TONIK ENERGY - DESPERATELY NEED ADVICE!

dsbp1962

I am writing on behalf of a friend.
She is 82 years old and self-isolating.  Her only family is a daughter who is terminally ill with cancer.
For the past 2 weeks her gas meter keeps switching itself off, maybe twice a day, maybe every couple of hours.  She has had Cadent out twice and is assured that there is no leakage, just a faulty meter.  The meter is registering usage of 500+ units per day.  This lady NEEDS to be warm and have hot water.
I have contacted Tonik everyday this week.  Initially they said they could only replace her meter with a prepayment meter - she is adamant she does not want this.  On Tuesday they arranged an emergency callout from Lowri Beck.  An absolutely lovely engineer turned up within 30 minutes, listened to her tale of woe, had a van full of assorted meters (ordinary credit and smart meters) and was just about to start work when he asked for confirmation that she was a Scottish Energy customer.  When we said Tonik, he shut the van door and said all his meters are for Scottish Energy and he couldn't help - although to his credit he spent over 30 minutes trying to find out if any colleagues had a Tonik meter on their vans with no success.  So back to Tonik who have today emailed and said they do not have any replacement meters available until their second phase of smart meters are rolled out.
This lady is in the most dreadful state.  She is paranoid about having to keep resetting her gas meter.  Her boiler engineer has told her, rightly or wrongly, that continued cut-outs will eventually damage her combi-boiler.  She is worried that despite constant advice to wash hands in hot water, she does not have a reliable supply. And her greatest concern is that she may not be able to provide end-of-life care for her terminally ill daughter in her own home.
I have spoken directly to Lowri Beck who cannot help further and redirect back to Tonik.  The Ombudsman doesn't want to know unless you go through the complaints procedure.  
PLEASE PLEASE DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY ADVICE?

Robin9

An immediate written complaint sent by post - backed up with an email, chatline ………….


PS When on the phone - do not accept what the call centre says - keep on escalating up the management tree

dsbp1962

Robin9 said:

An immediate written complaint sent by post - backed up with an email, chatline ………….


PS When on the phone - do not accept what the call centre says - keep on escalating up the management tree

Thanks, so far I have emailed directly to the CEO of Tonik, submitted a complaint via Resolver, written to the local Trading Standards and phoned Tonik daily who will not escalate to a manager (I doubt they have any TBH, the company is in disarry).  I do not usually take 'no' for an answer and cannot understand how, if there are credit meters available to other gas suppliers, Tonik can say they don't have any.  All meters are installed by Lowri Beck and I doubt they really care who the energy supplier is they are installing on behalf of as long as they get paid for their work.  Lowri Beck will not take calls from the public to their meter installation department.  Still at my wits' end!

Gerry1

I trust that she is on Tonik's Priority Services Register?  A call to your MP might work wonders; they get put through to CEOs etc pretty quickly.

dsbp1962

Well, I don't know if it was posting on here, emailing Tonik's CEO, raising a complaint through Resolver, writing to Martin Lewis or raising the matter with local Trading Standards but within 3 hours of my desperate pleas for help, my friend got a call from Tonik to say Cadent (formerly British Gas) would be with her within 3 hours and fit a new meter.  And they did!!!  The lovely man from Cadent showed my friend something that everyone else had missed - a small 'b' on the display which meant the battery was almost run down.  He explained that this was the cause of all her problems.  The battery has an estimated life of 10 years and her meter was 9 years old.  He installed an 'old fashioned' mechanical credit meter and checked her boiler as well.  Hopefully this will be the end of the matter but what a shame I had to go so such lengths to get it resolved!

Gerry1

Please add the details to the Rogue Meters thread.  It's important that this problem is publicised, it seems that it may be quite widespread.

Matthaus73

Glad you got it sorted for her.
What Gerry1 said please please add make and model to rogue meters thread ....amazing how gas companys dont know what the letter 'b' means !!!

dsbp1962

Matthaus73 said:

Glad you got it sorted for her.
What Gerry1 said please please add make and model to rogue meters thread ....amazing how gas companys dont know what the letter 'b' means !!!

Will do when I next visit her to get the information.

Talldave

Thank you so much for letting us know. It seems the 10 year battery life was optimistic.  If you have a photo of the meter showing the "b", do post it in the other thread mentioned to help others as there will be thousands of similar meters reaching end of life.