A tale of utilities

[SueEllen]

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...ake-you-scream

[vetran]

The bad news is it offered nothing beyond a flexible payment plan after hitting LM with 10 months of gas bills in one go; but ain’t it beautiful to know that it’s “committed to learning from this case and enhancing the reliability and responsiveness of our systems”!

pretty impressive considering it was their fault!

Just as bad as water companies, I had a water meter installed and they charged me in Gallons (they got the calculation wrong so I paid 4 times as much) I pleaded with the Indian helpless centre but the fact my usage was 4 times the average went on deaf ears and the fact the bill showed me with an Imperial meter fitted in the naughties it was hopeless in the end I just reverted to estimated bills.

[DoctorStrangelove]

pretty impressive considering it was their fault!

Just as bad as water companies, I had a water meter installed and they charged me in Gallons (they got the calculation wrong so I paid 4 times as much) I pleaded with the Indian helpless centre but the fact my usage was 4 times the average went on deaf ears and the fact the bill showed me with an Imperial meter fitted in the naughties it was hopeless in the end I just reverted to estimated bills.

Had a similar thing with my parents' gas bill: Transco changed the meter from Imperial to Metric without telling anyone: I finally twigged when I discovered the meter serial number on the bill didn't match the serial number on the meter.

Oh how we laughed.

Almost as much as I laughed for having someone else's name against one of my NTL Hell phone numbers: it wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't owed money to every bank & building society in existence. Fixed that one by a complaint to Ofcom that resulted in me being phoned by the NTL MD's secretary on Xmas Eve.

[vetran]

Had a similar thing with my parents' gas bill: Transco changed the meter from Imperial to Metric without telling anyone: I finally twigged when I discovered the meter serial number on the bill didn't match the serial number on the meter.

Oh how we laughed.

Almost as much as I laughed for having someone else's name against one of my NTL Hell phone numbers: it wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't owed money to every bank & building society in existence. Fixed that one by a complaint to Ofcom that resulted in me being phoned by the NTL MD's secretary on Xmas Eve.

Don't start me on NTL!

[DoctorStrangelove]

Don't start me on NTL!

One of the lines developed a crackle.

They wanted £50 for someone to come out & fix it.

4 weeks later I didn't have any NTL phone lines.

The crackle is on your end, you fix it.

This was a year or so after I'd had Mr B. D. E***s name removed from the phone books.

It was a very heated conversation with an obnoxious debt collector that led to the Ofcom thing.

Stone me, I've just found him on 192.com. .

[fatJock]

One property I lived in was once a large house subsequently then split into a terrace of 3 beds (2 end terrace, one mid). Water company hadn't done the work properly so although other two houses were paying for their own water (as per meters in their back garden) I was paying for a meter out the front that was clocking up all three house bills.

Had to stop paying in the end - they were charging me £150 a month despite me barely living there 2-3 days a week. Threatened me with legal proceedings and everything only to have to refund me £1600 when they finally clocked the issue.