A young mum who is struggling to afford the rising cost of energy was left without gas and electricity at her home in Stockport for several days. Laura, 29, had been unable to top-up her prepayment meter with E.ON Next online due to a technical error, and slammed the firm for 'failing to help.'
After being contacted by the Manchester Evening News the energy firm have now reportedly fixed the problem, and have since 'apologised' to Laura and 'explained why the issues happened.'
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The mum-of-one, who lives in a house in Cheadle Hulme, said her 18-month old daughter was left 'distraught' due to the chaos, as she she was unable to warm up milk bottles or food.
Laura says she is already in debt with E.ON, and is extremely worried about the rising cost of topping up her energy. She fears she could spiral into further difficulty if prices continue to increase.
Speaking to the M.E.N , the mum said: "The issue started a few weeks ago when I ran out of electricity. When I wanted to top-up the website crashed and I couldn't get hold of E.ON.
"I sat on hold for more than an hour and a half and they managed to sort it out for a week or so. Then it happened again with the gas last Friday (April 22). This time when I spoke to someone they said the system wasn't working so nobody knew how much I needed to top up.
"By the time I realised it wasn't coming on it was after 4pm and I couldn't get hold of anyone so I was out of gas all weekend which was an absolute nightmare.
"I have an 18-month old baby and she has just been distraught. She couldn't have her warm bottle or any warm food because I had no way of heating anything up. It's been a nightmare. It's very stressful when a baby is screaming at you and there is nothing you can do."
Laura is supposed to have a 'breathing space' arrangement in place with E.ON - which means she can clear her debts with the firm in small and affordable payments.
But due to the technical errors, she claims for the last few weeks she has been forced to top up a minimum of £50 for electric and £10 for gas to even get the meter switched on - something she can scarcely afford.
"I don’t know why that happened because I would never agree to pay this as I can’t afford it. I only get paid £400 a month," she said.
As a last straw, the mum said she went to her local shop and purchased and energy voucher, which she claims didn't work either. She's since had to spend hours of her time on the phone to E.ON in an attempt to fix the issue - before contacting the M.E.N.
Since then, Laura says the issues have now been resolved and she has been provided an employee's personal email - should she need to contact someone about a problem again.
An E.ON spokesperson said: "We are sorry the customer has experienced issues topping up her meters. We have now spoken to her to apologise for the inconvenience and to explain why this happened."
