Single mum of 2yr old left with no gas due to engineer screw up please help!!!

Gman0365

before_hollywood wrote: »

do payzone retailers not have the facility to issue replacement cards? i'm on a scottish power quantum card meter for my gas and i can get a replacement card from a shop a mile away

Some paypoint / payzone outlets do stock replacement cards however they are only suitable as a replacement for a lost card. The card you can get from these outlets is blank ie has no customer specific data stored on it. It relies upon this information still being held on the quantum meter. The original poster has had a new meter installed which will have no customer specific data (tariff, customer account no, debt balance) on it and therefore requires a new card to be issued from the gas supplier. Once the card containing the customer data is inserted into the new meter the information is transferred over.

The original engineer should have phoned Siemens Metering Services, they manufacture the cards and issue them directly to the customer. The request can also come from the gas supplier however, where a meter exchange has taken place it is the job of the engineer to order the card. Depending on when the engineer phones the Siemens Hotline they may be only get through to an answermachine. I believe the hotline is based in Asia and I have personally had problems ordering cards for customers. Even when I do get to speak to a real person there is often an issue with my strong Scottish accent their strong Asian accent! I dread to think how they decifer the answermachine messages in the morning! As such the engineer may well of ordered the card but Siemens may not have processed the request.

before_hollywood

of course- i remember now, s.p had to send me new ones of what i have, but i could go to the paypoint shop for replacements once i was registered

sorry, brain=mush so sleep for me

kim.odish

Many thanks for the suggestions and support from everyone it's very much appreciated

However i'm quite surprised at some of the other, quite nasty comments, yes I put that I am a single mother this was to put across that I felt that I was a vulnerable customer, E.on asked me if I had any young childeren living with me..so they clearly feel that it is important issue.

And by the way, I asked for advice on a gas issue, not on my relationship status this kind of comment is both hurtful and unhelpful.

markharding557 wrote: »

maybe should have stayed with the farther but that's not the done thing these days is it

Sylvester

KimYeovil wrote: »

I don't remember my two year old brother or sister dropping dead whenever we were without gas for a day or two. Indeed, nor when we were without both gas and electricity for a week at a time. Is there something wrong with children nowadays? What makes them so vulnerable?

Maybe not, but your brain clearly died during that 'day or two'

richardc1983

kim.odish wrote: »

Hi Everyone...




I explained that I had a two year old in a freezing cold flat with no cooking facilities, no heat and no hot water

What the hell?! Please tell me what I can do, surely they can't leave me without essential living facilities?!!!


Kimberley

Whilst I understand the inconvenience of this but it is the end of July and it is certainly not "Freezing Cold" and you do not really need the heating on. If your feeling chilly use blanket or put a jumper on.

I think the general feeling is that people of britain complain they are so hard done by sometimes, the engineer perhaps made a mistake it does happen were only human. But bearing in mind this meter was replaced the 20th and when she was halfway through the emergency credit the op should have chased this up.

Its not winter, there are ways to cope.

OriginalDisco

kim.odish wrote: »

However i'm quite surprised at some of the other, quite nasty comments...

As a fairly new member of these boards myself I've found that from certain other members.

You ask for advice, and are chastised for not knowing things beforehand that you wouldn't probably know without first-hand experience.

I wish you well in sorting out your supply problem!

Premier_2

OriginalDisco wrote: »

As a fairly new member of these boards myself I've found that from certain other members....

When you get a little more experienced here, you'll probably understand why some posts get the responses they do

If you spot a spam, illegal, offensive, racist, libellous post or PM please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

Pssst

OP if it was an exchange of an older type Quantum meter for a newer one then the usual procedure would be to download the old meter and upload the data to the new one so ensuring that the existing card could continue to be used with no replacement card being necessary.

Something must have happened which prevented this bit from being done hence the need to order a new card.

Engineers have a special hotline to order cards. He may well have ordered one but the hotline may have failed to action it. AFAIK it is handled by a third party call centre in India.

"wind ons" may be provided by the gas emergency service at the suppliers request but this would be on a best endeavours basis and the service is already rather stretched.

This is an example of the kind of issues generated by a privatised gas industry.

If you see Sid, tell him,