SSE Energy disconnected meter of Bulb customer. Bulb refused to help priority customer

[elamani]

A different company from mine came out to switch a neighbours meter to a prepaid and changed mine. I was left without gas for over a month, my company wouldn't come out and find out why my gas was gone, it took a long time to be discovered.

 

I am a disabled woman, I recently lost my father and I also have Ocd, this lack of heating and hot water caused me serious mental distress and physical harm.

 

The energy company that caused me this misery have offered me £750 pounds and admit full liability, I think that's pathetic after what they put me through and am looking at suing them.

 

I can't find any similar cases online and wondered if anyone here know of any, or what sum they were settled for?

 

Thank you

[BankFodder]

Please can you let us know which company it was. And also which was your correct supplier.

Have you got anything in writing from them?

 

[elamani]

Yes, I only communicate by email, they have admitted full liability in writing. My supplier is bulb, SSE are the ones at fault for the mix up.

[BankFodder]

Also, please could you tell us when this happened – and the entire timeline. How often did you contact your real energy supplier about this?

 

[elamani]

I contacted my supplier many times, they have apologised for not sending anyone out to check and offered me 30 pounds, which I am debating with them. My issue is SSE, who are at fault for the error and admit full liability. I am looking for similar court cases and what the settlement was. Thanks

[BankFodder]

I doubt whether you will find any similar cases but we can help you with this. However you need to answer the questions that I put to you. You haven't told us anything about the timeline.

[elamani]

I'm not sure what more you need to know, it was just over a month, I was left without gas. Bulb were informed the day my gas stopped and did nothing, it took over a month to get them to send someone out to look. Throughout that month I suffered badly. Once the fault was found and changed bulb told me SSE were the ones who had changed it and they had changed the wrong meter. I then contacted them, explained what their actions had done, they investigated, have taken full responsibility and am now discussing a settlement with them.

[BankFodder]

Well in order to build up a case for maximum compensation, we need to know exact dates not simply "it took over…" a certain amount of time. We need to know when it happened so that we can get an idea of the weather at the time so we can make a better case as to how bad it was and how badly you are inconvenience.

We also like to know whether you had any alternative heating – electric – and if so how much extra this cost you.

There are all sorts of questions that we will probably need to ask you in order to give you the best advice. It will be helpful if you just answer the questions. I don't see any advantage in making it more difficult.

Have you ever sued anybody before? Are you happy to go ahead with our help?

[BankFodder]

We probably also like to know the amount of phone calls or other communications you had with Bulb trying to persuade them to come round and the kind of excuses you have put up with. We like to know the kind of time periods that you have spent try to communicate with them.

I think you should also send them on SAR and also one to SSE. I think you should get those off by email straightaway.

[elamani]

It was switched off on 18/03/21, to 5/5/21 so actually longer. I only communicate via email due to disabilities.

 

I had to use the oven to heat my room I imagine my electric ha gone up alot but not sure of the exact amount,

I emailed bulb many times, they told me to get out a boiler person who said it wasn't the boiler and the gas was cut off,

I told them this and they didn't respond for a while.

I fell into severe depression due to not being able to lean myself properly and being cold,

I not able to look after myself and ended up rehoming my dog as I felt she was better off with someone who wasn't depression in a freezing house.

 

I can not get her back now so I have lost my best friend.

I continued to persevere with bulb until they finally agreed to send a female engineer out, I am a sexual assault survivor and can not have a man in my home.

 

She finally came out on the 5th and changed the meter back.

 

What exactly am I to send on to SAR and SSE?

 

Thanks

Edited May 20, 2021 by BankFodder
Restructured in order to make it readable

[BankFodder]

Okay it sounds very difficult.

Please notice that I had to restructure your post in order to introduce spacing et cetera because it was a solid block of text and very difficult to read – especially for people on small screens.

I think you should start off by sending an SAR to each of these companies so that we can get a better feel of their own internal communications and what particular records they might have in respect of this. You should get the SARs off this evening or tomorrow morning – you can do this by email.

SSE may require some proof of identification from you because you are not their customer – and this may be entirely reasonable but let us know what response they give you.

Clearly you are a customer of Bulb and so therefore they should not ask for any proof of identity. However, sometimes these companies do and to do so where they clearly have evidence of who you are is unlawful and you should let us know.

If either of them happen to default on the 30 day timescale then we will help you sue them for that as well which will add a little bit of extra money.

Clearly it sounds as if it has been extremely difficult. The weather has not been good and I think it would be a good idea for you to access a BBC weather site or AccuWeather and get a printout of all the temperatures – day by day of the weather for the period for which you were without any heating.

Also you should get hold of your electricity bill because having to heat the house with your oven must have cost a lot of money. We will have to get that back for you as well.

Could you tell us how large your home is – what kind of home is it?

I'm extremely sorry about the loss of your dog. Clearly this is very concerning – and first of all I have to say the it was a very responsible thing to do to look after the interests of this animal in such a self-sacrificing way. Please can you tell us more about the dog, how long you had it. Where has it gone and why is there no chance of getting it back.

Presumably you would want the dog back if you could get it.

I certainly agree with you that in the circumstances that you have laid out above, you should be entitled to a much larger settlement than £750. Also it is clear that Bulb should have responded and investigated the problem instead of fobbing you off.

You haven't told us how often you try to contact bulb and whether you try to do this by email or by telephone and how long you spent.

Who is it who eventually reconnected your supply?

[elamani]

My home is a one bed flat. I'd had the dog for 14 years and she was put to sleep behind my back by the people I trusted to care for her, this has put me on the verge of suicide.

 

I can't count the times I contacted them, the emails are all jumbled and I cannot go through it all. I emailed them at least ten times.

 

Bulb reconnected me. I can't use the phone so it was email only.

 

I do not have any photo ID as I can't drive and never go anywhere

I'm not sure what SARS is, it appears to cost money and I don't have any.

 

Do you have any idea of a ballpark figure I should ask for? If they agree I may be able to avoid going to court as that would be very difficult for me. Thank you

They've devastated me quite frankly.

[BankFodder]

The SAR is free. I think it's important to send them off. You might even find that there is a link on the site of SSE and also of Bulb which will allow you to do it directly.

However, I think it will be helpful to know what they've got on you. It won't do any harm. There is no downside. I suggest that you get it going straight away and let us know that you've done this.

I can understand that you are stressed about it all but maybe this weekend you could gently go through your collection of emails and assemble them in date order. If you can get these kind of things in order, you will start to feel far more in control and relaxed and also we will be in a better position to dictate events.

I still probably have more questions to ask you but I certainly agree that the SSE offer should be raised fairly substantially – but how much of all of these facts/inconvenience/the dog et cetera do they know? Are they fully appraised of everything that has happened?

Because of Covid et cetera, it is very rare nowadays that there are any face-to-face court hearings. They are all done using the zoom or the telephone. So you would need to worry particularly about this – but the important thing is that you should be in a position where you can threaten court action and even issue the claim if necessary in order to put extra pressure on the companies that you are suing to bring them to heel.

If you sue SSE then you will have to see them in negligence because you don't have any contract with them.
At the moment I'm wondering whether it might be possible to try for £2000 – but don't get your hopes up. This is simply my very informal and nonprofessional view.

Clearly Bulb should have acted more quickly and in a more customer-facing way as you have a contract with them. £30 is derisory and frankly in view of everything I would be looking at least £250.

Understanding more about the dog, your electricity bill, and the amount of communication will help us make a more reasonable estimate of possible outcomes.


 

[BankFodder]

I forgot to ask – who did you leave the dog with? Did you actually make the dog over to some rehoming organisation and whether any conditions attached? You say that this organisation breach of trust.

[elamani]

Thank you, bulb have said they won't budge and its my fault for not ringing them, even though they've been informed literally tens of times I cannot use a phone.

 

They've said 30 or nothing and I'll have to contact ombudsman.

The problem with the emails is hotmail seems to have jammed them into one gigantic email, filled with their disclaimers etc, and it's a complete mess at this point.

I tried to open new threads but they just add it back to the old one.

I did tell them they have caused me serious mental and physical distress and I lost my dog due to their mistake.

[elamani]

I made her over to wood green with the condition I was told before should they put her to sleep, would have the option to take her back and it would be the last resort. She went in with a full bill of clean health from 3 months prior.

They emailed me and told me they put her to sleep after they did it so I wasn't even able to be there.

 

I am trying to get he medical records as they have been very vague and I have become suspicious some sort of accident occurred.

[BankFodder]

Please note I've had to restructure your post again. It would be terribly helpful if you could do this yourself.

Don't worry about what Bulb say. Also, you won't have to contact the ombudsman. As long as you are prepared to bring a court action then I'm sure we can up the offer.

What we need are two lists.

We need a list of the dates of communications or attempted communications with Bulb – and we need a list of the dates of communications or attempted communications with SSE

You say that you made the dog over to "Wood Green". I have no idea what that is except that it is a place in North London with a tube station.

Please can you explain.

Have you got the arrangement that you made with them in writing?

[elamani]

Ok Thank you, my keyboard is rubbish and its hard to type at all so I mainly just check for missing letters.

 

I will think everything over, and have a look at my emails.

 

Wood green are an animal shelter, I have many emails from them before I agreed to give up my dog, the contact and a witness to my handing her over when I made them promise again. But Wood green is a separate thing, I really can't even think about Chloe right now as it's too upsetting.

[BankFodder]

Well I'm afraid that we need to know about the dog and the shelter because it will help us build our case for a better settlement.

Also, although you may still be feeling very depressed about your dog, do you think that you could take another one?

[elamani]

No, absolutely not, she was my soulmate and my child and I would be insulting her memory to be replacing her less than a month after her death. Maybe years in the future but not for a long time.

 

Thank you

 

I will try to look at emails over the weekend but quite frankly its hard enough getting out of bed at all right now.

[BankFodder]

Okay. I understand.

See if you can send the SARs off this evening or tomorrow morning – and then you will have time to sort yourself out and to take stock. The SARs would be a good idea. Simply send them off to some suitable email address

SSE - [email protected] 

Bulb - dpo@bulb.co.uk.

Say who you are, address, account number or any other reference number which you will get from the emails

[BankFodder]

I've had a further think about this – and I'm afraid that I suddenly realise that I'm wrong on the amount of money that you could claim from SSE.

The reason for this is that you don't have any contract with them. The only claim against them is in negligence. In negligence, damages are only available for actual loss and am afraid that distress and inconvenience is not something that is generally recognised.

On this basis I tend to think that £750 is probably as much as you could expect – and in fact if you sued them, you could end up with less or even nothing at all – simply because the kind of damage that you have suffered is not something which is recognised in law.
Crazy, of course – but am afraid that's the way it has been for a long time and it is not about to change.

I'm quite sure of my ground here and I realise that I had overlooked this in my earlier post and this was a serious error. I hope this hasn't created too much extra disappointment on top of what you have already suffered.

I expect that they would offer the money as a gesture of goodwill and on this basis I would accept the money and then go on to claim the out-of-pocket expenses in respect of your increased electricity bill.

 

I do think that the offer made by Bulb is ridiculously low and we can work to increase that as well.

I think you've been very badly treated by both companies and I think it deserves a lot more compensation per having appreciated my original mistake, I now think that the £750 is a surprisingly large amount for them to offer and it might be prudent to accept it.
 

[stu007]

Hi

 

Just a question reference your actual Energy Company Bulb, as you are Disabled are your Registered on Bulb Priority Services Register?

https://bulb.co.uk/accessibility/

 

If you already are this information would also assist BankFodder in your dealings with Bulb as they should have been more pro active in assisting you.

[elamani]

Yes I am registered on their priority reg.

 

SSE have comeback to me after I turned down the 750 and offered 2000?

 

Should I take the money from SSE and look at holding Bulb to account for their part in what happened? Thanks very much, you've been very helpful

[dx100uk]

£2k..IMHO yes.