Energy giant E.ON has apologised for leaving Cranbrook customers in the cold after scores of residents have been left for days without heat or hot water.
Residents in Cranbrook claim they have been ‘fobbed off’ by E.ON and told to ‘sit tight and wrap up warm’, prompting multiple complaints they have been left without heating amid freezing temperatures.
The energy giant E.ON, which serves the whole town of Cranbrook with heat and hot water through its nearby hub, said problems with valves in some customer homes were to blame for the lack of hot water to individual properties.
E.ON promised to return heat to homes ‘as quickly as possible’ and said its engineers were working ‘around the clock’ to fix the issues.
Customers left in the cold will be given compensation, and portable heaters will be made available while engineers work to fix the problems, E.ON said.
Cranbrook residents said they were ‘fuming’ by the lack of communication from the energy supplier.
Some said they had been ‘chasing’ E.ON for days, and after four separate visits were still left without heat.
A mum with a 12-week-old baby said she was unable to bath her son because she has no hot water.
The energy supplier has been slammed by East Devon MP Simon Jupp, who has called for the company’s CEO to act immediately to rectify the ‘woefully inadequate’ service as an ‘urgent priority’, calling the current situation a ‘mess’.
Residents told Mr Jupp:
- “Tonight we have neither [heating or hot water]again this is the second night, I have a 12-week old son and I’ve just ran myself a bath using just the hot tap, it’s not even warm enough for my son to have a bath. E.ON keep fobbing me off saying there’s no issues in my post code area, I’m honestly fuming.”
- “Way too cold even with the heating. Feeling bad for those still chasing E.ON, mine is working on and off but had four visits over four days and it’s still not right, I have to keep turning it right down so it gets cold and then increase it a degree at a time.”
- “Call centre staff know nothing and apparently are not able to get any information from those further up the pyramid.”
- “On one call I was told to ‘sit tight and wrap up warm’. I’m now furious with the situation. I’ve had no communication at all from E.ON apart from when I have called then.”
An E.ON spokesman said: “We are aware of a number of customers in Cranbrook reporting issues with their heating and hot water supplies.
“This is not an issue with the network itself, the problem stems from an issue with valves in the heat interface units in some customer homes, and this disrupts the hot water flow from the network into individual properties.
“Our priority is to return heat to customers as quickly as possible and engineers have been working around the clock to visit customers and reset or replace valves that have failed.
“We are prioritising vulnerable customers and redeploying engineers from other E.ON sites in support.”
He added: “We apologise to customers and we’re making portable heaters available for their use while our engineers complete the works.
“All affected customers will be given compensation as part of our service guarantees.”
East Devon MP Simon Jupp has written to E.ON CEO Michael Lewis, calling for immediate action.
He said families, elderly and vulnerable residents were in danger of becoming ill amid the current arctic conditions, and warned many could not afford to run electric heaters while the heating system was repaired.
Mr Jupp told the E.ON CEO: “I would like to request that you make every effort to sort this mess out as an urgent priority given cold temperatures are forecast to continue this week; and provide affected households with compensation.
“Your services and basic communication about this matter have fallen far short of what is acceptable. Cranbrook residents deserve so much better.”
My open letter to @EONEnergyUK after many residents in #Cranbrook continue to struggle without heating.
E.ON must step up, urgently reconnect customers & compensate everyone left without heating during this bitterly cold snap. pic.twitter.com/YXDoA0sxc2
— Simon Jupp MP (@simonjamesjupp) December 12, 2022
E.ON’s £3million energy centre hub serves the Skypark and Cranbrook developments, both in East Devon, in what the company has called a ‘ground-breaking district heating network’, offering ‘sustainable and cost-effective’ energy to the two communities.
The energy centre has combined heat and power engines, with the aim of providing round-the-clock heat and hot water.
