Not so Smartmeters again

No it's using up the surplus power, when there is a surplus, when it is cheap.

There is a difference between what it costs, and selling at a loss because you have no alternative

Sell by dated food is reduced in price in the hope that something can be made out of it before it becomes legally worthless. Money lost on its sale or lack thereof is made up by charging more for in date products.

I can report progress with my 'smart' meter. After a couple of conversations, during which the water company said that the meter was working and reporting correctly, and me saying that the website was reporting my use at about a third of that, they asked me to send some screenshots. I did, and they have admitted that there is a problem. Now they are going to fix it (they say). But at least they now believe me. I suggested that they could have seen the same information that I was seeing, but that is up to 'the technical folk'.

Watch this space......

Re: ATM failure. I was on the last evening of a job in Mexico City, and my nearest ATM was at a branch of the supermarket chain Carrefour. I needed some cash for my taxi ride to the airport the following morning, and for the driver's tourist tour of Mexico City Cathedral and nearby murals by Diego Rivera (cash only). The machine gave me my money, and then there was the sound of mechanical teeth crunching my card, as though Jaws from James Bond was inside it. It didn't even spit the bits out. I went into the bank, but all I got was a shrugging of shoulders: "We have no control over the machine". At least I had my cash. The next morning, my first trip was to my bank to sort the card out.

I wonder if a Lebanese Loop had got pulled into the card reader...

Having finally accepted that I do have a smart water fitted STwater allowed me to switch from the rateable value to usage based tariff, but the meter hasn't reported any of its own readings yet.

I th "We're working behind the scenes to bring back your daily, weekly, and monthly usage graphs. Thanks for your patience while we make improvements - it won't be long."

That sounds like my US Tax Return, stuck in an Austin, TX Post Office. Since April 10, it has been expected to be delivered the next business day. Every day.

If you thought trying to get help from some UK institutions was hard, try the US Postal Service. You finally find a link to 'e-mail us', but it just leads to more links that go nowhere. You fill in the Feedback, box, and then it says that there will be no response, it is only used to 'improve the customer experience'. I'm still waiting......

I think the US postal service simply does not exist, in the way that US passenger railways do not exist.

Sure, there may be some historic arrangement vaguely resembling a service, but the reality is that everybody goes by car or plane or sends their stuff via DHL if it cant ho in an email

I'm getting exactly the same message from Severn Trent Water - and it

A few months ago, they introduced a "new improved" customer platform, and customers who had previously logged on to the old platform were transferred over to it. The usage graphs on the old platform were brilliant, showing usage in each hour the 24-hour day - which made it easy to spot any unusual patterns which may indicate that there was a leak.

They've not yet made "smart graphs" work on the new platform. What's "improved" about that?!!

A work colleague from many years ago used to say 'improvement means deterioration'. True, but in this day and age what on earth are our schools and colleges turning out!?

"In 2010, for example, China unveiled a decade-long National Talent Development Plan to identify able students and guide them into STEM fields and careers in high demand; that same year, England dismantled its National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth and redirected the funds to help low-scoring students get admitted to elite universities."

The improvement is to the share price, not to the customer service. 'Number go up' is the thing all those MBA types care about, and customers merely get in the way.

Signal issues?

Youtube: ringway manchester, Why Did This Appear On My Street?

They said it was the meter failed, and they replaced it. It is now apparently working, but they can't get the right info to the website for me to view.