Mum who was switched to prepayment energy meter without being told wins £620
A vulnerable energy customer who was switched to a prepayment meter without being told has been awarded over £600 in compensation.
Mother-of-two Claire-Marie, 33, said she was effectively left without a way to pay for her energy for four days following the move by Utility Warehouse.
The issue started after Claire-Marie, who also had a phone contract with Utility Warehouse, had tried to change her direct debit to match up with her pay day.
The worried mum had fallen behind on her bills and said she had been trying to clear her debt by paying extra every month.
But because she was in arrears, she ended up being put onto a prepayment meter after struggling to find a resolution with the energy firm.
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After being helped by consumer champion Helen Dewdney, also known as The Complaining Cow, Claire-Marie has now been awarded £624.
Claire-Marie had struggled to change her payment date with Utility Warehouse (Lorne Campbell / Guzelian)Here, Helen explains what happened...
Claire-Marie had been trying for many months to get the monthly payment date for her direct debit changed to correspond with her pay day and clear the debt on the energy account.
However, she says Utility Warehouse told her this was not possible as it only allows payment dates on the last or first day of the month.
Back in 2021, Claire-Marie had got muddled over one payment and had missed paying the previous month.
This meant for about eight months she was paying extra on the 15th of the month to try and clear the balance.
But, because she was one month in arrears, the company were cutting off her mobile phone on the 9th or 10th of every month.
Although she was clearing the debt “they kept disconnecting my services, rather than allowing me to pay on the 15th as I did every time,” she told me.
Claire-Marie says the experience contributed toward her stress levels (Lorne Campbell / Guzelian)This contributed to her anxiety and on one occasion meant that she was unable to ring Lifeline, her GP and the West Yorkshire Mental Health Support team support service.
She cancelled the phone part of the contract in February 2021.
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After ten months of trying to sort out the issue, Utility Warehouse installed a prepayment meter for her gas, without informing her that this had been done.
Utility Warehouse installed the meter on December 16 but didn't tell her until December 19 and left no instructions on how to pay.
Claire-Marie, her 33-year-old fiancé, 14 and 6-year-old children were without a way to pay for energy for four days.
“I honestly felt they were going to leave my family without gas for Christmas,” she told me.
Claire-Marie was worried about how she would heat her home (Asadour Guzelian)A spokesperson for Utility Warehouse said: “In the customer’s time with Utility Warehouse, our call records show that we have worked with them on a number of occasions to help manage their account.”
However, a screenshot I sent Utility Warehouse showing calls made and received on Claire-Marie’s phone did not tally at all with the times given by them.
I contacted Utility Warehouse to inform them of their apparent breaches of all four of the following Ofgem standards: behaviour towards consumers, providing information, customer service processes and considering vulnerable domestic customers.
There were a number of issues regarding the communication with Utility Warehouse.
Under Ofgem standards of performance rules, if you can’t get electricity or gas due to what you think might be a faulty meter, your supplier must attend and repair or replace it within three hours (or four hours on a weekend or bank holiday).
The elapsed time starts at the beginning of the next working day if you contact them out of hours. Utility Warehouse appeared to have breached this standard.
Ofgem rules also state: “For unplanned interruptions to your gas supply, you are entitled to at least £60 for every 24 hours it is off.
“There are also additional payments and provisions available for households on the Priority Services Register, such as alternative heating and cooking facilities.”
I got involved and asked that Utility Warehouse switch on the gas for Claire-Marie’s family as soon as possible.
Utility Warehouse said its engineer left instructions on how to top up the meter - but Ring doorbell footage appeared to show otherwise.
The energy firm's response to this was: “While we trust the agents to leave the letter behind, we do know that human error can happen.
“If that is the case here and a mistake has happened, we are sorry and we will give feedback to our third-party contractors.”
But this did not acknowledge the effect this had on their customer.
Claire-Marie received a phone call from the company offering her £200 plus £66 late payments, plus £18 debit legal fees refunded.
She was also offered payment holidays, the opportunity to leave Utility Warehouse without objection and an alternative repayment plan.
If Utility Warehouse had resolved the payment plan problem for Claire-Marie, she would not have incurred those charges.
This payment was offered on December 23, so a nice Christmas present.
The Utility Warehouse spokesperson said: “Since the meter has been installed, we ensured that the customer was kept on supply by providing her with a top up on their meter and through emergency and friendly credit.”
However, this ran out without knowing how to top up.
Utility Warehouse believed that the complaint was closed, having received verbal confirmation in a phone call from Claire-Marie.
However, I subsequently told Utility Warehouse that it had not offered the right amount.
The goodwill offer referred to service and did not include the £60 a day to which Claire-Marie was legally entitled.
So, we emailed again to clarify that the payment plan had been agreed but the complaint was not yet closed.
I continued the complaint with the CEO escalation team (find details of CEOs and their teams at ceoemail.com) and threatened to take the case further to the Energy Ombudsman.
Finally, after sixteen emails from me, Utility Warehouse offered £60 per day for four days plus a further £100 by “way of apology”.
Once the matter was finally resolved, a spokesperson for Utility Warehouse said: “We have worked with the customer to resolve this issue and have spoken with her at length on multiple occasions to try and bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.
“This includes offering a gesture of goodwill payment, payment holidays, and the opportunity to leave Utility Warehouse without objection and an alternative repayment plan with suitable time to pay arrears.
“We have now reached a resolution and consider the matter closed. Should they encounter any further issues, we will do our utmost to resolve these.”
Utility Warehouse wanted the payout to be offset against the debt - however, Claire-Marie wished to continue the existing payment plan and have the goodwill gesture and compensation paid into her bank account.
I asked Utility Warehouse where the Ofgem guidelines state that compensation can be used against outstanding debt.
She has now received the payment into her bank account. The total Claire-Marie received was £624.
She told me: “I believe the problems would have gone on much longer without help from someone who knows the rules and persevered.
“Thankfully, I had the right support to eventually sort this out, and I just hope no one else is facing this kind of disgraceful treatment and feeling too scared.”
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