PAYG issue with supplier

sp4rky82

Good afternoon all,

I'm new to this site, so please forgive me, if I've posted to the wrong part of the site. 

Me, and my family moved into our home, nearly 2 years ago. We did a house swap, when we moved property, and once we moved in, I realised that the electricity metre was constantly buzzing, and there was absolutely no display on the metre. The top up key was there, but again, that wouldn't allow us to top up or anything. I also wanted to switch to Utilita energy. As we've always used them and our Gas was already with Utilita. So made more sense to also use them for electricity. 

I contacted the provider (Boost) to say the metre was faulty, and after speaking with the previous tenants, they stated that the metre had been like this for years. They contacted Boost to get the issue fixed, but the engineer was unable to fix the issue, but managed to connect the metre, but again with no display. Meaning the electricity was free.. As no one was able to top it up. 

I contacted Boost, as soon as we moved into the property. (The day after) to register into the property, and also try to get the metre fixed, and switch to Utilita. This was at the height of the pandemic, and the lady on the phone, was extremely rude. I was told that we would be charged £50 for the metre error. And I tried to explain, continuously that the error on the metre, is causing the metre to run for free, as the display wasn't working. The Boost employee said but it's not broken. Obviously it was, and I repeatedly tried to get this resolved. I asked to speak to a manager at Boost, who I again explained everything and said the metre is broken, it's bleeping, there is no display,and I mentioned the previous tenants had also tried to get this fixed with no success. I wasn't able to take a metre reading when we moved into the property, and the old tenants wasn't able to take one when moving out. 

I've contacted Boost around 6/7 times, and continuously got nowhere. 

I've now managed to get an engineer to get a new metre fitted, which will be done next week. We wanted to switch our electricity to Utilita the same as our gas supplier. Boost has just advised me, that once the new metre is fitted, we can then switch the electricity to Utilita. 

You would think, that a company would want to change a broken metre. As they would obviously be losing money. We've even had one Boost employee say "You're getting it for free, so why complain"?.. Who I tried to explain that I want it fixed, as I don't want to get into debt, due to an error on their part. I just can't get my head around why they have been so against fixing a metre that's broken and providing free electricity.. To then have that kind of attitude, of saying we'll charge you to fix the metre, when it was never an issue on our part. The previous tenants had this issue for over 3 years too. It's madness. 

Will I be able to switch to Utilita energy once the metre is fixed? No metre readings have been taken for years now. Due to the metre showing no display. We've had multiple energy people come out to take metre readings, but been unable to so just took a picture of the broken display and metre. 

pochase

Somebody mentioned recently that Utilita is not accepting new customers.