A mum of three says she has been without power for almost 36 hours, costing her £100 of food and leaving her unable to care for her grandad.
Sophie, who didn't want to reveal her surname, told the ECHO that she has been without power in her Toxteth home since 8am on Tuesday. As a result, she said she has lost about £100 of food due to a lack of electricity for her fridge/freezer, which also means she cannot store medicine properly for her grandad, who she cares for full-time.
Sophie said she contacted her provider British Gas many times over the past two days, but the issue has not been sorted. One call led to her being told an engineer would come to her property, but she said this didn't happen.
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The mum of three called the situation a "nightmare" and said to the ECHO on Wednesday: " When I’ve spoken to British Gas, they’ve done nothing to resolve the issue whatsoever". E xplaining how the problems arose, she said: "I moved into the property in July 2021 and I told British Gas that I was the new tenant - gave them my name and details.
"For the past year, they have carried on sending bills with the previous tenant’s name. Obviously, I haven’t opened them.
"I told British Gas about the name change, I told them when I moved in and that was that. I then was made aware by them that the name on the account hadn’t changed and there were arrears in this person’s name.
"I then spoke to them again and said that I’d advised them twice that I was the new tenant and this is my name, I live here. They advised me to put a smart meter in. So they put that in on May 16 and it’s a top up thing.
"With grandad being in hospital, I haven’t been home for the past two days. I then came back to the property to find that the emergency credit was running low, I think there was about a pound left.
"I took the card to three different local shops and they all said that the card wasn’t working. I phone up British Gas to try and pay with my bank card - I’ve got the funds available to top it up.
"They said they couldn’t do that so I asked why. They said my name didn’t match the name on the account, I said that I’d already told them that.
"Then, because the name on the account didn’t match, they said they couldn’t access it and then they said that they realised it was their own error. Then I was told, even though I had a meter installed, it wasn’t logged on the system - I was still logged on to pay monthly.
"British Gas said ‘you’ve been completely off supply because we’re not billing you monthly any more and you’ve got a smart meter that’s not actually connected to our systems’. I’ve got no power, no way of getting power, because I can’t even pay monthly.
"The cost of living has gone up and they’re billing ridiculous amounts as it is. I’ve thought, if I’m trying to pay the bills, they could at least let me do that."
Sophie added that British Gas told her that her calls had not been logged in their system and she has not been 'escalated' up a list of issues, meaning she had to wait for assistance. She explained: "They have an outsourced call centre and they’re following a script on a computer, they can’t deviate from that script, so when your issue relates to several things that aren’t on their computer screen, they can’t assist. I was promised an engineer attending, no engineer did.
"Then when I rang back I’m told, 'actually, we didn’t even log that call’. I had to send them screenshots of the fact that I called them, they then had to re-log it this morning. I was told I’d be on supply in an hour and a half.
"Three hours later and I rang back again to be told I still hadn't escalated (up the call list). She said it would be three hours for an escalation and three hours for an engineer.
"It’s not good enough in this day and age. We’re living like Victorians, we’ve had no power for two days and a night.
"I’ve got children in the property, I’ve got no ability to charge my phone - I’ve had to ask my friend to use her phone for calls and emails.
"I’ve asked to be compensated, because I’ve got £100 of food shopping in the fridge/freezer that has gone. We’re in the midst of a cost of living crisis here."
When approached for comment by the ECHO, a spokesperson for British Gas said: "We’ve sent Sophie some credit for her meter and will contact her to check she’s back on supply. We don’t have any record of anyone getting in touch to let us know there’s been a change in who lives at this address and we’ve not had any payments since last year. We will update the account for Sophie so it shows that she moved in in July 2021 once we’re able to reach her to get some more details."
Sophie claims that she has contacted British Gas a number of times to inform them of the change of name and to update the details on the account, as well as trying to resolve the issue.
She told the ECHO that she had spoken again to British Gas on Monday afternoon and was told that her power would be switched back on in a minimum of four hours. At the time of writing, she remained without power.
