The Trees

Has anyone else had issues with Oncor not being able to read your electric meter due to locked gates or dogs in the back yards? The meter reader came by today and asked me to unlock my gate so he can get in the back yard. I let him in and asked him how he normally reads the meter when I am not home to let him in the yard - his response, he jumps the fence to get in.  I have lived in other cities where the reader never gets out of his car, they drive down the street and are able to read all the meters from the street using a "radar gun", oncor told me I could have a meter that can be read from the street if I wanted to pay around $800 for it!

Never had an issue (although I used to tell the neighborhood kids I had a Komodo Dragon in back who liked the taste of six year olds if there was plenty of ketchup).

Oncor sometimes does an estimate on the power usage  based upon the recorded kilowatt hours for the last several years for the month in question.   I have never seen them jump a fence to get in.

I found this out when I got hammered two years ago in August since they relied upon the usage of the prior owner who liked his home 67 degrees in summer.   The PUC of Texas was zero help since they changed out the meter and there was no "hard data" to compare to.

I have seen them read meters from a distance with very expensive looking binoculars.

Actually, beyond estimating the charges, Fort Worth Water, TXU/Oncor, and Atmos have RFID transponders in their meters, allowing the meter reader to simply drive down the street and collect meter readings.  When there is a discrepency or a missing reading due to a defective RFID transponder, they send someone out to take a manual reading.  I've had this happen with my natural gas last winter, when the missed 2 readings in a row, then suddenly charged me for 3 months of service with a mid-triple digit bill.  I was not pleased, however after pressing the supervisor for the details and why they never sent out a bill, they explained to me how it was done and that a manual reading was done.  Why they didn't recognize their fault and spread the billing out over 2 months, I don't know-it wasn't fair, but what are you going to do?