Port De Soller Mallorca

Port De Soller Mallorca
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Tuesday 24 April 2012

Another Reason Why I hate British Gas /Centrica (swear alert)

Received this letter in the post from British Gas, addressed to UNKNOWN, informing Unknown that electricity prices are going UP and the new prices are enclosed.

1. It is addressed to UNKNOWN
2. No NEW Prices were enclosed, and
3. It was sent in 'April 2012' *



* I want to see a frigging date on post, an actual day date, not a vague sometime in the month date.  

And let's not forget that the bloody thing was sent out to UNKNOWN in the first place, how can you send to a letter to unknown.  I accept that commercial properties may have changed hands and the previous tenant may have had an account with one utility company, but all of the utility companies and I deal with most of them, seem to have no trouble in tracking down the telephone Number of premises.  If it is a multi tenanted building the office suites either have their own metered supply or are re-billed from the landlord through a sub meter, the first option means that the tenant is billed direct and therefore the meter is attached to an individual address within the building, which they, the utility company must have had in the first place, don't you think? And if it was re-billed through the landlord and they had changed companies they wouldn't be unknown in the first place, now would they? Arrrrgggghhh     

And why can't someone phone and say something like, 

Hi, sorry to trouble you, but British Gas here, we previously supplied electricity to the property you are in to the previous tenant and to meter number so and so.  We don't seem to have your details on file and would like to get it sorted out for you ASAP, before you run up a big bill.  Can you give me your company details so that we can log you on to the system. Oh and by the way as you are a new customer, these are the types of deals we can offer you........

But no,  this is a letter to UNKNOWN, and Unknown does have an account Number!!!!! stating that you have a contract with us, but as you have not renegotiated it with us, so we are increasing your prices

OR IS IT JUST ME BEING FUCKING OBTUSE, AGAIN! 

Oh and by the way I do not have any electricity contracts with British Gas at this time or in recent past.......


It's a bit like the heating instructions on the back of a packet of hot cross buns I noticed the other day, which were also rather stupid, like the letter above, and the instructions were these:

Best enjoyed hot, for best results,  

To Toast: cut in half and place under grill until golden brown, remove and butter.
To Grill: cut in half and place under grill until golden brown, remove and butter.
I kid you not, those were the actual instructions on the packet, and so I ask,

IS IT ME?


7 comments:

  1. I'm sorry, Tom, your title gave me fits of laughter. I spit out Penny's coffee!
    Do you know why I hate American power companies... or used to? Because the glue on the envelopes they sent for bill payment tasted like poison. I even sent them a letter to complain that they needed better tasting glue.
    Now I can pay by computer!
    Miss you! Using Penny's computer - mine broke.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your blogs make me smile, Tom. There's a certain kind of "misery loves comfort" feeling in learning that your problems, and your complaints, are the same there as they are here, in Colorado and in Kansas. Big companies everywhere are equal opportunity offenders. Your style is priceless!
    (No, in answer to your question on my blog, I don't have twitter)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry Julia and for Penny's computer. Hope it survived!

    And, as Marylin says, it seems that the problems we suffer from utility companies are universal, I wonder when they changed from being decent companies providing a fairly priced service with good customer relations (or were they ever like that) to the a*^#*^$* that they are today, treating us with utter contempt and squeezing every last drop of spare cash we might have had for a rainy day?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I say write back:

    Dear British Gas,

    Thank you for supplying me with an infinite amount of gas. Being "unknown" I assume that the long line of trucks is here due to a division by zero error. Please accept my payment in denominations of irrational numbers.

    Yours truly,
    Unknown

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for popping in Sean.

    Yeah, they are something else but I think they target me. I end up losing it with them on the phone and telling them to F*** off. Not very nice and I shouldn't to the poor employee on the receiving end of my tirade, but it's like a slow form of torture they tell you they are taking notes but if they are, they are not being shared between dpts or if they are, they are ignoring them.

    We have an ombudsman here in the UK and I have reported BG twice and won but you just want to kill........

    ReplyDelete
  6. I work for British Gas, and they may paint a rosy picture...but, they're nowhere near to managing customer expectations. It's not the agents who are at fault, but the so-called-brains behind the operations - based in Staines, Middlesex.

    A leadership team, so full of testosterone, arrogance and self-importance that they can't see passed the big bonuses and salaries they get to fix the problem at root.

    Oh by the way, you're not the first, and most certainly won't be the last.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh dear anonymous, thanks for stopping by GET OUT NOW, for your own sanity, get out.

    I must have bad karma, you left the comment, confirming what a bunch of prats these people are and lo and behold I open the mail today, Friday, and there is a letter from them RENEWING ANOTHER CONTRACT that I took them to the ombudsman over, winning that case to, and proving again that they had hijacked a sub meter, where they had to repay all the monies they invoiced - NOW THEY TELL ME A YEAR LATER THAT I STILL HAVE THE CONTRACT WITH THEM AND THEY ARE RENEWING IT

    WHAT FUCKING PLANET ARE THEY LIVING ON !!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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