No heating for 8months

sophieship

I'm a customer of sse. On the 31st of march I switched to a pre-payment metre as I'm recently disabled and it offered me a way to have better control of my finance since I cannot work anymore. The problems started when I tried to go into a corner shop to collect a prepayment key card. The code I was given by sse would not work. I tried this 4 different times with 4different codes. No luck each time it failed I would contact them and tell them the code I was given wasn't working. I was told to take the new code in and it would work. They never did. I kept asking for a new card until one person relented and sent me a card out in the post. This did not work either! I called them constantly trying to sort this out but no-one did anything. My health got worse and I had to be cared for and my contact with them dropped.
I reattempted sorting it with them in July- not much happened.

Then I tried again august. This time I called the citizens advice beuro and they called sse and put the frights in them enough to send some engineers around who wiped the charges off of the meter and put emergency on for me, but, they said that I could not top up with my card because the codes that paired the cards and the meter weren't correct. I was told to sit tight and wait for a new card. I was also told that my meter was awkwardly placed and that the works they needed to complete on it couldn't happen because they couldn't access it properly. They went off vowing someone would come the next day......... They never came. I called. No one returned my call.

After a final stint in hospital and the weather getting cold I decided I wasn't going to be denied heat for me and my children (6 and 7) I called up and demanded service. My issues have since been fixed. Thank god!
But sse are offering me £100 compensation.
I can't walk more than 60-paces following a bad car accident. I had to fill up my childrens baths with a kettle and run cold water to make it a better temp. It near enough killed my back 2 times a week doing that.

I bought electric storage heaters to keep the children warm at night.

. We lived like homeless people inside our own home for 8months. £100 is insulting.

Sse are saying that when I went it to hospital inaugust (I had swelling on the brain and couldn't talk) that I didn't talk to them that they feel they resolved it (even though the heating on was fixed last night!!!!) my silence whilst in hospital is considered by them for me to be saying the complaint was resolved. They are also saying that their system isn't showing and contact from me until July........ So all of my reports of faulty cards from March and April, don't exsist. I'm worried that if I refer this to an ombudsman that their lack of information will go against me.

Can I have your advice on what Is a realistic amount of compensation per day I'm entitled to ask for?
Quite frankly I don't want to go to court or use the ombudsman, I just want them to go away. But I do feel I'm entitled to fair compensation for the distress for me and the children.
Please help me.
I'm feeling really intimidated.

sheffield_lad

If you don't want any more hassle take what is on offer.

You were lucky that this occurred late spring/summer. When heating is not needed as much as over the winter period.

My personal opinion is there is no set amount anyone is 'entitled' to.

[Deleted User]

OP, please switch your expensive prepay back to a credit meter , get on the cheapest possible one year fix, payable by a quarterly direct debit. You will pay approx 25% less for your energy. Find another way of carefully saving a weekly sum ready for the quarterly direct debit. If you dont want to do that maybe you can organise a supplier who does automatic prepay top ups with a dongle they send you. British Gas and Eon both do these.

naedanger

sophieship wrote: »

Can I have your advice on what Is a realistic amount of compensation per day I'm entitled to ask for?
Quite frankly I don't want to go to court or use the ombudsman, I just want them to go away. But I do feel I'm entitled to fair compensation for the distress for me and the children.
Please help me.
I'm feeling really intimidated.

You are entitled to be compensated for any extra costs incurred because you did not have gas where that lack of gas was due to a failing by the supplier. Then you can claim for inconvenience and distress on top although I doubt there is a standard approach for this.

However if you are not prepared to go to the Ombudsman or take legal action you cannot compel your supplier to pay you anything.

If you don't want any further dispute and want the matter to go away accept the current offer.

Alternatively estimate what you feel is a fair amount of compensation, showing the amount split between financial loss and separately for stress, and write to your supplier and explain why you feel their offer is unfair and why you believe you should be paid the higher amount. They may make a better offer. If they don't, or you still don't think they have made a fair offer, I think the only alternative to accepting their offer is to either complain further (e.g. through their official complaints process and ultimately the Ombudsman) or take legal action.

datlex

If you are disabled but want prepaid, both Scottish Power and British Gas have devices you can plug into your pc to make payments rather than having the hassle of going to the shops. You can also decide how much you put on.


Prepaid is unfortunately more than credit meter, in spite of what it claim as you don't get the option of direct debit discounts etc. Also you don't spread out costs over the year.


I would ask the firm you are with for an energy monitor so you can save money when possible.


On a separate note, SSE were the supplier here when I first moved in. They were a nightmare to get a key etc off. As soon as I could I changed supplies and am now on a credit meter and paying much less.