Contacting
Our customers are important to us. Therefore, we will only contact you if it is important or necessary.
The following regulations also apply:
- We will only contact you by phone if you have asked us to do so.
- An electricity meter is usually read by our authorized service partners once a year.
- The time for a personal reading on site will be announced in good time by a notice.
- Meter changes are always announced in writing by us or a contracted service provider with a suggested date.
- The inspection of a house connection is announced in writing.
- If, in exceptional cases, the power supply has to be interrupted for planned maintenance work on our operating systems, we will inform you at short notice by posting a notice or inserting it.
Important
If we come to you on an agreed date, our employees can identify themselves or from a service provider commissioned by us. Please always have your employees' ID card shown.
Customer contacts through unauthorized third parties
From time to time, customers are contacted for possible fraudulent intent and need information and assistance with the situation. In the following we have compiled processes that have become known.
July 2026
Unannounced inspections of meters and/or sockets or the electrical installation in the flat
At present, third parties are posing as employees of Stromnetz Berlin or as electrical contractors commissioned by Stromnetz Berlin and are turning up at customers’ homes unannounced.
These individuals claim to be carrying out a meter inspection or an inspection of sockets or the electrical installation in the home.
If unauthorised third parties are granted access, thefts may occur when no one is looking.
We always give written notice of any meter replacement or inspection, and an appointment is arranged between us – or the contracted service provider – and the customer.
We do not carry out inspections of electrical installations in flats or houses, as these systems do not belong to us and are not within our remit. Inspections by us or a service provider commissioned by us are only possible for the meter or the property connection, following the arrangement of an appointment.
Please feel free to provide us with further information via our contact form.
November 2024
Unannounced phone call for meter reading
Unauthorized third parties are currently calling customers and pretending to be employees of Stromnetz Berlin. These unauthorized persons want to carry out a meter reading on site on a subsequent day.
The annual meter reading is announced by us on a notice board. On the announced date, employees of a contracted service provider will read the meter on site in person. The employees can always identify themselves. Please ask them to show you their ID.
If your meter needs to be read for any other reason, e.g. a change of supplier, we will only ask you to notify us of the meter reading by letter.
You are welcome to provide us with further information via our contact form.
August 2024
Unannounced meter replacement with a cash payment
Third parties are currently posing as electrical installation companies commissioned by Stromnetz Berlin and contacting customers to change their meters without prior notice. If the third party is granted access, the Stromnetz Berlin meter is replaced and a cash payment for the meter change is also requested.
We will announce each meter change in writing and an appointment for the change will be made between us or the commissioned service provider and the customer. The meter will be replaced on the agreed date.
The replacement, installation and removal of meters is free of charge for you. Neither we nor the service providers commissioned by us demand payment for this work.
Further information can be found on our page Installing, removing and replacing meters.
Please be vigilant. You are welcome to provide us with further information via our contact form.
October 2022 / September 2023 / October 2024
Unauthorized calls to clarify a change of supplier or change in the electricity tariff
Third parties are currently posing as representatives when calling and requesting data on the previous electricity supplier, the meter reading or due to the electricity price guarantee with the aim of getting customers to (unwantedly) change their electricity supplier.
We do not make any such calls and we do not use any service providers for this.
Please be vigilant. You are welcome to provide us with further information using our contact form.
July 2022
Unauthorized calls to obtain data
Currently, third parties pretend to be a representative of Stromnetz Berlin when calling. We do not make any such calls as part of surveys.
Therefore, please be vigilant when naming personal data. You are welcome to provide us with further information using our contact form.
January 2022
Unauthorized doorstep visits to obtain data
Customers are currently being visited personally by unauthorized third parties who give the impression of working on behalf of Stromnetz Berlin. The people demand the submission or issue of an electricity bill because of an impending electricity price increase. These people are not traveling on our behalf.
Therefore, please be vigilant when naming or disclosing personal data or documents relating to your contractual relationships. You are welcome to provide us with further information via our contact form.
April 2020
Unauthorized calls to obtain data
Currently, third parties pretend to be a representative of Stromnetz Berlin when calling a country code from Great Britain. We do not make any such calls as part of surveys.
Therefore, please be vigilant when naming personal data. You are welcome to provide us with further information using our contact form.
September 2017
Note - fraudulent invoices for meter service (Becker Fernwartungssysteme GmbH)
Fraudulent letters are currently being sent from „Becker Fernwartungssysteme GmbH“ to customers, supposedly invoicing service costs for remote maintenance of meters. The highly authentic-looking letter states that under the EU Directive dated 19 October 2014, the functionality and security of electricity meters needs to be checked via remote maintenance every three years. The service was carried out on the electricity provider's behalf and the gross cost of EUR 29.90 is to be borne by the customer.
The information in the letter is false: there has been neither an EU Directive nor a request from the electricity supplier on this subject. Just from a purely technical perspective, it is not currently possible to carry out maintenance on an electricity meter remotely.
We generally provide electricity meters to measure energy in customers' equipment. As the owner of the electricity meters, we are responsible for their operation and maintenance. We charge an annual measurement point operation fee for these services, which we generally settle with your electricity supplier.
„Becker Fernwartungssysteme GmbH“ is not a service provider commissioned by us and is not authorised to conduct work on our meters.
If you receive an invoice of this type with a payment slip attached, do not pay it.
June 2016
Note - fraudulent invoices for meter service
In Berlin, fraudulent letters are currently being sent from „SCHARP energie BVBA“ to customers, supposedly invoicing service costs for remote maintenance of meters.
We generally provide electricity meters to measure energy in customers' equipment. As the owner of the electricity meters, we are responsible for their operation and maintenance. We charge an annual measurement point operation fee for these services, which we generally settle with your electricity supplier.
„SCHARP energie BVBA“ is not a service provider commissioned by us and is not authorised to conduct work on our meters. Furthermore, the company is not a registered electrical installation engineer and is therefore also not authorised to carry out work on electrical equipment.
If you receive an invoice of this type with a payment slip attached, do not pay it. The invoice with the payment slip requests that you transfer an amount of money to an account in Belgium.