Utilita - Cut off lost power and all freezer food.

Sc0ward

So with the big thing of Eversmart going bust, i like many others was transferred to Utilita, and being reassured I’d not lose any services. However the first day of the switch over I arrived home from work to find i had no power at all to my house, after hours of being on hold trying to get through them i eventually found out via the internet and YouTube i'd been moved to a credit tariff on meter and all credit had been used, but i managed to activate emergency credit mode.

To cut a long story short, i lost over £200 worth of freezer goods due to this and now Utilita claim all the can do is offer a goodwill gesture of £10 - £20 as the fault was with the data they were supplied by Eversmart.

Is anyone else in this boat or do you think i don't have a leg to stand on if the info was from Eversmart?

jbuchanangb

The procedure when you experience a power cut is to call 105 from a corded phone to talk to the electricity distribution company not the retailer.

When there has been a power cut which has caused loss of food in a freezer, this is usually covered by the contents aspect of your home insurance, but you probably have to pay the first £50 or £75.

When it happened to us - it happened over a weekend, and we came home to a power failure and a lot of thawed food, my wife's approach was to cook and eat as much of the thawed food, or cook and freeze again. Obviously it is not safe, for example, to re-freeze meat products which have thawed.

Flt._Lt._Biggles

jbuchanangb wrote: »

The procedure when you experience a power cut is to call 105 from a corded phone to talk to the electricity distribution company not the retailer.

When there has been a power cut which has caused loss of food in a freezer, this is usually covered by the contents aspect of your home insurance, but you probably have to pay the first £50 or £75.

When it happened to us - it happened over a weekend, and we came home to a power failure and a lot of thawed food, my wife's approach was to cook and eat as much of the thawed food, or cook and freeze again. Obviously it is not safe, for example, to re-freeze meat products which have thawed.

This is classed as 'self disconnection' - caused by running out of credit on a PPM. No need to contact anyone, except your top up facility to resolve

Sc0ward

I don't think my orignal post was clear sorry.

I should never had been moved to a credit meter, i've always been a pre-pay customer.

Utilita cut me off when they moved me over from Eversmart, i've never ever had to top a meter up as i've always paid via DD, so getting home to no power at all was never expected

Sc0ward

Flt._Lt._Biggles wrote: »

This is classed as 'self disconnection' - caused by running out of credit on a PPM. No need to contact anyone, except your top up facility to resolve

jbuchanangb wrote: »

The procedure when you experience a power cut is to call 105 from a corded phone to talk to the electricity distribution company not the retailer.

When there has been a power cut which has caused loss of food in a freezer, this is usually covered by the contents aspect of your home insurance, but you probably have to pay the first £50 or £75.

When it happened to us - it happened over a weekend, and we came home to a power failure and a lot of thawed food, my wife's approach was to cook and eat as much of the thawed food, or cook and freeze again. Obviously it is not safe, for example, to re-freeze meat products which have thawed.

I don't think my orignal post was clear sorry, there was no power cut

I should never had been moved to a credit meter, i've always been a pre-pay customer.

Utilita cut me off when they moved me over from Eversmart, i've never ever had to top a meter up as i've always paid via DD, so getting home to no power at all was never expected

Gerry1

Flt._Lt._Biggles wrote: »

This is classed as 'self disconnection' - caused by running out of credit on a PPM. No need to contact anyone, except your top up facility to resolve

It's a bit unclear, but it sounds as if the OP was on a credit tariff but was a victim of an unsolicited switch to a different company and then without their knowledge to a prepayment tariff which had insufficient credit. If so, the OP should be put back to the position they were in beforehand, which means Utilita paying for the spoiled food.

One for the Ombudsman or MoneyclaimOnline methinks.

Update after seeing latest posts

Is the OP mixing up the terms? IIRC a credit tariff is the conventional arrangement where you pay monthly or quarterly (e.g. direct debit or cheque) and prepayment is where you pay by top-up card and are cut off if you run out. Confusingly, in the latter case the amount you have left to burn up is known as credit.

molerat

Gerry1 wrote: »

It's a bit unclear, but it sounds as if the OP was on a credit tariff but was a victim of an unsolicited switch to a different company and then without their knowledge to a prepayment tariff which had insufficient credit. If so, the OP should be put back to the position they were in beforehand, which means Utilita paying for the spoiled food.

One for the Ombudsman or MoneyclaimOnline methinks.

Not exactly an unsolicited switch, it was through the SOLR process from Eversmart to Utilita. It doesn't help with understanding the situation that the OP is getting there pre-pay and credit meter status mixed up.

Gerry1

molerat wrote: »

Not exactly an unsolicited switch, it was through the SOLR process from Eversmart to Utilita.

:huh: Presumably the OP didn't ask Eversmart to go bust and to be transferred to Utilita ??

molerat

I would class "unsolicited" as an erroneous transfer rather than a regulatory one.

Sc0ward

Yeah sorry al a bit unclear.

So since living in the property i've never been on a top-up meter where i've had to add credit. Always just paid a monthly DD based on meter readings.

But when Eversmart went but and i was moved to Utilita, they moved me to a meter where i had to add my own credit and with there being no credit on the meter i was cut off

JJ_Egan

When did they fit this Credit meter ??
The day of the switch is how it reads .


How many hours later did you get power back on ?