An Ombudsmen's Ombudsman please....

[Beef Oven!]

No they're not.

Yes they are.

[Nick Armstrong]

No they're not.

Yes they are.

[MrGongGong]

Welcome back Mr Pee

[Beef Oven!]

Utility companies are all as bad as each other. When mother moved two years go, I signed her up to Talk Talk as they could connect her immediately, whereas BT required six weeks and access to her property. No problems so far, touch wood. I am with Virgin for phone, tv and broadband. Technically they're brilliant, but their admin leaves much to be desired.

From what you say, they'r not all the same, perhaps. TalkTalk appear better than BT, from your experience.

I switched my elderly parents to TalkTalk (the BT deal they had was a total rip-off). Perfect service and much cheaper. After about a year, their phone line went dead. Suspect it had something to do with my dad's superannuated wiring for extensions. Anyway, the TalkTalk technician came down the very next day and sorted it out, all free.

I think some utilities firms are actually quite good, these days.

[MrGongGong]

I think some utilities firms are actually quite good, these days.

You believe many things
Some (like your beliefs regarding Mr Czukay) are spot on
others (like ................................................no t allowed anymore)

are on another planet

(are you the head or the arse of the cow ? )

[Nick Armstrong]

Welcome back Mr Pee

And Mrs Pee in the dress?

[Beef Oven!]

Welcome back Mr Pee

That's a coincidence. I've just had a shave and I think I want to switch to a 100% badger brush from my boar/badger mix and would love to discuss this with my mate Mr Pee, but he's not around. I can't get you lot to talk about blokey things, I can barely get ya'll to talk about whisky. Where's Jeremy Clarkson when you need him.

Btw, you can tell if a piece of music is written by a woman. When I popped a CD into the laptop today, Thea Musgrave's name came up on grace notes, and the picture on the cover was a dead give away - so you're sorta right about that

[Beef Oven!]

You believe many things
Some (like your beliefs regarding Mr Czukay) are spot on
others (like ................................................no t allowed anymore)

are on another planet

(are you the head or the arse of the cow ? )

Are you calling me an arse?

[MrGongGong]

That's a coincidence. I've just had a shave and I think I want to switch to a 100% badger brush from my boar/badger mix and would love to discuss this with my mate Mr Pee, but he's not around.

He's behind you

[ahinton]

I've just had a shave and I think I want to switch to a 100% badger brush from my boar/badger mix and would love to discuss this with my mate Mr Pee, but he's not around.

But why on earth would you want to discuss such a thing with anyone on a forum in a thread about Ombudspeople's Ombudspeople, let alone with Mr Pee?

I can't get you lot to talk about blokey things

Perhaps because whatever they might be (and they will vary from bloke to bloke at the very least) is not of especially relevance/interest here.

I can barely get ya'll to talk about whisky.

You spelt "barley" wrongly. That said, not everyone likes whisky (although I still find that hard to understand).

Where's Jeremy Clarkson when you need him.

Who needs Jeremy Clarkson anyway?

Btw, you can tell if a piece of music is written by a woman. When I popped a CD into the laptop today, Thea Musgrave's name came up on grace notes, and the picture on the cover was a dead give away - so you're sorta right about that

Ah, yes, Grace Notes (the facility that finally did it for Joyce Hatto), for which the Polish translation is "Bacewicz"; OK, then, so how do you tell wherther or not a piece is by a woman when it's played to you live?

But once again let us not stray into the harem reserved for women composers in a thread about Ombudspeople's Ombudspeople...

[ahinton]

He's behind you

He's behind something all right; a certain one of Mr Murdoch's newspapers, methinks...

[Dave2002]

Interestingly there is this relating to 2014 - http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/n...ce-awards.html

The pie chart is fun - scroll down, or I'll put it up here directly when I figure it out.

[ardcarp]

The very words TalkTalk are not..er...talked of in this house After six months of intermittent broadband and a frequently failing lind-line (not to mention a lifetime talktalkinging to a certain sub-continent) we switched back, expensively, to BT. Snag is, TalkTalk wouldn't release to them the phone number we've had for the past 35 years and via which all my work comes. Luckily Mrs A is a determined person, found the CEO of TalkTalk's personal number and threatened him with court prodedings. We got our old number back in a fortnight.

As for...

I think some utilities firms are actually quite good, these days

...if 'quite good' is at the top end of expectation levels, what expression would be appropriate for the bottom end?

[mangerton]

I think some utilities firms are actually quite good, these days.

Yes, I would agree, and the interesting thing is that we all have our tales to tell, pro/anti different suppliers. I suppose it's Just Our Luck. The problem is that while you and I are quite capable of fighting with these clowns when we have to* our aging parents and others of their generation are not, and we can't fight for all of them.

* I was in the trade twenty or so years ago and know how they operate. I had two long running battles with Scottish and Southern Electricity, and got substantial compensation from them - hundreds - on each occasion.