Competance of 'engineers' - Smart Meters

[Harry Bloomfield]

I have arranged to have my gas and leccy meters changed for the Smart versions. As I don't have an isolator upstream of my consumer unit, I thought it would be a good time to have one fitted, so enquired if that could be done at the same time if I supplied and mounted a suitable isolator in the cabinet.

The reply from my supplier astounded me - Their engineers are only trained to swap the meters, they are not qualified to do anything else. Swapping meters is likely the most dangerous job on a domestic installation, with some very serious safety implications if they do get it wrong.

They indicated they would need to engage another 'specialised engineer' to do it, at a cost to me of £70. Good grief what is the world coming to?

[michael adams]

IMO its more likely its the call-centre staff who are bit confused.

The job is probably timed and costed at a fixed price for just the meter swaps. And appointments are scheduled on that basis.

Despite the meter installers being fully qualified for any additional work as might be required, (something the call centre staff can't necessarily be expected to know) the schedule only allows them a fixed time to do each job; so an additional fitter/appointment will need to be booked.

michael adams

...

[Andrew Gabriel]

The smart meter installers are mostly trained by rote - they aren't electricians or gas fitters. They wouldn't be able to get enough of them fast enough for the programme, and within costs.

£70 sounds quite low to me.

[Adrian Caspersz]

The guy that swapped my gas meter left us with a leak, after he had gone away after relighting the boiler. It was a swap that left the new meter hanging on the pipes, no secure wall/floor contact or screws.

We called Transco out for the emergency, they tightened the nuts which fixed the leak, still left the meter floating in air, refused to relight the boiler (for being a bit unserviced) and stuck a prohibition notice on it.

We then called a gas engineer. He cleaned out the boiler jets, pronounced that there was not enough air in the cupboard - could he quote to fix that? (cupboard is far end from drafty garage door)

I ran down to B&Q, bought the cheapest no-name SDS drill there and installed an airbrick (next to the drafty garage door) for a fraction of the quote.

A while later, I got the meter installed properly to the wall.

Moral. None. But beware of complications ...

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andrew Gabriel a écrit :

That sounds as if I ought to be very, very concerned indeed. How do they justify unskilled or at best semi-skilled people doing a job like this?

[Harry Bloomfield]

michael adams a écrit :

No, the call centre staff made it clear that the guys they send out were only trained and qualified for that one task of changing the meter.

I seems I shall have to do my own tests for leaks and check terminal screws are properly tightened.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Competance????

Of people posting to UK.D-I-Y?

I was watching an old bit of telly and was appalled to see the caption come up:

'Malay Peninsular'.

People simply can't spell any more.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Harry Bloomfield a écrit :

I am very sceptical and untrusting of many supposedly qualified people.

Around 3 years ago we had the boiler replaced with one of less Kw output than the existing one. The guy who surveyed the job tried to insist it would require a new higher capacity pipe which would need to be run outside on the surface of the house, from the meter to the boiler. I told him to recalulate the load on the pipework and if it involved any new pipe, they could cancel the entire job.

New boiler fitted, no need for any additional pipework.

[Simo]

IMO it's the sensible way to do the meter changers, only train them to change meters and have other more generally qualified people doing the rest.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Simo a écrit :

Economic maybe, safe and sensible IMHO probably not. It works fine until something goes wrong.

[Simo]

Still makes much more sense to have a much smaller crew of fully qualified people who the meter changers can call on when something goes wrong than to train all the meter changers so they can do everything that might ever happen.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yes, but I have known proper qualified engineers not manage to even do that simple task correctly.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Been told that boiler manufacturers can decline some warranty claims if their boiler is found starved of gas, and fitters don't want to risk that.

(Allegedly)

[Robert]

Its called de-skilling and has occurred in many service industries. Take a well defined routine job away from a generically trained professional/technician/engineer and train someone with much lower qualifications to just do the one job - much cheaper and can result in a better job being done. You then need far fewer expensive generically qualified people . In the NHS taking routine blood samples used to be done by doctors even consultants and is now done very efficiently by phlebotomists a " clinical support worker" who does nothing else. Those who have been Blood Donors for a long time have seen a similar de-skilling of the staff involved and IMHO they do a much better job.

[DerbyBorn]

Seems reasonable to me. If it is not routine then don't do it will be their training.

[DerbyBorn]

Harry Bloomfield wrote in news:ngdiid$g31$ [e-mail]:

IMHO "Skilled" people often do things that are beyond their level of competence. Corporate Responsibility requires personnel to be trained to undertake tasks. Because someone did an apprenticeship 15 years ago is no longer sufficient if an injury case comes to court.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Adrian Caspersz a écrit :

It is not, would not have been starved of gas - the existing pipework was properly specified for the older boiler of 1.5x the output already. I also checked the pipe size calculations myself.

[DerbyBorn]

Harry Bloomfield wrote in news:ngdfm9 $4rp$ [e-mail]:

They are well trained to do what is expected of them. If it is outside a spec then they will back off and get someone else. (Anyway - there might be a "ping - f*ck it" in the Isolator you provided!!)

[Roger Mills]

They're trained to do a specific job - and nothing else.

Happens in other industries. For example, you can be trained just to take blood samples from patients - without requiring any medical qualifications! I don't which is the more scary.

[dennis]

All they do is pull the fuse, swap the meter, put the fuse back and crimp on some new tags.