Pennington pensioner slams British Gas over meter bill

A PENNINGTON man says he is being “punished” by British Gas for refusing a smart meter after he was billed £175 for the installation of a replacement pre-payment meter.

Rick Cotee (72) called on the gas company to replace his meter at his home in Meadow Road after it stopped working around seven months ago.

“I was told by the engineer he’d see me in six months, because it would fail again,” said Rick, of Meadow Road. “He was right and I had to call British Gas again. Only this time I was told by the engineer he couldn’t fix it and the only thing he could do is replace it with a smart meter.

“I said I don’t want a smart meter because the phone signal around here is weak, meaning three quarters of the time, the damn thing wouldn’t work. I also know people who have them and have had no end of problems with them.

“We were then totally without gas for a week, and they came back out to install another pre-payment meter, for which I then received a £175 bill.

“Why the hell should I pay British Gas to get one of their meters? Especially given the amount of money they’ve made over the last few years – I don’t think it’s right.

“It feels like this is punishment for refusing a smart meter. I’m not intimidated easily but there are a lot of older folk out there who would feel worried and just give in.”

Mr Cotee said it was his understanding the debt would be “tagged on” to his gas meter, meaning he would pay an amount off every time he topped up.

“British Gas are running roughshod over those customers who don’t want smart meters,” he said.

After being contacted by the A&T, British Gas said it had decided to waive the fee for the meter.

A spokesperson said: “When Mr Cottee let us know that his gas prepayment meter had stopped working, we offered to replace it with a smart meter for free.

“However, as he preferred a traditional meter, we agreed to provide a like-for-like replacement at his request. We have removed the charge for this as a gesture of goodwill.”

Addressing concerns over poor signal, the spokesperson said the latest smart meters use the “industry smart meter network rather than a mobile network”.

Smart meters are billed as the “next generation” of gas and electricity meter, showing customers how much energy they’re using and how much it is costing on an in-home display.

Unlike home devices like smart TVs, computers and tablets that use Wi-Fi and public broadband, smart meters send and receive information using a standalone network managed by the Data Communications Company (DCC).

According to the DCC, smart meter readings are transmitted “to a wide area network (made up of mobile phone or radio masts), and from these to the DCC servers”.