A Scots grandad with dementia was forced to turn his heating off during winter after being wrongly hit with a £2k bill by Scottish Power.
Michael Hanley sat in his freezing Port Glasgow home as his family battled to get a dodgy electricity meter replaced during a two-and-a-half year debacle.
The energy supplier was first told of the fault in August 2019 by the 90-year-old’s daughter, Maria Houston, who noticed the device wasn’t recording any data.
Six different appointments were arranged to replace the meter but engineers failed to show.
The exasperated family eventually took the case to the Energy Ombudsman in 2021 after having their repeated calls for help ignored.
Despite a new meter being installed earlier this year, Michael’s ordeal continued as he was hit with an arrears bill of more than £2000 - despite making payments throughout.
Maria, 57, told how her father received repeated phone calls from Scottish Power chasing him for money despite them being told she was the point of contact due to his health.
She explained: “It’s left my dad in such a state over it.
“He’s really upset, especially with his dementia. I would say this whole thing has actually made his health deteriorate.
“Last winter, my dad sat in quite a lot without his heating off because he was scared the bill was going to get too high.
“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.
“I ended up making small payments because I didn’t want the bill to get too expensive for him to pay. They were saying he owed over £2000.
“In September 2021, I contacted the Energy Ombudsman which I thought would get it fixed - but obviously it didn’t.
“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.
“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 at the start of the year which provided some short-lived relief for Michael, a grandad-of-13, and his family.
But as they attempted to sort out any outstanding balance on the account, they were horrified after being told there was still a £2k debt.
Maria explained: “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 £2000.
“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 after being contacted by the Daily Record last week.
As well as previously making goodwill payments for the missed installation appointments, they have now wiped the grandad’s debt.
Maria added: “This whole thing has been a total nightmare and if it wasn’t for the Daily Record, we’d still be sitting in the same situation.
“They managed to fix it in six days after the paper got involved but it took me two-and-a-half years.
“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 said: “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.”
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