The Ranting Room

ok get this one Jim,

My mum who is an elderly widow living alone recently (3 years ago) had mainline gas fitted into her cottage which is exactly 2up, 2down mid terrace. For2 years she paid £28 per month for combined gas and electric. In March of this year they put it to £32. which she accepted ok.
In September they increased her monthly payments to a WHOPPING £106.38 per month.     She was in the middle of her first bout of chemo at the time, so my sister tried to deal with it for her, we are STILL waiting for it to be sorted out. But APPARENTLY if you pay by monthly direct debit although generally your gas/electric cost is up to 10% cheaper than the standard bill payer, it is ENTIRELY LEGAL for the provider to set the monthly debit at WHATEVER THEY WISH, and trying to get money back from them is almost impossible. Mum's health means that she is too sick and dizzy to read a book or watch TV, and pretty much goes to bed when it gets dark as she's pretty frail. My sister, who is local to her, brings her cooked food some days, other days she might just have fruit or toast (she's pretty sick) she has one radiator in the lounge and one in her bedroom. no more.  £106.38 a month?????  That's robbery of the worst kind. We are all helping out where we can and hope we can sort it out as soon as possible, in the meantime she is under stress that she really could do without right now.

Jim Garten wrote: OK I've been paying £55 per month to my gas supplier; they recently read my meter & the new statement confirmed that gas usage vs payments came to a balance of £0.09 - perfect - I'm paying exactly what I need to. Not so. The thieving s now want to increase my monthly payment from £55 to £96; an increase of over 61% - this in the face of industry wide opinion that the retail cost of gas per unit is to fall sharply over the next 6 months - I say again: THIEVING s!

What a terrible system.  All my services (electricity, gas, water) are billed strictly based on usage.  Why pay silly inflated estimates when you have meters? 

^^^

If I ever get in any trouble I'm going to give you a call Jim!    

 

 

Actually, yes - a couple of years back we were over £300 in advance, which they paid back without a quibble... I agree about the unsolicited loans though - they're not increasing our monthly payments by 61% just so they can get the interest on our money.

s!

Neil wrote: ....then I get the gas up front....

You know what really bugs me? Skimmed and Semi-Skimmed Milk. What the hell is all that about? Who honestly thinks that putting a tablespoonful of semi-skimmed milk in their coffee instead of full-fat makes any difference to their daily fat intake?

Edited by Dean - November 15 2008 at 10:12

When I was no'but a lad I remember helping out my Dad on his milkround. The milk came from either the dairy (Associated Dairies to be precise - early Asda) or direct from a farm. The types of milk were - silver top - normal pasturised, gold top - creamier jersey milk as the main sellers. Red top (aka homogenised) was were the cream and the milk had been blasted (I think) to make a single milk without the separate cream layer. For those without a sense of taste sterilised was also available  (read this as representing sick). The best of the bunch was farm gold. At least a third of the pint was a cream layer. Mmmmmmm.

Edited by limeyrob - November 15 2008 at 12:23

fandango wrote: A kind of lactose intolerance, I guess, which is why I always drink Semi-skimmed

And I loved it as a kid - my aunt was the only one we knew who got it & I looked on it as a treat when we visited her. I certainly cannot remember semit skimmed/skimmed milk as a kid, it was always red-top in bottles.

Wilcey wrote: Cream is yummy poured on things, but not in my tea thank you very much!

No no no, never tea! Coffee, however...