A grandad with dementia was forced to turn off his heating during the winter after being wrongly charged £2,000 by Scottish Power.
Michael Hanley, 90, was left freezing at his home in Port Glasgow, Scotland, while his family battled to get his dodgy electricity meter replaced in a two and a half year debacle.
His daughter Maria Houston, 57, first told the energy giant about the fault in August 2019 when she noticed the device was not recording any data.
Engineers failed to show despite six separate appointments to replace the meter.
The exasperated family took the case to the Energy Ombudsman in 2021 after having their calls for help ignored, reports the Daily Record.
A new meter was eventually installed earlier this year.
But Michael’s ordeal continued when he was hit with an arrears bill of more than £2,000 even though he had been making regular payments.
He was blasted with multiple phone calls from Scottish Power chasing him for money, according to Maria even though she was their point of contact due to her father's health.
"It’s left my dad in such a state over it," she said.
“He’s really upset, especially with his dementia. I would say this whole thing has actually made his health deteriorate."
Maria told how her dad sat at home with his heating off last winter because he was worried that the bill would get too high.
She added: “I was constantly calling Scottish Power. One girl told me she couldn’t understand my accent and put the phone down on me. Others promised to call back but I’m still waiting.
“I was then given a complaints adviser who I told not to call my dad because of his dementia.
“My name’s on the account as well so I told them they should contact me.
“But my dad kept getting phone calls telling him his account was in arrears and he had to pay up."
Maria claimed that she ended up making small payments because she did not want the bill to become too expensive for her dad to pay but she was told he owed £2,000.
In September 2021, Maria contacted the Energy Ombudsman thinking it would be resolved but "obviously it didn't," she said.
“I then got a new complaints adviser who I spoke to on the 18th of March, 2021. He actually hung up on me as well," she explained.
“He said it was a problem with his network. But he never rang me back. They told me they would call me again on the 28th of April last year but I’m still waiting.”
A working meter was eventually installed earlier this year which provided some short-lived relief for Michael and his family.
But relatives were horrified when they tried to close any outstanding balance on the account and were told that there was still a £2,000 debt.
Maria said: “After the new meter got installed, we thought that everything was now all sorted and we could start sorting out the payments and any arrears.
“We were then told that the direct debit would be £250 a month because there was an outstanding balance of more than £2,000.
“When I questioned how they could know the cost of the arrears because there were no meter readings recorded, they said they would get back to me. I’m still waiting.”
Scottish Power launched an investigation into Michael's account last week and has wiped Michael's debt as well as previous goodwill payments for the missed installation appointments.
Maria added: “This whole thing has been a total nightmare.
“How many other people are in the same situation as my dad who don’t have somebody to fight for them?”
A spokesperson for Scottish Power told the Daily Record: “We’re very sorry for the billing and customer service issues experienced by Mr Hanley and his family over the last couple of years, which stem from the faulty metre that was in place between April 2019 and December 2021.
"We’ve also been working to recalculate the billing to ensure that Mr Hanley is not charged for any energy usage during the April 2019-December 2021 period when we did not have accurate meter readings.
"This has resulted in a credit balance of more than £1,500, which will be refunded to Mr Hanley.
"We appreciate this has taken much longer to resolve than anyone would have liked and apologise for the distress and inconvenience caused.”
The Mirror Online has contacted Scottish Power for comment.
