To the Editor,
Re: Customer finds meter fee too high, Oct. 3.
The arguments that B.C. Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk puts forward to support the need for meter fees is absolutely ridiculous and false.
For one thing the cost of reading my meter has been a hidden or included part of the cost of my hydro charges for the 40-plus years that I have been paying for hydro. Those costs are not being passed on to those that have the smart meters.
He further gives an example and claims B.C. Hydro has to install additional telecommunications equipment to ensure the grid can work as planned. To that I put the question, how, if these statements were true, did hydro manage to continue to work as a whole during the ongoing installation of the new smart meters? We did not hear of situations arising where the two different meters caused the system to stop working.
Our world has telephones that are wired and cellphones, wired computers and laptops and PCs that are on Wi-Fi and I never heard of extra charges to install “additional telecommunications equipment” coming from other companies so why Hydro?
And no company from which I receive services, except Hydro, has told me I have to have what is new or has charged me extra fees, so again, why should Hydro?
Vicki Bertramvia e-mail