Meter readings

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes. Scotty most certainly would say that! Anyhow, where is Scotty? Did I read somewhere that he goes under a different pseudonym now?

He's on a tea break.

[antongould]

He's on a tea break.

.....and has already given a right of centre view above .......

[ahinton]

He's on a tea break.

If it were iced tea, would that mean that he's on an ice break?

Anyway, as a friend has ruefully observed to me about the perils various of dealing with different energy suppliers, "I have only one way to complain about mine now - look in a mirror"; he's self-sufficient for power and gone off-grid, relying entirely on solar PV, solar thermal and an air source heat pump. He therefore has no need to worry whether the various energy suppliers are private or "public" as he is no longer dependent upon any of them.

[ahinton]

Q

Sadly your experience is far from unique - one, of many, stories to illustrate how messed up the industry is with new supplies. A friend of Lady Gould's split up from her husband and he went to live on a new estate and boasted he had never received a gas or electricity bill. After more than a year I decided to take a further look having already established we did not supply the estate. I contacted a manager of the supplier of the estate and after about a week he got back to me to express his amazement that only 10% of the houses were being billed and these were the homes of honest citizens who had contacted the supplier!
So what we have is honest people subsidising others .... Scotty would, I presume, say free market rules OK ...

I don't think that this is quite fair, on at least two counts. Firstly, failure on the part of energy suppliers to issue due invoices to their consumners for power that they've supplied to them is the same when the supplier is nationalised as when it's privatised. Secondly, even some people who have contacted their supplier still don't get billed. In view of these factors, the meaning of "free" market is, for some, perhaps somewhat different to its usual one!

[antongould]

I don't think that this is quite fair, on at least two counts. Firstly, failure on the part of energy suppliers to issue due invoices to their consumners for power that they've supplied to them is the same when the supplier is nationalised as when it's privatised. Secondly, even some people who have contacted their supplier still don't get billed. In view of these factors, the meaning of "free" market is, for some, perhaps somewhat different to its usual one!

The failure may be the same but the frequency was totally different. The nationalised Electricity Board I worked for stock checked all meters issued and made sure that all were recorded as fitted and where necessary billed within predetermined time windows. Believe me no such process exists nationally or with any supplier in the mess we have now .....

[ahinton]

The failure may be the same but the frequency was totally different. The nationalised Electricity Board I worked for stock checked all meters issued and made sure that all were recorded as fitted and where necessary billed within predetermined time windows. Believe me no such process exists nationally or with any supplier in the mess we have now .....

I have no reason to disbelieve you but, at the same time, I imagine that this would not change much were Jeremy PaxClarkson-Hunt or whatever his name isn't to become leader of Post-modern Labour and somehow contrived to get his party to win the next UK General Election (that's at least three leaps of faith, methinks, especially with all those Tories and others joining the party in order to vote for him as its next leader so as to prevent that party assuming office in the foreseeable future); to begin with, can you imagine what a series of nightmares would ensue in trying to "nationalise" the entire electricity, gas and oil supply industry when, unlike the previous situation, energy customers have so many different providers and they change their providers with such frequency? - the prospect of getting everyone out of their present thousands of different contracts and onto a new series of state ones with equally complex ranges of tariffs hardly bears thinking about!

[antongould]

I have no reason to disbelieve you but, at the same time, I imagine that this would not change much were Jeremy PaxClarkson-Hunt or whatever his name isn't to become leader of Post-modern Labour and somehow contrived to get his party to win the next UK General Election (that's at least three leaps of faith, methinks, especially with all those Tories and others joining the party in order to vote for him as its next leader so as to prevent that party assuming office in the foreseeable future); to begin with, can you imagine what a series of nightmares would ensue in trying to "nationalise" the entire electricity, gas and oil supply industry when, unlike the previous situation, energy customers have so many different providers and they change their providers with such frequency? - the prospect of getting everyone out of their present thousands of different contracts and onto a new series of state ones with equally complex ranges of tariffs hardly bears thinking about!

IMVVHO it could be done relatively easily as a mechanism know as the supplier of last resort, already exists, to cover the situation where any current supplier goes bust. Based on the customer's post code there is a nominated supplier and tariff(s) - just insert the new re-nationalised Jezza Electricity/Gas Boards as appropriate .......

[ahinton]

IMVVHO it could be done relatively easily as a mechanism know as the supplier of last resort, already exists, to cover the situation where any current supplier goes bust. Based on the customer's post code there is a nominated supplier and tariff(s) - just insert the new re-nationalised Jezza Electricity/Gas Boards as appropriate .......

But what about the immesnse variety of contract terms that each customer has with his/her current supplier; the government could hardly step in and ride roughshod over them all at once and order every customer to sign up for its own new ones! That would surely invite more "see you in court" instances than the courts could hope to accommodate!

[antongould]

But what about the immesnse variety of contract terms that each customer has with his/her current supplier; the government could hardly step in and ride roughshod over them all at once and order every customer to sign up for its own new ones! That would surely invite more "see you in court" instances than the courts could hope to accommodate!

That's what will happen when one of the current suppliers "fails" so the government must be happy with the legality of it all. Of course this has happened before in the 40s when customers with a mass of suppliers moved to the 13 new regional electricity boards - with only paper and pen ......

[Frances_iom]

... the government could hardly step in and ride roughshod over them all at once and order every customer to sign up for its own new ones!

read your contract - gives the company the option to terminate giving you a certain amount of time - you hav,e like now, given any change to an existing contract the option early termination and of seeking a new contract but this time with a monopoly supplier.

My own thoughts are that most of thatchers denationalisations have resulted in poorer conditions for the customer than would be expected by the developments in the last 20 years or so, the confusing range of tariffs (like railfares) are just a way of milking the average consumer - the Electricity supply industry is operating at the smallest margin and without more investment I can see the lights going out

[antongould]

read your contract - gives the company the option to terminate giving you a certain amount of time - you hav,e like now, given any change to an existing contract the option early termination and of seeking a new contract but this time with a monopoly supplier.

My own thoughts are that most of thatchers denationalisations have resulted in poorer conditions for the customer than would be expected by the developments in the last 20 years or so, the confusing range of tariffs (like railfares) are just a way of milking the average consumer - the Electricity supply industry is operating at the smallest margin and without more investment I can see the lights going out

IMVVHO - good points well made ....

[P. G. Tipps]

read your contract - gives the company the option to terminate giving you a certain amount of time - you hav,e like now, given any change to an existing contract the option early termination and of seeking a new contract but this time with a monopoly supplier.

My own thoughts are that most of thatchers denationalisations have resulted in poorer conditions for the customer than would be expected by the developments in the last 20 years or so, the confusing range of tariffs (like railfares) are just a way of milking the average consumer - the Electricity supply industry is operating at the smallest margin and without more investment I can see the lights going out

'Contract' has completely lost it's traditional meaning ... like so many other words these days!

My new 12-month BT Contract states that the TERMS AND CONDITIONS (and prices) can be changed at any time at the company's discretion. Of course, if I decide I wish to change the terms and conditions for whatever reason that's simply not acceptable and I have to pay hefty compensation if I decide to withdraw within the agreed period. In other words, the so-called 'contract' is no more than a one-sided money-making racket which surely has more in common with the criminal underworld.than a supposedly advanced economy.

That's what happens when we allow definitions to be stretched and which then ultimately become meaningless, whether the industry is privatised or nationalised,

Welcome to modern, 'anything goes' reality, folks!

[antongould]

Surely you love this laissez faire period in our history Scotty .....

[wenotsoira]

'Contract' has completely lost it's traditional meaning ... like so many other words these days!

My new 12-month BT Contract states that the TERMS AND CONDITIONS (and prices) can be changed at any time at the company's discretion. Of course, if I decide I wish to change the terms and conditions for whatever reason that's simply not acceptable and I have to pay hefty compensation if I decide to withdraw within the agreed period. In other words, the so-called 'contract' is no more than a one-sided money-making racket which surely has more in common with the criminal underworld.than a supposedly advanced economy.

That's what happens when we allow definitions to be stretched and which then ultimately become meaningless, whether the industry is privatised or nationalised,

Welcome to modern, 'anything goes' reality, folks!

As I undersand, when a phone company or whatever ties you to a one year or 18 month contract then by law they cannot change the price, either up or down. (Well, certainly up!)

My phone/internet compnay put the price of the phone line up halfway through the contract, but they said it would not rise for me until the 1 year contract was up.

[P. G. Tipps]

I suppose anything to the right of 'Jezza' might be considered 'laissez-faire' by some these days, Anton!

I do love your first name, btw...