I received this email with no hotlink attached. May be offline report. I would love some help in finding some online verification or link if someone has already seen this one. Thanks, Lora

____________100,000 still powerless in meter crisis

Thousands of London Electricity's pre-paying customers have been left without hot water, light, or cooked food for days, as a plan to save them from the millennium bug goes "horribly wrong".

They dare not even sleep for fear they miss a knock at the door from an engineer coming to fix the problem with their Powerkey meters, because they have been warned that if they do it could be 24 hours before help arrives again.

A London Electricity spokeswoman admitted: "It's all gone horribly wrong in London, due to technical problems with a piece of equipment which occurred at the weekend."

Around 400,000 customers have been told to change their Powerkeys in order to keep their meters working when the new year begins. Unfortunately, a problem with the new keys corrupts the meters in 25 per cent of cases and the customer is left without power.

Theatre stage manager Charles Lloyd, who lives near Elephant and Castle, said: "We've got #1.46 left on the meter but when that goes we won't have any supply. For the time being we're not going to use the cooker or washing machine. I went to change the key so the meter could be adapted, but when I got home it did not give me any credit and it's corrupted now.

"We've been told it could be two, three or four days before anyone can get round to fix it. It's just mucking people about. It's a total cock up."

Grandmother Susan Ilyas was without power for 40 hours. It was eventually switched back on during a five-minute visit from an engineer.

Sales adviser for the Body Shop, Mrs Ilyas, who lives in Paddington Green, said: "I was told someone would be round in 24 hours but they weren't.

"I had no sleep waiting for someone, because I was told that if I missed them then it would be another 24 hours before they came round to fix it. I was too scared to go to bed. I have had to have time off work because I have been so tired.

"We had no hot water and weren't able to have baths or wash clothes. It takes ages to get through to the hotline number and when you do nobody seems to know what they are doing."

She also complained of rudeness by people on the hotline. She claimed that when she pointed out to an operator that people on ventilators or home dialysis need electricity to live, the voice on the other end of the line allegedly told her: "Well, they'll be dead then."

Father-of-three Paul Cavender, aged 37, is demanding compensation after being without power for 37 hours.

He said: "We couldn't even cook or have the hot water on. Everything we've got is electric. I reckon we've lost #200 in food that was frozen not to mention having to eat out, and buy candles and torches.

"London Electricity told everyone to go out and change their keys, so this is not a problem that has been sparked by the customer. It is entirely their fault."

The spokeswoman said London Electricity was doing its best to sort the problems out and that compensation would be available to aggrieved customers.

She said: "We have still got to work out the exact cause of the problem. Our guys are working till midnight in an effort to sort the problems out. I can only apologise if staff have been rude to customers, it has been stressful." ) Associated Newspapers Ltd., 05 August 1999 Terms and Conditions This Is London

-- Lora Ereshan (artemis45@hotmail.com), September 05, 1999

Answers

And then there's always the shadow behind the the curtain...

http://www.year2000.com/y2keclectic.html

-- Yan (no@no.no), September 05, 1999.

If your power goes out and you are not restored after 12 hours, dont the power company in your land have to pay you $50.00 for every 24 hours you are with out power or $25.00 for every 12 hours, you are without power? This is going to cost them. Scottish Power is doing this in their service territory. They will soon own a power company in the U.S.A., Pacific Power. At 100,000 people X $50.00, that is a lot of kilt money, every 24 hours. Where is Mel Gibson when you need him?

-- R.J.R. (Y2KEYES@open.com), September 05, 1999.

How many of you out there are by-passing the meter by now? I sure would be if the equipment that fails the delivery is right at the meter it self. How would they ever know if you by-passed your meter if the meter is located inside of your home?

-- ttp (freepower@their$.com), September 05, 1999.

Interesting reading (even for the second time :) !!) I don't have a link for you but this is "old" news - maybe 2 months ago? Just guessing. Thanks for the good intent, though.

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), September 05, 1999.