own the meter and sell to consumers are all completely separate.

Thanks - That's a good laugh to start off the morning!

That's something we don't have here. If you're in PG&E territory then PG&E maintains the distribution infrastructure, provides metering, and sends you the bill; here in Redding we have a city-owned electric utility so the city maintains the infrastructure, does the metering, and sends the bill. So just like the "old days" in Britain, there's no choice of supplier, but it's far simpler.

 

[PBC_1966]

It seems to me that doing noting isnt such a brilant idea becuase the meter isnt sealed and i dont want to apear to have stolen electricity. It seems like i have two options: 1. remove the meter and ask them again to come and fit it or 2. tell them it has been moved an electrician and ask them to come and seal it. What do you advise?

The latter. Since the seals have been broken and it's already been moved, there's absolutely no point in removing it or putting it back where it was.

Personally, I would advise them in a letter (printed and posted, not e-mail), setting out the reasons why your electrician moved it - That you arranged with them three times for it to be done and they failed to keep the appointments etc. List the dates & times and keep anything else you had from them pertaining to it. Then if they try to be awkward about it, you have everything down in writing.

 

[Yukster]

The latter. Since the seals have been broken and it's already been moved, there's absolutely no point in removing it or putting it back where it was

I'm wondering whether the power company would be too fussed that their meter was removed after the supply had been cut. I'm pretty sure they'll be unhappy about their meter being connected after the new supply has been installed, wouldn't you say?[/QUOTE]

 

[Taylortwocities]

You havent said where this meter came from. I assume that it is the meter that was previously installed at the property?
This is important as each meter's serial number is tied to the property records.

If this is the original meter for the property then I would just keep quiet about it. Who is to know that the DNO guy didn't connect it up when he moved the service head? Now the DNO and the energy supply companies are separate there is no proper tie up in their records.

If it is not the meter provided by the energy supply company, you had better get it off the supply pronto and wait for SSE, or whoever, to fit their meter.

 

[Echo the husky]

A meter fitter not appearing for 3 visits? That's nothing, we waited on site on 7 occasions before a meter fitter finally arrived. Even then it almost didn't happen, and required a number of angry phone calls. The commercial customer was peed right off as he had to shut his restaurant on all those occasions in preparation for the power being off for a while.

The DNO around here don't seem to care about missing seals and will just replace them if they are doing something else to the cutout etc. Some of the local meter fitters can't even get the polarity correct on a single phase supply so it's not worth mentioning missing seals to them as they won't have a clue what is going on.

When all the electrical work is complete it might be worth contacting the DNO and mentioning the missing seal, the DNO here used to charge a £25 resealing fee, but I'm not sure if they still have that arrangement in place.

 

[RF Lighting]

Years ago when I was an apprentice we used to be given temporary plastic seals from Yorkshire electricity to reseal meters and cutouts after we had worked on them. They would then come out and reseal at their leisure.

You can buy metal sealing wire and seals on a well known internet auction site, but I would never condone this sort of behaviour.

 

[securespark]

It must be, otherwise why would they have done it?

Surely you don't think that a Government would make things worse for people for purely selfish ideological reasons, do you?

Do you really think the Govt. give two fooks?

Remind yourself of what successive Govt.'s have done to individuals and groups of people (the latest being the disgusting way the London Mayor was treated in the run-up to being elected) before answering.

 

[securespark]

You can buy metal sealing wire and seals on a well known internet auction site, but I would never condone this sort of behaviour.

I sold a pile of mine on AWKIAS and I didn't condone this sort of behaviour.

 

[SimonH2]

A meter fitter not appearing for 3 visits? That's nothing, we waited on site on 7 occasions before a meter fitter finally arrived. Even then it almost didn't happen, and required a number of angry phone calls. The commercial customer was peed right off as he had to shut his restaurant on all those occasions in preparation for the power being off for a while.

We've a site we provide internet to, and they've planned a meter change that would interrupt our main connection for multiple tenants 4 times now.
The first time, we knew nothing about it, but I happened to be on-site the day before and the receptionist mentioned it. When I pointed out the effect on internet service to the site, they phoned and had it postponed.
They've had 3 other appointments set and cancelled so far. It's really annoying - do we notify all our customers every time we're given a date ? Or do we avoid causing a lot of confusion but not give them much notice if the appointment isn't cancelled ?
For your customer, I'd have (by the 2nd or 3rd missed appointment) been putting in writing about the costs - and telling them in no uncertain terms that the'd be paying for all losses if they failed to turn up next time. I very much doubt that the small print absolving themselves for any liability for anything even if they were complete twunks would prevail in the small claims court.
The only way to deal with this malaise is to make it more expensive than actually planning properly. I suspect the problem is the same as with phone line installs etc. With that, BTOR schedule an "optimistic" number of appointments per engineer - with the result that by the end of the day, the engineer doesn't get to them all unless he's been really lucky and they all turned out to be simple and quick jobs. That's one reason we never ever pick a PM appointment when arranging things for customers

 

[Echo the husky]

These visits were all booked in as the first job 8am so no problems with timings. On the last day when no one turned up we finally found out the fitter had called in sick. It was rather rude that even after all these problems, the company didn't have the decency to phone and say no one was going to be available as the fitter was ill. It took several phone calls and a lot of faffing about before we finally found out that no one was going to attend. I had been waiting on site for nearly 3 hours before we finally got an answer. Fortunately a building management company were arranging the swap from the old supply to the new supply, so it was for them to deal with. We just had to be there to connect the new tails inside while the meter was being fitted outside. After more phoning someone was sent the same day to do the swap, they were a 4 hour drive away though!