A man has had to bear the cold blast of this week’s winter weather without any electricity after it was accidentally cut off.
Mr Ishfaq Khan of Bradford, came home from work last Friday to find that his electricity had been cut off, due to no fault of his own.
After getting in touch with his energy supplier OVO Energy, he found himself caught up in a situation that was out of his control.
Scottish Power had been to the flat next door and instead of cutting that house’s meter, they had accidentally cut his meter.
In an email addressed to Mr Khan, Scottish Power said: “Firstly please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience that this matter has caused and for the shortfalls in customer service that you have experienced. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.
“As discussed, I can confirm that an engineer will attend your property within the next hour to fit a new electricity meter. Please confirm when this has been completed.
“We can then discuss an appropriate goodwill gesture.”
After six days of no electricity, Scottish Power admitted that they had made a fault and apologised to Mr Khan for the ‘inconvenience’.
Mr Khan said: “It has been a difficult six days and I was completely fed up with the situation.
“I had no heating, hot water, it was absolutely freezing, and I had to spend a lot of time in my car to charge my phone and heat myself up.
“I had to get in touch with Citizen’s Advice just to get my point across and get this matter solved.
“Now they’ve put a meter in, it’s a refurbished one and not even set at zero when my previous one was a smart meter.”
This past week, temperatures in Bradford have plummeted, with snow and hail.
Mr Khan added: “I’ve had to throw away all my frozen foods from the freezer and a lot of other food from the fridge.
“I’m glad I’ve got my electricity back; it’s been tough.
“It was only by chance that I found out that my meter had been cut and no one was doing anything.
“OVO said it wasn’t their fault and Scottish Power weren’t replying to me, and Incommunities said they couldn’t do anything to help.
“Hopefully, I’ll get something out of the good will gesture and I get a smart meter.”
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