No one wants to fit me a gas meter
Discussion
I'm getting a gas supply installed at my house in about a month as I'm sick of oil.
This includes a meter box, but I have to get a meter installed by my gas supplier.
1. My electricity is with SSE so I started by ringing them. After 35 minutes on hold listening to a Scottish woman extolling the virtues of smart meters, the phone rang once then I was cut off.
2. A bit of Googling revealed EON fit them for free, so I rang them, and after a few minutes got through to a nice chap that said they no longer fit domestic gas meters. I pointed out that their website was a trifle misleading, and he replied "so I keep telling my line manager".
3. Next: British Gas. I listened to a nice lady telling me how busy their call centre was for half an hour, the phone started to actually ring... rang for about five minutes then cut me off.
4. Next: EDF. Found the "want a new gas meter?" number, called it, and a pre-recorded message said "due to the volatility in wholesale markets, we are not currently installing new gas meters. Goodbye."
This, then, would appear to be the crux of the matter. As a domestic customer of an existing property, none of the energy companies want to fit me a meter because they can't make any money out of me. If I was a new build house or a business they might, as far as I can see.
So:
1. I can see ads online for companies that do nothing but fit meters. eg https://www.crownenergy.co.uk/services/gas-meters/
Presumably this is going to cost me £££ compared to a utility company.
2. Having done so, will I then be able to get any of the energy suppliers to take me on as a new gas customer?
Would appreciate the advice of anyone that knows what tf is going on!
As the OP I realise it's my fault somehow.
This includes a meter box, but I have to get a meter installed by my gas supplier.
1. My electricity is with SSE so I started by ringing them. After 35 minutes on hold listening to a Scottish woman extolling the virtues of smart meters, the phone rang once then I was cut off.
2. A bit of Googling revealed EON fit them for free, so I rang them, and after a few minutes got through to a nice chap that said they no longer fit domestic gas meters. I pointed out that their website was a trifle misleading, and he replied "so I keep telling my line manager".
3. Next: British Gas. I listened to a nice lady telling me how busy their call centre was for half an hour, the phone started to actually ring... rang for about five minutes then cut me off.
4. Next: EDF. Found the "want a new gas meter?" number, called it, and a pre-recorded message said "due to the volatility in wholesale markets, we are not currently installing new gas meters. Goodbye."
This, then, would appear to be the crux of the matter. As a domestic customer of an existing property, none of the energy companies want to fit me a meter because they can't make any money out of me. If I was a new build house or a business they might, as far as I can see.
So:
1. I can see ads online for companies that do nothing but fit meters. eg https://www.crownenergy.co.uk/services/gas-meters/
Presumably this is going to cost me £££ compared to a utility company.
2. Having done so, will I then be able to get any of the energy suppliers to take me on as a new gas customer?
Would appreciate the advice of anyone that knows what tf is going on!
As the OP I realise it's my fault somehow.
ApexCult said:
ghamer said:
You're gonna have to find a supplier that will fit one as you can't just source a meter and have a supplier adopt it.They will own and be responsible for it.
What happens when you move suppliers then? 
If ot was me I would try again a bit more persistanltly with all the suppliers. Identify who the "default" supplier is for your area and harrass them as hard as you possibly can. Each area has a default supplier that was the defacto supplier before deregulation. It was back in the 90s, but I remember from a training course that the default supplier for that reigon has more of an obligation to you in terms of service, but that they tend to be the dearest supplier for that area.
https://www.energynetworks.org/operating-the-netwo...
Put your postcode in here, find out who your gas dno is, request a meter point number then contact the dnos retail team.
https://www.energynetworks.org/operating-the-netwo...
Put your postcode in here, find out who your gas dno is, request a meter point number then contact the dnos retail team.
Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Monday 17th January 20:27
OP - it's not your fault...
but many Gas suppliers are not wanting to take on any new business as they're, rightly, scared of losing money.. so this will be a battle for you (even uswtich are advising people "not" to switch... not that companies are letting you just now)
best bet is to try the two you didn't get a hold of and see if they can do anything... if not, take to social media as you may get more luck there
however, as someone as said above, gas prices are only going one way IMO and if it's not too late, you should consider your electric options if possible
but many Gas suppliers are not wanting to take on any new business as they're, rightly, scared of losing money.. so this will be a battle for you (even uswtich are advising people "not" to switch... not that companies are letting you just now)
best bet is to try the two you didn't get a hold of and see if they can do anything... if not, take to social media as you may get more luck there
however, as someone as said above, gas prices are only going one way IMO and if it's not too late, you should consider your electric options if possible
xyz123 said:
Ring SSE again as you said the phone for cut off...
Ah yes I missed that detail, I then found a contact form on the SSE website (by pretending I couldn't use the phone) and asked the appropriate team to contact me.A day later they replied they were not fitting domestic meters any more...
We had gas installed literally as the very first lockdown hit.
It was arranged a good few weeks before with Eon who were our current electricity supplier at the time, and they then put us on a dual fuel tariff (we were only electric) before.
I had no idea that they were no longer doing domestic gas installs?! I thought the lockdown would scupper the install but to be fair they arrived on time and carried it out, probably because it was all outside work.
We switched to British Gas in September last year and they came out and fitted a new smart meter etc.
Really wouldn’t consider electric alternatives to be honest, we were on that and wanted out for years before we finally had gas installed. Very intrusive work but so worth it in the end. The cost of complete gas install including digging up the road to connect etc, was only about £1k more than having Quantum storage heaters installed (which are still massive, and from speaking to people who had them, still pretty useless and expensive).
It was arranged a good few weeks before with Eon who were our current electricity supplier at the time, and they then put us on a dual fuel tariff (we were only electric) before.
I had no idea that they were no longer doing domestic gas installs?! I thought the lockdown would scupper the install but to be fair they arrived on time and carried it out, probably because it was all outside work.
We switched to British Gas in September last year and they came out and fitted a new smart meter etc.
Really wouldn’t consider electric alternatives to be honest, we were on that and wanted out for years before we finally had gas installed. Very intrusive work but so worth it in the end. The cost of complete gas install including digging up the road to connect etc, was only about £1k more than having Quantum storage heaters installed (which are still massive, and from speaking to people who had them, still pretty useless and expensive).
Got the same problem.
Moved into a property that needs a new electric meter as it has one that had a eco 7 timer with it and some other rubbish.
No chance, eon wont do it currently despite being quite happy to have a poxy smart meter installed.
Guess they don't want the costs at the moment.
Moved into a property that needs a new electric meter as it has one that had a eco 7 timer with it and some other rubbish.
No chance, eon wont do it currently despite being quite happy to have a poxy smart meter installed.
Guess they don't want the costs at the moment.
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