Re: Repeatedly missed appointments to change our gas meter

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am writing to lodge a formally complaint against your company and/or your service supplier(s) and their subcontractors(s). You and/or your service supplier(s) and the subcontractor(s) have caused both my girlfriend and I a great deal of inconvenience and distress, interrupted our schedules and generally wasted a great deal of our time and money. To add insult to injury, our ‘problem’ has yet to be resolved.

My girlfriend and I share an apartment at the above address and we moved into the property in the last week of April 2001. Per arrangement already exist for the property, we continue using London Electricity as our electricity supplier as well as our gas supplier. We did not see any reason to change to a different supplier, as our letting agent had informed us that there has been no difficulties related to gas and electricity supplies or that they are not aware of them.

That was, indeed, the situation until we were informed in late September 2001 that our gas meter is of an older generation and installation of a new and updated one is required. We have been requested to contact you to arrange an appointment to have the meter changed. At the time, my girlfriend innocently remarked that in a couple of weeks, the situation would be resolved. I, having been living in this country for over 15 years, suggested that this will be dragged out for months and come the New Year, we would fortunate to have a new meter. Unfortunately, I was to be proved correct.

The following is a catalogue of events that took place over four months:

September 14, 2001: A worker, who is either employed by your company or one of your subcontractors or your supplier, came to read the gas meter. Upon finding the meter, he informed my girlfriend that the meter was not working due to the fact that the battery in the meter was ‘dead’. However, since it is policy not to replace the battery but to replace the entire meter, we need to get in contact with London Electricity to have the meter changed.

September 17, 2001: My girlfriend called your call centre to request for an appointment to have the meter changed. She was informed that the appointment will have to be made with TransCo. She requested the contact number for TransCo but was told that the number is not given out. Instead London Electricity would make the appointment for her and TransCo will call her to confirm the time of the appointment.

October 3, 2001: It was over two weeks after the initial telephone call, but neither London Electricity nor TransCo returned a call to my girlfriend to arrange nor confirm an appointment. She called to make enquiries regarding the appointment. She was informed that London Electricity has no record of her previous call and that no appointment has been requested nor arranged to have the meter changed. She explained our situation again and your call centre promised to return to her to with an appointment

October 4, 2001: Still no answer from your call centre. My girlfriend called again to find out if an appointment has been made. She was dismissed by your representative because ‘London Electricity will make the appointment’ and get in touch with her.

October 29, 2001: Another week lapsed and still no call from you nor TransCo. My girlfriend called yet again to obtain an appointment. After explained our situation for the THIRD TIME, your representative at the call centre (Steven Murray) informed her that he would return to her after making an appointment with TransCo. She refused to accept that and she was given the opportunity to make an appointment. She requested for a weekend appointment but was informed that TransCo (and its subcontractors) only work during weekdays. Then she requested an appointment for a Monday and was told that due to strike action, TransCo (and/or it subcontractors) would only accept appointments for Tuesdays and Thursdays. Nevertheless, she made an appointment for the morning of Thursday, November 22nd, 2001. She took a half-day holiday to remain at home for the morning to wait to have the gas meter changed.

October 28, 2001: When we returned home in the evening, we found a calling card from TransCo, claiming that whilst we were out, they called but no-one was in. The time of visit was noted on the card, but there was no contact number.

November 15, 2001: Again, we found a calling card from TransCo, when we returned home in the evening. Again, it claimed that whilst we were out, they called but no-one was in. No time of visit was noted on the card and there was no contact number.

November 21, 2001: Having received two calling cards from TransCo prior to the date of our appointment, my girlfriend was obviously concerned and she called your call centre. However, your representative (Steven Murray) claimed that there was nothing to worry about and those visits were ‘routine’. He confirmed that our appointment was still in place and that TransCo (or its subcontractor) will be with us the next day.

November 22, 2001: Day of the appointment. My girlfriend, having taken a half-day leave, waited in our apartment for the whole morning. At 13:05, she left to go to work. She has wasted the whole morning, blew half day of leave and we still haven’t a new gas meter. She was in a high state of distress and therefore asked me to call your call centre to find an explanation. I called your representative (Steven Murray) at the call centre and obviously he did not and could not give me an explanation for the miss appointment. I informed him that we were not willing to wait around. He suggested that we should ask one of our friends to be at the apartment for the next appointment. At this point, I countered that my friends (like myself and my girlfriend) have better things to do than to wait around a whole morning to find out whether you and your subcontractors have blown an appointment or not. Those better things are called jobs! Being more forgiving than my girlfriend, I arranged for TransCo to come to our apartment on Monday, December 17th, 2001. This particular day is the first day of our Christmas leave. We have already booked EuroStar tickets to travel to Paris on Saturday, December 15th, 2001. However, for the sake of not having this fiasco dragged out to beyond the New Year, I have decided to postpone the start of our holiday and ask your service supplier, TransCo, to come and change the meter on the Monday. Due to this decision, we moved that start of our holiday from December 15th, 2001 to December 19th, 2001. The EuroStar tickets were not refundable, transferable nor exchangeable. We had to cancel our original tickets (without getting a refund) and rebook for the new tickets which were more expensive, due to being closer to the Christmas period.

December 14, 2001: I called your call centre and your representative (Steven Murray) confirmed that the appointment was still booked for the morning of December 17th, 2001. I queried what action should I take should TransCo fail to turn up again. He informed me that they would show up as scheduled. After further pressing, he gave me the name of the call centre manager should there was any problems.

December 17, 2001: My girlfriend and I waited until 13:15 and there was no sign of TransCo showing up. I called your call centre. The manager was not there and the receptionist (Claire, I have forgotten to take her family name) said that she will find out and call me back. At 13:55, I called the centre again, having not heard from ‘Claire’. I managed to talk to the call centre manager (Simon Warrolow), but he could not give me any definitive answers. He returned my call fifteen minutes later and informed me that TransCo had claimed that they visited our apartment at 10.25 and there was no answer. I obtained your address from him.

The following are points that I am particularly displeased and disturbed and questions that I feel I, as a customer, have the right to demand a truthful answer or action to be taken.

1) Why does it take THREE calls to arrange an appointment?

2) Why do you refuse to give us the number for TransCo so that we can contact them directly for an appointment? After all, as I have been informed, the gas meter is TransCo responsibility.

3) Are your representatives in the habit of not returning calls? Are you and your representatives regularly breaking their promises?

4) I am aware that you and TransCo have a complex operation around the country and employ a great number of service suppliers and subcontractors. However, you, as my gas supplier, must take responsibility of your suppliers’ and subcontractors’ action. The bug must stop somewhere and as far as I am concern, it stops at London Electricity Plc.

5) Why would TransCo mysteriously showing up at our door and leaving calling cards, outside appointment times? Have you or your representatives inform them?

6) The following are specific to event on December 17th:

i) Your representative informed us that the engineer from TransCo “knocked at our door and got no answer”. We live in an apartment block. We have an entry phone system; we also have a doorbell. Both the entry phone and the doorbell are audible in all parts of our apartment. Why on earth would the engineer from TransCo knock at the door if there were an entry phone and a doorbell?

ii) I queried your representative the reason why the engineer from TransCo did not leave a calling card after ‘missing us’. The answer that I received was beyond comprehension and completely unreasonable: “TransCo has previously received complaints that leaving calling cards will give burglars strong indications that the properties are empty. Hence they sometimes don’t leave them.” This ‘explanation’ simply runs contrary to all that had happen previously – TransCo left calling cards in the two unscheduled visits! Additionally, the threat to our security simply does not exist – the door to our apartment is a solid wooden door with no windows. I understand that with houses with glass front door, a calling card will be indication of an empty property, but do the postal services stop delivering mail simply because there is no-one in? Both of these excuses lead me to think that your service supplier, TransCo, or its representative, simply did not show up on that day and have lie to both you and I. If you can prove otherwise, I shall be glad to hear it.

7) During my conversation with your call centre manager (Simon Warrolow), he has disclosed that unlike the electricity industry, the gas industry does not have the statutory code of practice which ensures minimum service standards. I am curious to find out if the lack of this statutory code, you are in fact using it as an excuse to neglect your service obligations?

8) Upon our return from our delayed vacation, we have been in contact with our landlord. During our conversation, the topic of replacing our gas meter was touched upon. He informed us that the meter was changed between three to four years ago and the meter then changed was the new version. Obviously he is keen to find out if the changed meter was indeed an up-to-date version. I would be most upset if as it turns out that the meter we have in our apartment is, in fact, a new-style meter, after all the trouble and distress you, your company, your suppliers and subcontractors have put us through. I am wonder whether you actually keep an up-to-date database of your customers and whether you actually refer to it at all, except when sending out marketing materials.

9) If my girlfriend and I were to work as consultants and charge our clients on an hourly basis, we would be asking fees between £75-£125 per hour. Of all the hours that we have been force to waste on calling your call centre and waiting for appointments that were not kept – we should be billing you over £1,500 for lost earnings! Who is going to compensate us for these losses? Also, I was stupid enough to think that your subcontractor would show up the second time round, we had to change our EuroStar tickets, which were not refundable, transferable nor exchangeable. Originally, we were travelling on EuroStar’s Business Return 1st, which were nearly £400 each. Who am I going to claim that money from? Not only have you interrupted our schedules, caused us distress and broken your promises, you have also cost us financial.

10) Currently, we are still being billed by your company, London Electricity, on an estimated basis. We are sure that we shall be billed accurately when you eventually managed to change the meter. However, we find it very difficult to bring ourselves to continue paying estimated bills which may be over-charging us by a considerable amount. Would you please advise us on the implication of having a new meter installed in our property and what happens if we are indeed being overcharged, something that neither you or I can proof or disproof?

These are very simple questions and I feel that I have the right to demand thorough written explanations to each and every single one of them, given all the trouble your incompetence has put us through.

In certain parts of the world, the parts that have been labelled as ‘Third World’ or ‘emerging economies’, there are red tape and corruption. If one was living in those countries and one needs certain things to be done, one would simply pay a small ‘fee’ to the people who can get the job done and it is done. We, supposedly, living a developed industrialised country, are suppose to do things through the proper channel. However, we have experienced nothing but incompetence from you and your organisation. I am not sure which situation I prefer.

If I do not receive a full and satisfactory written answer from you or your organisation within 14 days of the above date, I shall be making a formal complaint to the Department of Trade and Industry and Ofgem / EnergyWatch, as well as making our experience know to consumer organisations like Which? (a step that I still appropriate, with or without an answer from you).

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

[spikegifted]