Utilita have left me with No Gas for 21 hours!

gibbo120985

So i switched to utilita about 2/3 months ago as they said they were the cheapest for pre-payment... Problems started when i was putting nearly double the amount of money on.. Sat 18th jan the 'smart meter' started bleeping indicating i was using my gas emergency credit so the following day i put £10 on didnt register,so i waited a few hours still no credit, reset the smart meter etc like they say on website still nothing so on the monday i emailed them no reply! i topped up again on the tuesday 21st this time £15 still nothing so i phoned them and told them yet again the smart meter was broke and was unaware of how much gas i have,they said theyd phone back within half hour to see if they could look at my meter at their end... wednesday still nothing thursday nothing friday morning the meter bleeps indictating i have used all my emergency credit? so i phoned them up again just at that the gas supply shut off so the staff were telling me to key in numbers from my receipts that i bought the top up with still didnt register,then they realised the meter as broke? at 2pm friday they said they would send an engineer out within 4-6 hours and if i wasnt in i would be charged,if the engineer couldnt gain access to the meter i will be charged again (meter is outside!) so i told them i will be in all day.....7pm no engineer,i phoned them to make sure the engineer was coming out and they said yes he will be out i said he only has an hour to get here? are you sure...they said oh yes he will be there within the time allocated! Great i thought....8pm still no engineer? waited till 8.30pm no engineer... Customer services was closed at 8pm...so i phoned the emergency line which closes at 10pm, they said they would me back i said no thank you id rather hold! anyway she came back to me and said the engineer cant come out he's overbooked! I was furious...i told them we had a 8 week old baby in the house (my step grandson) and my wife is 6 months pregnant but she was not in the slightest bothered she just said im sorry he cant come out...i offered to wait up all night for someone to fix the meter she said im sorry i cant help....what on earth was i going to do at that time of night it was absolutley freezing in the house! By 9.30pm i had to phone my local housing authority (as im council rented) and they kindly left me their last heater for the baby's bedroom.... and said they had no right to leave me with no hot water or heating... I got up this morning first thing and phoned them at 8am by 9 am they still saying an engineer will come out by 3 pm i told them i was complaing but they didnt seem that bothered....What can i do if they dont come out by 3pm there offices close at 1pm? we cant go all weekend with no heating its so cold in this house.....Any help i would greatly appreciate or advice

HappyMJ

Buy another electric heater or two. No need to spend much more than £15 each. They have the same output as a central heating radiator but at slightly higher running cost but for a few days that'll be fine. Once it's all fixed then you can go about claiming compensation which should cover the increased cost of running them.

chanz4

call national grid 0800 111999 they will give you the pre-pay call out number for grid to attend

C_Mababejive

chanz4 wrote: »

call national grid 0800 111999 they will give you the pre-pay call out number for grid to attend

These arent NG meters are they? Im not sure they are PEMsable..

http://www.utilita.co.uk/

http://www.utilita.co.uk/contact-us/contact-utilita

chanz4

C_Mababejive wrote: »

These arent NG meters are they? Im not sure they are PEMsable..

http://www.utilita.co.uk/

http://www.utilita.co.uk/contact-us/contact-utilita

not 100%, they may do

rogerblack

Also, nomatter any other compensation you are due, my understanding is that 50 quid is payable if they do not keep an appointment.

Joyful

It's either £20 or £22 that you can claim for each missed appointment. I would also raise an official complaint. One of the things I often find from speaking to customers is that the smaller suppliers may be cheaper but don't have the resources to cope when things go wrong.

C_Mababejive

I have heard my share of complaints about Utilita meters. To be fair, i gues you only come to know of the bad bits. Complaints include similar to the OP i.e top ups not working, no contact available on the phone,waiting for ages to have the problem fixed,once the meter is in you cant get rid of it/switch due to lengthy contract ..blah blah blah.. I also believe that they do not have any contractual arrangement with National Grid to deal with their meters and so NG will generally not be able to assist you.