24 hours with no gas supply..appalling customer service.

**sparkle**

Hi, can anyone give me a little advice on what to do next? We have a pre-payment meter which abruptly stopped working at 12.30 yesterday afternoon. All the display says is 'CALL HELP'. We have no gas supply whatso ever.
After numerous calls to eon and being left on hold every time for up to 40 minutes we have been told they dont know when National grid can make it out to us, we are not a priority because we dont have a gas leak.
We were told they would be here within 4 hours of our initial call yesterday, then we were told before 10pm last night.
Now after another useless phone conversation with them they now dont know if they are coming today or not.
Its going to be 24 hours without gas, heating hot water, etc..we cant even use the cooker!
Its absolutely freezing and i have 4 children, 2 under 5. Its appalling how we have been made to wait this long for a gas supply!
Any advice on what to do would be appreciated,
Thanks. xx

brysiewysie

I'd have thought it should be a priority with the young children in the house. Did you go thorugh to the pre-pay department or another team? The pre-pay dept should resolve this for you promptly, although I haven't had dealings with them for some months now.

Pssst

What part of the country are you in?

The bottom line is that the chain of command is that you contact your gas supplier,they take the call,they send it to whoever they wish to engage to do the meterwork.

National Grids sole responsibility is to operate the Gas transmission/distribution network and to respond to gas emergencies. Emergencies are gas escapes,explosions,CO poisonings etc.

They are not primarily responsible for meterwork. Gas companies sometimes choose to send meterwork their way but they also send it to other companies.

It is appalling that EON and other companies keep people waiting on the phone for so long.

If they have chosen to filter your job to National Grid then it is quite possible that it could be low priority due to emergency service demands.

Try ringing national grid metering on
0845 6066766

To see if they do indeed have your job in hand and if they do-can they progress it !!

if no luck


Try giving this lot a ring to register a complaint..

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

spiro

Phone your suplier again and say 'I thought under the Meter Standards of Performance' you had to send an engineer within 3hrs for an off supply prepayment customer'. This was set by OFGEM and I think that if they dont meet it they have to pay compensation.

Airwolf1

Oh, and if you have young children, I thought they had to get Transco out and give you some emergency credit? Ring up your company and explain you have young children and it is cold, and you are requesting some emergency credit. If they can't give you that due to the problem, they may attend to the meter anyway.

And threaten ringing up Ofgem to complain.

**sparkle**

Hi, thanks for the replies. When we phoned the first time it was the pre pay department we got throught too and it seems if you have kids it's not a priority.
Anyway, we have just had a call from eon (they actually called US back *miracle*!! LOL) the call for a engineer to come to ours was not put throught till ..get this..11.00am TODAY!! :mad: We have been without gas since 12.30 yesterday!
So they didnt even bother to do anything at all yesterday. As it stands now, we are still waiting for a engineer...

Pssst

Airwolf1 wrote: »

Oh, and if you have young children, I thought they had to get Transco out and give you some emergency credit? Ring up your company and explain you have young children and it is cold, and you are requesting some emergency credit. If they can't give you that due to the problem, they may attend to the meter anyway.

And threaten ringing up Ofgem to complain.

With all due respect Ofgem are rubbish and they dont take complaints directly from customers.

Taking complaints directly from customers used to be the remit of energywatch. Howver i suspect that Ofgem realised what a balls that they have made of the liberalisation of the gas and metering market that they conveniently shut down Emergywatch in October thus cutting off that particular path of complaint,,see here.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Consumers/Complain/Pages/Complain.aspx


They replaced it with this toothless outfit

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

Which just dispenses advice but to my knowledge,does not handle complaints on behalf of customers !

Now then,,

Transco does not exist either.

Transco was obliterated when it became part of National Grid, an international power/energy producing and transmission/distribution behemoth.

A subsidiary of National Grid is curiously called National Grid metering.

It is known as a MAM (Meter asset manager). It also owns some meters.

National Grid is an emergency service and does not take metering enquiries direct from customers.

Such enquiries have to be routed via the customers supplier i.e EON.

Now as previously stated, i would strongly suggest that sparkle rings National Grid metering and checks if they have her/his job in their workstream and if they do,can they give an eta?

Also i would say to Sparkle,, if you have an older big square quantum meter that is yucky yellow in colour AND ONLY IF IT GOES FAULTY ON A REGULAR BASIS, be nice to the chap who calls and ask if he will swap it for an E6 ETM.

remember,it aint his fault. Hes probably run off his little feet.

The business of gas suppliers not forwarding on calls does happen. One suspects they are either incompetent or have an ulterior motive (i.e cooking the standrads of service figures) but them I'm a natural cynic.

bryanb

Tell them you think you can smell gas, they'll come!

Pssst

bryanb wrote: »

Tell them you think you can smell gas, they'll come!

If you report a gas escape to the national gas emergency service,they will attend,check if you have a gas leak,if its on their equipment i.e the meter or incoming service,they will repair it. If its on your installation,they will cut it off and issue you with a warning/compliance notice.

If OTOH you have a faulty meter and you report it as a gas escape,they will just walk away becuase metering has nothing to do with National Grid Emergency service.

Also you will be guilty of the same kind of abuse that other services endure i.e people ringing 999 ambulance if they have a headache,a cut finger or their condom has split.

Emergency services are essential but finite resources.

**sparkle**

Bryanb..I actually thought of doing this in desperation! LOL.

Premier_2

Is this not deemed an unplanned supply interuption?

If so:

...For unplanned interruptionswhere less than 250 customers are affected:Alternatives should be provided within four hours of being advised the consumer has no heating/cooking...

...If the alternatives are not provided in time, the consumer should be paid £24....

...Time from 8pm-8am shall not be counted when working out this standard.
Heating facilities mean one electric fan heater.
Cooking facilities are a single ring electric or bottled gas appliance....

http://cfe.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/cfe.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5636&p_created=1210087575&p_sid=ZQnreEhj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NCw0JnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PXVucGxhbm5lZA**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Also:

If your property is without gas for more than 24 hours, you may be entitled to payment of compensation of £30 under the gas Guaranteed Standards. You would also be entitled to a further £30 for each additional 24 hour period without gas. National Grid (formerly known as Transco) must tell you about their right to compensation and make payment within 20 working days of a claim - either directly to you or through the supplier.

http://cfe.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/cfe.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5477&p_created=1210077493&p_sid=ZQnreEhj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9Mzk4LDM5OCZwX3Byb2RzPTAmcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1nYXMgc3VwcGx5&p_li=&p_topview=1

If the supplier claims it's not a supply failure, but a PPM malfunction:

Service
Respond to failure of prepayment meter (this also applies to transferring credits and ensuring the meter is taking the right amount of debt)

Requirement
Will respond within four hours. On a working day this is from 8am-8pm and any other day from 9am-5pm.

Payment
£20

http://cfe.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/cfe.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5499&p_created=1210079603&p_sid=ZQnreEhj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9Mzk4LDM5OCZwX3Byb2RzPTAmcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1nYXMgc3VwcGx5&p_li=&p_topview=1

From that last link, this might be of interest too:

Service
Advise customers of payment due under the standards

Requirement
The supplier will both notify the consumer and make payment within 10 working days.

Payment
£20


Service
Advise customers of payments due under the standards (metering)

Requirement
The supplier will both notify the consumer and make payment within 10 working days.

Payment
£20