A few weeks ago I was contacted by Pacific Gas and Electric here in CA saying they needed to upgrade my gas meter. Being wary, I called to understand what this was all about. Oh, don’t worry, the guy said, we have to upgrade all the meters and you will not be without service for more than the time it takes us to replace the meter.
I find out yesterday that, while I was not at home, they came here, disconnected the meter, took it away and left me without gas (no hot water, no heat, no cooking). They left me a note saying “riser must be relocated outside of house”. I called them this morning and they claimed the current situation is “unsafe” and that I have to remedy it.
Any plumbing experts out there (esp in CA) who know what my recourse is? I can’t believe that PG&E can just disconnect my gas and leave me high and dry for… I have no idea how long it’s going to take me to remedy this. Also, my understanding is that anything involving the line outside the house is there responsibility.
John Mace said PG&E admitted to disconnecting the meter by mistake. Since they reconnected it, presumably they wouldn’t have done so if it weren’t safe, since they admitted to committing an error in the first place.
In my experience, pretty limited for gas utilities though, the utility company can disconnect for safety reasons at any time, no notice, and of course require modifications before reconnecting.
Glad it worked out John. In my somewhat broader experience utility companies make a lot of mistakes.