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Energy firms investigating customers who cut back on electricity to afford bills
- Thread starter Joe Noodles
- Start date
Scandalous, we are getting screwed always by these firms, and then when you try to save money they don't like it 
. That's telling us you must consume their crazy overpriced product and pay ridiculous daily charges so they can send out investigators too check you aren't on the fiddle.
. That's telling us you must consume their crazy overpriced product and pay ridiculous daily charges so they can send out investigators too check you aren't on the fiddle.
eder
DW Regular +
Some of you will see my name here and roll your eyes....
I worked in the energy industry for over 10 years (no shit, I probably said that 10,000 times, sorry!) - a drop of usage from £115 a month to £65, without any solar, battery, etc investment (of which the supplier would've been aware) can only be a result of 2 things:
1) She was an absolute "burn all" customer with not efficiency mind. Talking about heating on most of the day kinda customer here
2) Meter has been tampered with
For the average, on the ball customers there simply isn't a realistic way to reduce your monthly bill by 44%.
So, for the energy supplier to check everything is in order for a customer who has magically reduced her bill by 44%, I think is reasonable. If this was a genuine change of habits, good on her for identifying she was wasting not only energy but her money and taking the steps to change.
On this visit, if everything was in order, the engineer would've been in and out in less than 10min - I can't believe honest people would've genuinely have a problem with that?!
Feel free to crucify my opinion - I am passionate about the subject only because I know how misunderstood the industry is. But also appreciate that some of the shit malpractice that happens doesn't really help the cause! lol
I worked in the energy industry for over 10 years (no shit, I probably said that 10,000 times, sorry!) - a drop of usage from £115 a month to £65, without any solar, battery, etc investment (of which the supplier would've been aware) can only be a result of 2 things:
1) She was an absolute "burn all" customer with not efficiency mind. Talking about heating on most of the day kinda customer here
2) Meter has been tampered with
For the average, on the ball customers there simply isn't a realistic way to reduce your monthly bill by 44%.
So, for the energy supplier to check everything is in order for a customer who has magically reduced her bill by 44%, I think is reasonable. If this was a genuine change of habits, good on her for identifying she was wasting not only energy but her money and taking the steps to change.
On this visit, if everything was in order, the engineer would've been in and out in less than 10min - I can't believe honest people would've genuinely have a problem with that?!
Feel free to crucify my opinion - I am passionate about the subject only because I know how misunderstood the industry is. But also appreciate that some of the shit malpractice that happens doesn't really help the cause! lol
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How it is and how it should be...
Them: Guilty until proven innocent
Us: Innocent until proven guilty
Them: Guilty until proven innocent
Us: Innocent until proven guilty
Some of you will see my name here is roll your eyes....
I worked in the energy industry for over 10 years (no shit, I probably said that 10,000 times, sorry!) - a drop of usage from £115 a month to £65, without any solar, battery, etc investment (of which the supplier would've been aware) can only be a result of 2 things:
1) She was an absolute "burn all" customer with not efficiency mind. Talking about heating on most of the day kinda customer here
2) Meter has been tampered with
For the average, on the ball customers there simply isn't a realistic way to reduce your monthly bill by 44%.
So, for the energy supplier to check everything is in order for a customer who has magically reduced her bill by 44%, I think is reasonable. If this was a genuine change of habits, good on her for identifying she was wasting not only energy but her money and taking the steps to change.
On this visit, if everything was in order, the engineer would've been in and out in less than 10min - I can't believe honest people would've genuinely have a problem with that?!
Feel free to crucify my opinion - I am passionate about the subject only because I know how misunderstood the industry is. But also appreciate that some of the shit malpractice that happens doesn't really help the cause! lol
eder
DW Regular +
Not quite.
Like any other crime, an investigation needs to take place right? The visit is the investigation.
But before all of that, why feel guilty in the first place? I guarantee that the supplier did not accuse her of anything.
I didn't want to get into the compliance side of things as it's complex and very boring, but based on your point I think is important to:
The sudden drop could also be as a result of faulty meter as 1 example. Suppliers have a duty to investigate this. If anything happens with the meter/customer and post-incident investigation shows that not only the supplier had data to show the discrepancy but choose to ignore they'll be in deep waters to explain why.
People nowadays are too sensitive to the normalities of an heavily regulated industry.
If her house had exploded, the headline would've been - "Family dies as supplier fails to check faulty meter" - whatever they do, is a lose-lose situation.
I have used less leccy than last year and if they try and come to mine now to check they can trully feck off!
they are not getting in.
when I could not get them to come out to replace an old fuse
Warrant it is thenI have used less leccy than last year and if they try and come to mine now to check they can trully feck off!
they are not getting in.
when I could not get them to come out to replace an old fuse
Legally you only need to allow them every 2 years. If you refuse at that point they can get a court order to force entry the meter legally remains the property of the energy company and by using it you agree to allowing them entry to read in every 2 years , so the court order is very easy to get.
eder
DW Regular +
2 sides to everything folks.
Not saying they are always right, they are not. They f*ck up all the time, I just wanted to share a little of the reality in the industry.
But, I will say, I've dealt with thousands of complaints during a stint in the exec complain team, 99% would've been avoided if some arrogant, unhelpful and ignorant customers listened to what was being said/asked in the first place. But, there were plenty of royal f*ck ups on the 1% as there are plenty of similarly arrogant, unhelpful and ignorant customer service agents.
I used to LOVE to re-handle complaints months later to say a professional "I told you so" - childish, I know, but satisfying!
Not saying they are always right, they are not. They f*ck up all the time, I just wanted to share a little of the reality in the industry.
But, I will say, I've dealt with thousands of complaints during a stint in the exec complain team, 99% would've been avoided if some arrogant, unhelpful and ignorant customers listened to what was being said/asked in the first place. But, there were plenty of royal f*ck ups on the 1% as there are plenty of similarly arrogant, unhelpful and ignorant customer service agents.
I used to LOVE to re-handle complaints months later to say a professional "I told you so" - childish, I know, but satisfying!
Got it in one. They love to feel offended. These type of stories are littering mainstream and social media so much it's hard to tell the real stories from the concocted ones.
Who gives a shit if they come to inspect a meter? It's their property and if you're legit you have nothing to worry about.
Wouldn't have been personal anyway. Chances are that an account that has averaged x amount of £'s for x amount of time suddenly shows a large dip, a flag is raised and a request generated to meter compliance or whatever they call it now.
Many years ago I spent a few months in the local EMEB Meter Research Lab where I repaired meters that had been tampered with. Let's just say there was no shortage of work
eder
DW Regular +
I did a bit of work in the faulty meter lab too, not repairing myself but to learn a bit of that side of the business. From the 100's of meters I personally saw going through the lab not 1 had been faulty and recording MORE consumption. When meters go faulty, they record less or stop recording.Many years ago I spent a few months in the local EMEB Meter Research Lab where I repaired meters that had been tampered with. Let's just say there was no shortage of work
I used to have a hard time dealing with escalated complains where they thought the meter was faulty because of a consumption spike - I had one once, that complained, we HAD to follow up (even though we knew the outcome), money was spent on site visits, engineers, replacing meter, testing meter, writing letters to the customers - to then later find out that for 1 whole of the 2 months in question the customer had a kitchen and bathroom refit/redesign and had loads of power tools being used. To then be told "oh, didn't really think of it"
Noice!
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