@
MAW
But not a very good joke. No laughs to be had with this situation.
From what I gather, the phone system only has capacity to queue a certain number of calls, or incoming lines, at any one time. No space in the queue, the call gets dropped. If you can get in the queue, the wait times are likely to be long.
If it is indeed an emergency, for which an engineer visit is required, the call handlers have to refer the problem on to the metering engineers. Unfortunately, these metering engineers are not 'captive E.On Next' employees, but regional teams of engineers that work on behalf of all the energy suppliers.
Bottlenecks can happen anywhere in the chain. Perhaps E.On Next could put extra staff on duty and perhaps they could increase their phone capacity, but that won't increase the number of engineers available or the number of call-outs they can provide.
However, the Citizens Advice guidelines do say that 'emergency' meter problems should be dealt with within 3 hours during normal working hours and four hours at other times. In the event of non-compliance, you are entitled to a compensation payment of £30 in the first instance and a second payment of £30 if the First payment is not made within 11 working days. Usually by means of a credit to your energy account.
That said, expect to hear such nuggets as 'extenuating circumstances', 'unexpected demand' or even 'force majeur'...
