The following email was received in late April 24, 2014:
After receiving notification from EnergyOnline that they were replacing all seven meters on our property with smart/advanced meters, and getting no cooperation from them to accommodate our request to remove the one smart meter on the property and leave the rest as analogue I have spent the last two days ringing power companies.
Contact Energy have agreed to remove a smart meter and to leave the other six analogue meters as they are.
I got curt response from EnergyOnline.
Nova said they were unable to help me.
Powershop were very helpful but could not make any promise to get the smart meter removed although they did say with good reason they would do their best to remove one, and they would not convert meters if the customer didn’t want a smart meter.
Contact Energy, as I say, have said they will remove the smart meter and leave the rest as analogue. The service on the phone (once you get through to someone) was exceptional and could not have been more helpful. Needless to say we have moved our account to Contact.
Site editor’s comment: Even if you have negotiated an agreement with your power company that a “‘smart meter” will not be installed it is a good idea to put a sign on your meter box prohibiting any “smart meter” installation and/or to lock the meter box to prevent unauthorised access. The reason for this is that in some cases, communications stuff-ups (or some other factor) have resulted in “smart meter” installations despite an agreement that a “smart meter” would not be installed. (See this link for an example: https://stopsmartmeters.org.nz/latest-news/company-breaks-agreement-not-to-install-smart-meter/.) Once a “smart meter” has been installed, even in error, it can be time-consuming to get it removed.
If you are a customer of EnergyOnline, please read these two posts for important information about the company’s policies about “smart meters” and privacy:
https://stopsmartmeters.org.nz/latest-news/smart-meter-installed-without-permission-headaches-result-smart-meter-removed-headaches-disappear/ (Smart meter policy)
https://stopsmartmeters.org.nz/latest-news/is-your-smart-meter-spying-on-you/ (Privacy)
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