Two and three tier tariffs

[Technician]

I do not know how many of you guys look carefully at the meter in the

houses you visit. Some of you will have noticed a two-rate meter if one

has been fitted.

Without going into the ins-and-outs too much, if the householder does not

have night storage heating the meter may still be interpreted as a two rate

device instead of a standard tariff one and may be paying a lot more for

what they use.

The two-rate tariff was designed for people who had no access to mains

gas and thus heat, light, cooking etc. was all electric.

You might get brownie points by asking your customer whether the meter

is producing bills with standard tariffs or night rate. If the latter they will be

paying too much and although there is a cost to convert, it is usually paid back

well inside six months.

Hope this assists.

 

[batty]

Trouble is techie you try getting suppliers to change them last one i tried to get changed there answer was we only change them when they are due to be changed. Not sure how often this is think our meter in our house must have been in at least 20 years before it was changed. You fight a losing battle to get them to do anything but i always point out to customers it would be a good idea to get them changed if they don't have storage heaters.

 

[Technician]

Batty; you are spot on right about this. I worked once in a zoo (customer contact centre) and was alerting customers to the problem. Initially the tariffs were changed at no cost because the meter was interpreted as a single rate meter. It can be done. Eventually the company rumbled it and costs were slapped on if the customer wanted it to be done. All of us know that the day tariffs on E7 are higher than the standard day tariffs on single rate. There are still a lot of people who are unaware of this.