Westernpower Reviews 

We had a power problem in our home. We are all electric. Have health problems ect: We could not believe how fantastic the response was and how quickly the gentleman came. He came with mask, gloves and shoe covers, kept the appropriate distance and fixed the problem instantly. Thank you, very much appreciated.

Needed a new connection for a new property. Once I'd got through to the right chap, they were brilliant.
Mark Vaughan at the Exeter Dept, top service.

Excellent service. Power line down at 0400, called WPD at 0430, men arrived approx 0600, power restored by 0800. Foul weather, very rural location, very professional.

A transformer substation directly opposite our house has been allowed to get into such a poor state that three months of works are required to fix it, including digging trenches in both pavements, introducing single-line traffic controlled by lights, etc - yet not a word of notice about this, or explanation of how long it might go on, was given to residents - had I not persisted in telephoning their offices, we and neighbours would have had no idea what was going on, or how long we would have to live with it. When asked not to start very noisy operations (noise up to 82 decibels in rooms at the front of our house) before 7 am, the answer was 'we're a utility - we can do what we like'. Other features of our experience with this inconsiderate and arrogant company include insecure metal fencing panels around the holes in the road crashing over in the middle of the night, a noisy generator being left on after all the workmen had departed for the weekend 'through an oversight', a trench being dug across a neighbour's drive three days earlier than they had been told (trapping their car inside)...

I can only agree with the previous poster who said 'If Western Power are working in your road - move out!'. Unfortunately in the middle of a lockdown we are not in a position to do this.

We had a power outage and I called 105. From that free phone call, to the immediate pick up after pressing 2, to the people who turned up to analyse find and fix the fault, to the follow up phone call to confirm service was restored, I was impressed by how joined up and efficient this was handled. The guys had to dig up the road but they connected up a generator for us to have continued supply. I had to review and acknowledge how well this company is clearly run. Great service.

Very impressed with service from first phone call to book installation of isolation switch until the work was done. Most efficient company I have ever dealt with!

Pretends to work with LineSearch for utility mapping but can't be bothered when approached for information by private individuals. Deserve a few power outages. Zap-bang!

Had our power out yesterday turned out to be a faulty feed from the pole. Phone calls etc very good service and thanks to the team for reconnecting us after just a few hours in what was horrible weather! Thanks 😀

WESTERPOWER DISTRUTION
SUBSTATION 27 MEADOW ROAD BIRMINGHAM
3 external walls of the substation are covered in vandalism graffiti promoting an organisation called Action 'LUPOCA'. They are defacing the walls and attracting more graffiti to a very busy residential part of Birmingham. Please remove these graffiti at your earliest convenience as they are bad publicity for Westernpower and are making the elderly residents feel insecure as it seems that gangs are tagging the area. Thank you for your prompt assistance.

The American owned Western Power earns c. £1.6 billion in revenue each year from the UK alone, with colossal post-tax profits. Despite this, their rural infrastructure is continually patched up rather than upgraded. Our old local 'spur' power line requires several all-day power cuts each year for repairs and the excuse for not improving it varies - this year of course it's Covid which is BS because utility providers are deemed an essential 'service'. All this means we, and our paying guests (frequently with babies) in our self-catering property next door, are literally powerless for hours and days each year. We've asked for a temporary generator, only to be told no, the ones they've got are for the disabled. We get that, but what about people being repeatedly commercially disabled by their lack of investment? It's tough enough nowadays without having no internet/lighting/cooking/heating/hot water/land line for up to 9 hours a day. We've asked that they amend their temporary generator policy, but no. We've asked them to compensate us for the lack of power that we pay for, but no. We've asked them to rig up a bypass every time they repair our fragile spur, but no. We'asked them to procure more generators, but no. We've asked them to contribute to the cost of our buying a generator, but no. Selfish, greedy, unhelpful in the extreme. And we're stuck with them, more's the pity.

When SMS engineers came to install a SMART meter on my property, they became concerned about the insulation quality of the cut-out unit, and requested assistance from Western Power Distribution (Lydney area).

A brilliant Western Power engineer called Michael carried out some tests and confirmed that the cut-out was suspect and arranged for a replacement. Two very competent engineers then arrived to replace the cut-out. All three Western Power engineers were clearly well-trained and personable. They responded courteously to my preferences regarding vehicle parking and all the work was done in a rapid and tidy manner.

Customer service doesn't get any better than this!

IF WESTERNPOWER ARE WORKING IN YOUR STREET - MOVE OUT
The workmen are rude start work before 8am shouting and swearing. I feel like a prisoner in our house with up to 6 vans blocking the road and constant blocking of our drive. Damaging pavements with heavy lorries parked up... no chance of walking out the drive!

Western Power Ford van CT68 DLX is blocking parking place outside older person house on Kingston Av., Stoke-on-Trent even if he can keep the van outside his own house.

I have had issues with my business electricity bill's being really excessive and been unable to get to the bottom of it despite taking it to the Ombudsman for the third time within the last 12 months.
Approximately a month a go I questioned what the 'availability charge'on my electric bill was as I am on a deal with no standing charge. I was informed this was a charge by a third party Western Power as my business premises is on half hourly billing. I contacted Western Power who denied any knowledge of this. After a month of being pushed from pillar to post Western Power finally admitted it was down to them on Friday 4th July. They explained to me that I was and had been charged for 150kVA as an estimate since 2015 however my usage had never peaked anymore than 26kVA so effectively I was paying more than six times the correct amount. I was told they had written to me in 2015 and made me aware of this new charge and this was my opportunity to challenge this amount. I pointed out I had never received a letter and asked for a copy where I quickly established they had sent it to the previous tenant, therefore I had never been given an opportunity to be aware of this charge never mind challenge it.

This means I have now overpaid approximately £6000 which Western Power have refused to reimburse me as they are now saying that they had a conversation with my ex business partner in 2017 and because she didn't request this estimate be reduced this forms a contract so I have now asked for a SARS form and evidence via a recording of this phone call that the situation was explained to my ex business partner.

Unless Western Power provide this evidence this will result in legal action as I am not willing to lose a significant amount of money because of their underhand and unprofessional practices. I have contacted Ofgem as this is not why they brought this practice in and the Ombudsman to update them and urge anyone who has dealings with Western Power to cross any T's and dot the i's as they are not to be trusted, are unethical and extremely slippery. I am making all other local businesses aware of this as I doubt I am the only business that they are ripping off in this manner.

Update

Western Power paid me out in full at the threat of legal action.

Fantastic service, within 90 minutes of reporting a burned out main fuse on a saturday night, it was swapped out and fully working. Thank you

Pity the utilities sector in the UK is regulated by quangos or statutory bodies so if it takes many hours to fix a power cut its just tough luck. The individual in the UK counts for nothing. The middle men like Open Reach, incredibly a cash cow owned by BT and Western Power Generation, Network Rail, look at Highways England?
Open Reach can dig up and ruin a road. Both quangos. All
are only accountable to lazy regulators. We will now have to hope they fix the power. The regulator couldn't care less. What view has The National Grid? There is no incentive to improve infrastructure. What a convoluted mess. That's the UK setup

Serious breaches of regulations leading to near miss and breaches in reporting afterwards.
An incident occurred where WPD talked at cross purposes about one of two supplies at a property.I was unaware two supplies existed. The second supply had been disconnected from a meter 15 years prior I later learnt. It had deteriorated so was hanging apart inside the meter box.

Under the regulations they have to maintain equipment in a safe manner to stop it from becoming dangerous. Yet they knew a meter box was compromised and damaged and failed to inspect it in 18 months prior to the incident after having that knowledge it had a probability of compromise.

To date a complaints system that should take 8 weeks has taken 6 months at the first local stage. A near miss incident that occurred with explosion and injury was not reported accurately under section 31 of the electricity supply regulations. It was submitted as equipment damage only.

Damage to hearing was reported to operatives on site and in writing the following week. Yet a section 31 report made the second week after the incident by the person who I reported my injuries to in writing claims no injuries exist.

A health and safety officer states that report remains accurate despite confirmation in writing it is not. Beware about WPD failing to address health and safety issues correctly and adhering to regulations and their own guidelines. I was almost killed due to a collection of misleading information, inaccurate records that helped create that, an installation that had not been maintained for 15 years and now suffer constant tinnitus.

Yet WPD have avoided reporting the incident to regulatory authorities in its true light thus avoiding so far independent review. Denial of errors both prior to the incident and after makes me consider that the later errors were perhaps deliberate choices taken knowingly to avoid breaches of regulations being discovered.

Ongoing and severely disillusioned with what on the face of it is an extremely good company. But they seem institutionalised and if they do not identify the shortcomings that contributed to this near miss incident will lead to another or a fatality.

How can you prevent death or injury WPD when you fail to openly investigate and report incidents honestly?

I am at a loss because I cant report this under RIDDOR as I was not at work so seem reliant upon accurate reporting by WPD for an independent review to happen. I will now take the matter to the next stage of the complaints process which is area manager. I may surprise myself yet given by experience so far do not expect positive action.

If any regulator reads this please get in touch because WPD have behaved in a way that is reprehensible and seem to want me to give up rather than meet their responsibilities. You can track it through Radstock road depot incident 60 Beech avenue 7th Dec 2019.

@HSE

Fantastic company, fantastic customer service and fantastic engineers. We have had two issues with overhead power cables coming to our house being unsafe, through no fault of Western Powers. On the first occasion they were out within about 4 hours and helped time the corrective work at the same time as our meter replacement and move so that we could minimise disruption and cost to us. The second time they were out within about 4 hours and had the fault fixed with the hour.

For a company that doesn't really have much in the way of competition this is really refreshing to see. We consider ourselves very lucky to be covered by Western Power.

Very impressed indeed with this Western Power and Kier.
Our house was 'live' on Monday morning, really scary, couldn't touch a thing without getting a shock. Western power responded straight away, and after some searching found a fault under our brick-paved driveway. They repaired it quickly and the house was safe. By Wednesday the drive had been reinstated to brilliant standard. Extremely impressive, thanks to all involved.

Absolutely amazed and astonished at the service just received by yourselves! My partner and I moved into our house yesterday and our power completely went out this evening after a plug socket blew and the fuse box couldn’t be reset. Spoke to a very lovely and attentive Susan on the phone who talked us calmly and politely through a few ways to try and rectify the fault (which unfortunately didn’t work due to a greater fault) we were then told an engineer would be with us in around 1-2 hours when we called at 9pm. He arrived in just under half an hour. Unfortunately I didn’t catch his name, maybe David. But he was fantastic! What a lovely man who was very able to easily identify the fault and rectify it quickly. My partner came back after going out to grab a new plug socket and our engineer stayed until he had changed it to make sure nothing else blew and we were all okay. Myself and my partner are so impressed and so grateful this was easily rectified and we were put at ease.