Consequential loss

helicopterred

Hi I have had a terrible experience waiting for a gas meter
I had my gas supply moved to outside the property wednesday
I arranged for a new meter to be fitted by my supplier on the same day informed them it was now a semi concealed box so had to be this type of meter
When they arrived they had the wrong meter
Contacted supplier told lots of incorrect information emergency job raised but would not be tonight
Thursday chased up what was going on was told somebody would be around as a emergency job was raised chased again told job was rejected and that supplier had passed job to National grid
Friday chased nobody had showed up another emergency job raised, chased up later in the day another job raised as they were emailing the jobs but never had confirmation, nobody showed up
Saturday Contractor chased again by Supplier who said they could not access job box so was not aware of it even though job raised and accepted on friday,
job now arranged for monday 8-13 and to have my plumber onsite to connect
No show chased again another job raised accepted around 2pm somebody turned up at 17:20

No heating, hot water (including shower) for 6 days
Promised a visit on everyday except Sunday no show till monday evening
Lost time off work
Wife joined Gym so she could have a hot shower
Cancelled Family visit over the weekend
Lots of stress
Not able to get on with any jobs that needed doing around the house in case i missed a visit

I have been offered the missed visits totaling £150 and been offered £75 good will payment which i am not happy about due to my consequential losses and caused stress

How do i claim this successfully and where do i stand with claiming back my lost earnings/leave entitlement
what can i claim for stress and inconvenience that would be reasonable? the £75 would be fine for stress and inconvenience but only if i could get my loss of earnings too

Not trying to be greedy but i am most upset about my lost time off work and as i was never given any time slots until the monday they were full days off work (7.5 hrs)
monday was 6 hrs and saturday would be 6 hrs but at x1.5 rate

Wish to proceed this quickly so any help would be appreciated
Cheers

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Given the way the industry is regulated, I would be surprised if you are offered much more than their statuary payments and the £75 goodwill.

You can submit a formal complaint and after 8 weeks go to the Ombudsman; but if the experience of people on MSE is anything to go by you will get little increase in compensation.

You have of course the option to go to the Small Claims court.

helicopterred

Whats the worse case senario if i lost at the small claims, do i have to pay their legal fees/costs?

spiro

OFGEM set the missed appointment penalty at £30, given you can request a 2hr time slot that equates to £10/hr given it takes you less than 30 minutes to get to work.
Also as it was gas the view will be you had alternative methods of getting hot water to wash - boil a couple of kettles full of water.

helicopterred

I was never given 2 hour time slots jobs were raised as emergency and i was not told a time
Also the only time i was given a time slot was for monday which was 8am to 1pm this is a 5 hour time slot
I understand what you are saying about heat some water up but that is not reasonable for 6 days

Thanks

lstar337

I think what everyone here is saying helicopterred, is that you have a couple of options you can try, but you are not likely to get something you believe is satisfactory.

Given that you have mentioned stress a few times, you should be warned that trying to get what you want is going to result in a lot more stress for little reward.

If you want to improve your mood, push it all behind you and focus on something more positive. The way you were treated sucks, but the current system is not setup to work in your favour.

JJ_Egan

Your consequential losses amount to what ??
Itemize them .

Stress = £75 as offered want more then go to court or engage a compensation lawyer .

helicopterred

Consequential losses are loss of earnings for 5 days but am unable to claim the 1st day so it would be 4 days and as no time slot was given and jobs were rejected without informing me until i chased them up i was never afforded a "timeslot" of any kind yet alone 2 hours as previously mentioned
So my consequential losses are 4 days pay
The good will gesture to me would be to cover the inconvenience and stress of no Gas not loss of earnings

footyguy

helicopterred wrote: »

Whats the worse case senario if i lost at the small claims, do i have to pay their legal fees/costs?

Legal fees are not usually awarded at small claims court - each side is expected to pay their own if they decide to take that route, but you really don't need legal representation in most small claim court actions; it's designed that way to keep costs low.

You would have had to pay for the court costs anyway (these are usually added to your claim in the event you eventually win), and you may have to pay the defendents travel costs etc. Usually a small claim of consumer vs retailer is held in a county court local to the consumer/complainant to minimise your own costs in the event you win your claim.

footyguy

helicopterred wrote: »

Consequential losses are loss of earnings for 5 days but am unable to claim the 1st day so it would be 4 days and as no time slot was given and jobs were rejected without informing me until i chased them up i was never afforded a "timeslot" of any kind yet alone 2 hours as previously mentioned
So my consequential losses are 4 days pay
The good will gesture to me would be to cover the inconvenience and stress of no Gas not loss of earnings

You almost certainly get 4 days wages in compo. You should have demanded a timeslot (preferably one outside of your normal working day) if it really was that no one else could have provided suitable access if the engineer turned up.

Even if the timeslots were necessarily within your working day, your loss should not have amounted to about a maximium of 2 hours per day (plus possibly a bit of travel time back to work)

Whatever the claim, you will need to be able to prove this as evidenced by docked pay on your wage slip and probably the judge would want to haer from your employer too, as to the full circumstnaces of why they docked you (so that means paying the travel expenses of your employer to attend court too, unless you win your claim - would your emploeyer be willing to attend court as a witness for you for nothing more than a bit of travel expense?)

Stress - sorry you''ll need a medical report to prove that, and doctors don't come cheap when you need to employ them privately. It will be up to the judge if that cost would ever be recoverable...and then only if you win.

If the ombudsman service has already made a decision before a court hearing, it's going to be almost next to impossible to get a court to decide otherwise save for a claim where you could priove the ombudsman service has fallen short of what the law demands.

Btw, large organisations don't really get involved themselves with small claims against them. They simply will pass any claim to their legal department, who would probably just employ a barrister to represent them (even though they know the cost may be £100s per hour that they will swallow).
So you will be in court trying to argue the law against some highly experienced, professional legal expert.

Best of luck!