A 103-year-old war veteran resorted to wearing oven gloves in a desperate bid to stay warm after an energy firm failed to fix his broken gas meter for months.
D-Day hero, Ivor Gardner, had no way of tracking his usage after energy firm OVO installed a faulty meter at his Wiltshire home in April last year.
He rationed his heating to between four to six hours a day during winter over worries about the size of his gas bill.
The centenarian also used tea towels and blankets to combat icy temperatures.
Mr Gardner was awarded the Legion d’honneur (Legion of Honour), France’s highest distinction, for his service during the Second World War.
He has now won an apology from OVO after spending over 24 hours on the phone during 20 calls to the energy firm.
‘I was convinced they were waiting for me to die so I stopped complaining,’ Mr Gardner said.
‘Here I was holding back on what I’m using because I didn’t know how much it was going to cost because they keep putting it up.
‘My family has been buying me all this stuff to keep warm rather than sitting in the cold.
‘But it got to a stage where I thought, “why should I be sitting in the cold when I can afford to pay for what I’m using and have never owed anybody anything in my life?”’
Mr Gardner says OVO continued to send letters demanding readings despite failing to attend his home to carry out repairs on five occasions and cancelling a sixth appointment.
And the company continued to charge him at an estimated rate – which he believes was higher than his true consumption – including a £148 gas bill in December.
He fears OVO overcharged him hundreds of pounds in the last nine months.
The company eventually installed a new meter on Wednesday, January 11 – less than 24 hours after Mr Gardner and his neighbour, Pete Allaway, sent a joint letter of complaint to the Swindon Advertiser newspaper, OVO CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick and MP for Devizes in Wiltshire, Danny Kruger.
But with no records of usage for the past nine months, OVO initially suggested the bill would be based on his usage over the next six weeks.
This would have seen Mr Gardner’s bill for last summer – when temperatures soared to a record 40C – based on his consumption for January and February.
He turned this offer down and, after negotiations with the company, has now received a letter of apology.
OVO has also agreed to write off his bill from April until December and handed him £200 in compensation.
Mr Gardner described his predicament as ‘very unfair’.
‘Why pick on me,’ he said.
‘I’ve said all along I will pay for what I use but I don’t want to pay for what I haven’t been using. That seems like fair logic.
‘I had a lot of credit at one time, but they’ve gradually eaten it away.’
OVO said it was ‘sincerely sorry’ for the missed appointments and conceded the service Mr Gardner received was ‘not up to the standards customers should expect’.
Metro.co.uk exclusively revealed the plight of a vulnerable man who is struggling to sleep or eat after spending long periods in the cold because he has been unable to top up his gas meter.
Up to one million people will be paid to use less electricity today, as part of a scheme to avoid blackouts is activated for the first time.
The UK economy is expected to suffer the biggest hit from energy crisis among G7 nations this year – as leading experts warned the looming recession could be ‘twice as bad as expected’.
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