Day 3

Racky seems to have accepted the new bed, although I sometimes see him peering off the edge as if wondering why it's suddenly so much farther to the floor.

Electrickery meterers, mortgage

We had an unexpected electrician arrive this morning to 'replace our meter'. Apparently we should have received a letter from Meridian some weeks ago to tell us this would be happening. zakzahn contacted me at work and since I couldn't recall any such letter I refused permission for the work to happen.

Arriving home I checked my records, continuing to find no letter although there is a small chance it made it's way into the recycling box prior to the last purge - some weeks ago. Called their enquiries line to ask about the incident - after several different hold messages but a remarkably short wait I was able to talk to an operator who was able to talk to their technical department and find out that yes, it had been legit. They'll reschedule - sometime. I'm not concerned.

The electrician, who I only spoke to over the phone this morning, made the comment that the change was being made "because Meridian want to own their own meters". Which raises the question of "who owns my meter now?" I had vaguely assumed that it was part of the house*, but on further consideration I decided it could be the same lines company that sends me "trim" notices about trees I don't have.

* like that goddamn black-box ripple control between the fuseboard and the hot water cylinder that it's apparently a crime to bypass or tamper with. I presume it counts as part of the house.

A google search turned up this helpful information from consumer.org.nz

Ownership of the meter box is quite complicated. There are four possibilities:
-You may have bought your own meter.
-The meters were sold by the line company to the existing energy retailer. If you switch retailers, your original supplier may continue to own the meter, or it may sell it to your new supplier.
-The meter is owned by the line company.
-The meter is owned by an independent meter company.

If you are unsure who owns your meter, ask your energy retailer.

An email is winging it's way to Meridian enquiring as to who owns my meter. The girl on the phone couldn't tell me. What concerns me is if Meridian ends up owning my meter is this going to cause problems should I want to change providers in the future? That would strike me as anti-competitive, and a good reason to change now. (That question was probablymaybe answered in the letter I never received.)

I've stayed with this company through several name/ownership changes mostly through apathy and no reason to make a change. Occasionally I run a price comparison with the alternatives here but it never comes out much different. If it was remotely cost-effective I'd rip myself off the grid entirely - but it's not ... yet.

[Edit] Interesting. The Meredian website I was looking at earlier and the one I'm looking at now, while having the same graphical design, have somewhat differing content. I wonder if today was a changeover, or if I initially googled into an old version of the site (sloppy).

~~~
( mortgage rate goes up )