Gas & Electricity billing companies

[jonholyfield]

I had one at the door last week.

The spiel was along the lines of  "You are due a rebate, you will have received a letter I just need to see your last bill".

OK lets break this down.

You do not supply me but want to give me a rebate.

Why do you need to see my bill if not  to move me to your company.

I check the cheapest suppliers and it 'aint  you.

I should have complained to the watchdog. It is still going on.

[Some Herbert]

We're building somewhere from scratch.

I'm full of admiration that you're actually going to do it. Have you got any particular area in mind yet? Are you planning to do the actual building work yourself, or get someone else to do it? What percentage of energy self-sufficiency do you reckon you can achieve?

So many questions. I'm all excited for you. Why don't you set up a blog so we can keep track of your progress?

[Adrian Brezhnev]

"My landlord organises all the bills" is the magic phrase that gets rid of fuckers.  And cold callers.

That's an excellent line- all the more for the fact that presumably it is largely untrue...?

[slim]

I'm full of admiration that you're actually going to do it. Have you got any particular area in mind yet? Are you planning to do the actual building work yourself, or get someone else to do it? What percentage of energy self-sufficiency do you reckon you can achieve?

Yeah, it's going to be somewhere Essex/Suffolk way as I'll need to be able to travel to work.

Good god, no. I'm not a practical person, I'll be paying other people to do it. I will chip in where I am able though.

Well, theoretically we should be able to be completely self-sufficient in energy. It's very sensible to remain connected to the mains in case of local failure and so you can sell surplus power back to the grid, but apart from the actual connection, I'm hoping we won't need to pay for any electric at all.

The heating and cooking will also be electric, so there should be no need for gas. Not that I'm happy about moving away from gas for cooking, electric ovens/hobs suck, but it's all part of the eco-friendly aspect of it. The solar panels on the roof and one of the outbuildings, combined with the turbines (should we get planning permission for them) should power the house adequately. Then there will be another solar panel, either on another outbuilding or just on the ground, which will take care of the heating and hot water.

So many questions. I'm all excited for you. Why don't you set up a blog so we can keep track of your progress?

Heh, that's not a bad idea, but I'm not sure I'd be committed enough to maintain it, especially if things were going wrong. ladyslim is thinking about writing off to Grand Designs though, as apparently they've not done a self-sufficiency based house, so you never know - there might be a visual journal.

The only reason I am agreeing to this is so I can take the piss out of Kevin Whatshisface on telly. :)

Sorry for the thread hijack, but it's kind of power related.

[SetToStun]

Sorry for the thread hijack, but it's kind of power related.

That's not a hijack, slim, it's a truly fascinating thread evolution. Best of luck old son. And what he ^ said about a blog too - I should imagine plenty of people will be dead keen to hear how you get on.

[terminallyrelaxed]

Comically, the one thing about my new flat that I didnt notice until I'd paid the deposit is that its still on a coin meter for the electricity.
The landlord reckons its only a couple of quid a week in the summer which can't be right and anyway there the computer and consoles and TVs and a new bigger fridge and even if I keep these competely powered down when not in use (and enter the time on everything all the the time) I reckon I'll get through at least a tenner a week.
I've only had a key meter before - has anyone had experience of these things?
I'm also a bit peeved that the landlord will be coming round to empty it however often, although he did say he'd et me know beforehand.

[Bernard]

Woh, terminallyrelaxed - you seriously need to sort that.

Two years ago I lived in a house with a coin electricity meter that the landlord also emptied out. It was a mechanical thing (as opposed to digital). We discovered it was set to go down more quickly at the landlord's discretion. I'm telling you, your landlord (like ours was) is making a profit on it. We paid a noticeable proportion more than anyone else we knew in a similar-sized house with the same number of occupants.

Of course, it's in the landlord's interest to keep the meter. Ours always swore he wasn't making anything. Hah - he even said that, if anything, he was down a few quid. Yeah right. If he was, he'd have corrected it in a flash. I've no idea regarding the legality of it all; but I'm talking about the same landlord who also got his mate to do our gas safety certificate check.

Has there been a "Vile and evil landlords" thread yet?

So terminallyrelaxed, once you start paying out, see if you can change it, or contact citizens advice or check your contract or something. Good luck.

Edit: Although it would be nice if I'd jumped the uzi and you pay next to nowt.

[slim]

Yeah, I agree with that. Those coin meters can be customised to set the amount of money they eat and you'll rarely find a landlord who doesn't jack it up a bit for their own pocket's benefit.

[slim]

And what he ^ said about a blog too - I should imagine plenty of people will be dead keen to hear how you get on.

Hmmm, ok. When it's all up and running, I'll turn over my existing, unused blog to record the progress on the house build and let y'all know. :)

[Adrian Brezhnev]

Coin meters should be removed at your earliest convenience. They are nasty, smelly things, and are normally only reserved for twats who don't realise how much they could save by getting a proper electricity or gas meter installed.

Or people that have a disastrous credit rating, and won't be accepted for monthly or quarterly billing.

[terminallyrelaxed]

Oh well. The needle on the dial hasn't moved from where it was yesterday but it was only the fridge running for 24 hours with nothing in it, so that doesnt prove much - I'm happy to keep it going if thats how it is, and I really will just keep my devices switched off on the powerstrip if not on the wall. Its more energy-efficient to let a Mac sleep than keep turning it on and off so now problem there either.

[greencalx]

"My landlord organises all the bills" is the magic phrase that gets rid of fuckers.  And cold callers.

That's an excellent line- all the more for the fact that presumably it is largely untrue...?

Thanks but as it happens it was true-ish, in the sense that of the last few contracts I've had, many of them have insisted that changes of gas/electricity supplier are forbidden without prior consent of the landlord.  Anyway, the L-word's a good one to use.

On a related topic, I recently had a cold call asking me "Do you know who pays the bill for this phone?" to which I answered "Yes - but I'm not going to tell you".  The person calling me seemed very surprised, and oddly the call didn't last much longer.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

PC's line "I can't answer that because I'm dumb" is another good way of getting rid of them. Especially if you then add "...and there's no point in you saying anything 'cos I'm deaf".

[greencalx]

I'm afraid that cold calls have become so frequent a very cheery "Goodbye!" is about all I can manage.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

Ah, but if you do that, they might phone you back, assuming that they had initially caught you at a bad time!

[slim]

Bah, my funding has fallen through due to reasons too boring to go into here, so it looks like the eco-house dream is over unless something drastic happens to house prices, land prices or construction costs. I am very miserable now, goddamnit.

[terminallyrelaxed]

But you're in a couple! Gordon will see you right, its on the front page of the papaers today, help for first-time buyers who are in a couple, low interest rates, you pay %70, the government pays %15 and the lender pays %15.
Its got to be better than nothing, at least you're one half of an officially recognized house-buying unit.

Single White Tenant, lightly soiled, seeks other half of his mortgage for fun and stamp duty.

[slim]

Yeah, I'd love for the government and the bank to have a share in my house. Bugger that, I'd rather rent than be had by the balls by both.

The other measures like freeing up land to bring down land prices look interesting, but to be honest, I don't want to pay a mortgage on the limit of my capabilities just to end up with half a house after 25 or 30 years. What's the bloody point? He's just trying to kick start the market because our whole fragile economy seems to be balanced on all the false credit this housing "boom" has created.

Rather than allow poor people to buy overpriced houses, why not do something to tackle the ridiculous overinflation of property prices? Oh no, tackling the root cause of a problem would be too simple, wouldn't it?

</grump>

[Some Herbert]

Bah, my funding has fallen through due to reasons too boring to go into here, so it looks like the eco-house dream is over unless something drastic happens to house prices, land prices or construction costs. I am very miserable now, goddamnit.

Shit, that's bad news. Could you not do some kind of shared-occupancy thing?

[terminallyrelaxed]

Rather than allow poor people to buy overpriced houses, why not do something to tackle the ridiculous overinflation of property prices? Oh no, tackling the root cause of a problem would be too simple, wouldn't it?

</grump>

Yeah thats what we'd all like. I'll be renting until they do this, or the arse falls out of the market, but the trouble is it won't happen, it would reduce all the greedy cunts in this country (and the other half of the popultaion who've had no choice but to come along for the ride) to absolute destitution.
I know what you mean though, it seems ludicrous to get into half a million quid's worth of debt for somewhere to live, but then you'd still be saving money compared to renting, which is why we're in this mess in the first place, its a viscious circle.

[terminallyrelaxed]

Shit, that's bad news. Could you not do some kind of shared-occupancy thing?

A commune! Alder Hey! You'd love it you tree-hugging druid.

[slim]

Shit, that's bad news. Could you not do some kind of shared-occupancy thing?

I'd considered it! Not really though. The build was affordable on the basis that we built a house that was exactly the right size, no larger, than to fit us and one sprog.

To expand the house to a bigger size to accommodate others would be a fine idea in theory, but the only people I trust to share a house with earn even less than we do and would have an even smaller chance of paying the mortgage each month.

Yeah thats what we'd all like. I'll be renting until they do this, or the arse falls out of the market, but the trouble is it won't happen, it would reduce all the greedy cunts in this country (and the other half of the popultaion who've had no choice but to come along for the ride) to absolute destitution.

That's the crux of the problem, isn't it? It would be a sure fire election loser to alienate the middle classes Labour spent so long charming. If the multiple property bods were suddenly faced with huge negative equity and the ridiculous housing bubble were to burst, everyone would just run to the "safe economic management" of the Tories. Labour knows this and so they must keep this ridiculous hyperinflation going in order to keep the pretend rich pretend rich and us real paupers really poor.

Fuck them. I propose we start the "Own Nothing" party, and sweep to power on the pauper vote in the next election.

If Brown really wants to create a nation of owner occupiers and address the first-time buyer crisis, why not slap double taxes on second (and nth) homes?

I know what you mean though, it seems ludicrous to get into half a million quid's worth of debt for somewhere to live, but then you'd still be saving money compared to renting, which is why we're in this mess in the first place, its a viscious circle.

You're damn right. I'm not going to spend a fortune on buying a house that isn't worth that much money, only to not own all of it anyway!

I used to have similar thoughts when I was a lad; my parents bought (and later lost) their 2 bed semi for ~£25k. At the same time, good cars cost ~£20k. I couldn't equate the two and felt sure cars would have to come down in value - after all, they're much less valuable than a house. Of course, it didn't happen and instead you have houses that now also cost too much.


Sorry for the wrong threadness. There's another one about this bumping along nicely, but this one's more personal. :)

[Adrian Brezhnev]

I thought I'd just drag up this old thread again..... given that it's related to the resignation letter I'm trying to help someone write.

I started this thread in the first place when my friend told me that he knew someone that had taken on a "direct sales" job, and that he was trying it out, just to see why so many people do it. His reasoning was that there must be something good about it.

Here's what Southern Electric do. They get a list of about fifty houses, called a knock sheet. There is a page or two for each street, and the list simply contains house names or numbers, whether or not the house already contains a Southern Electric customer, and has space for writing notes.

The "District Manager", i.e. cold-calling twat, knocks on the door, sands side on with a presenter and the list in his hand, and once the door has been opened, says the following:

Hello, Southern Electric, my name's ............- I'm a District Manager with the company

He/she then holds up a photo-ID card and adds

There's a freephone number here, should you wish to check.

We have a print out from our local office of homes in the area that have not yet taken full advantage of deregulation and it appears that you are one of them. Is this because you were not aware of what that is, or that you hadn't got round to it.

At which point, the person that answered the door will tend either to say "go away" and slam the door, say "It's not my house" / "My parents aren't in" / "Sorry, my husband deals with that", or "I haven't got a clue what you are talking about.
To which, the rep either says "thanks" and leaves or replies

It's all do do with your billing method.
How do you pay your bills at the moment?
And who are you billed by?

If the potential customer doesn't say "that's none of your business, now fuck off", the rep carries on with the rather personal question

How much are you being charged per unit at the moment?

and if the reponse is "I haven't got a clue", he/she delivers the punchline

Well give us a couple of minutes and I'll check that for you

and wipes his or her feet before walking straight in to the house.

I believe that's pretty much what PowerGen and NPower do as well. British Gas simply announce the exciting (and usually untrue) fact that they can save them lots of money.

[Ckris]

Centrica are raising gas prices by 35% and Electricity by 9% with immediate effect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7533389.stm

I will continue to pay my bills because I don't want to be cut off and die or worse freeze during winter.

But, with rising bill costs how does this affect us in real terms? Is it just a lot of media hype or are people really going to have to compromise between eating and staying warm? How do you think rising costs will change the way you spend, if at all?

Also, who is making the extra profit on these price hikes? British Gas claim profits are down 69%. Does that mean BG are subsidising our bills now?!

[Feralkid]

Of course those of us unfortunate enough to live in Northern Ireland are stuck with the scum-sucking fucktards at NIE - the only electricity provider in these parts.   So no competition driving any prices downs, not that stops NIE from mounting occasional ad campaigns about their greatness.  Which is supremely annoying given that you can either go with NIE or live in total darkness...

What I wouldn't give to have a plethora of utility providers to gripe about.

[biggytitbo]

What's happening is that the energy companies are dishonest lying scum bags, which isn't much of a surpise. They make out that, for instane, British Gas is a standalone company and that they're losing money because of the high energy prices. What they don't say is that British Gas is NOT a standalone company, it belongs to a much larger company that just happens to be absolutely raking it in because of higher energy prices, because they sell energy. They are liars, who are exploiting poor people to make excess profits because they themselves are benefiting from inflated energy prices, which they and they're cronies are almost certainly responsible for artificialy inflating in the first place.