I read three chapters of my book. Listened a woman on a loop politely thanking me for my patience and 2 different pieces of music aimed to relax me. They failed. I am on the phone for an hour and ten minutes.
The money I have saved in switching energy companies has been eaten up by the phone bill.
I find out First Utility hang out in Stratford, only just down the road, but he refuses to tell me exactly where.
He is very polite and very good at deflecting the question. Just as well as I may have made the local rag for displaying unseemly behaviour.
It's amazing how much energy it consumes just making a phone call.
I have to have a lay down with whippet to regenerate.
My husband rang Scottish Power and was told by the man who eventually answered, that he was the only person in the office! I wonder if all these massive companies are actually being run by one operative !
Problem is were not being told exactly what is going on, I think the MP's are now shouting and stamping their feet as a distraction from what is to come, Also the government has been seriously sneaky here by loading your bills with stealth green taxes, for example the power station I worked at until recently, (it closed in March this year) had to pay a tax to dispose of its own ash in its own waste site, it was £7 a tonne but in 2011 Cameron's lot put it up to £70, they also increased NOX and SOX emission taxation around the same time, they also refused to allow the station to go back to the EU and appeal for more running hours because it was an opted out site but "Dave" said no so it closed. I'm not sure where the profits are meant to be coming from either?, the company I worked for is laying off 400 people and going to either sell or shut 10 sites over the next few years due to lack of profit. Also "Dave" loves all things green and has no concept of what makes a functional power network, the green levy is the only reason wind and solar is making a profit, soon this will be removed so I can see wind farms closing down in time. And If you think twice the buy in price is high for the new nuke thats going to be built then hold on to your hats as green feed in's are over 5 time the commercial rate on grid, but they don't tell you that.
And as for Ed Davey saying "its an essential public service so they should generate regardless", WHAT THE FECK?!!, he could not be farther from the flipping truth, its private industry and so will only run if its cost effective to does he expect them to run at a loss!!?
Sainsbury's has today just announce profits up by 9% to £433 million, food costs went up by around 4.3% this year so why aren't MP's howling about that?, As I've already said I believe the reason for all this political finger pointing is propaganda job to deflect anger away from them when the next wave of stations are set to close between 2016-2017 kind of a "It's no me gov", the way things are going there's a darn good chance we will see power cuts for quite a few winters past 2016 and bills have a long way to go up yet I'm sorry to say, as they say the maths don't lie.
As it is we have massive net immigration of 500 thousand people per year as it is, that means we will need to build a new nuke of the EDF type every 6 years on top of what we already have running just to cope with the increasing demand of those coming here to live, you also have to factor in the people in the UK are actually using more energy per head year (8-10%) every decade so its obvious things will get a tad tight, I seriously suggest you get a gas stove and some torches and candles set aside as 2016 looms as the older coal stations come off line in 2016 and some of the older nukes will come off line in 2017 there will be other closures going on until 2020, Personally I already have camping kit and I have a wood burring stove and around 3 winters worth of wood ready to go, call me paranoid but I did 10 years driving a steam turbine from 2001 till 2011 and from day one it was common knowledge within the industry that things would get iffy if the government did nothing, Cameron has actually been doing damage to the system, he's a chinless fool with no common sense or grasp of reality, so don't blame the industry so much as blame him and his ilk, after all it was Mrs T who flogged it all off in the first place and this is the politically inspired privatised industry pigeons coming home to roost.
But that said there are other politically inspired issues that are going to cause more problems over the next decade or so but if I added those this post would be a darn site longer so I won't mention them at the moment.
A passionate posting about a very serious matter which should trouble us all. You seem to be in a strong position to make a judgement. I'm sure many of us agree with your sentiments about our out of touch/were never in touch masters.
Although the immigration figures you quote are far in excess of any I have seen, with approx 340,000 leaving the country and under 200,000 coming in. Of course I know nothing of illegal numbers.
We could try some of these to save a bit of money -
Think the point has slightly been lost. The stress of having to make an official call that is mad awkward and is upsetting drains every peice of what little energy we have to spare. It leaves us empty exhausted but too upset to rest. Pain is heightened and we feel very unfairly treated.
I am with nedd here and the way I try and deal with it is write everything I want to say and my objective down before the call and then try and stick on track, if I get nowhere then I politely say I will ring them back later.
“Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I am going to keep myself occupied by sussing out energy saving tips. And knit some warm woollies.
I agree about the stress of having to sit on phone calls like that. I do have a good experience to share that was much easier though - thanks to a wonderful lot of meerkats, a bit of anger (on my part) about a 50% increase in my insurance renewal led to checking online, and I not only saved £520 on my annual house and contents insurance, but got a free meerkat toy as well.
Can't deal with power companies or the B*****Terrible phone company though.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
This is my edited post
Orthopaedic surgeon Appointment
Can't get in at my GP, got really odd back pain. Anyone recognise these symptoms?
Pregabalin - from 50 mg to 300 mg on my own.
Struggling with looking happy
