Pensioner's letters lost after power cut

By Jessica Nicholls

FRAIL 92-year-old Dorothy Pinner endured six days without heat and light in the October storms.

But far from getting her £100 compensation that electricity company 24seven promised for being unable to restore her supply – after three letters to them she did not even received a reply.

Mrs Pinner lives in an annexe attached to her son and daughter-in-law's house, Philip and Elisabeth Standing.

Mrs Standing said she too wrote two letters, which also appeared to have fallen into the black void aptly named as Customer Solutions, and also never received a reply.

But the Evening Star stepped in and their plight was investigated and now both can look forward to receiving a £100 check.

A spokeswoman from 24seven said she would like to apologise to the family after a letter from Mrs Standing was found. However no letter was found from Mrs Pinner.

She said: "We do have some correspondence from Mrs Standing and found that she is eligible.

"It would appear that it has been overlooked and we are very sorry about that.

"We would like to resolve this as quickly as possible."

Mrs Standing from Bourne Hill said she was delighted that the money was finally being paid.

She said: "We wrote off to them about a week after the storms.

"We have written and written and just had no reply.

"My mother-in-law is very angry at them.

"They promised compensation for people who claimed and we have not even had an acknowledgement.

"I don't believe that all those letters got lost in the post."

Although the two houses are joined, Mrs Pinner has her own electricity supply. Both houses run completely off electricity so were left with no heat or light for almost a week.

Mrs Standing said: "We were just eating fish and chips and Chinese food.

"I was wrapping her up with blankets and getting kettles of hot water from next door.

"It was very intermittent up here and some neighbours were not cut off.

"I don't know what I would have done without them."