Pre-pay meter blank screen....

DaleW1982

Hello all, hoping for some advice. About 3 / 4 years ago, our key meter showed a blank screen after a power cut. After about a week I put some credit on, and when I put it in the meter nothing happened.  So the following day, I called Bulb...explained the situation, they didn't really do anything to rectify the problem. They said it wasn't an emergency as we still had power. So that was the end of that. In short I completely forgot about it, have a wife, 2 kids, we're both constantly working. We never really gave it a second thought. Anyway, cut forward to last Friday evening, my dog was sniffing the letterbox as a hand written letter was hanging there. From Haste revenue protection. Now me and my wife are really worried. We have never done anything untoward with our meters, I tried phoning them this morning to arrange an appointment,  but ended up leaving a voicemail, and sent them an email aswell.
We feel like criminals, and our only fault really was not pursuing the issue even when bulb said nothing could be done as it wasn't an emergency. Does anybody know what may happen when the engineer comes out, sees the box is blank but still providing power? Many thanks to whoever my be able to help.

MattMattMattUK

DaleW1982 said:

Hello all, hoping for some advice. About 3 / 4 years ago, our key meter showed a blank screen after a power cut. After about a week I put some credit on, and when I put it in the meter nothing happened.  So the following day, I called Bulb...explained the situation, they didn't really do anything to rectify the problem. They said it wasn't an emergency as we still had power. So that was the end of that. In short I completely forgot about it, have a wife, 2 kids, we're both constantly working. We never really gave it a second thought. Anyway, cut forward to last Friday evening, my dog was sniffing the letterbox as a hand written letter was hanging there. From Haste revenue protection. Now me and my wife are really worried. We have never done anything untoward with our meters, I tried phoning them this morning to arrange an appointment,  but ended up leaving a voicemail, and sent them an email aswell.
We feel like criminals, and our only fault really was not pursuing the issue even when bulb said nothing could be done as it wasn't an emergency. Does anybody know what may happen when the engineer comes out, sees the box is blank but still providing power? Many thanks to whoever my be able to help.

Do you mean you have not topped up for 3+ years and did not notice? Do you have any evidence that you reported it to Bulb, copies of email, correspondence etc.?

Under back billing rules they can only charge you for the last twelve months electricity, so they could charge you for an estimate of usage for the last twelve months. I suspect back billing rules would apply, which would cap the period at twelve months, but there might be specific exemptions that could apply in a situation like this that I am not aware of. Your account would not in theory have been transferred to Octopus, have you received any correspondence from them in the last few months?

Who is your network operator and what does that show for your energy supplier?
https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator

DaleW1982

Hello, thanks for getting back, I know its daft on our parts, but genuinely never gave it another thought. We have never had a meter reader come round, and we have yearly checks on our gas and electricity.  And an important 5 year thorough check on our electricity. No engineer has ever mentioned the meter, and it sits right below our trip swicht board. So easily on view. I reported our gas meter about 2 years ago as it displayed 'call help', the batteries were dead so they installed a new meter.  Not sure if Bulb has a log from my call, from when it happened. But in regards to it, I never received any correspondence from them. I did however have an email a week ago explaining that we have no been moved over to octopus. I've called Haste 3 times left a voicemail, and emailed them at 9am today, still  haven't heard anything. Just want this resolved,  new meters put in, and get back to normal. Thanks again for your reply.

Ayr_Rage

@DaleW1982 have you paid ANY of you energy costs, either electricity or gas in the last 3 years ?

born_again

To be clear here. At no point in the last few years have you topped up the meter. Since you reported the issue?

https://www.hastemeteringservices.co.uk/services/revenue-protection

DaleW1982

Ayr_Rage said:

@DaleW1982 have you paid ANY of you energy costs, either electricity or gas in the last 3 years ?

Yes, we have always made sure our gas meter was in credit.

DaleW1982

born_again said:

To be clear here. At no point in the last few years have you topped up the meter. Since you reported the issue.

Unfortunately no, I tried a week or so after the power cut, and nothing happened when input the key in the meter. After that bulb said it wasn't an emergency as we still had power. And that was pretty much that. 

[Deleted User]

Hi - don't panic, you're not the first person to have got yourself into this situation and you won't be the last. The impression I get from your post is that you're not a hardened criminal looking to get away with as much as you can. It sounds to me more like you've made an error of judgement in not progressing this sooner and that error has caught up with you.

The likely outcome is that you'll end up with a working prepayment meter so you'll have to start paying going forward, and you'll get some kind of estimated bill to cover what you've used and not paid for. If you can't pay that bill then you will be able to agree a payment plan.

You can't really avoid the fact that there's an uncomfortable conversation to be had about this and questions to be answered about why (given all the news about energy costs that surely must have reminded you that you're not paying) you haven't taken steps to sort this out before. And what happened to the £66/£67 vouchers that prepayment meter customers were sent? And has there been some correspondence about this which you've either ignored or been fearful to read?

In my view, by far and away the best thing to do now is to take this on the chin and co-operate fully with the energy company. The first thing to do is just to tell them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then just take it one step at a time.

Good luck

DaleW1982

[Deleted User] said:

Hi - don't panic, you're not the first person to have got yourself into this situation and you won't be the last. The impression I get from your post is that you're not a hardened criminal looking to get away with as much as you can. It sounds to me more like you've made an error of judgement in not progressing this sooner and that error has caught up with you.

The likely outcome is that you'll end up with a working prepayment meter so you'll have to start paying going forward, and you'll get some kind of estimated bill to cover what you've used and not paid for. If you can't pay that bill then you will be able to agree a payment plan.

You can't really avoid the fact that there's an uncomfortable conversation to be had about this and questions to be answered about why (given all the news about energy costs that surely must have reminded you that you're not paying) you haven't taken steps to sort this out before. And what happened to the £66/£67 vouchers that prepayment meter customers were sent? And has there been some correspondence about this which you've either ignored or been fearful to read?

In my view, by far and away the best thing to do now is to take this on the chin and co-operate fully with the energy company. The first thing to do is just to tell them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then just take it one step at a time.

Good luck

Thank you so much, and no, I've been through all old emails, and not one to ask why we're not topping up the meter. I've just rang haste again, managed to get through. The next available appointment was next Monday!! Can't wait that long, so I told the telephone operative,  I want it resolved. And he's gonna give me a call back later, to see if it can be brought forward. Like you say, yes an error of judgment on our parts. Wish I had done it sooner. Thank you again for your response. 

SAC2334

[Deleted User] said:

Hi - don't panic, you're not the first person to have got yourself into this situation and you won't be the last. The impression I get from your post is that you're not a hardened criminal looking to get away with as much as you can. It sounds to me more like you've made an error of judgement in not progressing this sooner and that error has caught up with you.

The likely outcome is that you'll end up with a working prepayment meter so you'll have to start paying going forward, and you'll get some kind of estimated bill to cover what you've used and not paid for. If you can't pay that bill then you will be able to agree a payment plan.

You can't really avoid the fact that there's an uncomfortable conversation to be had about this and questions to be answered about why (given all the news about energy costs that surely must have reminded you that you're not paying) you haven't taken steps to sort this out before. And what happened to the £66/£67 vouchers that prepayment meter customers were sent? And has there been some correspondence about this which you've either ignored or been fearful to read?

In my view, by far and away the best thing to do now is to take this on the chin and co-operate fully with the energy company. The first thing to do is just to tell them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then just take it one step at a time.

Good luck

He won t be getting an estimated bill for the back payment .The suppliers have nt lost any money themselves so they won t be bothered. They know they have been pathetically lax, as they all are , and its their fault that the meter was nt exchanged 4 years ago .
If they did try to back bill it would nt look good  that they were informed years ago and sat back doing nothing . The customer would escalate it  to the Ombudsman and the Suppliers would nt want to get involved in showing how bad they are and would scrap the back charge 
I ve found plenty of these toasted old prepay meters  over the years and got British Gas Revenue Protection involved  in them and they are not interested at all in obtaining estimated rebills and told me there is no fault to the occupier if he d reported it even if it was only once.
Failure to report it is against the Terms and Conditions but it does nt say keep reporting it many  times until the supplier does something about it  

DaleW1982

SAC2334 said:

[Deleted User] said:

Hi - don't panic, you're not the first person to have got yourself into this situation and you won't be the last. The impression I get from your post is that you're not a hardened criminal looking to get away with as much as you can. It sounds to me more like you've made an error of judgement in not progressing this sooner and that error has caught up with you.

The likely outcome is that you'll end up with a working prepayment meter so you'll have to start paying going forward, and you'll get some kind of estimated bill to cover what you've used and not paid for. If you can't pay that bill then you will be able to agree a payment plan.

You can't really avoid the fact that there's an uncomfortable conversation to be had about this and questions to be answered about why (given all the news about energy costs that surely must have reminded you that you're not paying) you haven't taken steps to sort this out before. And what happened to the £66/£67 vouchers that prepayment meter customers were sent? And has there been some correspondence about this which you've either ignored or been fearful to read?

In my view, by far and away the best thing to do now is to take this on the chin and co-operate fully with the energy company. The first thing to do is just to tell them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then just take it one step at a time.

Good luck

He won t be getting an estimated bill for the back payment .The suppliers have nt lost any money themselves so they won t be bothered. They know they have been pathetically lax, as they all are , and its their fault that the meter was nt exchanged 4 years ago .
If they did try to back bill it would nt look good  that they were informed years ago and sat back doing nothing . The customer would escalate it  to the Ombudsman and the Suppliers would nt want to get involved in showing how bad they are and would scrap the back charge 
I ve found plenty of these toasted old prepay meters  over the years and got British Gas Revenue Protection involved  in them and they are not interested at all in obtaining estimated rebills and told me there is no fault to the occupier if he d reported it even if it was only once.
Failure to report it is against the Terms and Conditions but it does nt say keep reporting it many  times until the supplier does something about it  

Thank you,, would they still have a record of my call after all this time? Plus the fact that Bulbs customers have been moved over to Octopus.