An awful warning about first utility

orcadian

Our electricity failed last night. We are customers of First utility for electric and gas. We live in Scotland, its February, we have now been in the dark for 24 hours and counting... no end in sight!!! I ALWAYS paid FU on time.We depend on elec to light our boiler... so no central heating or hot water either...and 3 young children!!! We called CORGI last night as we have a service plan with them thinking it was an internal circuit problem. They came 2pm today and stated its the Electricity Main Isolator Switch (EMIS) to our house. They suggested we call First utility as the supplier. FU gave me a job reference and immediately suggested we phone their distributor Scottish Power, who we have no contract with. Scottish power came an hour later and stated it was not their responsibility. We called CORGI again they came out at 7pm (THIRD ENGINEER VISIT TODAY - NONE FROM FU) repeated what they previously said and phoned Scottish Power while I was there. Both agreed the responsibility for fixing the EMIS rests with our supplier. I phoned FU and spoke to a rep called Theresa. For a a while she argued its up to their distributor - but our contract is with FU NOT Scottish Power. She spoke to her manager April and said she would call me back. At 7:30pm I spoke to April saying I am dissatisfied I want to escalate this. If F.U. cannot take responsibility for EMIS we cannot receive our electricity supply since an electrician can't safely replace EMIS without breaking the mains supply - which only the supplier can do. She put me on hold and hung up, it's now over 24 hours with no mains electricity in our house and no solution in sight. WHAT RIGHTS DO I HAVE - wish I'd never heard of FU? HOW CAN I GET THIS FIXED?

Ich_2

Isolators are a bit of a difficult area and it depends on the DNO/Supplier agreements. Some DNOs install and maintain them.

As for contracts, you do have one with Scottish Power via your supplier to "deliver" the electricity to your home.

http://www.energynetworks.info/connection-agreements/

I'm surprised that SP didn't deal with this though

chanz4

the isolator switch can be fixed by a compitent electrician

jalexa

orcadian wrote: »

Both agreed the responsibility for fixing the EMIS rests with our supplier.

Idiots both. I can understand that the Corgi *might* not be competent (to replace the isolator) but there is really no excuse for the Scottish Power position. Complain vigorously about the distributors (totally inexplicable) conduct. He/she could/should have removed the cut-out fuse and advised you to engage a qualified electrician. In some areas qualified electricians are authorised to remove and reseal a cut-out fuse.

Actually any competent local electrician should have known who to contact. You are blaming First Utility but First Utility are (almost) blameless. *You* and Scottish Power share the "blame" almost equally, though you were entitled to expect competence from Corgi.

Ich_2

Given the circumstances I would expect any of our guys (DNO) to at least do enough to restore supply by doing away with the isolator

Scottish_Power

Hi Orcadian sorry we can't help in this instance. it has to be FU who instruct whoever they have appointed as your meter operator to install a new isolator.

orcadian

Day 3 without power to our home.
Scottish Power were unable to locate the cut out fuse when they called yesterday.
I have absolutely no doubt that should I fail to pay my electricity bill to First Utility they would have no trouble to disconnect me. That means FU can disconnect our supply and replace the EMIS (which FU admit would have originally been installed by supplier). They know this and they are not doing it. Our contract is with FU I cannot accept that as an honest customer I am in any way to "blame" for this completely disgraceful situation.
FU are taking advantage of a grey area in the law to leave a family with 3 small children in cold and darkness in the middle of winter. Once again I make clear that I pay FU for my supply and they are my supplier.
I phoned First Utility last night and spoke again to them demanding they repair our EMIS but their representative Theresa denied their responsibility. She did however refer me to her manager April who phoned me back but I was out on hold then disconnected. At 21:13 however I was phoned by Enterprise on 0800-521-660 who FU had contacted on my behalf. Enterprise advised me to contact their emergency call out this morning at 7 am which I duly did.
This morning "jenny" at Enterprise stated they only install prepayment meters for FU and don't offer an emergency call out service for them. At 8:26 I was again phoned by Kevin from Enterprise who stated the same. He advised me to phone FU as he believes they are responsible as my supplier.
I have completely lost confidence in my supplier. My family are day 3 without power we cannot manage while large corporations squabble over who is responsible for our EMIS. Without its repair there is no power. FU admit the EMIS will originally have been installed by a supplier but deny all responsibility.
It must be made unlawful to supply any electricity consumer without taking legal responsibility for EMIS.
There should never be any doubt or room to argue. Vulnerable people are at stake.
I will be grateful if you can publicise this urgently and bring pressure on FU to assume responsibility urgently and to complete their repair for their call reference 20717-F.
We are not sure where to go or what to do as our home is no longer habitable in midwinter.

Wywth

You were given good advice on how to resolve this quickly 70 minutes after your initial post.

macman

It's absolutely nothing to do with FU. It's the job of the local DNO (in your region that's Scottish Power). The issue would have arisen regardless of who your billing supplier is.

Ich_2

Scottish Power were unable to locate the cut out fuse when they called yesterday.

I suggest you keep looking for this as if it can't be found(?) nothing can happen! Follow the tails which should get you to it

Scottish_Power

I'm sorry jalexa but if we were the registered supplier we would arrange an isolator to be installed. We would not ask the DNO to do it. For clarification, I am a representative of SP Energy Retail the DNO SP EnergyNetworks is a separate company.

David