ENERGY MATTERS

[Whyperion]

Thanks, I know the price cap comes in April 1st, but did not know when energy companies had to declare what the unit rates etc from April would be.

[plaques]

Remember that the price cap only covers domestic customers. Businesses are taking the hit immediately driving prices up. Including BEER.

[Stanley]

The energy price disaster is going to have a serious effect on inflation. It's starting now and some are forecasting an official rate of 8%. If you look at essentials (the things the poorest people have to buy) it's over 10% already. Did you see what the boss of Tesco said earlier this week about the inevitability of food prices rising?

[Whyperion]

Remember that the price cap only covers domestic customers. Businesses are taking the hit immediately driving prices up. Including BEER.

And the co-op Laundromat, £1 for 7 mins drying now.

Sainsburys Ginger Ale up to 70p from 60p so thats more than 8%, (Asda/Morrisons prob cheaper but its not as nice - prob all comes off the same plant line though!)

Got . I think, the two price cap tariffs in from Apr 1st. Livable with IF its not too cold from April onwards

[Stanley]

I was educated yesterday by my new gas fitter Jonathan who turned up to service my boiler. The BG contract is gone forever. He vanished into the bathroom and spent over an hour and a half with the boiler. I told him that nobody in the last 17 years had spent that long with it on a service. This is where the education comes in. I had never enquired too deeply into what the BG fitters did, just left them to get on with it. Jonathan told me that the problem was that even though BG describes what they do as a 'service', it's not, it's only a safety check. A proper service involves a lot more and includes cleaning the heating elements of the boiler. He said that after 17 years of undisturbed working my passages were clogged and he had cleaned them all out. There was more but I won't bore you. He passed the boiler A1 and we will go on from there.
So, for 25 years I have paid BG for services that never happened. To my mind that's fraud.
There was another matter. I told him about my 2nd generation smart meter problems and he told me he is hearing this all the time. This week alone I was the second customer to tell him that my latest generation smart meter was reporting electricity usage but not gas. He reckons it is a problem with the web connection.
So smart arse Stanley has been defending a fraud for 25 years. I apologise for being so thick. It will not happen again!
(BTW. He agreed with me about BG's problems in that they have treated their fitters terribly and they have left in droves. he said he has more work than he can poke a stick at.)

[plaques]

Was that Jonathon who used to work with Wilkins.? If it is he's a good man.

[Tizer]

That's why we've avoided BG fitters since the 1980s. It doesn't deserve to use the name `British'.

[Stanley]

I don't know Ken, Jonathan Greenbank and you are right, he's a good lad. I can tell a bum fitter when I see one.
Mind you, having said that BG pulled the wool over my eyes for 25 years! In my defence, there was a time when they gave good service, but not now.
What really interested me was him saying he has come across others with my meter problem. The second generation system reports electricity but not gas. Could someone be hiding something?

[Tizer]

It wasn't just the fitters at BG that were bad. We had a BG man come round when we wanted to put a boiler on the kitchen wall. He took details to give us a quote and advised us where it should go. Then we had a local independent fitter come to do the same. He suggested a different position and we asked why not were the BG man wanted to fix it. He said have a look outside and you'll see that your waste pipe from the upstairs toilet passes exactly the other side of the wall. He got the job!

[Big Kev]

I don't know Ken, Jonathan Greenbank and you are right, he's a good lad. I can tell a bum fitter when I see one.
Mind you, having said that BG pulled the wool over my eyes for 25 years! In my defence, there was a time when they gave good service, but not now.
What really interested me was him saying he has come across others with my meter problem. The second generation system reports electricity but not gas. Could someone be hiding something?

It's the LAN connection between the gas meter and the comms hub (which is in the same unit as the elec meter).
Is your gas meter located outside and your elec meter inside?

[Stanley]

Yes Kev, gas in back yard, leccy in front room.
Still wondering how BG can get away with describing a safety check as a service.....

[Big Kev]

Yes Kev, gas in back yard, leccy in front room.
Still wondering how BG can get away with describing a safety check as a service.....

BG need to re run the install and commission process on the gas meter. Calling a safety check a service is a disgrace. I have an engineer who services my relatively new boiler, takes at least an hour and he did the same for the 25 year old boiler at Park Street. Last year's bill from him was £50.

[Stanley]

They have ignored my request to commission the gas meter Kev.
Jonathan spent a good hour and a half on the boiler. He reckoned it was the first full service in its 17 year life.

[Tizer]

I have an engineer who services my relatively new boiler, takes at least an hour....Last year's bill from him was £50.

Same here Kev but about £70 is normal - the price of living in the South!

[Stanley]

Once again, you live and learn... The lesson today is don't be so trusting of big corporations, they are not worthy!

[Stanley]

We are very close now to the effects of the fantasy energy prices we have heard over the last few days. Has anyone really got a viable plan to deal with the inevitable price rises? Road fuel has already gone through the roof.
Economists are already predicting that the inflation rates predicted a fortnight ago are now hopeless under estimates. We could easily see double digit increases..... Tin hats on Lads!

[plaques]

Viable plan depends on whether you can afford to pay it. Even the Resolute Foundation is predicting 10% inflation so you can add another 2 points to that. All this at the bottom end expenditure, food, heating fuel, transport. Council tax. National insurance designed to hit the bottom end earners and push them back to the 1970s. The best the government is offering is that they haven't put up fuel duty, their logic appears to be "look at the savings you get from not have to spend more than we could make you pay". There' s some sick minds in this government.
I'm perhaps fortunate in being able to absorb the extra cost of gas & electric many aren't in that position the choice may be Eating or Heating. The UK is walking into the highest cost of living crisis that we have seen for half a century and all that our Tory government is doing is adopting the usual tactic of blaming others for their lack of forward planning.

[Stanley]

I have to agree with you Ken. As for driving the lowest earners back into the 1970s.... I have said for years what they want is a return to the 1870s! Nothing I have seen alters my belief that this has been the Tory project since 2010 when Cameron and Osborne gave us the Tory cure for 2008, austerity for the masses and freedom for the elite.
Show me evidence that this isn't what we are seeing.....

[Tizer]

From the MoneySavingExpert.com newsletter today...
`British Gas is the worst firm to be moved to if your energy firm goes bust, MSE survey of 12,000 people shows' LINK

[Big Kev]

It's busy at work at the moment, upgrading lots of kit to cope with the price change on April 1st. There's a lot of data going to be moving about to millions of smart meters, I might book a holiday

[Big Kev]

A tip from Martin Lewis, if you have a 'manual' meter take a reading on March 31st. You can then use that reading to check your supplier has the correct usage amount and isn't charging you the increased tariff prior to April 1st.

[Tizer]

Thanks for that advice Kev, I've put a note in my diary for the 31st.

[Tizer]

...but it looks like I don't need it - Mrs Tiz reminds me we're on a fixed price contract for the rest of this year.

[Big Kev]

[Wendyf]

We have ended up with eon as our energy supplier and they are keen to supply us with a smart meter. They have failed to turn up for 2 appointments in the last couple of weeks and we get credited £30 for each no show. Long may it go on!