In my view couple of things that you need to explore-
1) Did you configure the meter properly for data transfer.... I mean....password and other parameters like ID, baud rate etc. for meter. This is one time process in case of many other meters.... you need to download the datasheet and try to follow how to configure the meter from data transmission.
2) As per mod bus protocol is concern you need to follow the command sequence given by the protocol - refer -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modbus
3) You need to even look at the Max485 input and check for the loop back to conform that what ever command/Data that you send to Max485 get received properly.
4) Most of the time it happens that in case of PIC micro-controller the RX interrupt of UART is used for data reception detection but if the PIC micro-controller is using some other interrupt then one need to set the high priority for this RX interrupt at Data capture is important event. This is right way but What I can suggest you to go initally to be in polling mode for data reception and making other interrupts to be masked to start with.
I hope this will help you to resolve the problem.
good luck
milind