Pre-payment Gas Meter Problem

fedup100pc

Hello Mark

I know I need to get on their case, however, trying to get any sense out of their call centre staff really does drive you up the wall most times. In fact, I’m not sure if they are deliberately taxing to grind customers down, but whatever is the problem with their attitude is, it does emotionally have its toll on you. Hence I now avoid their call centres like the plague. As an example, here’s another recent debacle. This time concerning a problem I had with my electric meter. Remember, if the electricity meter isn’t working properly then neither can the gas central heating.

A couple of weeks ago my lecky meter was down to 20p and normally the bleeping would come on to tell you to top it up. The bleeping didn’t happen, however, so I still went to the shop to stick £2 on the key to top it up. When I came back though, the meter accepted the key and the £2 amount appeared on the screen, but the balance still remained at 20p so I rang eon.

The girl in the call centre asked me to read her the readings on the meter and when I told her that there was the capital ‘E’ next to my 20p, she said that I was already using the emergency credit and needed to put at least £8 on the key to repay the emergency credit I had already used. I told her that she was wrong and I hadn’t used the emergency. I told her that there had to be a fault with the meter. She was having none of it (not uncommon) so she told me to go to the shop and get another £2 on the key and try that. So off I went to the shop again and stuck another £2 on and it didn’t work either so she said she would send an engineer out to look at the problem. When the engineer came, he said it was a problem with the key not the meter and he asked me to ring eon and ask for a new key. (He put £5 credit on until the problem was solved).

The following day I rang eon again and told them that the engineer said I needed a new key. The lad at the call centre said he would send me one in the post, but I said I didn’t want to take any chances of anything going wrong again so I asked if I could collect a key from somewhere local. He said I could. He said there was a shop in my town and he gave me the shop name and street where I could go. (Hmmmm, she will cheer Malc up today.) I told him that there was no such shop or street in my town but this guy was adamant they he was right and I was wrong. So being kind of intuitive (or maybe I have become sensitised to eons call centre staff way of not dealing with problems effectively) I asked the chap if there was a name after the street name he had gave me. There was. The name was a different town and county to where I live. And to make matters even worse, when I got the shop they didn’t have any keys’ left. You would think that eon would have some system to ensure that when shops run out of keys they are alerted to this. Anyway, that wasn’t the worst bit. The most frustrating bit was yet to come.

A key arrived by post so I followed the instructions and put the key in the meter to register it and then went to the shop to put some money on. The key however wouldn’t work at the shop so back home I went to ring their blinking call centre. The lad there gave me a number to take to the shop to ask the assistant to type into the machine to get the key to work, and asked that I wait at least 1 hour before going to the shop. This I did. However, when I got to the shop, low and behold, the key wouldn’t work. See how tiring this is getting? It wears you down.

So when I rang the call centre up again the bloke there said that the first bloke had given me one digit too many in the number, and, on him giving me the new correct number, this bloke said I would now have no problem if I went straight back to the shop. This I did too. And guess what? The key didn’t work.

Now I could go on forever but I won’t. It is patently obvious that I have been treat with utter contempt by my energy supplier, and this why customers like me just give up. It’s akin to flogging a dead horse. Personally I don’t know how these call centre staff can go to work without their consciences being pricked. I couldn’t do it. I could not sit back ringing my hands and do nothing while costumers suffer the way they do in the hands of inept call centre staff. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

Premier_2

fedup100pc wrote: »

No, the debt was accrued because my energy supplied claimed not to have received payments made though the post office even though we had receipts showing that £10-per-week had been paid. Had that problem been sorted out we would have owed a lot less than we do now. It hasn’t been sorted out because, and, as I have already explained in an earlier post, trying to get call centre staff to understand things is like trying to push water uphill with your little finger. ...

Hoping the debt would go away on it's own hasn't got you anywhere has it?

Suppliers are used to handling misdirected payments and with your co-operation this should have been rectified a long time ago ... and any such debt would never have even been put on your meter.

If you are not getting any satisfaction through the call centre staff, follow the matter up using their complaint procedure. As stewie_griffin has suggested, put your complaint in writing sent by recorded delivery to their registered office if necessary. In my experience a reply/resolution is soon forthcoming.
As you have all the receipts proving payment, I don't see what the issue is.

fedup100pc

The issue is my original post. Something has changed for my meter to be taking more money than it used to be taking off, hence I cannot afford to use the gas to warm the house

Premier_2

Yes, the weather has got colder

£1 is about 26kWh. About what a typical 80,000btu boiler will consume in 1 hour on full power.

fedup100pc

Hmmmm...then how could you explain that the water heater wasn't using £1-per-hour a couple of weeks ago. Maybe the heater knows it's November eh :rolleyes:

Fire_Fox

fedup100pc wrote: »

Hmmmm...then how could you explain that the water heater wasn't using £1-per-hour a couple of weeks ago. Maybe the heater knows it's November eh :rolleyes:

The water is arriving in the boiler colder than it was in the mild weather a few weeks ago, and the ambient air temperature is lower so your house is losing more heat to the outside world and your water heater is losing more heat to your house. The boiler therefore has to work harder to get water/ the house from a lower temperature to an acceptable temperature.

Fire_Fox

fedup100pc wrote: »

Hi there Fire Fox
The only reason I am paying £1-per-week of the debt is because it is costing me a fortune per week for the gas I am using. As I have already explained, if the meter wasn’t taking so much money off I would be able to increase the debt repayment. I was paying £5-per week of the debt (this was mentioned in an earlier post) prior to something fundamentally changing a couple of weeks ago when my meter wasn’t taking so much money off.

I appreciate it isn’t really cold yet which is all the more reason why I would like the problem sorted out before it gets to sub zero conditions. If I can’t afford to have the heating on much at the moment then it doesn’t bear thinking about what will happen when the really hard frosts come along with the white stuff.

Oh, by the way, Malc better pull his finger out and get something sorted pretty quickly. I’m in the process of seeing about having the fireplace reopened up and having a solid fuel fire installed to keep me warm and cook my meals on (I can just picture them sizzling lamb chops). No more gas then. ‘Tis bye bye eon for good.

You really do make it very difficult for us to be sympathetic. The Eon company representatives are trying to help you, and a lot of unpaid people who have never met you are trying to help you. In response we get sarcastic comments and sarcastic smilies!

Instead of moaning how life isn't fair and focussing on the past, do something about your current predicament. Taking ownership of problems can really help your mental health - I know because it's something I have to deal with in my own life, and also my clients in the workplace (NHS).

If you are struggling to afford your ongoing usage then the simple answer is use less gas, get this debt paid as fast as you can so you can move to a cheaper supplier. I can't afford to heat my home all winter either so I am using duvets and electric blankets now, and saving my budget for if/ when it snows.

The Debt-free Wannabe board will help you look at your budget, if you are willing to accept their advice and support. It's possible to live on benefits, and it's possible to get yourself out of debt on a low income. All you have to do is recognise the negative thinking as being part of your mental health problems and consciously reject it.

fedup100pc

Fire_Fox wrote: »

The water is arriving in the boiler colder than it was in the mild weather a few weeks ago, and the ambient air temperature is lower so your house is losing more heat to the outside world and your water heater is losing more heat to your house. The boiler therefore has to work harder to get water/ the house from a lower temperature to an acceptable temperature.

I’ll tell you why it can’t be as you say tomorrow. I’ve got writer’s cramp now:rotfl:

fedup100pc

Fire_Fox wrote: »

All you have to do is recognise the negative thinking as being part of your mental health problems and consciously reject it.

Don’t worry I know all about “reality”. It has to be something observable. Hence my reality can’t be your reality or anyone else’s reality.

fedup100pc

I doubt it very much that the increase in the amount of money the meter seems to be gobbling up can be due to the weather becoming colder. Firstly, people get to know their gas consumption in the same way that motorists know their car engines. They know that £10 petrol will get them so many journeys to the shops and back. They know that if they carry four passengers instead of one they will get less mileage. Gas customers are no different.

As I have already stated, on numerous occasions, prior to a problem occurring with the meter, £5 credit would last me approximately 3 days cooking 3 meals a day and having the heating on for a least 3 hours per day (throwing into contradiction your £1-per hour usage claim). Do you understand that bit now?

Then a couple of weeks ago something changed dramatically. The meter was using £1 per hour cooking one meal and having the heating on for 1 hour per day. That is a huge difference which I fail to see can be accountable to the weather. If it was down to the weather then surely the temperature outside would have to be something like Siberia to account for such a massive change.

[FONT=&quot]Oh, regarding your comments about blocking out negative thoughts. If you knew anything about existentialism you would know that to stop thinking about something negative you have to think about what it is you’re not supposed to be thinking of to give it up. It’s not possible in reality. Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre (say: Sar-truh) [/FONT]