Calling DNO/ power company types? Complex meter!?

Does your colleague have superdeal?

A complex meter is a multi tariff meter, for example the old supplier provided E10 but the new supplier only offers E7. Or it was a system which had multi time of day switching via a separate off peak meter. They are still around. This can be the downside with going with a new supplier courtesy of "market compare" outfits.

Hope this helps. 

Regards UKPN

Thank you for the responses...


Superdeal..sounds unlikely but  I will ask him.


E7/10... very unlikely, his house has never had storage heating and so forth, always been gas for heating. He's the 'house basher' of our team, I'm the 'reads the regs book' guy hence it falling to me. From what I've seen when drinking coffee between jobs working in his house, it's a fairly bog standard, 4 terminal, single rate meter. But i will confirm when he wakes up :-)


To be honest his current supplier seems incompetent in the extreme, sending warning letters about court action from one department while accepting payments happily from another dept.


(long story short, messy separation, wife who moved out cancelled the direct debits without telling him). I wouldn't put it past them to have ticked the wrong box on a form somewhere.


Thanks for the indulgence, I realize this is nothing to do with the regs, or electrical work in general, truth be told, but I know we have people who know how the industry works :)

Parts Worcester still have five digit phone numbers eg 01905 12345


The mother-in-law took a phone contract through the Post Office which includes free local calls, she phoned the customer ream to complain that she was being charged to phone some of her local friends, they said it was because she was dialling a special short code rather than a “proper” phone number, because all phone numbers have six digits. You can imagine how the conversation progressed.


Andy

Off the original subject but inability to understand how phone numbers work drives me mad... especially down here in 023 land. People still routinely quote numbers as 02380 xxx xxx or 02392 xxx xxx


It's like they don't care that the area code is 023?!


And back to the subject... i've referred my colleague to ofgem if the 'company' refuses to fix it. Never been any kind of special deal, or e7 or e10 or anything on the premises. Just single tariff meter

There is the tendency for people in call centres to not understand any systems that vary slightly from the norm.


I am getting recorded messages on my home phone answer machine and emails again from Npower about installing a smart meter for my dad, he is also getting letters.


Npower told me that they could not discuss my dad’s account unless I was at his flat or I sent them a certified copy of the power of attorney I have, despite me managing his account though their app on my phone and the contact details being mine.


So we had a general, non-specific conversation about smart meters, how they work and their installation. His electric meter is in a locked plant room that has a group of twelve meters, the plant room also has the lift gear in it and roof access, so the appointment for access needs to be made with the housing association, not my dad as they have the key. 


Npower said they would not contact the housing association or turn up without an appointment on the basis that there should be someone on the reception desk in case they were on holiday, but also said they cannot fit a smart meter in a group of twelve in a plant room as their signals clash, so they would mark it as a job that cannot be done.


But they are still trying to book an appointment ?


Andy Betteridge

I do get that, but if anything happens to my dad and he has to move or there is a better deal from another supplier, I’ll just cancel the direct debit or transfer or close the account depending on if he’s still alive and needs his own account.


On that day I was not in the mood to faff about sending a certified power of attorney to be told they could not install a smart meter anyway. If push shove to come I would put him on the phone to speak to them, I used to do that with my granny when she was in her late 90’s, it wasn’t long before the phone was back in my hands, but presumably they had a recording of the conversation they tried to have with her ?


I was telling someone yesterday about when I went and bought two of my elderly customers a new 48” TV, they used to phone me every time they had a problem with the old telly, but the old lady couldn’t remember my name despite it being on the business card she looked at for the phone number, I would get home and my wife would say she had phoned and said something such as “Hellooo, is Dave there? Our telly is broken, we can only get Radio 2” the telly did eventually pack up altogether.


I am doing jobs at present where every time I go out to the van to get something it’s like meeting the customer for the first time when I go back into their homes. You learn to cope with it and smile a lot.


There are millions of people in this country who need help with what appears to be relatively simple tasks without having anyone to help them, it does not help that there are three different types of power of attorney and if the person asked to help is a casual acquaintance or even a family member all sorts of problems can arise without a POA.


Going back to the original post, the bill payer didn’t understand the conversation, but presumably someone else can only try and have the conversation if the bill payer initiates the phone call then passes the phone across.


I probably should send my dad’s utility companies a certified copy of the POA, but we might change the supplier by the end of the week, who knows? And between use my wife and I are helping quite a few people in one way or another, she is taking a 80 and a 90 year old shopping at the moment and the 80 year old is herself a career for someone in their 50’s. Lots of little support networks that can easily fail and are quite time consuming without messing about with conversations about smart meters that cannot be installed anyway ?


Andy B.

Unfortunately everyone is still scared of the GDPR legislation, because of its teeth. Fines can be up to 4% of the companies annual turnover, or €20M, which ever is the greater. 


Regards,


Alan.