SSE Energy disconnected meter of Bulb customer. Bulb refused to help priority customer

[BankFodder]

Please can you let us know which company it was. And also which was your correct supplier.

Have you got anything in writing from them?

 

[BankFodder]

Also, please could you tell us when this happened – and the entire timeline. How often did you contact your real energy supplier about this?

 

[BankFodder]

I doubt whether you will find any similar cases but we can help you with this. However you need to answer the questions that I put to you. You haven't told us anything about the timeline.

[BankFodder]

Well in order to build up a case for maximum compensation, we need to know exact dates not simply "it took over…" a certain amount of time. We need to know when it happened so that we can get an idea of the weather at the time so we can make a better case as to how bad it was and how badly you are inconvenience.

We also like to know whether you had any alternative heating – electric – and if so how much extra this cost you.

There are all sorts of questions that we will probably need to ask you in order to give you the best advice. It will be helpful if you just answer the questions. I don't see any advantage in making it more difficult.

Have you ever sued anybody before? Are you happy to go ahead with our help?

[BankFodder]

We probably also like to know the amount of phone calls or other communications you had with Bulb trying to persuade them to come round and the kind of excuses you have put up with. We like to know the kind of time periods that you have spent try to communicate with them.

I think you should also send them on SAR and also one to SSE. I think you should get those off by email straightaway.

[BankFodder]

Okay it sounds very difficult.

Please notice that I had to restructure your post in order to introduce spacing et cetera because it was a solid block of text and very difficult to read – especially for people on small screens.

I think you should start off by sending an SAR to each of these companies so that we can get a better feel of their own internal communications and what particular records they might have in respect of this. You should get the SARs off this evening or tomorrow morning – you can do this by email.

SSE may require some proof of identification from you because you are not their customer – and this may be entirely reasonable but let us know what response they give you.

Clearly you are a customer of Bulb and so therefore they should not ask for any proof of identity. However, sometimes these companies do and to do so where they clearly have evidence of who you are is unlawful and you should let us know.

If either of them happen to default on the 30 day timescale then we will help you sue them for that as well which will add a little bit of extra money.

Clearly it sounds as if it has been extremely difficult. The weather has not been good and I think it would be a good idea for you to access a BBC weather site or AccuWeather and get a printout of all the temperatures – day by day of the weather for the period for which you were without any heating.

Also you should get hold of your electricity bill because having to heat the house with your oven must have cost a lot of money. We will have to get that back for you as well.

Could you tell us how large your home is – what kind of home is it?

I'm extremely sorry about the loss of your dog. Clearly this is very concerning – and first of all I have to say the it was a very responsible thing to do to look after the interests of this animal in such a self-sacrificing way. Please can you tell us more about the dog, how long you had it. Where has it gone and why is there no chance of getting it back.

Presumably you would want the dog back if you could get it.

I certainly agree with you that in the circumstances that you have laid out above, you should be entitled to a much larger settlement than £750. Also it is clear that Bulb should have responded and investigated the problem instead of fobbing you off.

You haven't told us how often you try to contact bulb and whether you try to do this by email or by telephone and how long you spent.

Who is it who eventually reconnected your supply?

[BankFodder]

The SAR is free. I think it's important to send them off. You might even find that there is a link on the site of SSE and also of Bulb which will allow you to do it directly.

However, I think it will be helpful to know what they've got on you. It won't do any harm. There is no downside. I suggest that you get it going straight away and let us know that you've done this.

I can understand that you are stressed about it all but maybe this weekend you could gently go through your collection of emails and assemble them in date order. If you can get these kind of things in order, you will start to feel far more in control and relaxed and also we will be in a better position to dictate events.

I still probably have more questions to ask you but I certainly agree that the SSE offer should be raised fairly substantially – but how much of all of these facts/inconvenience/the dog et cetera do they know? Are they fully appraised of everything that has happened?

Because of Covid et cetera, it is very rare nowadays that there are any face-to-face court hearings. They are all done using the zoom or the telephone. So you would need to worry particularly about this – but the important thing is that you should be in a position where you can threaten court action and even issue the claim if necessary in order to put extra pressure on the companies that you are suing to bring them to heel.

If you sue SSE then you will have to see them in negligence because you don't have any contract with them.
At the moment I'm wondering whether it might be possible to try for £2000 – but don't get your hopes up. This is simply my very informal and nonprofessional view.

Clearly Bulb should have acted more quickly and in a more customer-facing way as you have a contract with them. £30 is derisory and frankly in view of everything I would be looking at least £250.

Understanding more about the dog, your electricity bill, and the amount of communication will help us make a more reasonable estimate of possible outcomes.


 

[BankFodder]

I forgot to ask – who did you leave the dog with? Did you actually make the dog over to some rehoming organisation and whether any conditions attached? You say that this organisation breach of trust.

[BankFodder]

Please note I've had to restructure your post again. It would be terribly helpful if you could do this yourself.

Don't worry about what Bulb say. Also, you won't have to contact the ombudsman. As long as you are prepared to bring a court action then I'm sure we can up the offer.

What we need are two lists.

We need a list of the dates of communications or attempted communications with Bulb – and we need a list of the dates of communications or attempted communications with SSE

You say that you made the dog over to "Wood Green". I have no idea what that is except that it is a place in North London with a tube station.

Please can you explain.

Have you got the arrangement that you made with them in writing?

[BankFodder]

Well I'm afraid that we need to know about the dog and the shelter because it will help us build our case for a better settlement.

Also, although you may still be feeling very depressed about your dog, do you think that you could take another one?

[BankFodder]

Okay. I understand.

See if you can send the SARs off this evening or tomorrow morning – and then you will have time to sort yourself out and to take stock. The SARs would be a good idea. Simply send them off to some suitable email address

SSE - subject.access.requests@sseenergyservices.com 

Bulb - dpo@bulb.co.uk.

Say who you are, address, account number or any other reference number which you will get from the emails

[BankFodder]

I've had a further think about this – and I'm afraid that I suddenly realise that I'm wrong on the amount of money that you could claim from SSE.

The reason for this is that you don't have any contract with them. The only claim against them is in negligence. In negligence, damages are only available for actual loss and am afraid that distress and inconvenience is not something that is generally recognised.

On this basis I tend to think that £750 is probably as much as you could expect – and in fact if you sued them, you could end up with less or even nothing at all – simply because the kind of damage that you have suffered is not something which is recognised in law.
Crazy, of course – but am afraid that's the way it has been for a long time and it is not about to change.

I'm quite sure of my ground here and I realise that I had overlooked this in my earlier post and this was a serious error. I hope this hasn't created too much extra disappointment on top of what you have already suffered.

I expect that they would offer the money as a gesture of goodwill and on this basis I would accept the money and then go on to claim the out-of-pocket expenses in respect of your increased electricity bill.

 

I do think that the offer made by Bulb is ridiculously low and we can work to increase that as well.

I think you've been very badly treated by both companies and I think it deserves a lot more compensation per having appreciated my original mistake, I now think that the £750 is a surprisingly large amount for them to offer and it might be prudent to accept it.
 

[BankFodder]

You say that you have been offered £2000. That's fantastic and I'd love to know how you managed it – but yes you should accept it.
It is pretty well what I had estimated it might be worth at the beginning – before I realised my legal error that you wouldn't be up to claim for this kind of money at all.

I am still convinced that if it went to court you wouldn't be able to get this kind of award – if anything.

You should certainly accept it before the offer goes away. Accept it in writing as quickly as possible because I don't think you will do better.
When you accept the offer you could gently ask them how long it might take to process the payment.

I'd be very curious to know what you did to persuade them to increase their offer so dramatically.

Once you have accepted the offer and you are sure that it's in the bank then we have to turn our attention to Bulb.

The first thing to caution you is that you should not discuss your dealings with SSE with Bulb. You should not disclose any of the communications you have had with them and you should certainly not disclose the payment. It's none of Bulb's business and if they knew, then they would probably try to use this to reduce any payment that they might make to you.

The payment from SSE is being made as a gesture of goodwill and not as a settlement of any claim. As long as you don't actually mislead Bulb by telling them that you haven't received anything, if they ask you any questions then you should simply not reply or if pushed simply tell them that your communications with SSE are none of their business.

Have you sent the SAR to Bulb?

The point made by my site team colleague @stu007 about you being registered as a priority customer is excellent – I had never thought about it – and this will be a very important factor.

Have you sent them the SAR?