Location, Location
Posted: Wed 30 October, 2013 Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Travel Leave a comment »Even though I know I’m going to be in the current place for at least another year (tenancy agreement all signed and sorted etc.) I still find myself thinking about moving on. I don’t plan to do so in the next year, but I’m thinking about it all the same.
Primarily it’s more about “Where would/do I want to be next?“, and then looking at current prices and places, just so I’ve an idea of what might work, along with what and where might be practical.
I’m not sure yet what’ll happen, and whether I’ll move on or not. Looking at the changes over the last year or two, it’s pretty much impossible to plan where I’ll be in a year’s time. For the moment I’m just doing my research, and hoping to keep my options open.
To The Ombudsman!
Posted: Mon 21 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, nPower, Utilities 2 Comments »As nPower have today announced that the average joint-fuel bill will be going up by over 10% from December 1st, I’ve decided that I’m now definitely going to take my complaint to the Energy Ombudsman, and cost the fuckers some money.
Jesus christ, a 10% increase. Do they think people are made of money? Fucking hell.
I wouldn’t mind so much if there were any decent alternatives to change over to. Sadly though, they’re all as shitty as each other.
Utilities 7 – Water Meters
Posted: Mon 14 October, 2013 Filed under: Anglian Water, Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, Utilities 2 Comments »[For the rest of the story, you can click here]
On Saturday, I was due to get my two water meters replaced with “Smart” meters by Anglian Water. Supposedly these transmit data, and mean they can be ‘read’ from the street, rather than needing access to the house in order to read them. It also replaces/removes the ‘outreader’ displays, which were supposed to do the same thing (or at least would if they hadn’t been installed by a moron) and which in my case were utterly screwed from the start.
Thankfully, the actual installation went OK – or at least seems to have done. The engineer turned up when he’d said he would, the work got done, he left, and there’ve been no water leaks since.
Of course, that doesn’t cover whether Anglian Water will actually manage to correctly swap the meters on my account, close the previous meters with the correct readings, or be able to read the meters correctly in future.
As I’ve recently had my half-year bill, that means this could still go on, as my next bill isn’t due ’til Feb/March 2014…
(And yes, BW, I have taken timestamped photos of the meters on installation, and also have a note in my little book about time/date/reading, just in case)
Utilities 6 – nPower Communications
Posted: Sun 13 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, nPower, Utilities 3 Comments »[For the rest of this one, click here]
Yesterday, I got a letter from nPower – addressed to the correct name, at the correct address. (This is actually noteworthy, as it hasn’t happened in the preceding eighteen months) It relates to the complaint I made about – um – the fact that they couldn’t (well, hadn’t) corrected my name and address on my account, despite repeated requests to do so.
Apparently, because they haven’t been in touch in so long since I raised the complaint, I can now speak to the Energy Ombudsman about it. (Which I threatened to do last month, when it all actually got sorted)
So. Should I do so?
After all, the complaint has actually been fixed, but it now looks as if their entire system is so broken that even though it’s been sorted – and the correctly addressed envelope proves it’s been sorted – it hasn’t been flagged on the system as sorted. Which really is pretty fucked, however you look at it.
I’m tempted to do so, and cost them some more money (apparently even registering an issue with the Ombudsman lands them with a fine) and see where it takes me…
Another Year
Posted: Mon 7 October, 2013 Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »In a fit of being organised, I’ve already sorted out another year’s tenancy on the current house. The agreement was signed yesterday, and went in the post, so it’s all sorted.
It didn’t need to be done for another month – it actually starts on Nov 4th – but I’m far happier with knowing it’s all done and sorted.
My landlord would actually be happy with just doing the entire thing on a rolling monthly agreement, but for the time being I’m happier knowing that I’m tied in (and so is the landlord) for the year. Monthly-rolling is just a bit too easy for my liking, too easy for a landlord to say at the start of the month “Ok, here’s your notice” (and I do mean any landlord, for I don’t think mine would actually do this) and then it’s an organisational (and financial) nightmare for that month.
I used to do 12-month tenancy agreements back when I was in Manchester, and I was fine with them then, too. I had some hassle when it came to moving out mid-term (when I moved to be with Herself) but that was fair enough, and kind-of expected. Even then though, they got another tenant, so I only paid I think two month’s rent once I’d moved out. Could’ve been a lot worse. (And the rent now is significantly less than I was paying for the place in Manch, too. Mind you, the house is also about a third of the size of the Manch place)
At worst it’s something I don’t need to think about for the next twelve months. At best, it’s off my mind, so I can fill that space with other ideas and plans. I’ll be in the same place ’til at least my birthday 2014, and that’s fine with me.
Utilities Part Two – Anglian Water
Posted: Fri 20 September, 2013 Filed under: Anglian Water, Charm School, Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised 2 Comments »Following on from yesterday’s post about nPower’s abysmal customer service, I’ve also been dealing with Anglian Water for far too long since moving in to the new place.
It’s not been anything quite as drastic as the farce with nPower – at least Anglian got my name right from day one. It’s just they’ve never managed to get my bills right.
Part of the problem is the metering setup. For some godforsaken reason, my house (and the others in my section) all have two meters: one for the main property, one for the separate outbuilding. This seems to cause them no end of confusion – my first meter reading, they managed to put the same reading in for both meters which overcharged me on one by some sixty units! Since then, despite no end of times telling them the outbuilding one only has a washing machine in it (and is thus epically low on usage) every damn bill or reading needs to be done twice, because they don’t believe the first one. (Personally I’m not keen on what this also says about their attitude to their own meter-reading people, but we’ll leave that for now)
Compounding this has been an ongoing issue with their ‘outreaders’ – little grey boxes that (supposedly) connect to the main meter, and mean the meters can be read without the person needing to access my property. Except that
- Some twat decided that they should both be situated within the courtyard bit between house and outbuilding. Yes, the bit with no access from the outside, without going through the damn house. #slow_handclap right there.
- At no point have the outboxes read the same as the actual meters.
I’ve had Anglian out twice to have the outreaders recalibrated to the meters now, so one would hope they were working. But no…
Back in July I had a meter-reading done. It was one of the days I wasn’t working, so that was fortuitous. And then I expected a bill – it normally comes in August. Nothing. So I called them this week to find out what was happening – the last thing I want on my record right now is a “late payment” flag, particularly for a utility company.
Only they hadn’t sent a bill. As usual, the outhouse’s meter reading had tripped all their flags, so they needed to check the reading. (Done by a person, don’t forget) I said I’d do a reading that evening, and then they could sort it out. I also said I’d do both the outreader and the meter itself.
Lo and behold, the outreaders are under-reading by about ten percent. The meter on the house says 98, the outreader says 88. The one on the outbuilding says 22, the meter says 25. Yep, they’re still buggered then. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind their readings under-reporting by 10% – except I also don’t want hassle at some future date when someone reads the meter instead of the outreader, and suddenly I’m getting hit (again) for 50 units more than I expected.
They’re now coming out on Saturday to fit two ‘smart meters’, replacing the existing meter and outreaders. Supposedly these ones upload straight to a website, so I can monitor the usage and see if there’s a problem. Considering the issues so far with them, you can be damn sure I’ll be keeping an eye on those reading for the rest of the year!