British gas missed 2 call outs, sitting here with no electricity!

ryouga

I have a pre pay meter and lost my key somewhere, its possible I have it but unlikely it could just fallen down side of sofa since I always lay my jacket on my sofa before bed.

I noticed Friday night really late I had about £1 left on meter so was about to go out to top it up but noticed my key was missing! so I waited till Saturday and rang up, was on phone about 2 hours due to delay to be told the place that gives new codes to get keys closed a few hours early due to system crashing but because I have arthritis I could get a free callout just to top up a little for me to last!.

Callout never turned up but rang 2 hours later to say snow was bad in his area so could I wait till today, I said yes as I had about 40p left at that point and he told me that BG doesnt cut off power during the night so even if it ran out the appliances would work.

This morning woke up around 9am, no visit, no electric and waited till 12.30 to get no call out! Rang back to find out callout was cancelled in error(the guy had cancelled it intending to rebook it for today but forgot) and was told that another callout would occur within 4 hours.

So I have no electricity(I made sure I fully charged laptop just in case!) am freezing cold but cant even leave property as they only gave contractor my landline number and said it was too late so send off the mobile one!

A bit of a rant but also checking my rights as the cold is really hurting my arthritis.

DUTR

You have a right to top up with enough credit to see you through until the next top up, in fairness it is not the energy company's fault that you have mislaid the card

HalloweenJack

yes meters have `emergency credit - £5 or £10 , but , this requires you to insert the key to activate it.... a bit difficult when the OP doesnt have the key in the first place!!


now , to activate emergency , any key should do - can you borrow one?

t0rt0ise

OP, you're entitled to £20 compensation for them forgetting to book the call out. I hope you're sorted now.

SwanJon

tortoise - the £20 only counts for prebooked appts - not emergency ones, and especially not emergency ones in the current road/weather conditions where the job was a goodwill gesture anyway.

That said, it might be worth asking what they are willing to offer as a good will gesture.

ryouga

DUTR wrote: »

I know the post was not directly pointed at me, however I think your post works both ways, yes we have all perhaps lost things or situations don't go as hoped, but in this case we have to look at the root cause not the symptoms. If the OP had been a little more vigilant with the card key, then the rest of the episode would not have occured, don't know which part of the country the poster is from, but around here the roads are still not easily passable, so I would not be surprised if appointments from many sources were re-scheduled due to the road conditions, indeed the company could have called back ....eventually , but perhaps someone guessed that the card would have been located by that time.

Well in 4 years of having a keycard this is first time I have lost it, I believe I lost it as I was going to put credit on previous night so put key in pocked and it might have fallen out easily done when exhausted, plus do you know know about people who are autistic at all? the brain works in a slightly different way so some things that are "easy" for others are hard for people like me.

I believe the reason why the first visit was wrongfully cancelled was because I was told by both contactors and also by someone else a few weeks ago that during the hours of 10pm to 8am and all weekend they cannot cut you off and the meters are set to this way.

DUTR

ryouga wrote: »

Well in 4 years of having a keycard this is first time I have lost it, I believe I lost it as I was going to put credit on previous night so put key in pocked and it might have fallen out easily done when exhausted, plus do you know know about people who are autistic at all? the brain works in a slightly different way so some things that are "easy" for others are hard for people like me.

I believe the reason why the first visit was wrongfully cancelled was because I was told by both contactors and also by someone else a few weeks ago that during the hours of 10pm to 8am and all weekend they cannot cut you off and the meters are set to this way.

Yes I do, but they don't blame others for bad episodes which they have started, I do hope you have your keycard sorted, but sorry I cannot side with you for what then followed

t0rt0ise

SwanJon wrote: »

tortoise - the £20 only counts for prebooked appts - not emergency ones, and especially not emergency ones in the current road/weather conditions where the job was a goodwill gesture anyway.

That said, it might be worth asking what they are willing to offer as a good will gesture.

EGS7 counts if they don't come out within 4 hours in an emergency. I wasn't thinking of the first appointment when they couldn't get there because of the weather but forgetting to make the second appointment should count. I'd think it wouldn't matter that it was a so called goodwill gesture as the customer was relying on it.

utility_csa

t0rt0ise wrote: »

EGS7 counts if they don't come out within 4 hours in an emergency. I wasn't thinking of the first appointment when they couldn't get there because of the weather but forgetting to make the second appointment should count. I'd think it wouldn't matter that it was a so called goodwill gesture as the customer was relying on it.

You're correct eco's are covered under the £20 missed appt payment.

also most newer electric meters have friendley em cr so you will not go off supply even if you've lost your key. ( certain hours obviously ).

also no emergency job should have been booked on, on sunday if you had credit.