URGENT what do i do

jetcat

thanks guys, all sorted now. It will just take me a few days to recover from the stress/panic i think!

apparantly there are two types of meter, one that will stay on all night with 1p left on, and one that wont - of course mine was the one that wont! They came out around midnight (still sitting in the dark hyperventilating) and had to change the meter. Took about half an hour. I didnt get much sleep after that, but at least the 'leccy' was back on!

My carer was fantastic - when she first phoned on my behalf, they told her that they couldnt do anything until the electric went off completely! She explained that that would mean i had no phone, ie. no way of contacting them, and she had to go home to her young baby. For all their faults at BG, they did 'bend' a few of the rules to help me out! The electric did go off, but at least it wasnt a four hour wait from then!

to the kind offer of accommodation - i am in north east england, but your kindness sent me into floods of tears again (as did the fact i noticed Martin had replied - thanks for your kind wishes Martin!)

jenlacey1984

Awww how sweet to offer accommodation!

Me and my husband had an ordeal with Scottish Power in Novemeber last year. We have storage heaters in our house (not out of choice, Army married quarters!) so with two children under the age of 5 and heavily pregnant with our third child I saw it a big necessity to have the house warm. To boot we also suffer badly with mould on the windows although they are double glazed!
On two seperate occasions I cancelled our direct debit with them. The first being because we were switching to a new bank and the second being due to Scottish Power deciding to take more money out than agreed on our payment plan.
When I contacted them and made our regular payment which was previously agreed with them by my debit card I then requested to be put back onto my payment plan. I was basically told that as I had "cancelled the direct debit twice we would require the full amount outstanding on your account before agreeing to put you onto your payment plan". I told them this was not possible.....outstanding was £250, that plus what I'd paid would have meant paying £350 to them!
Scottish Power then proceeded to tell us that if we failed to pay our bill within a set time frame they would look at coming and fitting a pre-payment meter or switching our electricity supply off! The fact that I was soon to have another child along with a 3 year old and a 1 year old matter not one bit!

Needless to say we managed to sort it with the help of family but I have now changed to E-On who are alot more helpful and polite to deal with!

klaatu

Jetcat - you ought to consider getting a cheap non-powered phone for use in emergencies, so you can make calls during power cuts etc.

Steve

Tozer

klaatu wrote: »

Jetcat - you ought to consider getting a cheap non-powered phone for use in emergencies, so you can make calls during power cuts etc.

Steve

Good advice. Every house should have one really. Only £2.50 in Tesco and such places.

jetcat

klaatu wrote: »

Jetcat - you ought to consider getting a cheap non-powered phone for use in emergencies, so you can make calls during power cuts etc.

Steve

already done!! carer brought one round this morning!!

klaatu

jetcat wrote: »

already done!! carer brought one round this morning!!

Excellent! :j

Steve

mrsmcinnes

do you realise that british gas are the only supplier I know of that charge for keys. £8 is alot of money to some people esp if they are on benefits. I would ask them to update your meter so you are eligible for what we refer to as friendly non disconnection where as long as you have 1p in your meter come 6pm and it won't disconnect you til 9am the next morning. It will however then charge you for what usage you have used. Depending on the error message on your meter and the type of meter i.e KBC, KBD your supplier may have been able to send a flow to your key to reset your key and replace your credit. Either that or raise a tag number so your credit is replaced and key reset within an hour of you calling and all without you having to pay £8!!!

mrsmcinnes

do you realise that british gas are the only supplier I know of that charge for keys. £8 is alot of money to some people esp if they are on benefits. I would ask them to update your meter so you are eligible for what we refer to as friendly non disconnection where as long as you have 1p in your meter come 6pm and it won't disconnect you til 9am the next morning. It will however then charge you for what usage you have used. Depending on the error message on your meter and the type of meter i.e KBC, KBD your supplier may have been able to send a flow to your key to reset your key and replace your credit. Either that or raise a tag number so your credit is replaced and key reset within an hour of you calling and all without you having to pay £8!!!

mandi

Jetcat .. Im glad your ok now ..

Im sure as you have medical needs, that you could get a bog standard meter, rather than a pre payment .. seems a little cruel to me that you have to worry so much,,

jetcat

mandi wrote: »

Jetcat .. Im glad your ok now ..

Im sure as you have medical needs, that you could get a bog standard meter, rather than a pre payment .. seems a little cruel to me that you have to worry so much,,

it is at landlord's insistance unfortunately. However, i am hopefully moving quite soon, so am hoping to go onto standard d/d.

I do feel a bit embarrassed now about my posts last night though, so apologies as well as thanks all round!:beer: