Meter readers---
 

We have Consumers Energy here. Last month, the meter reader apparently couldn't get the reading because of "overgrown bushes". We were sent a letter advising us to trim them back which I did. They are peonies that are not thick like an evergreen. I had no problem seeing the meter.

Today there was a note on our door that they want ME to get the reading and call them with it. No reason given on the note this time. I was here but around back working in the yard.

We have been here 15 years and have never had any issue with energy or water readings.

Frikkin' idiots I tell ya! I think I will ask for a credit to our account for me doing the job.:p

We have the same problem here in Canada with our garbage pick up usually it's a new employee just enforcing the rules

Our Electric and Natural Gas meters have a little transmitter that the meter reader guy just drives down the street and it records the information to the device in the truck. He just cruises by at 20 MPH and gets the entire neighborhood. The city water sends a human to look in the hole for the meter. That is not likely to change since they have a fairly strong union and would never sit still for automation. The Gas company and Electric company are private enterprise and watch the bottom line.

Not a chance on this earth. You want my money, come and get it...but I'm not working to give it away.

About a year ago we moved into the new house, October '14 connected to city water, but didn't get a bill through 7/15. Called and told them the scenario...they told us it was our job to ensure their guys had installed the meter properly, because we didn't, we'd yet to get a bill.

A mouthful of high velocity expletives and 25 minutes later, magically, someone was at the door wanting to see the meter. Install was 100%. Tech calls the "meter reader" who is a 27 year veteran and asks wtf? He told the tech we weren't a "regular" on his list so hadn't been reading it...

I called them just after starting this thread. Was on hold for 25 minutes.

Bite me.

Our meter reader (elec.) had to climb over a barbed wire fence and walk to the pole out in the pasture. Now they've got some magic way of doing it remotely.

When I was a kid the meter reader would walk right in your house down to the basement and read the meter. they did that right up into the 80's
No one thought anything about it and no one locked their doors.

Expensive human labor and a labor force at work vs. complete automation world replacing old technology?
There are downsides to each.

Don't knock it just yet...
Just like the self driving cars, it will only be a matter of time before someone decides to find the electronic kill switch to entire neighborhoods or cities.
For a nail, sometimes the hammer works better than a motherboard.

Here if the power co. can't read it they'll estimate the bill. After some number of months of estimating they turn the power off.

At my office the water meter is behind a panel in the wall of my office. They give me a card and I write down the numbers on the meter every three months and send it in to them. It's not that hard. Once a year or so they want to read it themselves to see if I've been fudging the numbers.

We have a cottage on a lake. The power company reads the meter on the even months and estimates the odd months.

I have no idea how they come up with the estimates. Estimated payments are all over the map and seem to have no relationship to proceeding or trailing month readings.

At my first house back in my single days I had a Doberman that was a sweetheart friendly dog unless you were a cat or squirrel. Like all dogs she loved bones and a local butcher friend would give me and entire cow leg bone with the joints. She loved them. In the winter time sometimes there were two or three leg bones in the back yard.

For some reason the meter reader refused to go back there and he reported a vicious dog in the yard. They showed up with animal control and a cop so they could get a good look at the meter. I invited them back there and the animal control guy could tell in seconds she was the opposite of vicious. She rolled on her back for the cop wanting a belly rub. The both laughed at the meter reader and left.

He just saw the leg bones and no doubt my dog barked at him so he figured she was mean. No dog of mine will ever be vicious.

Same here. Thinking back, I can remember the guy walking into the basement when I was ~5. Thinking back it was pretty strange but thats the way it worked.

Yet you didn't think it was strange how he came and "read the meter" every day right after your dad left for work?

good stuff

I used to do meter turn ons or turn offs for Consumers Gas (remember them?). We'd had access to all kinds of buildings with keys hidden everywhere. Dogs were a real treat. I learned to out run them. I only got bitten once. :D

My gas meter is physically impossible to read. I don't know how they come up with the bills, as I use the same amount year round. Yet, in winter is considerably more expensive.
Back in the days of the spinning disk electricity meters, I had meter readers read the meter wrong and that was always fun to fix.

Did a little work on one meter my own self about 40 years ago.
An elderly couple in Berkeley, CA that were friends came into some bad financial times such that they were hard pressed to pay bills.
This was back in the days where the spinning disc meter retaining band was "sealed" by a lead slug and a tiny cable running through it.
I pulled lightly on the slug and the cable slipped out easily.
Unscrewed the metal band, removed the meter to expose the base.
I cut the heads cut off a couple of large nails, unscrewed all four binding posts, bent the nails in the shape of and "L", using an insulated pliers I inserted them into the binding posts under the screws, and set the house wiring & meter in parallel.
Ran a needle through the slug and the cable slipped right back through.
Their monthly bill dropped to a 1/4 of what it was.
Three years later he died of testicular cancer and she put the house up for sale.
I went over and reversed what I had done.
.
Bless me Father, for I have sinned.

We have SRP and the info is sent to them constantly. I can log on to their system and see our electricity use graphed by the hour.