A Scot was left feeling suicidal and worried he wouldn't survive the winter after a fault with his electricity meter left him hundreds of pounds out of pocket.
Paul McCartney, from Grangemouth, said two separate faults cost him £200 and electricity supplier Scottish Power had ignored his pleas for help - also saying they cancelled an engineer to look at his pre-payment meter.
However, after getting nowhere with the energy company, he contacted the Daily Record and within 24 hours the company had agreed to reimburse him.
Paul said today: "I can't thank the Daily Record enough. I had been crying myself to sleep with worry over this. It has saved my Christmas."
The former care worker was worried he wouldn't be able to put credit into his electricity meter when it ran out, due to a fault not registering a £100 top-up on two occasions.
The 42-year-old, who has physical and mental health problems, feared he and his daughter Charlie would struggle to get through winter and would have no money for Christmas gifts.
Paul, who lives with Charlie, 22, explained: "On September 16 I had a problem putting credit in my electricity meter. I contacted Scottish Power through their online app and they told me to wait until the credit runs down, order a new key, and they would credit a voucher for £100 to go onto that key.
“I let the credit run down, I got a new key and put it in the meter and stuck on two £60 top-up vouchers that I hadn’t been able to stick on previously.
“I managed to put on another £100 after that. Then I put another £100 on the key, went to put it in, and it said ‘credit accepted’ but it didn’t actually credit anything to the meter.
“Scottish Power were due to have an engineer come out to have a look at the meter. They emailed me to say that due to the high call volume, they cancelled the engineer's appointment.
"So, I have two keys with £100 on them but Scottish Power are refusing to reimburse me for it. I wasn't looking for the money, I just wanted the credit on my meter."
Paul said he was reluctant to obtain a third key and top it up, in case the problem resurfaced and he was left £300 down.
He also said he called Scottish Power "several times" but was regularly "hung up on" by their customer services team.
With the pair on benefits due to both having health issues, money is tight in the household. Paul said due to low income and the rising cost of living, the pair had to budget strictly for food, gas and Christmas - leaving he and Charlie, who is autistic, "totally distressed".
He said: “I didn't think we were going to be able to afford Christmas for my nieces and nephews. We were not even going to be able to give them a card with money in it because we were hundreds of pounds down.
“My daughter was extremely upset. She doesn’t understand the concept of why there’s a problem and why Scottish Power wouldn't come out and rectify it."
However, to Paul's delight, Scottish Power contacted him on Thursday morning with a solution as there had been an issue with the meter being topped up over £250.
He said: "Scottish Power are going to honour the money that is in my keys, as they can now see that the credit was not added. It's just a real pity it has took months of stress and sleepless nights, where I have felt suicidal.
"I can't thank the Daily Record enough for their help. If you had not got involved I would be losing £200 pounds at least. Now I can get something for my family Christmas. I had been crying myself to sleep with worry over this. It has saved my Christmas."
A spokesperson for Scottish Power said: "We apologise to Mr McCartney and his daughter for the inconvenience and distress they have experienced.
"The issue stems from the way his account was topped up, as he was using multiple keys and had reached the maximum amount which could be held by both a single key and meter. The top-up payments across his keys were therefore not transferred to his account.
"We have contacted him directly to explain the error and discuss how to better manage credit limits on the meter. We have advised him to use only one key. We have given him a code to credit his meter with half the outstanding amount due to be transferred from the spare keys.
"Once he has used enough energy to require a top-up, we will contact him directly to let him know we will administer the remaining amount before processing the payment.
"We recognise that our customers' needs are complex and vary from person to person. Our teams receive extensive training to support and provide advice to the people reaching out to them, and we will continue to do everything we can to help them."
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