Scottish Hydro

[dezzie]

Hi there,

A year ago I took up the "pay go" scheme at the suggestion of the telephone agent in Scottish Hydro. I was told that they would take our prepay meters out (gas and electric) which they did. I was told that we would recieve a card for each utility - and thats where the problems started.

Despite numerous phone calls AND visits to the CAB, the cards never arrived - all that arrived were statement after statement (with NO giro slips) so I had no way to pay. Even after calling them and getting a really stroppy agent who basically accused me of lying, still NO payment cards arrived - Then in June this year they finally sent me the Electric card (8 months and 2 "statements" later). So we started to pay £15 a week for our electric, but still no gas card was recieved, so I got onto energy watch. After about a week a nice lady called Ellie phoned me and told me she would sort it out for me. To a certain extent she did - she attempted to send out a gas card to me. Guess what - It never came! then last week we got our gas card. Also they offered to take £50 from each bill , which i felt was an insult as its not my fault they messed up and didnt give me any way to pay. So they upped the offer to £90 from each bill, leaving us still £400 in debt for electric and around the same for gas. Im absolutely raging. Because of the utility company I am now in debt and have no way of paying it . I have a disabled wife and 3 young children, I am also disabled. Can you advise?

Thanks

dezzie

[thephoenix]

Re: Scottish Hydro

Hiya, could you just clarify something for me.
You say they took out the prepay meters, What did they replace them with??

The cards you finally received I assumed are payment cards to pay towards a bill for example at a paypoint ???

thanks

[dezzie]

Re: Scottish Hydro

Hi Phoenix, they took the prepay meters out and put in normal meters. The cards they sent were indeed the kind you can use at the Post office or at Paypoints. But they took 8 months for the electric one to arrive and a year for the gas one to arrive. No bills came during this period only statements, despite numerous calls to them. Even the CAB couldnt get any joy.

[cinders]

Re: Scottish Hydro

Hi Dezzie,

sorry i havent been around for a while so have only just managed to get to read your post.
Ok... what was the period that you were waiting for a card? you are quite within your rights to demand a suitable payment arrangement that you can afford. They cannot cut off your energy supply because both you and your wife are vulnerable and they have a duty of care towards you because you are disabled. I would put in writing a reasonable but affordable offer to them to pay off this arrears. To be brutally honest, you can keep trying to get a further reduction in your bill and I think you are quite right to however, if the problem is resolved (which it is now albeit the bill still needs to be paid and an arrangement agreed) energywatch will not continue with the complaint any further nor will they recommend a compensation amount, so, as I have said, I would write a very strong worded letter to their customer services team (I will help you with this if you need me to) and offer them an arrangement that suits you financially and morally i.e what you think is reasonable.

Hope this helps, pm me if you need anything else.

Loulou

xx