The game-changing team at www.bc-freedom.com has released free documentation to help energy customers in BC effectively void the extortive “opt-out” or “legacy meter” fees, which BC Hydro is attempting to illegally assert.  Links to their recent updates are below.

It is our understanding that previous processes offered by this group have been effective at preventing install for 100% of those who have used their documents solely – because they are accessing an sufficient level of rights and clearly exposing falsehoods.

The lesson here is that we do not gain access to our rights by begging, pleading or compromising.  We do not instruct our kids to tell the school bully: “Ok, we’ll give you our lunch this time, but we do so under duress, and we’ll ask that you please return all of our lunches later.”

Groups from other areas around the world will do well to take note of solutions being unearthed here, as the game escalates.  It is becoming evident that we cannot wait and hope for a unpartial ruling by an administrative judge; we need to access a higher level of authority, with our unalienable rights intact.  This is still available to us all, though you will not find it by hiring an attorney for thousands of dollars.  Contrary to what the corporatocracy would have you believe, we are not corporate serfs subject to a broken-down system of enslaving statutes — a system which has become colonized by for-profit influence and insane levels of control.

February 11, 2014
Required Documents and Instructions to VOID ‘Legacy Meter Fees’ Billing Statements
http://bc-freedom.com/2014/02/11/legacyfeedocs/
Excerpt: In this post you will find the required information/documents/instructions on how to VOID the alleged “Legacy Meter Fees” and associated taxes. Also in the provided PDF’s there is educational material which offers some detail on just where we are at, why and how we got here, what BC Hydro has been doing and a few other things. This is to help you get a better idea of the big picture and to understand a bit more about just what you are doing and perhaps helping others with also.

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February 1, 2014
“Legacy Meter Fees” Update #2 / Meter Photos
http://bc-freedom.com/2014/02/01/legacy-meter-fees-update-2/
Excerpt: For now, you can pay the total of your electricity usage on your BC Hydro bill, which is in accordance with your original contract with BC Hydro – until we complete our response. This post is for those who have used the Claim of Right, Notice of Default etc. located HERE only.

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January 19, 2014
‘Legacy Meter Fees’ / Documentation
http://bc-freedom.com/2014/01/19/legacy-meter-fees-documentation/
Excerpt: At this time, we want to remind people that if they have NOT sent off their “NOTICE OF DEFAULT” to BC Hydro (mostly people in group C) then they should be doing this now, if it is that 30 days have past from the time you sent the other documents that can be found HERE.

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Recommended action steps:

1) Review & use the above BC-Freedom links.
2) Subscribe to BC-Freedom email posts, on the upper left of their site. Donate to them if you can.
3) Subscribe to TBYP email updates, on this page. We’ll be unearthing more continually, with your support.

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” -Benjamin Franklin
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” -Benjamin Franklin
  • I am taking regular (at least weekly) meter readings. My meter is actually digital, but not “smart”. I know how to calculate my own electric bill and have sent the last one in. Hydro’s was over double what mine should be. Theirs was based on so-called “estimates”. How does one estimate a 5 digit reading? I would have thought some of the Hydro people, especially any engineers working for them, would have some understanding of “significant figures”. I do not pay the “legacy fee”. The reality is that I am saving them money – no reader needed and no expensive “smart” meter (which I understand lasts less than half as long as the old analog meters). And now the word on the street is that these smeters will need replacing far more frequently as technological upgrades become necessary!
    This is such an outrage and farce! Unlike some who have given in to the $35 monthly fee, I will remain strong! Almost can’t wait for them to cut off my power.

    • Electromechanical power meters have been a wonderful item since Edison invented one, since Samuel Gardiner patented another one in 1872.
      In 1885 Galileo Ferraris of Turin, Italy made a key discovery, that two out of phase AC fields can make a solid armature rotate. This discovery spurred development of induction-type motors as well as paving the way for the development of the induction-type watt-hour meter.
      Electromechanical watt-hour meters were built to last indefinitely. They are able to just keep right on going, for upwards of 85 to 100 years, often longer.
      Most, if not all, hydro customers ought to remember how adamantly hydro defended the safe reliability of analogue meters, which have been around and worked hard every day since long before hydro existed. Many customers may personally know this firsthand, since BC Hydro routinely insisted that this analogue reliability was indeed the case, all the time, for many decades. In fact that was hydro’s standard line. If any customer ever queried whether they might have been overcharged, hydro had solid grounds to insist that there was no way, that it was not possible, since analogue meters were (and still are) 100% reliable, steady and predictable. Numerous customers report that the utility in BC stood by this entirely justifiable claim in no uncertain terms, for countless decades. They argued definitively that analogue meters never break down, never malfunction, that they were built to go the distance and that nothing ever goes wrong with them.
      Just think about it. Electromechanical meters are so damned reliable, they can practically last forever. Now the government hate them for precisely that same reason, because the manufacturers built them too well.
      Analogue meters do not invade privacy, nor enable time-of-use, nor provide valuable private data about occupants’ habits. These days, from hydro’s point of view that IS the problem with electromechanical meters that justifies getting rid of every last one of them by hook and by crook.
      Spying, frequency analysis and data theft is what the term “modernization” is really all about. The trouble is that with an analogue meter there are no transient spikes and microwave pulses to up the bills and “capitalize” on. A mechanical meter does not capture ambient transients from dissipated electricity which software can misleadingly translate into “usage”. With the electromechanical meters there is no customer funded continuous electronic “chat” necessary to sustain a “modern” system, no way, for the first time in history, to link together 5000 meters into one continuous data swapping circuit. What good is a meter which measures real time usage rather than estimating static energy fields? Why keep a device which offers no revealing bonus information, nothing to data mine, no activities to track, no opportunity for corporations to socially engineer behaviour, no electronic, wireless means to co-opt and control every separate wire in every customer’s service panel and thereby take over every aspect of all energy use, at enormous profit.
      In short, why else does anyone think nearly every utility the world over has spent billions of tax dollars in the midst of a very shaky economy, if not to share with their masters countless trillions, to create another corrupt market opening up like a chasm to swallow customers in exchange for short term unimaginable gain from sub prime electricity futures derivatives?
      With an analogue meter there is no to way to maximize unprecedented “smart” (meaning corporate) profit. A safe non glitzy, non expensive and long lived electromechanical meter is sty in the corporate eye. Hence the need to smash every last one of these solid long term investment meters, to rid the world of reliable, honest and predictable devices capable of real time measurement.
      An analogue meter which is not designed to fail, which was never intended to become obsolete, is now viewed by government and utility alike as a corporate liability.
      Corporate greenwash posturing aside, faux “green” is a facade, a cover story meant to hide highly profitable profligacy, and to facilitate data resales to third parties. Plastic throw away computers are only intended to operate short term, merely a means to an end, profitable obsolescence intended to enable obscene executive bonuses based on the turnover of throw away consumerism. And that is why nothing is so galling to the corporate bottom line as customers who want to retain a reliable instrument, a user friendly, readable meter which simply records usage accurately and continues to work perfectly well, decade in and decade out. Why else do we witness corporations everywhere willing to go to such lengths to try to rid the world of a metering device this uniquely sturdy, transparent and honest?

  • I live in CA and they put one of these meters on my house without my consent. They wanted to charge me $75 to remove it, and then $10 a month additional fee to have the analog meter installed. I do not feel I should have to be extorted for this. Is there anything I can do?

  • Is there a similar process for Alberta? I am charged extra $170. every 6 months “to read my meter” because I opted out. Why can’t I just send them a picture of my meter every month?

  • I just got home to find they have exchanged my analogue meter with the digital analogue meter! I have filed and registered EVERYTHING including the last notice. It is posted on the wall beside my meter. They came when I was out. What can I do about this? I have phoned the 1-800 number and left a less then pleasant message demanding my old meter back as it belongs to me as a fixture. Can I call in an electrician and replace this meter? Does anyone know. I would like to charge them with trespassing as we’ll but of course they never left a card the bastards. I’m furious!

  • Someone please help! They have replaced my analogue meter while I was out…after I’ve completed EVERY step in this process including the last step when they claimed it was expired. Can I replace this digital analogue meter with a mechanical analogue meter if I call in my own electrician??? Does anyone know??? Please reply!

      • Why would they? Bravado and delusions of making progress are all that seems to come from the leaders of this movement these days.

        It is amazing how deluded these folks are. Every step backwards in this process is seen as some sort of victory.

        I have yet to see ONE successful result from this process. Above it is claimed “previous processes offered by this group have been effective at preventing install for 100% of those who have used their documents”. Um, no, I had refused to allow the change before the COR documents.

        I am still waiting for ANY progress towards resolving this. All I see is more ‘send documents’ yet absolutely no practical results or any clue as to how to enforce these rights in any meaningful way.

        Anyone out there want to answer ‘how will we force compliance?’. The leaders of this certainly have no idea.

  • We’ll after talking to the assholes at BC Hydro it appears that there is absolutely nothing that can be done to stop these meters. I have done absolutely everything required to stop this and they did it anyway. They have just informed me that I will NOT be getting my analogue meter back and if I change it myself with an electrician they will disconnect my power. So save your money and time folks. All you do is drive yourself nutty and support another crooked corporation which is Canada Post!!! BC Hydro is shoving this down our throats whether we like it or not. Time to get off the grid!

  • I posted this at bc-freedom but it seems that Brian has stopped responding to anyone who questions what they are doing or suggests that there is a problem. In fact, the comment button seems pointless lately. Used to be lots of comments, all of a sudden I have had reports from others that their comments are being ignored too.

    Maybe some folks here would like to try to answer the questions below.

    ———–

    Hi,

    Seems that everything up to this point has had no impact on
    Hydro. They are still ignoring all correspondence, levying the ‘fee’ and
    disconnecting those who don’t pay.

    So, how are we to get them to respect our rights? By what process are we going to be free of this farce?

    How
    do we make them stop? All these forms may be correct and proper
    (thanks) yet they seem to have done nothing to change the reality that
    BCHydro and the Government are ignoring them and continuing as normal.

    My (and others) questions;

    “By
    what means will we be able to force compliance?” Right without results
    is pointless. Right without power is is a total failure of this process.

    “What use is the paperwork if at the end of this, nothing is achieved?”

    “How does this END?” i.e. please explain how you see the final day of this process and when that might be.

    Please
    do try to specifically answer these as they are not just my questions
    but the ones I have heard from more than a dozen folks in the process.
    Most are unwilling to continue as they see no victory possible as there
    has been no change in Hydro’s behavior despite following ‘the plan’ to
    the letter.

      • Well. Got a response from Brian, in future to be referred to as ‘Strawman master” as he answers all the questions NOT asked…..

        Make of it what you will.

        —————————–

        Pretty simple, don’t like, don’t do. Like if I don’t like what a neighbour is doing I don’t look in their yard.

        If I don’t like a website, or what is on it, I don’t go to it.

        I am sure you are frustrated that we do not have a police force that can arrest these people,

        nor can we control that many people in this province voted for the people who are setting this about.

        Nor can I/we control that most people STILL use cell phones and all the rest and hand people their money.

        Nor can we control that people can’t even take 5 seconds and hang up their clothes vs use their laundry machine.

        I do not know your definition of ‘enforcement mechanism’ but if you have one… please… we are waiting for your

        specific suggestion on how exactly you would go about doing this.

        We work for free, sometimes many hours a week to try to assist people in this difficult situation, and yet, on a sunday

        I have to see an email of this nature. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished!

        Us, and Hydro are ALL doing this for the first time. I do not have a crystal ball, cannot predict every action they take

        or will take.

        If what we were doing did not, or is not working, people would have had meters 2-3 years ago… but they don’t

        To date, unless I have not been informed (and believe me there are a lot of people like you who’s sole purpose is to criticize
        or complain) of anyone having their power cut, nor meter removed for doing ALL of the documents on this site, as suggested.

        I would tend to think that is pretty good, but others may not see a process and expect this to be over in days once one document
        or another is sent.

        To believe so would be to not understand the magnitude and intent and the BILLIONS of profit behind this scheme.

        To assume that they would simply just ‘give up’ when they have the physical realm of police and courts in their favour

        makes no sense.

        I/we have never pretended we are the be all end all and have all the solutions and there will be no adversity along the way.

        Nor did we ever pretend the parties trying to push this would simply just give up and do nothing and… let us win.

        So,
        we revert back to choice, which is what you have. I and some volunteers
        have spent countless 1000’s of hours of our time, away from our
        families and all the rest to do what we feel is best for our province
        and people… simply to help for free.

        I don’t lead anyone anywhere. I am not in your head or body. You make your choices in your life… just like everyone else.

        EVERYONE has had the choice to choose their own methods, accept the meter, get off the grid, join the class action and so on.

        saner is right in your email, this is what we are collectively and
        individually trying to achieve, without being perfect at every turn.

        I hope that you can understand the above and that we are simply humans helping other humans and the other half of this equation

        (BC Hydro, Liberals, Media) is 100% out of our control.

        If you intent is to write me back a critical email, of how or who or what we are doing, do not bother, I have no need for it.

        I
        am replying to you here so perhaps you could look at it in a different
        angle/light, but that too is out of my control and in your

        hands alone.

        So,
        as said, do or do not do, if you have better ideas or techniques, you
        can spend the time and energy (to type emails like these even) to get
        the job done.

        I await your positive instructions on the best enforcement mechanism that you have come up with.

  • The headline – “Do Not Pay Extortive Opt-Out Fees”

    ‘The game-changing team at http://www.bc-freedom.com
    has released free documentation to help energy customers in BC
    effectively void the extortive “opt-out” or “legacy meter” fees, which
    BC Hydro is attempting to illegally assert.’

    So, is Brian paying the opt-out fees today?

    Maybe an update regarding the victories versus failures at bc-freedom would be in order considering how much space this site has dedicated to telling folks that Brian had the answers.

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