I woke up this morning to find my storage heater was not working. British gas had sent someone around to change the meter the day before yesterday. (It took that long for me to notice.)
I don't recall geting any advanced warning of the service and he obviously buggered the transfer (from a card reader to a key reading meter.)
Anyway, I just searched for a change of supplier and it seems with my low useage and region I can get electrickery about =A320 cheaper with another company.
I used
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to find my best source. Does anyone know if they take a cut? Or are they some sort of public service?
They are dealing with the transfer for me.
How do I go about getting hold of British Gas as I am still out in the cold with them? Not suprisingly they have no contact numbers on their site. (I shan't be joining the AA in forseeable either in that case.)
What really upset me was that the sod just started swapping the meters before I thought to record how much was on the old one. I think he stiffed me a few pennies -which I wasn't worried about at the time but now I am as angry as hell.
I have just spoken to a very apologetic useless **** from British Gas. Apparently they have supplied the wrong key or it may be defective. They are going to send me a new one:
"How long will that take?"
"We will send it first class post."
"So..." "Christmas time?"
"I know sir, it is the best we can do"
"Is that a joke? Is there somewhere I can go for it locally?"
"No sir, it has to be a specially selected....."
"OK, thank you."
I shall be very suprised to get the key before the first week in January -and if British Gas are anything like the meter company fitter they sent me, I shall be luck to get it then.
So, I have now no other form of heating. In fact, if the other branch of the leccy fails, I shall be way down the swannie.
I got stiffed a couple of hundred quid in my last house move. BG's attitude when I queried the problem means that I will no longer do business with them under any circumstances and I urge other people to do likewise.
snipped-for-privacy@ukmisc.org.uk (Huge) wrote in news:doe1b2$6al$ snipped-for-privacy@anubis.demon.co.uk:
I think he
They did the same to me when I moved into my present hovel about 8 years ago - _and_ left me without gas over the holiday period; Iwas only rescued by one of their blokes (Steve Thacker IIRC) who took personal charge, and let me hav his office extension number!!!
The anger brewed over the years - I was overjoyed to see most of them sacked, and I finally outed them a few weeks ago after yet another supply your own reading fiasco.
I'm still waiting nervously to see what they're going to do to me over that!
I did get the key sent out the next day and after a traipse to the next council estate, found a shop where it could charge.
I started with =A35 of my own, they put =A310 in and I put another =A310 on that I have been using my computer, TV video and lighting along with a small electric cooker my kettle and the water heater. There are also a couple of halogen heaters I don't need on all the time as the flat is fairly warm anyway.
There is now =A33.92 pence in the meter. That is about what I use in a quarter I think.
The strorage heaters are still not working and I got in touch with someone yesterday who offered me profuse apologies which Io suppose are cheap enough at this time of the year. He said that he will re-jig the key to work on economy 7. And that it might take a day to go through the system. This is their second key, remember.
I am just off to get a top up. Hopefully it will be OK this time but I am not happy it will be.
OneTell just got on the phone and offered me a cheaper rate phone supply. So I said "OK" but baulked at giving them my bank details over the phone.
They called me back and I gave it a little more thought, then asked him who the parent company is:
"British Gas."
I just hung up.
How many people I wonder join up to a group they wouldn't touch with a
10 foot pole if they thought to ask more about the company. Why do I get the impression these telemarketeers spend more on getting their customers than they do on keeping them?
That ******* was probably paid out of my =A325 quid. British gas? He wasn't even phoning from Britain. How was that supposed to reassure me?
Well, now I am off to get the top up and then spam all the UK newsgroups I can find with this OT. Any suggestions for other interest forae?
If they've ballsed it up, you may be able to claim some sort of payment from them. You will have to ask, if they're at all like BT. When the latter company fluffed my 'phone installation they gave me some "compensation" for the service being delayed.
I have had 3 people call not counting the initial visit from a bloke in the council works dept nor the two subcontractors for British Gas who never turned up. I've had either six or seven keys given or sent to me (I lost count) and at least two versions from Onstream's engineers of what could be wrong.
I couldn't get the last one to tell me who he was working for -I should have asked to see his identity card but I never thought of it until the next day when my heating was still off.
So now it is the 13th. Friday. Lucky for them, I'm not expecting to get it sorted. I went to the council offices asking to be rehoused as it is
3 weeks since I had heating. I was told there is no chance of that. But they were going to send someone out.
I waited in for a visit from Onstream or whomever on Wednesday and Thursday. I am now due 3 lots of compensation for that. I haven't been told how much to expect. What annoys me now is that I must wait for their offices to open to make another appointment.
Apparently if their man fails to turn up it ends there unless I make another call. I phoned them about 16:30 yesterday evening and they said a man should "be there before 18:00." No reassurances about booking another dud if he failed to materialise though.
About five minutes later two council workers arrived to check the wiring from my side of the meter. He opened a box under the storage heater fuses and twiddled with something in there, while the other one watched the gas company's meter (outside the flat.) The test involved the speed a red LED flashed. I have no idea what for.
After reassuring me it was a supply fault, the electrician took a look at their meter. Apparently it was a missing wire. All the other meters have four thick wires and a thin wire connected into two of them in series somehow (not sure how or why.)
I thought the original fitter looked a bit furtive about the wiring, having removed the similar short length connecting wire and stuffing something back out of sight in the trunking.
I found a live (?) wire in there just now. The 5? amp stuff not the 40? amp No tape over the end of it, just about long enough to reach my meter had a person or persons unknown cut it off where it would have curved up.
Notes to the wise:
1=2E Check the identity of anyone who comes to sort meter problems.
2=2E Make sure to read and note all readings on the machine before and after.
3=2E Don't let anyone from Onstream do any work on your property or anyone else's either.
4=2E If you have to phone British gas for any reason; log and time all calls if you can. Some sort of taped record might be useful. At least make notes of what was said.
5=2E Keep all reciepts including the top up reciepts if you have a card or key meter.
6=2E Whatever British Gas do or don't do; there is no way for you to get back at any of them.
If they make an oppointment for the next tosser to call it will be Monday before he does, as it isn't likely anyone will call on a Friday as they all bugger off early -or was that just a Chrimbo special?
That means I won't find out if I have finally got what I am paying for until Tuesday. That's a month -almost- to go without heating. How do I get them to estimate what my bill should have been -rather than accept the cost of a month when I had to heat my flat using peak rate electicity?
The four thick wires will be live (phase) and neutral IN and OUT of the meter (supply and load) for metering the current you use.
The thin wire(s) will be
- (on older installations) for a time-clock to change the meter over from peak to off-peak. The time-clock, which is electricity co property and should be sealed by them in the same was as the meter, will also usually control a contactor to switch your storage heaters on during the off-peak period.
Note the time-clocks get out of synch with real time, so if you have eg hot water on its own timer, or your own timeclock for the storage heaters, you may need to adjust your own timer to be in synch with the electricity supplier's rate-change timer. Otherwise you may find that your storage heaters are coming on at 2 a.m. when the rate-change timer actually thinks that cheap rate starts at 3 p.m.
- (on newer installations) for the meter to switch on a contactor (heavy duty relay) to switch on your storage heaters during the off-peak period. Newer meters incorporporate a teleswitch which is radio-controlled by the supplier to change between peak and off-peak.
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