Grumble Thread

[Petrushka]

So how are you billed by your provider, Pet? I pay by DD but as I am supplying monthly readings I see no reason why they should not take an amount out based on that - I’ve not asked them the question but may do so as I am happy to pay as I go.

My provider is EON Next and they bill me monthly online every 10th of the month. I access my bill online as soon as it appears and I settle it immediately online by using my debit card. I check to see that the meter readings on the bill correspond with the meter and smart meter before settling and the whole process is over in a few minutes. I suppose it amounts to pay as you go but I find it far more efficient and it cuts out the very real possibility of mistakes going undetected for months.

[cloughie]

My provider is EON Next and they bill me monthly online every 10th of the month. I access my bill online as soon as it appears and I settle it immediately online by using my debit card. I check to see that the meter readings on the bill correspond with the meter and smart meter before settling and the whole process is over in a few minutes. I suppose it amounts to pay as you go but I find it far more efficient and it cuts out the very real possibility of mistakes going undetected for months.

Thanks that’s useful to know.

[Petrushka]

Thanks that’s useful to know.

Whilst on the same subject, I really do think that quarterly bills should be outlawed. No-one gets their salary, pension or benefits paid quarterly and it must make it very difficult for people to budget properly as it's all too easy for the unwary to push it to the back of the mind for three months before it lands with a huge sum to cough up in one go.

Another deceitful little trick that EON Next play is to put a minus sign in front of the amount owing on the bill and in small letters below it 'your account is in debit'. This causes confusion because the first rule of bookkeeping, which everyone remembers from schooldays, is that a minus sign indicates a credit. I personally know people who have fallen into this trap and gone away thinking they owe nothing. The next thing they get is a red letter and a demand to pay up leading to further debt problems.

[Serial_Apologist]

Two things which have increasingly been bothering me since Chris Mason took over from Dimbleby as host of Any Questions? and Anita Anand as Any Answers? host, reached new lows on today's programmes, and I only wish Jayne could return to these shores and either re-justify her defence of both presenters or admit there to be something glaringly wrong and biassed in both of their approaches.

Today was all too typical, and I wish to cite as examples an early intervention into the debate on the question in question, which asked if the results of Thursday's local elections signalled the end for the Conservative government. I have previously raised here the manner in which Mason fires questions at panel members which can only be described as helpful to their opponents, even when the latter are present - often rhetorical ones - when this is surely the job for the latter: if they cannot come up with an opposing viewpoint or riposte it should not be for a presenter to cover for them. Usually the victims of such selectivity are anyone who questions mainstream orthodoxies; today it just happened to be the Tory on the panel who used the term "mixed" to describe the overall results across the political spectrum: "How would all those councillors who have lost their seats feel about your use of the term 'mixed'?" Mason asked him, his usual totally point missing forthright bluntness epitomising the absence of that courtesy once prided in the BBC. But today he went a step further, deciding on issues to be debated, whether raised or not by a questioner. We would be covering all political areas and matters relating to the elections, we were told, regardless of the questioner. Previous hosts had always held to a basic principle that the pubic in attendance determined the subjects for discussion, only known in advance to the Chairperson - fair enough; indeed panel members were often checked or upbraided for departing or diverting attention from the issue at hand, or filibustering. Not so today - the host now takes precedence: it is he (in this instance) who decides the agenda for debate. To me, this only augments the growing impression - for which there is surely by now enough evidence - of a placement caste of overpaid, self-entitled political stooges.

One consequence of turning Any Questions? from being a programme that went a small way to gauging opinions in specifically chosen locations into a general presenter-dictated political all-in has been its effect on its sister Any Answers?and its compliant presenter, Anita Anand, who has an unfortunate habit of over-egging the views of callers who clearly have not thought through either their own opinions, if they had any in the first place, or are determined to hog the airwaves with diversions and repetitions. Today's first two callers were a woman from Wales whose general defeatism was indulged to a point of ludicrousness, and who, having said her solution to the present political impasse was for there to be a general election as soon as possible, ended up admitting that she would not be voting for anyone, and an Ulster unionist whose complaint that Sinn Fein's win left decision-making in the hands of troublemakers and woke people was left unquestioned. These two occupied the largest proportion of the 45 minute programme; the third caller, who, asked if she thought Starmer the right person to lead Labour in the next general election, replied that she wanted a Labour Party of the kind Jeremy Corbyn had headed, was quickly shut up - as happened subsequently with another caller who presented similar views.

If anybody disagrees with what I am saying, I would strongly urge them to give these two programmes a listen as they are typical; if they have any consideration for balanced broadcasting and concerns about what is becoming of political debate by way of the BBC of today, they will, I am certain, reach at least some of the same conclusions as me.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I can agree with your points. Previous presenters took panelists to task for inconsistency / disingenuity / inaccuaracy in what they had said, and to answer in reference to the question. However, yes, Mason wants his questions answered.

I've given up listening to Any Answers. The level of input from callers is either depressing - banal, unintelligent (accepting of the Daily Hate line etc) or parroting the admiration of the incumbent party in their doings. On those occasions where a trenchant and critical opinion is made of companies, individuals, institutions, Anand shuts them up in short order**. She also employed the technique of setting up conversations between callers of divergent views - taking up disproportionate time - but then perhaps they are short of callers as it has become a futile programme.

** I wonder if the producer is bellowing instructions to Anand to shut up outspoken callers - not least because those richly deserving of criticism have PR agents and lawyers who are no doubt well known to the BBC for lodging complaints, with threats, and perhaps getting assurance there will be no repetition of what they see as "unfounded allegations".

All in all, it has joined other Radio Four programmes that make it worthwhile setting up a list of programmes to play on BBC Sounds.

[Serial_Apologist]

I can agree with your points. Previous presenters took panelists to task for inconsistency / disingenuity / inaccuaracy in what they had said, and to answer in reference to the question. However, yes, Mason wants his questions answered.

I've given up listening to Any Answers. The level of input from callers is either depressing - banal, unintelligent (accepting of the Daily Hate line etc) or parroting the admiration of the incumbent party in their doings. On those occasions where a trenchant and critical opinion is made of companies, individuals, institutions, Anand shuts them up in short order**. She also employed the technique of setting up conversations between callers of divergent views - taking up disproportionate time - but then perhaps they are short of callers as it has become a futile programme.

** I wonder if the producer is bellowing instructions to Anand to shut up outspoken callers - not least because those richly deserving of criticism have PR agents and lawyers who are no doubt well known to the BBC for lodging complaints, with threats, and perhaps getting assurance there will be no repetition of what they see as "unfounded allegations".

All in all, it has joined other Radio Four programmes that make it worthwhile setting up a list of programmes to play on BBC Sounds.

Thanks CS - most grateful and appreciative of your corroborations.

[Pulcinella]

Are all streaming services as bad as Deezer in identifying tracks?
I've just taken a look at the Decca Centenary Rite of Spring set, which comes in at 500 tracks, but with no orchestra/conductor information.
Most versions have several tracks; some are just two (Part 1 and Part 2).
Ideal for innocent ear listening, but you'd be very hard pressed to identify any particular version you liked.
If the order is the same as the CDs in the set, which is probable, this might be possible through a listing such as Presto might give, I suppose.

PS: Just spotted that a bit more information is given in a different view (Queue), so it's now perhaps a niggle not a grumble.

[oddoneout]

I've done a meter reading so that when the bill appears that includes the price increase it will be calculated from the correct figure rather than a guesstimate which is how mid-term increases are routinely calculated - whether energy, water or whatever. I've also taken a photo of the meter plus reading as belt and braces. I haven't looked at how best to send the figures; I think it might confuse their system if I just send it part way through the quarter using the link they normally send via email asking for my meter reading, so perhaps just a notification by the general email route. The main thing is that I have the figures now.

An update rather than a grumble. Pleased to report that sending the meter readings seems to have worked; the statement received yesterday for the quarterly DD has the amounts for new prices from 1st April split using the figures I submitted, so I'm paying for what I've used rather than lending the company money.

[Serial_Apologist]

An update rather than a grumble. Pleased to report that sending the meter readings seems to have worked; the statement received yesterday for the quarterly DD has the amounts for new prices from 1st April split using the figures I submitted, so I'm paying for what I've used rather than lending the company money.

I am most envious! The last time I was emailed asking me to submit my latest figures for gas and electric, (which was this time last year), immediately after registering the readings a message came up asking if I was quite sure as the amounts I had used appeared less than would have been expected. Which was true as I made a point of switching off for long periods last summer and just relying on a kettle or any residual warmth in my HW boiler. I submitted "yes", waited, and was then presented with an identical demand for the next quarter! All this seems like a pleasant dream now, following the latest hikes, which of course we've all been getting.

[oddoneout]

I am most envious! The last time I was emailed asking me to submit my latest figures for gas and electric, (which was this time last year), immediately after registering the readings a message came up asking if I was quite sure as the amounts I had used appeared less than would have been expected. Which was true as I made a point of switching off for long periods last summer and just relying on a kettle or any residual warmth in my HW boiler. I submitted "yes", waited, and was then presented with an identical demand for the next quarter! All this seems like a pleasant dream now, following the latest hikes, which of course we've all been getting.

I admit I am surprised that a) the readings were accepted midterm so to speak (ie not in response to a "time to send your readings" email) and b) they got used. Makes a nice change to have something work! The amounts weren't too bad either, with the mild winter having kept the gas consumption approx 20% down (and not a great deal of supplementation with the woodstove either, the cost of which also has to be remembered), and the leccy down, although I don't know the reason for that.

[cloughie]

A comment rather than a grumble. Had an order delivered from Amazon today - a couple of fairly mundane items - received an email where I h@d the option of replying great or not so great

Well yes I was happy it had been delivered but would not feel it required to be described as great. Had it been unsatisfactory then they would have heard from me!

[Petrushka]

A comment rather than a grumble. Had an order delivered from Amazon today - a couple of fairly mundane items - received an email where I h@d the option of replying great or not so great

Well yes I was happy it had been delivered but would not feel it required to be described as great. Had it been unsatisfactory then they would have heard from me!

I never bother with that! I also never bother wasting time on surveys from shops or wherever asking if I was satisfied/not satisfied. I'm sure they will have forgotten about me as soon as they'd taken payment!

[teamsaint]

Inflation very obvious in the shops now.
And supply chains very creaky.
And my Marantz has ceased to be.

[cloughie]

Inflation very obvious in the shops now.
And supply chains very creaky.
And my Marantz has ceased to be.

CD Player? I that part of your main hifi system?

[Joseph K]

Disappointed to be travelling back to Brum right now, owing to the piano recital I was going to being cancelled because of Ian Pace's back problem. Also won't be able to make the rescheduled date because of the train strikes.