British Gas Electriciy prepayment Meter

starlite_2

This is actually driving me crazy, in the next couple of hours our meter will run out yet again and we'll be left without electricity until tomorrow.
Our meter is set up to recover £10 per week debt, and we have always gotten by fine by topping it up with £20 every friday.
But.
Over the last fornight It has been , wrongly, coming up with the massage £17.50 D which means outstanding amount, so when i top it up with £20 it takes this leaving us with £2.50 credit, which has all but gone by the next day, and then the following day the same debt message comes up, meaning we have to pay at least that much in again to get the power back on..
We have been cut off three times since last week, and paid around £80 into the meter which we just cannot afford to sustain.

I am home during the day with our baby, and pregnant and the stress is too much, not to mention the huge inconvenience.
British Gas admit the meter is faulty, and have arranged three appointments to fix it and not turned up, offering no explanation or apology. Today they say there re no engineers available until tomorrow evening.
The worst thing is we only have a cordless phone so if the electricity suddenly goes off I have to spend ages and a fortune in a payphone to speak to them.

As an example,yesterday I put in £20, most was swallowed up, by last night we were £2.11 in credit, so we topped up by another £5, now the meter is showing only £1.40 credit, and the same debt message and the emergency credit facility is used!??

I'm so frustrated, is there anyone else I can contact to sort this out?

(the good whinge was therapeutic anyway..lol)

smartie1976

Prepayment enquiries:0845 766 0111

Ask them to call you back - they should do if you if you ask nicely.

Call now and ask why your debt recovery amount is so high, and why it seems to have recently changed without you being informed.

starlite_2

We've already gone through that, several times.
They admit the meter is faulty, but as we are not classified as 'vulnerable' we cannot get an emergency engineer , and it would seem, an engineer at all!

I've also tried asking for a call back, but the one time they agreed and I waited in the payphone for 15 minutes with no callback I gave up on that!

Thanks anyway.

smartie1976

Whether faulty or not, it is BG responsibilty to send an engineer out to you. You don't have to have an emergency appointment - get a regular scheduled one. DO not allow them to fob you off. Failing that I'll chat to my colleague to see how we go about getting you that appointment.

starlite_2

Thanks, I've been on hold for 20 minutes so should have some news soon!
Down to 54p now so may switch off the p.c

starlite_2

Still on hold..and getting lots of 'helpful' suggestions about energy efficiency, i.e taking a shower instead of a bath. How irritating. I know this, but having a meter that is wrongfully leaching mioney from us is hardly going to 'save us on our bills' bath/shower/jacuzzi/whatever..

smartie1976

If you have no joy, PM me your address/ account number and I'll pass them to my colleague

**I'm just trying to help, BUT Please, if you feel uncomfortable giving me your details, please DON'T**

starlite_2

Stll on f'ing hold! I cannot believe it, I bet we get disconnected before we get through.

Sorry , iknow you want to help but i don't want to give such details online..

starlite_2

Okay, apparantly, all they can do is send us a printed statement, which we can then dispute in writing and claim back what's been taken.

I then explained at length about out circumstances and she gave an obviously scripted , and entirely irrelevant response, at which point I burst into tears, told her she obviously wasn't listening and didn't give a S and hung up.

starlite_2

Okay, bless you if you are still actually paying attention to this,
The same lady just called me back and was very apologetic, has arranged an engineer for this afternoon, and also spoke to the debt department (without me asking!) and reduced our debt repayment to £5 per week, until after the new baby is born and we are better off financially.

I felt bad so apologised prolifically back, but she understood my frustrations.
So they came good in the end, even if it was an uphill stuggle!

SAP_Saver

don't be too sorry they kept you on hold for too long and they are the ones responsible for the faulty meter not your or your new baby - ope things work out okay. I assume it is the new token meter!! these are well known to play up!!!