When Jane Third started the process of getting an OVO Energy meter for her new build in North Uist, she expected it to take longer than normal.
“There’s an extent to which it’s reasonable that there might be delays,” she says. “I live in a remote place.”
What she didn’t expect was the multiple administrative errors that have made an essential job a six-month ordeal.
“For three months they argued it was not their responsibility,” she says.
‘Relentless campaigning’
“Eventually with pressure from the local MP and MSP, plus relentless campaigning on my behalf, they agreed to hire Smart Metering Systems (SMS) to install the meter.”
OVO then closed the complaint. But “after a couple of weeks with nothing,” Ms Third reached out to SMS, who told her OVO had never sent them her property’s full address.
SMS had asked for more details from OVO but had “heard nothing back,” she says.
It took the local newspaper Am Pàipear stepping in to help her reach a higher-up at OVO Energy. Now she has an appointment for April 10 – although, she says, “I won’t believe it until I see it.”
She is just one of the many islanders who have been left waiting for meter installation or repair.
‘Total dereliction of duty’
Some have been told that they will have to wait until 2025 for an appointment.
Others say OVO has “refused to give any indication” of when they can expect help – a response Ms Third says is “a total dereliction of duty.”
The situation is so bad that Western Isles MSP Alasdair Allan met with OVO Energy representatives last month to demand better results.
The company’s “lack of regard” for islanders is “absolutely unacceptable”, he said.
“Energy suppliers have a statutory obligation to complete meter repairs/installations in a timely manner, no matter where customers are based.”
‘I fought hard for five months to get this’
“It’s probably cost me a hundred hours of my working life,” she says. “Sitting on hold and arguing and things like that.”
And, while her own case might be coming to an end, Ms Third isn’t about to let others go through the same thing.
“I fought hard for five months to get this,” she said. “And other people, elderly people, they don’t know how to do that or can’t do that.”
“I want to follow up, and just be like, ‘Great that I’m getting a meter. But can you give us some assurance that you’re not going to tell the next person who calls what you told me for five months?'”
OVO Energy says they recognise there is “a particular issue in the Highlands and Islands with the scheduling of meter appointments.”
“We’ve made significant headway with booking outstanding jobs and will continue to work with Alasdair Allan MSP to show where we’re making further progress.”
More local reporting from the Western Isles:
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