Breaking of contract???

Vital_Spark_2

Hi,

Sorry this is going to be a long one. I'm very :mad: about it all. Please persevere?

I changed servers for both gas and electricity supplies (I have been advised by Seaboard reps that it was actually only the billing company which changed: all beyond me). When I changed, I went over and over and over, as only I can do, the fact that it was important, imperative even, that the DD was taken from my bank account, religiously (I was changing because of a problem with Npower ahving messed up in this department: which I also explained). This was accompanied by an explanation re my dyslexic problems and of how difficult it is for me to keep track of payments re bank statements as numbers even if underlined by a sheet of paper tend to dance about the page.

I was assured that the payment for both fuels would be taken from my account as one payment on a certain date each month.

Imagine my horror when I discovered that the gas alone had been taken and that I was now in debt to Seaboard for a few hundered pounds.

Due to negligence on behalf of Council tradesmen carrying out a repair job on previous negligent workmanship, my home was severely contaminated with concrete dust, inhalation of which led to my being rushed into hospital and I do not exagerate when I say at Death's door. On discharge from hospital for the third time in a few weeks, I was asked, by the respiratory specialists, to not return to my home until the house was entirely free of the offending dust.

I was out of my home most of the time from the February to the end of March then from the day of my return until the end of September. I should, perhaps, explain that during this spell of absence from my home, I was extremely ill. At one point I was suffering from serious exacerbation of asthma caused by the dust inhalation, a barking cough in attempt to clear my lungs, shingles around my thoracic region and extensive damage (tearing of intercostal muscles and ligaments along with broken ribs on either side) to my chest wall: the latter was caused by this rasping, harsh coughing.

On my return to live in my own home (the day after I moved back), I was confonted by a man who had come to change my electricty meter to a card meter. I advised him that I had not ordered one nor did I want one but he said that he had to install it as the courts had directed Seaboard to install it due to my refusal to pay up in a lump sum.

I was furious but in such a state of confusion with all else that was happening (believe me it would take a book to convey all the adversity I was expeiencing at that time with my landlord, the Council; my insurers, Norwich Union Direct; Nor Un's loss adjusters, Cunningham Lindsey's Glasgow Office; the cleaning/storage company appointed by them, Munters and my bank, Lloyds TSB (Scotland),) that I really didn't know what to do. I allowed him to install the meter.

Maybe it would make my reasons for definitely NOT wanting such a meter clearer if you knew that I need electricity for my stair lift, community alarm and indeed telephone to operate.

I had argued blue in the face with the Seaboard cust serv persons, with whom I had previously spoken, that they had broken their contract with me and this after my having been firmly reassured by their sales person that they would ensure that my account was run efficiently and that every payment would be taken, when due, directly from my bank. Eventually, I asked them to take the matter to court where I would plead my case.

They did, in fact, take it to court, but I received absolutely NO warning that this was happening nor, therefore, of the date on which the case would appear hence no chance to defend myself or arrange defence.

The mannie who arrived, with the meter to install, told me that notice of intent (or whatever it's called) had been delivered to my home. This apparently was done during my absence and I received no word of it. It was, I should make clear, patently obvious that no-one was living in the house during the spell between March and September.

The stess of it all left me even less able to deal with those matters as I was sleep walking (the dox explained that this was not uncommon in patients under such extreme stress and that, in fact, they were surprised that soemthing hadn't cracked before this).

Stress also seriously exacerbates any dyslexic type problem making it virtually impossible for me to expalin myself succinctly or write letters.

When I say sleep walking, I was putting a whole new meaning into "Whale Brae" the street in which my alternative accommodation was situated. I was walking outside in the street, on at least one such occasion. Now I only wear a bed through the night and the stairwell in this bulding was very narrow so I know that I definitely didn't take the bed with me.

I had been rising, regularly, in the morning to a flat filled with gas and the shower temperature constantly being altered so that, if I forgot to check it, I was either being scalded or frozen. Couldn't understand it until that morning when the banging of the close door woke me around 6am and I found the flat door open and ajar once I had dressed to go out to close offending door (mentally blaming young lassie on top floor for not closing it behind her,:after a few drams, perhaps: SORRY).

It was on my return when I went to shower that I discovered my feet were absolutely filthy like I'd been walking outside in bare feet: :eek: :eek: :eek: .

Oops! Think I must have gone to check my car, which had just been returned from repair work following it having been severely vandalised, as it sat outside while I had been bedbound. The gas and shower in my own home were the offending jobs of work at the root of all my problems.

Anyway, as you'll notice, it's still a muddle in my head. I can't talk of it wihtout the lot pouring out (well, not the lot but a great deal more than is necessary for explanation): Sandbag syndrome.

So where does this leave me re Seaboard? I tried to change my supplier to Hydro but Seaboard wouldn't allow it because of the debt. They did allow the change of gas supply to go ahead and I have experienced absolutely no problems with tHydro taking teh payment from my acount regularly via DD.

For electricity, I am buying cards but feeling quite anxious about them so always have a few in hand and will go without food rather than risk being without having spares ready: I would be stranded without electricity.

However, I have found that I am not using anything like the amount of electricity for which I was being billed by Seaboard nor am I using half the amount of gas for which I was being billed. I am well in credit with Hydro as I set the DD up at the same rate of £40 per month.

Does anyone know (if you've had the tenacity to read thus far), if I owe Seabaord or, if their having broken our contract, negates the debt?

Can I force them to allow me to change suppliers to Hydro?

I should add that , normally, I would just pay up (as I did with One Tel for money I didn't even owe them because I had cancelled my service months before and on a number of occasions each time they teleponed me regarding the matter and this only to get some peace, which wasn't actually forthcoming) but Seaboard have caused me so much grief that I want them slapped sorely.

The manner in which they conduct business is, in my experience, entirely unethical and appalling.

Sorry for the drawn out explanation and thank you for working your way through the mire. I daren't start again as it has taken me about 2 1/2 hours to write this and check fro errors as it is.

Freefall

Vital_Spark wrote:

Hi,

Sorry this is going to be a long one. I'm very :mad: about it all. Please persevere?

I changed servers for both gas and electricity supplies (I have been advised by Seaboard reps that it was actually only the billing company which changed: all beyond me). When I changed, I went over and over and over, as only I can do, the fact that it was important, imperative even, that the DD was taken from my bank account, religiously (I was changing because of a problem with Npower ahving messed up in this department: which I also explained). This was accompanied by an explanation re my dyslexic problems and of how difficult it is for me to keep track of payments re bank statements as numbers even if underlined by a sheet of paper tend to dance about the page.

I was assured that the payment for both fuels would be taken from my account as one payment on a certain date each month.

Imagine my horror when I discovered that the gas alone had been taken and that I was now in debt to Seaboard for a few hundered pounds.

Due to negligence on behalf of Council tradesmen carrying out a repair job on previous negligent workmanship, my home was severely contaminated with concrete dust, inhalation of which led to my being rushed into hospital and I do not exagerate when I say at Death's door. On discharge from hospital for the third time in a few weeks, I was asked, by the respiratory specialists, to not return to my home until the house was entirely free of the offending dust.

I was out of my home most of the time from the February to the end of March then from the day of my return until the end of September. I should, perhaps, explain that during this spell of absence from my home, I was extremely ill. At one point I was suffering from serious exacerbation of asthma caused by the dust inhalation, a barking cough in attempt to clear my lungs, shingles around my thoracic region and extensive damage (tearing of intercostal muscles and ligaments along with broken ribs on either side) to my chest wall: the latter was caused by this rasping, harsh coughing.

On my return to live in my own home (the day after I moved back), I was confonted by a man who had come to change my electricty meter to a card meter. I advised him that I had not ordered one nor did I want one but he said that he had to install it as the courts had directed Seaboard to install it due to my refusal to pay up in a lump sum.

I was furious but in such a state of confusion with all else that was happening (believe me it would take a book to convey all the adversity I was expeiencing at that time with my landlord, the Council; my insurers, Norwich Union Direct; Nor Un's loss adjusters, Cunningham Lindsey's Glasgow Office; the cleaning/storage company appointed by them, Munters and my bank, Lloyds TSB (Scotland),) that I really didn't know what to do. I allowed him to install the meter.

Maybe it would make my reasons for definitely NOT wanting such a meter clearer if you knew that I need electricity for my stair lift, community alarm and indeed telephone to operate.

I had argued blue in the face with the Seaboard cust serv persons, with whom I had previously spoken, that they had broken their contract with me and this after my having been firmly reassured by their sales person that they would ensure that my account was run efficiently and that every payment would be taken, when due, directly from my bank. Eventually, I asked them to take the matter to court where I would plead my case.

They did, in fact, take it to court, but I received absolutely NO warning that this was happening nor, therefore, of the date on which the case would appear hence no chance to defend myself or arrange defence.

The mannie who arrived, with the meter to install, told me that notice of intent (or whatever it's called) had been delivered to my home. This apparently was done during my absence and I received no word of it. It was, I should make clear, patently obvious that no-one was living in the house during the spell between March and September.

The stess of it all left me even less able to deal with those matters as I was sleep walking (the dox explained that this was not uncommon in patients under such extreme stress and that, in fact, they were surprised that soemthing hadn't cracked before this).

Stress also seriously exacerbates any dyslexic type problem making it virtually impossible for me to expalin myself succinctly or write letters.

When I say sleep walking, I was putting a whole new meaning into "Whale Brae" the street in which my alternative accommodation was situated. I was walking outside in the street, on at least one such occasion. Now I only wear a bed through the night and the stairwell in this bulding was very narrow so I know that I definitely didn't take the bed with me.

I had been rising, regularly, in the morning to a flat filled with gas and the shower temperature constantly being altered so that, if I forgot to check it, I was either being scalded or frozen. Couldn't understand it until that morning when the banging of the close door woke me around 6am and I found the flat door open and ajar once I had dressed to go out to close offending door (mentally blaming young lassie on top floor for not closing it behind her,:after a few drams, perhaps: SORRY).

It was on my return when I went to shower that I discovered my feet were absolutely filthy like I'd been walking outside in bare feet: :eek: :eek: :eek: .

Oops! Think I must have gone to check my car, which had just been returned from repair work following it having been severely vandalised, as it sat outside while I had been bedbound. The gas and shower in my own home were the offending jobs of work at the root of all my problems.

Anyway, as you'll notice, it's still a muddle in my head. I can't talk of it wihtout the lot pouring out (well, not the lot but a great deal more than is necessary for explanation): Sandbag syndrome.

So where does this leave me re Seaboard? I tried to change my supplier to Hydro but Seaboard wouldn't allow it because of the debt. They did allow the change of gas supply to go ahead and I have experienced absolutely no problems with tHydro taking teh payment from my acount regularly via DD.

For electricity, I am buying cards but feeling quite anxious about them so always have a few in hand and will go without food rather than risk being without having spares ready: I would be stranded without electricity.

However, I have found that I am not using anything like the amount of electricity for which I was being billed by Seaboard nor am I using half the amount of gas for which I was being billed. I am well in credit with Hydro as I set the DD up at the same rate of £40 per month.

Does anyone know (if you've had the tenacity to read thus far), if I owe Seabaord or, if their having broken our contract, negates the debt?

Can I force them to allow me to change suppliers to Hydro?

I should add that , normally, I would just pay up (as I did with One Tel for money I didn't even owe them because I had cancelled my service months before and on a number of occasions each time they teleponed me regarding the matter and this only to get some peace, which wasn't actually forthcoming) but Seaboard have caused me so much grief that I want them slapped sorely.

The manner in which they conduct business is, in my experience, entirely unethical and appalling.

Sorry for the drawn out explanation and thank you for working your way through the mire. I daren't start again as it has taken me about 2 1/2 hours to write this and check fro errors as it is.

Seeboard, now part of the EDF group, have a priority customer scheme. If you can show you have a disability and require your stair lift for that disability you should tell them, you are then classed as being a "priority customer".

In this situation, where you require an uninterrupted electric supply, and you have registered as a "priority customer" (i.e. you are classed as being vulnerable" they are not, by there own rules, allowed to disconnect your supply.

Freefall