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In the betting punters make it a 59% chance that Starmer will be out before the end of next year – p

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  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,457

    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    ping said:

    4.2% inflation

    And the fed are going to ignore it???!

    The age of inflation returns.

    Wonderful.
    Wouldn’t sit very well with the age of pay freezes?

    Corbyn mania was basically May the public face of your pay freeze, Corbyn says no to pay freeze. And that the age of no inflation.
    If inflation comes back and stays at over 4% and there is pay restraint in the client state, regardless who the LOTO is the Tories chances of winning the next election will be less than zero.
    I could see inflation being a black swan that knocks the Tories out of office in 2024 if it gets out of control.

    I think it's something that overrides concerns on cultural/social and values matters, at least temporarily, as a sort of political Maslow hierarchy of needs.

    However, it would need the Opposition to look and feel more credible first, but it is possible.
    Thatcher was heading for defeat until the Winter Of Discontent.
    Cameron was heading for being steamrollered by Brown. The IHT pledge bought him time, but the Credit Crunch got him into office.

    A mediocre government beats a mediocre opposition, but if a government utterly fails then the mediocrity of the opposition matters a lot less. And the economy can't really cope with more than a small dollop of inflation, because it's so dependent on negligible nominal interest rates.
    It's a warning.

    Just a warning.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Interesting explanation of CCJs as applied to PMs - new to me anyway (happily)

    https://twitter.com/davidallengreen/status/1392491856936775685

    "A default judgment/CCJ is rarely about being skint - as there are ways of heading off a CCJ even if skint, as long as you deal with the claim promptly. So unless this a prank or invalid service, a default CCJ here speaks to disorganisation at Johnson's end"
    And Mr A G adds

    "If a cockup, then it would mean 10 Downing Street/Johnson's office/Johnson missed following correspondence:

    - letter before claim/final demand
    - Claim Form from Court
    - copy of CCJ itself

    If the latter two slipped through, then serious questions about how post dealt with"
    I am fully see Boris getting the letters, putting them to one side to deal with after.....and then forgetting.

    Obviously he is massively disorganized at the best of times, but watching the vaccine documentary you got a glimpse into the hours been kept by government ministers e.g. Important meetings regarding vaccine funding starting (by design) at 8pm on a Friday night, because that is the only time they could fit it in.
    I quite liked this theory;
    https://twitter.com/rbrwr/status/1392488158667984897?s=19

    "Thank you for your letter to the Prime Minister about your COUNTY COURT JUDGMENT. Regrettably he is unable to answer every letter personally, but he is deeply concerned about COUNTY COURT JUDGMENT. Yours faithfully, Correspondence Secretary, No. 10"
    Er..... er...... shouldn't said Correspondence Sec have seen at least some of the preceding letters?
    As pointed out elsewhere, the envelopes do make it clear that there's a Very Important Document inside.
    So do letters from PC World/Curry's trying to sell you a warranty.

    So do charity letters seeking to raise money.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    edited May 2021
    UK cases by specimen date

    A couple of interesting upticks in cases.

    image
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207

    Floater said:

    @Floater

    Best thing to do is to get the official complaint at E.on 'deadlocked' then go to the ombudsman at OFGEM.

    Depending on the situation, I might go for the nuclear option and make a complaint to the police about someone stealing your gas.

    Once you have a police crime reference number then that really does put the ball in E.on's court, but so does deadlocking the complaint and taking it to OFGEM.

    Cheers
    Also, check your son's credit file every month, utility providers have a tendency to report late payments to the credit reference agencies, which screws up credit scores and can lead to CCJs.

    Also make sure they don't try a but a CIFAS marker against's your son's name.
    I think I mentioned they threatened that( if he didn't make a payment notwithstanding the ongoing issue) - hence some of the stress - would hate for him to be in same basket as Boris :wink:
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,431
    Carnyx said:

    Floater said:

    @Floater

    Best thing to do is to get the official complaint at E.on 'deadlocked' then go to the ombudsman at OFGEM.

    Depending on the situation, I might go for the nuclear option and make a complaint to the police about someone stealing your gas.

    Once you have a police crime reference number then that really does put the ball in E.on's court, but so does deadlocking the complaint and taking it to OFGEM.

    Cheers
    Are you by any chance a Which? member? even with the legal support option? (Or even your son?). Bit of potential bad publicity for Eon there.
    Does his household insurance include legal advice? Professional association? Trade Union?
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,457
    MaxPB said:

    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    ping said:

    4.2% inflation

    And the fed are going to ignore it???!

    The age of inflation returns.

    Wonderful.
    Wouldn’t sit very well with the age of pay freezes?

    Corbyn mania was basically May the public face of your pay freeze, Corbyn says no to pay freeze. And that the age of no inflation.
    If inflation comes back and stays at over 4% and there is pay restraint in the client state, regardless who the LOTO is the Tories chances of winning the next election will be less than zero.
    I could see inflation being a black swan that knocks the Tories out of office in 2024 if it gets out of control.

    I think it's something that overrides concerns on cultural/social and values matters, at least temporarily, as a sort of political Maslow hierarchy of needs.

    However, it would need the Opposition to look and feel more credible first, but it is possible.
    Nah, inflation will be the dog that didn't bark, at least here, sterling will cover up a lot of the issues globally as it has been artificially depressed for a few years and going to back to $1.50 will eat up a lot of the import price inflation.
    I hope you're right, but none of us know how exactly this will play out and that's why I'm sticking to my T-18 months rule of betting on GEs.

    Of course, that doesn't cover a snap election - but we'll be able to smell that on here if it's coming, because that's what we do.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,558
    I see today's topic of discussion on PB is architecture.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    UK case summary

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  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468
    I know that there was some discussion of the greying of China a few days ago. Has this report on the results of the China census been discussed. It seems to be happening faster than people thought - working age population down by 35m (~3.5%) in just 5 years:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-confronts-a-smaller-grayer-china-dream-11620785268
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,635
    edited May 2021

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Interesting explanation of CCJs as applied to PMs - new to me anyway (happily)

    https://twitter.com/davidallengreen/status/1392491856936775685

    "A default judgment/CCJ is rarely about being skint - as there are ways of heading off a CCJ even if skint, as long as you deal with the claim promptly. So unless this a prank or invalid service, a default CCJ here speaks to disorganisation at Johnson's end"
    And Mr A G adds

    "If a cockup, then it would mean 10 Downing Street/Johnson's office/Johnson missed following correspondence:

    - letter before claim/final demand
    - Claim Form from Court
    - copy of CCJ itself

    If the latter two slipped through, then serious questions about how post dealt with"
    I am fully see Boris getting the letters, putting them to one side to deal with after.....and then forgetting.

    Obviously he is massively disorganized at the best of times, but watching the vaccine documentary you got a glimpse into the hours been kept by government ministers e.g. Important meetings regarding vaccine funding starting (by design) at 8pm on a Friday night, because that is the only time they could fit it in.
    I quite liked this theory;
    https://twitter.com/rbrwr/status/1392488158667984897?s=19

    "Thank you for your letter to the Prime Minister about your COUNTY COURT JUDGMENT. Regrettably he is unable to answer every letter personally, but he is deeply concerned about COUNTY COURT JUDGMENT. Yours faithfully, Correspondence Secretary, No. 10"
    Er..... er...... shouldn't said Correspondence Sec have seen at least some of the preceding letters?
    As pointed out elsewhere, the envelopes do make it clear that there's a Very Important Document inside.
    So do letters from PC World/Curry's trying to sell you a warranty.

    So do charity letters seeking to raise money.
    A CCJ claim form have a court label on them, on the outside and repeatedly on the inside.

    You really cannot miss them.

    They have court stamps on them as well.

    Remember the claimant submits the appropriate forms and it is the court that sends out the claim form, usually from the Northampton court.

    Only a blind person or someone really stupid would fail to see this a serious official court document.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    UK hospitals

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  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    edited May 2021
    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Your MP?
    Yep -- might try my councillor too but might not really be in his area of things he can help with
    Back when he was a congressional aide in the 1930s, Lyndon Johnson made it an iron-clad policy to go to bat for ANY constituent ANYTIME they had a problem with ANYTHING or ANYONE.

    EDIT- And certainly LBJ was NOT acting out of pure altruism!

    So if your MP did nothing, she or he IS a nothing IMHO.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    Deaths

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    UK R

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  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,534
    kinabalu said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    kingbongo said:

    MaxPB said:

    kingbongo said:

    MaxPB said:

    The commission economic predictions for the UK definitely have a touch of jilted ex syndrome. The city consensus is noticeably higher and factors in little to no brexit related reduction in GDP. I think it would be fairly embarrassing for them to come in at ~7.5% where the city consensus is for the UK, though. Additionally it looks like their projections are done on a nominal GDP calculation basis but the GDP itself is the output model as preferred by the ONS. Most of the city has caught up with this and it's why there is expected to be a big bounceback as schools return to normal and health output picks up as the NHS works through a huge backlog.

    It's interesting reading the economics editor of Berlingske today explaining how the UK economy fared worst of all economies last year "Unlike Denmark" - the whole piece is tinged with a "bastard british have left us at the mercy of the Germans" vibe - apparently there may be some short term bounce back over the summer but by Autumn the warning klaxons will be going off and the full error of Brexit will become visible - I don't know if that will happen but reading the piece it's clear he really wants it too because the UK 'abandoned' Denmark.
    Another bit of jilted ex syndrome. Goldman Sachs have got UK growth this year penciled in at 7.8% which recovers all of our GDP by the end of 2021 based on the measure they use.

    Also, there is a solution to being left at the mercy of Germany. 🤷‍♂️
    I can't tell you the grief I get over the UK leaving the EU, mostly because I don't participate in gleefully hoping it all goes horribly wrong and saying Boris Johnson is an idiot and the electorate were tricked - Danes are mostly now looking on and suffering major jilted ex syndrome. They HATE the idea Brexit might not be that big a deal economically to the UK.
    Too much guardian reading and CNN watching I think. If there is a brexit effect, even in the short term, it is mostly going to be carried by the food/fishing industry because of EU border pedantry. Most of everything else will just get on with life. Speaking from my position in financial services, the death of the City that everyone in the EU keeps hyping up doesn't seem likely, hiring is stronger than I've ever seen it and we're winning clients from outside the EU much faster than we were when we were in it and for us it's made up for the difficulty in servicing EU based clients and more. I think 2021 will be a record year for us in terms of asset gains and 2022 will be a record for profitability.
    Thanks for the "I'm alright Jack" anecdote. There are plenty of very real businesses that have suffered so that those that jerk off about "sovrinty init" can have their moment of ecstasy.

    The reality is that Brexit is and was a massive upheaval. Whether it was economically worth it I am happy to concede will now need to be decided by impartial historical economists probably long after I have ceased to care, and though I am not dead, I am already not far off not caring now.

    As far as I was concerned, the worst thing about Brexit was that it was so massively divisive. Some people and some politicians get off on that, just like the SNP in Scotland. It might be helpful if people who were in favour of Brexit owned a bit of humility instead of constantly trying to justify Brexit when there is no need to do so. We are not going back in. You don't need to keep picking at the wound.
    That's not really what I was going for and I do accept that there will be some tough times for specific industries, mostly in food and fishing.

    I think what you fail to see is that EU membership was also massively divisive, as someone who benefits from it's not easy to understand why it would be but communities across the whole country have been destroyed by wage deflation and stagnation in lower-middle income jobs and the resulting increase in population has also resulted in a crash in owner occupation of houses.

    As much as I'm a realist about what brexit is and isn't (and there are many items in each column) I think you should be realistic about what EU membership had turned into for large swathes of the country. That resentment and divisiveness was already there with or without a referendum. In 2015 4m people voted for UKIP, by a quirk of our voting system they didn't get any seats. In the road not taken where Dave refused a referendum how many cycles do you think it would have taken for PM Nige to become a reality? Pretending that EU membership was all sunlit uplands isn't realistic.
    I am trying not to be drawn into EU arguments as I think we need to move on, but I think your argument about "EU membership" has some validity EXCEPT that a lot of the associated problems with free movement were as a result of British government immigration policies, and the reality that 50% of UK immigration had nothing to do with the EU and yet successive Home Secretaries (including Mrs May) did nothing about it and tacitly encouraged it. The EU was blamed for immigration because it was convenient. It is all history now though!
    Did nothing? May was far, far too authoritarian with immigration from the rest of the world! Unless you want zero migration, to say that 'nothing was being done' is just untrue - one irony is that many voted to Leave the EU to make it easier for the rest of the world to get a visa to come to the UK not harder.

    I'm glad the authoritarian May Home Secretary has gone as well as her ludicrous and xenophobic "hundreds of thousands" pledge. I'm glad that we have liberalised getting a visa for many skilled migrants from the rest of the world post-Brexit.
    Not according to wiki. Breakdown as follows -

    Voting Leave to get lower net migration: 17,410,741
    Voting Leave to get higher net migration: Richard Tyndall
    Wrong. Vote Leave and immigration doesn't matter.

    My aim is not for higher or lower migration, it is migration to cease to be an issue. Now I know that is fanciful but the point is that it had zero impact on my view of the EU. Nor am I alone in this. Indeed PT's views are very close to mine - if perhaps not quite so extreme in this respect.

    I realise that kind of spoils your little meme but that is your problem not mine.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,526
    edited May 2021
    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,635
    edited May 2021
    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    @Floater

    Best thing to do is to get the official complaint at E.on 'deadlocked' then go to the ombudsman at OFGEM.

    Depending on the situation, I might go for the nuclear option and make a complaint to the police about someone stealing your gas.

    Once you have a police crime reference number then that really does put the ball in E.on's court, but so does deadlocking the complaint and taking it to OFGEM.

    Cheers
    Also, check your son's credit file every month, utility providers have a tendency to report late payments to the credit reference agencies, which screws up credit scores and can lead to CCJs.

    Also make sure they don't try a but a CIFAS marker against's your son's name.
    I think I mentioned they threatened that( if he didn't make a payment notwithstanding the ongoing issue) - hence some of the stress - would hate for him to be in same basket as Boris :wink:
    Yup, but a CIFAS marker is much much worse than a CCJ, it means all your bank accounts and credit accounts get closed within 60 days and stay closed for the next six years.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    Age related

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  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468

    UK case summary

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    I saw that the 7 day new case load was actually up on the previous 7 days. Do you think we have hit the floor of new cases - at least until all the reopening process has been completed?
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,329

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Have you tried switching everything off and checking the meter every hour from morning till night and then try putting on individual items and log every hour etc. Meter must be spinning pretty fast to get that high.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    Age related, scaled to 100K population

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  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,829

    MaxPB said:

    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    ping said:

    4.2% inflation

    And the fed are going to ignore it???!

    The age of inflation returns.

    Wonderful.
    Wouldn’t sit very well with the age of pay freezes?

    Corbyn mania was basically May the public face of your pay freeze, Corbyn says no to pay freeze. And that the age of no inflation.
    If inflation comes back and stays at over 4% and there is pay restraint in the client state, regardless who the LOTO is the Tories chances of winning the next election will be less than zero.
    I could see inflation being a black swan that knocks the Tories out of office in 2024 if it gets out of control.

    I think it's something that overrides concerns on cultural/social and values matters, at least temporarily, as a sort of political Maslow hierarchy of needs.

    However, it would need the Opposition to look and feel more credible first, but it is possible.
    Nah, inflation will be the dog that didn't bark, at least here, sterling will cover up a lot of the issues globally as it has been artificially depressed for a few years and going to back to $1.50 will eat up a lot of the import price inflation.
    I hope you're right, but none of us know how exactly this will play out and that's why I'm sticking to my T-18 months rule of betting on GEs.

    Of course, that doesn't cover a snap election - but we'll be able to smell that on here if it's coming, because that's what we do.
    I'd also add that the BoE has fired the starter pistol for monetary tightening with a target interest rate of 0.6% set for the middle of next year and winding down QE faster than expected. We have a fair amount of headroom to for monetary tightening before it starts to show up on mortgage bills. Under 1% is still a very low rate of interest but moving up from 0.1% will yield a reasonable reduction in inflation.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    Vaccinations

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    CFR

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  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,339
    edited May 2021
    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,957
    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.



    Be patient and divorce the complaints process from your experiences. Know that as you speak to each and every unhelpful employee that will add substance to the complaint.

    If you can, continue to try to find out the process of complaints for E.On.

    There seems to be info here, which I'm sure you've seen.

    https://www.eonenergy.com/contact/complaints.html

    I see they don't have an email complaints address. So write to them at the address given. A hassle of course but you need to put in an audit trail.

    Inform them at each turn that you are not satisfied with their response and that you would like to escalate further. Keep doing this until either they resolve the issue or you go to the Ombudsman.

    I would definitely end up at the Ombudsman but I would put that paper trail in beforehand.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    @Floater

    Best thing to do is to get the official complaint at E.on 'deadlocked' then go to the ombudsman at OFGEM.

    Depending on the situation, I might go for the nuclear option and make a complaint to the police about someone stealing your gas.

    Once you have a police crime reference number then that really does put the ball in E.on's court, but so does deadlocking the complaint and taking it to OFGEM.

    Cheers
    Also, check your son's credit file every month, utility providers have a tendency to report late payments to the credit reference agencies, which screws up credit scores and can lead to CCJs.

    Also make sure they don't try a but a CIFAS marker against's your son's name.
    I think I mentioned they threatened that( if he didn't make a payment notwithstanding the ongoing issue) - hence some of the stress - would hate for him to be in same basket as Boris :wink:
    Yup, but a CIFAS marker is much much worse than a CCJ, it means all your bank accounts and credit accounts get closed within 60 days.
    Ah - his bank account has been closed - but he said they said that as through money laundering fears (he sold some dogecoin and missed an e mail asking about a couple of transactions (he thought it was a scam so did not reply)

    He said they transferring his funds to my account - So I guess I need to speak to them too

    Trouble is he has been in a manic episode and he just cannot take detail in when he is like that
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,431

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Interesting explanation of CCJs as applied to PMs - new to me anyway (happily)

    https://twitter.com/davidallengreen/status/1392491856936775685

    "A default judgment/CCJ is rarely about being skint - as there are ways of heading off a CCJ even if skint, as long as you deal with the claim promptly. So unless this a prank or invalid service, a default CCJ here speaks to disorganisation at Johnson's end"
    And Mr A G adds

    "If a cockup, then it would mean 10 Downing Street/Johnson's office/Johnson missed following correspondence:

    - letter before claim/final demand
    - Claim Form from Court
    - copy of CCJ itself

    If the latter two slipped through, then serious questions about how post dealt with"
    I am fully see Boris getting the letters, putting them to one side to deal with after.....and then forgetting.

    Obviously he is massively disorganized at the best of times, but watching the vaccine documentary you got a glimpse into the hours been kept by government ministers e.g. Important meetings regarding vaccine funding starting (by design) at 8pm on a Friday night, because that is the only time they could fit it in.
    I quite liked this theory;
    https://twitter.com/rbrwr/status/1392488158667984897?s=19

    "Thank you for your letter to the Prime Minister about your COUNTY COURT JUDGMENT. Regrettably he is unable to answer every letter personally, but he is deeply concerned about COUNTY COURT JUDGMENT. Yours faithfully, Correspondence Secretary, No. 10"
    Er..... er...... shouldn't said Correspondence Sec have seen at least some of the preceding letters?
    As pointed out elsewhere, the envelopes do make it clear that there's a Very Important Document inside.
    So do letters from PC World/Curry's trying to sell you a warranty.

    So do charity letters seeking to raise money.
    It’s a long, long time ago, thankfully, but I never had any problem distinguishing Court letters from those you mention!
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    The local council made a stupid political move over a playground (yes, really)

    One of the locals, a journalist for a very respected publication, started politely asking people.

    A week later the council found a serious 5 figure sum to totally reverse their idiocy.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    Unfortunately we know no journalists ....
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,103

    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?

    It'll be an easy win, presumably (notwithstanding it was very close in 2017)
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    kinabalu said:

    @Floater

    Dreadful sounding affair. I once had something similar with British Gas and some of the interactions had me shaking with rage at times. Got there in the end but it took ages.

    There's the media. People write in to newspapers and if their letter appeals and gets selected for the "troubleshooter" column it often unlocks a resolution PLUS a cash sum as apology (for PR).

    As a semi-last resort, perhaps you & yours could organize a brief but photgenic demo outside Eon HQ? Say with you son wearing a barrel with a sign saying "Eon is Bankrupting Me!" or some such?

    Am NOT being facetious. Do a bit of sleazebag shaming. And (perhaps via PBers) let media know about it in advance and/or make sure to get some good photos suitable for publication wherever.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,635
    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    @Floater

    Best thing to do is to get the official complaint at E.on 'deadlocked' then go to the ombudsman at OFGEM.

    Depending on the situation, I might go for the nuclear option and make a complaint to the police about someone stealing your gas.

    Once you have a police crime reference number then that really does put the ball in E.on's court, but so does deadlocking the complaint and taking it to OFGEM.

    Cheers
    Also, check your son's credit file every month, utility providers have a tendency to report late payments to the credit reference agencies, which screws up credit scores and can lead to CCJs.

    Also make sure they don't try a but a CIFAS marker against's your son's name.
    I think I mentioned they threatened that( if he didn't make a payment notwithstanding the ongoing issue) - hence some of the stress - would hate for him to be in same basket as Boris :wink:
    Yup, but a CIFAS marker is much much worse than a CCJ, it means all your bank accounts and credit accounts get closed within 60 days.
    Ah - his bank account has been closed - but he said they said that as through money laundering fears (he sold some dogecoin and missed an e mail asking about a couple of transactions (he thought it was a scam so did not reply)

    He said they transferring his funds to my account - So I guess I need to speak to them too

    Trouble is he has been in a manic episode and he just cannot take detail in when he is like that
    Right, you and he need to do a SAR with CIFAS, you cannot underestimate the damage a CIFAS marker does to someone, and anyone who they have a financial relationship with.

    https://www.cifas.org.uk/contact-us/subject-access-request/subject-access-request-form
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,840

    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?

    Perhaps nobody's expecting Hartlepool redux given the, er, mandate conferred last week? (But who knows?)

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/19292808.anum-qaisar-javed-snp-westminster-hopeful-not-complacent-despite-party-win/

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/19296155.scottish-independence-tories-admit-indyref2-mandate-says-ex-spin-chief/
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    malcolmg said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Have you tried switching everything off and checking the meter every hour from morning till night and then try putting on individual items and log every hour etc. Meter must be spinning pretty fast to get that high.
    it spins with literally everything turned off - even the fridge .........
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,103
    edited May 2021
    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    Threats to go to the media only work if the press actually do follow through. The number of times people say they will go to the press and either don't, or the press don't run with it, vastly outweighs the times it works, and councils/organisations know that.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,965
    All those disappointed Unionists who have become BIG fans


  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,840
    TOPPING said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.



    Be patient and divorce the complaints process from your experiences. Know that as you speak to each and every unhelpful employee that will add substance to the complaint.

    If you can, continue to try to find out the process of complaints for E.On.

    There seems to be info here, which I'm sure you've seen.

    https://www.eonenergy.com/contact/complaints.html

    I see they don't have an email complaints address. So write to them at the address given. A hassle of course but you need to put in an audit trail.

    Inform them at each turn that you are not satisfied with their response and that you would like to escalate further. Keep doing this until either they resolve the issue or you go to the Ombudsman.

    I would definitely end up at the Ombudsman but I would put that paper trail in beforehand.
    Maybe consider recirded/registered delivery, or whateverr the current equivalent is, for postal letters too.
  • ChameleonChameleon Posts: 4,264

    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?

    Because we all know that it's an SNP hold, and there's very little interest in discussing universally agreed certainties.
  • FossFoss Posts: 1,019
    Floater said:

    malcolmg said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Have you tried switching everything off and checking the meter every hour from morning till night and then try putting on individual items and log every hour etc. Meter must be spinning pretty fast to get that high.
    it spins with literally everything turned off - even the fridge .........
    Flip the fuses? At least then you can have a guess if the external draw is before or after the fuse box. Plus someone elses lights might go out.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,339

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    The local council made a stupid political move over a playground (yes, really)

    One of the locals, a journalist for a very respected publication, started politely asking people.

    A week later the council found a serious 5 figure sum to totally reverse their idiocy.
    Yes. Bad publicity is much more expensive, and much more of a hassle, that sorting out an individual problem. So the problems get sorted

    Without wishing to torment Scottxp, this is one reason I voted Brexit. The media is a vital lever of democracy - even in its diminished state in the internet era - it can apply real pressure to big corporations - and to governments and politicians

    If the Daily Mail or the Guardian or whoever sinks teeth into a story, and pursues it, they can enact political change. eg the Times' Andrew Norfolk and the grooming scandal

    No such EU-wide media, able to apply pressure to the Commission and eurocrats, exists, and because of all the languages (and the lack of elections for eurocrats) it probably never will.

    So the EU can never be a true democracy with a 4th estate speaking truth to power

    Another one of those non-immigration reasons to vote Leave
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    @Floater

    Best thing to do is to get the official complaint at E.on 'deadlocked' then go to the ombudsman at OFGEM.

    Depending on the situation, I might go for the nuclear option and make a complaint to the police about someone stealing your gas.

    Once you have a police crime reference number then that really does put the ball in E.on's court, but so does deadlocking the complaint and taking it to OFGEM.

    Cheers
    Also, check your son's credit file every month, utility providers have a tendency to report late payments to the credit reference agencies, which screws up credit scores and can lead to CCJs.

    Also make sure they don't try a but a CIFAS marker against's your son's name.
    I think I mentioned they threatened that( if he didn't make a payment notwithstanding the ongoing issue) - hence some of the stress - would hate for him to be in same basket as Boris :wink:
    Yup, but a CIFAS marker is much much worse than a CCJ, it means all your bank accounts and credit accounts get closed within 60 days.
    Ah - his bank account has been closed - but he said they said that as through money laundering fears (he sold some dogecoin and missed an e mail asking about a couple of transactions (he thought it was a scam so did not reply)

    He said they transferring his funds to my account - So I guess I need to speak to them too

    Trouble is he has been in a manic episode and he just cannot take detail in when he is like that
    Right, you and he need to do a SAR with CIFAS, you cannot underestimate the damage a CIFAS marker does to someone, and anyone who they have a financial relationship with.

    https://www.cifas.org.uk/contact-us/subject-access-request/subject-access-request-form
    When you say financial relationship - I pay his rent and help out on other bills - is that enough to drag me in - I work in Insurance so you know what a bad rating might mean for me
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Foss said:

    Floater said:

    malcolmg said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Have you tried switching everything off and checking the meter every hour from morning till night and then try putting on individual items and log every hour etc. Meter must be spinning pretty fast to get that high.
    it spins with literally everything turned off - even the fridge .........
    Flip the fuses? At least then you can have a guess if the external draw is before or after the fuse box. Plus someone elses lights might go out.
    He did his fuses - no idea what the engineer did
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,969
    New 2024 GOP primary poll minus Trump

    DeSantis 35%
    Cruz 10%
    Romney 10%
    Pence 10%
    Haley 6%
    https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1392523156645089282?s=20
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,339
    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    Threats to go to the media only work if the press actually do follow through. The number of times people say they will go to the press and either don't, or the press don't run with it, vastly outweighs the times it works, and councils/organisations know that.
    You do need an actual journalist with a provable and salient byline to apply the pressure. Then it does work. I've seen it happen
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,431
    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    Threats to go to the media only work if the press actually do follow through. The number of times people say they will go to the press and either don't, or the press don't run with it, vastly outweighs the times it works, and councils/organisations know that.
    But neither Floater not E.on will know until they don’t!
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,127
    Carnyx said:

    TOPPING said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.



    Be patient and divorce the complaints process from your experiences. Know that as you speak to each and every unhelpful employee that will add substance to the complaint.

    If you can, continue to try to find out the process of complaints for E.On.

    There seems to be info here, which I'm sure you've seen.

    https://www.eonenergy.com/contact/complaints.html

    I see they don't have an email complaints address. So write to them at the address given. A hassle of course but you need to put in an audit trail.

    Inform them at each turn that you are not satisfied with their response and that you would like to escalate further. Keep doing this until either they resolve the issue or you go to the Ombudsman.

    I would definitely end up at the Ombudsman but I would put that paper trail in beforehand.
    Maybe consider recirded/registered delivery, or whateverr the current equivalent is, for postal letters too.
    The Sunday papers Money section correspondents seem quite helpful with issues like this, too....
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,161
    @Floater

    Was your son mining Dogecoin? In which case, the electricity bill might be very genuine.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,965

    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?

    Mainly because the arithmetic of Scottish mps at Westminster doesn't really make a difference to anything, insofar as it ever did. All about Holyrood now..
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    edited May 2021
    Speaking of complaints re: big corporations screwing around with their customers -

    Few years ago, one of the baristas at my local coffee shop had a serious problem pertaining to his wife's health insurance. Which numerous calls & emails were doing nothing to resolve.

    Suggested that he contact the office of the WA state Insurance Commissioner. An elected office, held by a friend of mine for many years. Though yours truly did NOT contact him directly, nor did the young man I gave my advice to.

    Instead, he called the toll-free hot-line number. And relayed his wife's tale of woe.

    Within 48 hours he heard back from the insurance company. "You really didn't have to call the Insurance Commissioner, we were working to resolve your problem."

    Yeah, right! But in fact it DID get resolved rather quickly!

    EDIT - Should note that the Insurance Commissioner was re-elected last year, with the highest percentage cast for any statewide elected official.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    rcs1000 said:

    @Floater

    Was your son mining Dogecoin? In which case, the electricity bill might be very genuine.

    no - he bought some and then sold it at a big profit
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Floater said:

    rcs1000 said:

    @Floater

    Was your son mining Dogecoin? In which case, the electricity bill might be very genuine.

    no - he bought some and then sold it at a big profit
    He doesnt have a working pc
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,635
    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    @Floater

    Best thing to do is to get the official complaint at E.on 'deadlocked' then go to the ombudsman at OFGEM.

    Depending on the situation, I might go for the nuclear option and make a complaint to the police about someone stealing your gas.

    Once you have a police crime reference number then that really does put the ball in E.on's court, but so does deadlocking the complaint and taking it to OFGEM.

    Cheers
    Also, check your son's credit file every month, utility providers have a tendency to report late payments to the credit reference agencies, which screws up credit scores and can lead to CCJs.

    Also make sure they don't try a but a CIFAS marker against's your son's name.
    I think I mentioned they threatened that( if he didn't make a payment notwithstanding the ongoing issue) - hence some of the stress - would hate for him to be in same basket as Boris :wink:
    Yup, but a CIFAS marker is much much worse than a CCJ, it means all your bank accounts and credit accounts get closed within 60 days.
    Ah - his bank account has been closed - but he said they said that as through money laundering fears (he sold some dogecoin and missed an e mail asking about a couple of transactions (he thought it was a scam so did not reply)

    He said they transferring his funds to my account - So I guess I need to speak to them too

    Trouble is he has been in a manic episode and he just cannot take detail in when he is like that
    Right, you and he need to do a SAR with CIFAS, you cannot underestimate the damage a CIFAS marker does to someone, and anyone who they have a financial relationship with.

    https://www.cifas.org.uk/contact-us/subject-access-request/subject-access-request-form
    When you say financial relationship - I pay his rent and help out on other bills - is that enough to drag me in - I work in Insurance so you know what a bad rating might mean for me
    Have you applied for any joint credit products/guarantor/joint accounts together?

    Then there is the potential for it to get messy.

    They can on occasions close accounts for those people have paid into/money paid to from the closed account.

    If he's lived at the same address with you in the last six years then there might be a connection but not a relationship.

    CIFAS markers are a Kafkaesque world.

    Banks go OTT in my experience.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,103
    edited May 2021

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    Threats to go to the media only work if the press actually do follow through. The number of times people say they will go to the press and either don't, or the press don't run with it, vastly outweighs the times it works, and councils/organisations know that.
    But neither Floater not E.on will know until they don’t!
    The point was you do it, and if lucky the media run with it, don't tell them you will do it, since most of the time it doesn't work and people think the threat worries organisations and it doesn't, not until it is proven as a real thing.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,840

    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?

    Mainly because the arithmetic of Scottish mps at Westminster doesn't really make a difference to anything, insofar as it ever did. All about Holyrood now..
    Quite. If having all but one of Scotland's MPs held by the SNP didn't have any effect (fide Unionists) then one or two more or less don't matter. Though I would like to see how differential turnout works out tomorrow.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    HYUFD said:

    New 2024 GOP primary poll minus Trump

    DeSantis 35%
    Cruz 10%
    Romney 10%
    Pence 10%
    Haley 6%
    https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1392523156645089282?s=20

    As Romney & Pence are NOT likely to run for POTUS in 2024, it MAY be possible that Nikki Haley's base (for starters) could be in neighborhood of 25%. IF she runs.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,957
    .
    Carnyx said:

    TOPPING said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.



    Be patient and divorce the complaints process from your experiences. Know that as you speak to each and every unhelpful employee that will add substance to the complaint.

    If you can, continue to try to find out the process of complaints for E.On.

    There seems to be info here, which I'm sure you've seen.

    https://www.eonenergy.com/contact/complaints.html

    I see they don't have an email complaints address. So write to them at the address given. A hassle of course but you need to put in an audit trail.

    Inform them at each turn that you are not satisfied with their response and that you would like to escalate further. Keep doing this until either they resolve the issue or you go to the Ombudsman.

    I would definitely end up at the Ombudsman but I would put that paper trail in beforehand.
    Maybe consider recirded/registered delivery, or whateverr the current equivalent is, for postal letters too.
    Yep. Good point.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    @Floater

    Best thing to do is to get the official complaint at E.on 'deadlocked' then go to the ombudsman at OFGEM.

    Depending on the situation, I might go for the nuclear option and make a complaint to the police about someone stealing your gas.

    Once you have a police crime reference number then that really does put the ball in E.on's court, but so does deadlocking the complaint and taking it to OFGEM.

    Cheers
    Also, check your son's credit file every month, utility providers have a tendency to report late payments to the credit reference agencies, which screws up credit scores and can lead to CCJs.

    Also make sure they don't try a but a CIFAS marker against's your son's name.
    I think I mentioned they threatened that( if he didn't make a payment notwithstanding the ongoing issue) - hence some of the stress - would hate for him to be in same basket as Boris :wink:
    Yup, but a CIFAS marker is much much worse than a CCJ, it means all your bank accounts and credit accounts get closed within 60 days.
    Ah - his bank account has been closed - but he said they said that as through money laundering fears (he sold some dogecoin and missed an e mail asking about a couple of transactions (he thought it was a scam so did not reply)

    He said they transferring his funds to my account - So I guess I need to speak to them too

    Trouble is he has been in a manic episode and he just cannot take detail in when he is like that
    Right, you and he need to do a SAR with CIFAS, you cannot underestimate the damage a CIFAS marker does to someone, and anyone who they have a financial relationship with.

    https://www.cifas.org.uk/contact-us/subject-access-request/subject-access-request-form
    When you say financial relationship - I pay his rent and help out on other bills - is that enough to drag me in - I work in Insurance so you know what a bad rating might mean for me
    Have you applied for any joint credit products/guarantor/joint accounts together?

    Then there is the potential for it to get messy.

    They can on occasions close accounts for those people have paid into/money paid to from the closed account.

    If he's lived at the same address with you in the last six years then there might be a connection but not a relationship.

    CIFAS markers are a Kafkaesque world.

    Banks go OTT in my experience.
    I guaranteed his rent - but paid in advance (strange that they still wanted the guarantee)

    We have sent him money to help out - including to pay Eon! but the account was open then - likewise when he has been able to pay us back he sometimes has sent us money too - that is small amounts and very infrequently

    He has lived here in last 6 years and will move home again when I move next month to a bigger place



  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    ping said:

    4.2% inflation

    And the fed are going to ignore it???!

    The age of inflation returns.

    Wonderful.
    Wouldn’t sit very well with the age of pay freezes?

    Corbyn mania was basically May the public face of your pay freeze, Corbyn says no to pay freeze. And that the age of no inflation.
    If inflation comes back and stays at over 4% and there is pay restraint in the client state, regardless who the LOTO is the Tories chances of winning the next election will be less than zero.
    I could see inflation being a black swan that knocks the Tories out of office in 2024 if it gets out of control.

    I think it's something that overrides concerns on cultural/social and values matters, at least temporarily, as a sort of political Maslow hierarchy of needs.

    However, it would need the Opposition to look and feel more credible first, but it is possible.
    Nah, inflation will be the dog that didn't bark, at least here, sterling will cover up a lot of the issues globally as it has been artificially depressed for a few years and going to back to $1.50 will eat up a lot of the import price inflation.
    I hope you're right, but none of us know how exactly this will play out and that's why I'm sticking to my T-18 months rule of betting on GEs.

    Of course, that doesn't cover a snap election - but we'll be able to smell that on here if it's coming, because that's what we do.
    I'd also add that the BoE has fired the starter pistol for monetary tightening with a target interest rate of 0.6% set for the middle of next year and winding down QE faster than expected. We have a fair amount of headroom to for monetary tightening before it starts to show up on mortgage bills. Under 1% is still a very low rate of interest but moving up from 0.1% will yield a reasonable reduction in inflation.
    Yeah but that assumes inflation stays at a reasonable level. If it doesn't, what's the BoE going to do, let it run rampant? Raise rate on an economy that's decimated and which could be pitched into lockdown at any moment?
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    The local council made a stupid political move over a playground (yes, really)

    One of the locals, a journalist for a very respected publication, started politely asking people.

    A week later the council found a serious 5 figure sum to totally reverse their idiocy.
    Squeaky wheels - or swingsets - DO tend to get greased faster than others.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,103
    Energy companies seem rife with difficulties. Once had two separate companies write to me in the same week to say they were sorry I was leaving their services. Another time the gas people tried to rake in hundreds of pounds, most of which was for not paying a fee, and it was only after some helpful work from their indian call centre (the UK people who took the original call didn't seem to have a clue) over a weekend that it transpired they were charging for a meter that they had replaced 18 months earlier.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,161
    Floater said:

    rcs1000 said:

    @Floater

    Was your son mining Dogecoin? In which case, the electricity bill might be very genuine.

    no - he bought some and then sold it at a big profit
    phew
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    The local council made a stupid political move over a playground (yes, really)

    One of the locals, a journalist for a very respected publication, started politely asking people.

    A week later the council found a serious 5 figure sum to totally reverse their idiocy.
    Squeaky wheels - or swingsets - DO tend to get greased faster than others.
    The way they went from "No money - it was rationalisation of scarce resources" to "If we build you a playground built out of money, will you please be nice?" was hilarious.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    rcs1000 said:

    @Floater

    Was your son mining Dogecoin? In which case, the electricity bill might be very genuine.

    Are YOU mining bitcoins?

    "I'm proud to be a bitcoin miner's daughter
    Raised in a condo on the beach in Santa Monica"
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    Threats to go to the media only work if the press actually do follow through. The number of times people say they will go to the press and either don't, or the press don't run with it, vastly outweighs the times it works, and councils/organisations know that.
    But neither Floater not E.on will know until they don’t!
    The point was you do it, and if lucky the media run with it, don't tell them you will do it, since most of the time it doesn't work and people think the threat worries organisations and it doesn't, not until it is proven as a real thing.
    You are conflating someone threatening to “go to the press”, with having an actual journalist call the press office. Two completely different things. I can confirm that Leon is right: the latter strategy is very often a winning gambit.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,457

    kinabalu said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    kingbongo said:

    MaxPB said:

    kingbongo said:

    MaxPB said:

    The commission economic predictions for the UK definitely have a touch of jilted ex syndrome. The city consensus is noticeably higher and factors in little to no brexit related reduction in GDP. I think it would be fairly embarrassing for them to come in at ~7.5% where the city consensus is for the UK, though. Additionally it looks like their projections are done on a nominal GDP calculation basis but the GDP itself is the output model as preferred by the ONS. Most of the city has caught up with this and it's why there is expected to be a big bounceback as schools return to normal and health output picks up as the NHS works through a huge backlog.

    It's interesting reading the economics editor of Berlingske today explaining how the UK economy fared worst of all economies last year "Unlike Denmark" - the whole piece is tinged with a "bastard british have left us at the mercy of the Germans" vibe - apparently there may be some short term bounce back over the summer but by Autumn the warning klaxons will be going off and the full error of Brexit will become visible - I don't know if that will happen but reading the piece it's clear he really wants it too because the UK 'abandoned' Denmark.
    Another bit of jilted ex syndrome. Goldman Sachs have got UK growth this year penciled in at 7.8% which recovers all of our GDP by the end of 2021 based on the measure they use.

    Also, there is a solution to being left at the mercy of Germany. 🤷‍♂️
    I can't tell you the grief I get over the UK leaving the EU, mostly because I don't participate in gleefully hoping it all goes horribly wrong and saying Boris Johnson is an idiot and the electorate were tricked - Danes are mostly now looking on and suffering major jilted ex syndrome. They HATE the idea Brexit might not be that big a deal economically to the UK.
    Too much guardian reading and CNN watching I think. If there is a brexit effect, even in the short term, it is mostly going to be carried by the food/fishing industry because of EU border pedantry. Most of everything else will just get on with life. Speaking from my position in financial services, the death of the City that everyone in the EU keeps hyping up doesn't seem likely, hiring is stronger than I've ever seen it and we're winning clients from outside the EU much faster than we were when we were in it and for us it's made up for the difficulty in servicing EU based clients and more. I think 2021 will be a record year for us in terms of asset gains and 2022 will be a record for profitability.
    Thanks for the "I'm alright Jack" anecdote. There are plenty of very real businesses that have suffered so that those that jerk off about "sovrinty init" can have their moment of ecstasy.

    The reality is that Brexit is and was a massive upheaval. Whether it was economically worth it I am happy to concede will now need to be decided by impartial historical economists probably long after I have ceased to care, and though I am not dead, I am already not far off not caring now.

    As far as I was concerned, the worst thing about Brexit was that it was so massively divisive. Some people and some politicians get off on that, just like the SNP in Scotland. It might be helpful if people who were in favour of Brexit owned a bit of humility instead of constantly trying to justify Brexit when there is no need to do so. We are not going back in. You don't need to keep picking at the wound.
    That's not really what I was going for and I do accept that there will be some tough times for specific industries, mostly in food and fishing.

    I think what you fail to see is that EU membership was also massively divisive, as someone who benefits from it's not easy to understand why it would be but communities across the whole country have been destroyed by wage deflation and stagnation in lower-middle income jobs and the resulting increase in population has also resulted in a crash in owner occupation of houses.

    As much as I'm a realist about what brexit is and isn't (and there are many items in each column) I think you should be realistic about what EU membership had turned into for large swathes of the country. That resentment and divisiveness was already there with or without a referendum. In 2015 4m people voted for UKIP, by a quirk of our voting system they didn't get any seats. In the road not taken where Dave refused a referendum how many cycles do you think it would have taken for PM Nige to become a reality? Pretending that EU membership was all sunlit uplands isn't realistic.
    I am trying not to be drawn into EU arguments as I think we need to move on, but I think your argument about "EU membership" has some validity EXCEPT that a lot of the associated problems with free movement were as a result of British government immigration policies, and the reality that 50% of UK immigration had nothing to do with the EU and yet successive Home Secretaries (including Mrs May) did nothing about it and tacitly encouraged it. The EU was blamed for immigration because it was convenient. It is all history now though!
    Did nothing? May was far, far too authoritarian with immigration from the rest of the world! Unless you want zero migration, to say that 'nothing was being done' is just untrue - one irony is that many voted to Leave the EU to make it easier for the rest of the world to get a visa to come to the UK not harder.

    I'm glad the authoritarian May Home Secretary has gone as well as her ludicrous and xenophobic "hundreds of thousands" pledge. I'm glad that we have liberalised getting a visa for many skilled migrants from the rest of the world post-Brexit.
    Not according to wiki. Breakdown as follows -

    Voting Leave to get lower net migration: 17,410,741
    Voting Leave to get higher net migration: Richard Tyndall
    Wrong. Vote Leave and immigration doesn't matter.

    My aim is not for higher or lower migration, it is migration to cease to be an issue. Now I know that is fanciful but the point is that it had zero impact on my view of the EU. Nor am I alone in this. Indeed PT's views are very close to mine - if perhaps not quite so extreme in this respect.

    I realise that kind of spoils your little meme but that is your problem not mine.
    I thought immigration was running way too high, the population change from 2004 to 2016 and its social impact was massive, but the broader point for me was to get democratic control of its level and skills mix.

    You are more likely to get acceptability of a higher rate of immigration if people feel it's under their control.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,457

    All those disappointed Unionists who have become BIG fans


    He's disappointed Alba didn't win?
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,103
    edited May 2021

    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    Threats to go to the media only work if the press actually do follow through. The number of times people say they will go to the press and either don't, or the press don't run with it, vastly outweighs the times it works, and councils/organisations know that.
    But neither Floater not E.on will know until they don’t!
    The point was you do it, and if lucky the media run with it, don't tell them you will do it, since most of the time it doesn't work and people think the threat worries organisations and it doesn't, not until it is proven as a real thing.
    You are conflating someone threatening to “go to the press”, with having an actual journalist call the press office. Two completely different things. I can confirm that Leon is right: the latter strategy is very often a winning gambit.
    I'm doing nothing of the kind, I'm agreeing that it can work so long as you actually do get a journalist to do it, and making a warning not to make the mistake of conflating that into thinking just telling the company you will go to the press will work instead (and thus save the bother of actually arranging for a journalist).

    Lots of people know that media attention will make things happen. Lots of others assume the potential of media attention will do the same, and they are wrong.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,457

    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?

    Because it's an SNP dead cert?
  • pingping Posts: 3,805
    edited May 2021
    RIP to all the innocents pointlessly killed in Israel/Palestine.

    I don’t know who I despise more; The Israeli right or the Palestinian Islamists.

    Peas in a pod.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,457
    ping said:

    RIP to all those pointlessly killed in Israel/Palestine.

    I don’t know who I despise more; The Israeli right or the Palestinian Islamists.

    Peas in a pod

    The Promise (Claire Foy's first major outing) is extremely good.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    The local council made a stupid political move over a playground (yes, really)

    One of the locals, a journalist for a very respected publication, started politely asking people.

    A week later the council found a serious 5 figure sum to totally reverse their idiocy.
    Yes. Bad publicity is much more expensive, and much more of a hassle, that sorting out an individual problem. So the problems get sorted

    Without wishing to torment Scottxp, this is one reason I voted Brexit. The media is a vital lever of democracy - even in its diminished state in the internet era - it can apply real pressure to big corporations - and to governments and politicians

    If the Daily Mail or the Guardian or whoever sinks teeth into a story, and pursues it, they can enact political change. eg the Times' Andrew Norfolk and the grooming scandal

    No such EU-wide media, able to apply pressure to the Commission and eurocrats, exists, and because of all the languages (and the lack of elections for eurocrats) it probably never will.

    So the EU can never be a true democracy with a 4th estate speaking truth to power

    Another one of those non-immigration reasons to vote Leave
    That's very well said and it played into my thinking too. The lack of a single pan-European media is part and parcel of why there's no true European demos and why politics doesn't work as it democratically should as we know it.

    Johnson wants good headlines in a way that von der Leyen will never truly care about.
  • FenmanFenman Posts: 1,047

    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?

    Because it's not worth caring about?
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Not yet - but we we be contacting everyone we can think of
    Kinabalu is right. The media can be really helpful. Source a friendly journalist who can ring their press office and say he or she is writing about your story, and would they like to comment? That often puts a rocket booster under them

    A pal of mine had a real and unpleasant problem with Google, a few years ago. Try and get Google to respond to a normal complaint - it's impossible. They are so huge, unwieldy and indifferent. You can't even find anyone to talk to

    So he found a journo friend who rang the Google UK press office and his year-old problem was sorted in a day
    Threats to go to the media only work if the press actually do follow through. The number of times people say they will go to the press and either don't, or the press don't run with it, vastly outweighs the times it works, and councils/organisations know that.
    But neither Floater not E.on will know until they don’t!
    The point was you do it, and if lucky the media run with it, don't tell them you will do it, since most of the time it doesn't work and people think the threat worries organisations and it doesn't, not until it is proven as a real thing.
    You are conflating someone threatening to “go to the press”, with having an actual journalist call the press office. Two completely different things. I can confirm that Leon is right: the latter strategy is very often a winning gambit.
    I'm doing nothing of the kind, I'm agreeing that it can work so long as you actually do get a journalist to do it, and making a warning not to make the mistake of conflating that into thinking just telling the company you will go to the press will work instead (and thus save the bother of actually arranging for a journalist).

    Lots of people know that media attention will make things happen. Lots of others assume the potential of media attention will do the same, and they are wrong.
    Fair enough, that wasn’t clear to me from your OP.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,159
    edited May 2021
    Andy_JS said:

    I see today's topic of discussion on PB is architecture.

    Yes. And is liking modern architecture Woke, I'm wondering? Does it show a sneery disdain for ordinary people? I'm betting it does!
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,329

    malcolmg said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Cookie said:

    Carnyx said:

    Reports Boris is about to announce in the HOC a full public enquiry into Covid

    Begins in Spring 2022

    An eternity away. "There is bound to be a resurgence in the Autumn" so all the more reason not to understand all that has gone right and all that has gone wrong beforehand.

    He is delaying for one simple reason. He currently has a boost from the vaccine and wants to ride that as long as possible before the enquiry tears him apart.
    Sorry but that is utter nonsense and he explained all the reasons and as you mention a resurgence in the Autumn was one of those reasons as he did not want to interfer on front line services while this could be a critical period

    Also, with respect, you have absolutely no creditability if you think a full public enquiry could be set up, terms of reference agreed, take evidence and produce a conclusion by the Autumn

    And if it does attack Boris, then Sturgeon, Drakeford and Foster will all be in the same place as they more or less followed the same advice

    Your hatred of Boris at times overwhelms what should be your common sense
    Except.

    England has done notably worse than the other home nations.

    Going off the FT data, these are the current deaths per 100k:
    England 199
    Wales 176
    Scotland 140 (rather better than France)
    N Ireland 113 (almost as low as where Germany is likely to end up)

    I think we can assume that the data are comparable in terms of what is and isn't counted as a Covid death. OK, that could be about geography, underlying health, whatever. But there were also critical differences in policy between the four nations. For an infection that doubles in less than a week when unchecked, you don't need big changes in policy to have big changes in outcome. For example, dithering about imposing a lockdown post-Christmas.

    And whilst you can't convict PM Johnson on the basis of those figures alone, the idea that all the nation's leaders are in the same "awkward explaining to do" boat simply isn't borne out by the numbers.
    What do you think of these numbers? Very relevant.

    England 432
    Wales 151
    Northern Ireland 133
    Scotland 65
    Let me guess... population density. Am I right?

    Except, if so, I don't think those numbers are as much of a slam dunk as you think. From a population point of view, Scotland is a densely populated central belt and a lot of mountains and lochs. From the point of view of a Covid virus, what matters is the density where people live.

    According to the internet
    Glasgow is 3400 people per square kilometre
    London is 5683 people per square kilometre
    Paris is 21067 people per square kilometre

    But to be fair, all of those numbers depend on what you do and don't include. A simple population / area calculation for Havering would be misleading, because half of it is inhabited and the other half is green belt.
    After all, we wouldn't want to bandy about numbers without meaningful context, would we?
    Yes its population density and its extremely relevant. As I said before which TUD misquoted, there's vast firebreaks within Scotland between its cities that doesn't exist to the same extent in eg Northwest England. From Liverpool to Manchester the population density is higher than Glasgow, but also the area inbetween is much more populated. Going from Liverpool to Widnes, Warrington, Wigan, Leigh, Manchester, Bury etc is all one great urban and suburban sprawl with no firebreak between them. Unlike eg from Glasgow to Edinburgh that has natural firebreaks.

    If you want to be stupid and ignore population density then you could try analysing deaths within England by local Council party control. I strongly suspect Labour controlled Councils have a higher death rate than Tory controlled Councils. Does that mean Tory Councils have done a better job?

    Of course not, the virus targets dense population. Which England, especially in places like the Northwest, London etc has in abundance and Scotland does not to the same extent.
    But people routinely commute between Glasgow and Edinburgh, for instance.

    It's only the really remote communities (islands, in particular) that have more ort less escaped infection.

    Also, the issue is not so much the spread of the virus between centres - it does - as how it develops within each centre. That.s where the stats come from and that's what the stats record.
    During lockdown there would have been a fraction of the contiguous commuting between Glasgow and Edinburgh that there is between Liverpool and Manchester.

    The stats record that more dense areas have more deaths and that's consistent across the UK and across the world.

    Being idiotic and taking figures out of context is what Trump supporters tried to do last year to say that GOP Governors had done better than Democrat Governors - because deaths were higher in the densely populated Democrat states. Its bullshit, just as it would be bullshit to "blame" Labour Councils for the fact that the worst death rates in England are in Labour controlled Councils.
    You mean contiguous commuting between Glasgow (pop. 600k plus) and Edinburgh (pop. 488k) via M8 belt (pop. c400k) compared to Liverpool (pop. 498k) and Manchester (pop. 550k) via M62 belt (pop. nofuckingidea)?
    Chalk and cheese, obviously.
    Manchester Metropolitan area: 2,556,000
    Liverpool Metropolitan area: 2,241,000
    Total: 4,797,000

    If you add in Leeds-Bradford (2,302,000) you're over 7 million.....

    Glasgow: 1,395,000
    Edinburgh: 782,000
    Total: 2,177,000

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPON_metropolitan_areas_in_the_United_Kingdom
    Some European definitions describe the Manchester-Liverpool conurbation as one continuous built-up area like the Ruhr. Manchester-Liverpool was considered the 10th largest conurbation in the EU, back when it was in the EU. I think this is reasonably convincing. It's easily possible to travel from Manchester city centre to Liverpool city centre and never be more than 200m from a building.
    (Some British definitions would have you believe that Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds-Sheffield is one continuous built up area but that is rather more dubious both topographically and economically).
    Precisely!

    @Theuniondivvie seems to think that Glasgow to Edinburgh is comparable to that, despite the fact the two cities combined have less population than either of the cities let alone the whole contiguous M62 corridor.
    The train route between the two Scottish cities is also slow, and takes you through a lot of countryside.
    Do you take the country train or the inter city though, quite a difference.
    45 mins from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh.
    Exactly
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,161

    rcs1000 said:

    @Floater

    Was your son mining Dogecoin? In which case, the electricity bill might be very genuine.

    Are YOU mining bitcoins?

    "I'm proud to be a bitcoin miner's daughter
    Raised in a condo on the beach in Santa Monica"
    I last mined bitcoins when the price of BTC was sub $30.

    And I got scammed by an eBayer. I sold my Bitcoin mining rig on eBay, the guy used it for two months, then he claimed it didn't work (when I could prove he'd used it), and returned it.

    I complained to eBay, but they weren't interested in my evidence that he'd used the rig.

    He basically robbed me of about £10k.
  • rawliberalrawliberal Posts: 21
    edited May 2021

    Leon said:



    If the Daily Mail or the Guardian or whoever sinks teeth into a story, and pursues it, they can enact political change. eg the Times' Andrew Norfolk and the grooming scandal

    No such EU-wide media, able to apply pressure to the Commission and eurocrats, exists, and because of all the languages (and the lack of elections for eurocrats) it probably never will.

    So the EU can never be a true democracy with a 4th estate speaking truth to power

    Another one of those non-immigration reasons to vote Leave

    That's very well said and it played into my thinking too. The lack of a single pan-European media is part and parcel of why there's no true European demos and why politics doesn't work as it democratically should as we know it.

    Johnson wants good headlines in a way that von der Leyen will never truly care about.
    This absolutely. While Brexit is a terrible idea, one of the flaws of the EU is that its democracy is neutered by the absence of a powerful pan-European media. Though I'm not sure I would hold up the UK media and its current ownership structures as a good model for how the fourth estate should operate in a democracy.

    [edited blockquotes]
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,329
    Floater said:

    malcolmg said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Have you tried switching everything off and checking the meter every hour from morning till night and then try putting on individual items and log every hour etc. Meter must be spinning pretty fast to get that high.
    it spins with literally everything turned off - even the fridge .........
    So a no brainer, must be idiots they are sending out to check it.
  • pingping Posts: 3,805
    edited May 2021

    ping said:

    RIP to all those pointlessly killed in Israel/Palestine.

    I don’t know who I despise more; The Israeli right or the Palestinian Islamists.

    Peas in a pod

    The Promise (Claire Foy's first major outing) is extremely good.
    I haven’t seen that. It does look well reviewed.

    Many years ago, I was lucky enough to go on a tour around Hebron with a Norwegian police unit who were trying to keep the peace there.

    The daily reality of life is seriously fked up and I totally get how all sides end up radicalised.

    Fast forwarding to today, the new dimension is activism from Israeli Arabs. Looks like the Israeli right is in no mood for deescalation.

    La tristesse durera
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    malcolmg said:

    Floater said:

    malcolmg said:

    Floater said:

    OK - I am royally pissed off and if anyone has any ideas I am all ears

    E.on are my sons energy provider - I have mentioned that he has been running up some impossible bills

    In last month he has allegedly run up 700 - his arrears were getting on for 2 grand (a complaint has been open for a while on how this amount can possibly be used).

    An engineer came out agreed he couldn't run that up living on his own in a 2 bed flat and said he suspected someone else was drawing his supply too. (This is the second person contracted by Eon to say this)

    Eon manager subsequently rang my son and agreed to accept a certain payment and agreed my son could leave them for another supplier - he has I think 4 complaints open with Eon going back nearly a year for the first one - none resolved.

    He hit a snag with paying them and a compromise was agreed (so, multiple calls on this) - this agreement was kept by us. (Delay was literally 48 hours tops)

    He has had debt collection on the phone today asking for full payment - he referred them to his agreement with manager and she said she could not find record of the phone call and in any event the person who made the agreement was not entitled to do so.... (despite not knowing who it was )

    This person said it was entirely possible to run up 700 a month on a 2 bed flat on his own (Like feck, I spend a fraction of that on a 5 bed place with a family in it)

    When he pointed out that the engineer who came out said he could not and it needed further investigation and he was probably better placed to make that determination she claimed she knew better and then hung up on him.....

    I tried 3 times to get details on how to escalate a complaint and they hung up on me 3 times. Then it took 50 minutes on one of those chat tools to finally just get an e mail address to make a written complaint to. They would not give me a way to escalate or a managers details - I had to threaten them with my mp and Ombudsman to get even that.

    I said its almost like they don't want a proper record of what they are saying ..... (but I have screen shots of the chat)

    He will hate me saying this - but he is dealing with some difficult health issues (cancer and severe kidney issues) plus he has mental health issues (bipolar) and this is making him ill with stress. I frankly am beyond furious, because he really does not need this (He and I have both told E.on this too)

    As I say I'm mad and I will be helping son write to the general complaints line and I will contact our MP and Ombudsman with him but any other advice gratefully accepted -A friend mentioned Resover.co.uk - that looks like it might help - it even has a name within E.on to escalate to - which E.on just would not give me - which again just shows me they being deliberately uncooperative.

    Dreadful. Have you tried Citizens Advice?
    Have you tried switching everything off and checking the meter every hour from morning till night and then try putting on individual items and log every hour etc. Meter must be spinning pretty fast to get that high.
    it spins with literally everything turned off - even the fridge .........
    So a no brainer, must be idiots they are sending out to check it.
    The engineer agreed there was a problem - its the merchant bankers in the office who are causing this drama
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,339
    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    I see today's topic of discussion on PB is architecture.

    Yes. And is liking modern architecture Woke, I'm wondering? Does it show a sneery disdain for ordinary people? I'm betting it does!
    Sneering at Poundbury (I see theuniondivvie had a go) is extremely Woke and Lefty and Ageing-in-Hampstead

    Millions of people would love to live in Poundbury. A beautiful, neo-Georgian town in Dorset. With a Waitrose. What's not to love?


    The Guardian loved to hate it

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/aug/17/prince-charles-dream-village-poundbury


    But has now changed its mind

    https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/oct/27/poundbury-prince-charles-village-dorset-disneyland-growing-community
  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,876
    Evening all :)

    Perhaps it's me but I don't detect a lot of warmth on here for Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron or Theresa May?

    Who would be Prime Minister? I don't know but it seems preferable to being an ex-Prime Minister.

    Do we need to go back 30 years or more to find a Prime Minister who enjoyed widespread admiration among PB contributors?

    Are we still Thatcher's Children and does her shadow really extend that far?

    Are there really more questions than answers?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,159

    kinabalu said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    kingbongo said:

    MaxPB said:

    kingbongo said:

    MaxPB said:

    The commission economic predictions for the UK definitely have a touch of jilted ex syndrome. The city consensus is noticeably higher and factors in little to no brexit related reduction in GDP. I think it would be fairly embarrassing for them to come in at ~7.5% where the city consensus is for the UK, though. Additionally it looks like their projections are done on a nominal GDP calculation basis but the GDP itself is the output model as preferred by the ONS. Most of the city has caught up with this and it's why there is expected to be a big bounceback as schools return to normal and health output picks up as the NHS works through a huge backlog.

    It's interesting reading the economics editor of Berlingske today explaining how the UK economy fared worst of all economies last year "Unlike Denmark" - the whole piece is tinged with a "bastard british have left us at the mercy of the Germans" vibe - apparently there may be some short term bounce back over the summer but by Autumn the warning klaxons will be going off and the full error of Brexit will become visible - I don't know if that will happen but reading the piece it's clear he really wants it too because the UK 'abandoned' Denmark.
    Another bit of jilted ex syndrome. Goldman Sachs have got UK growth this year penciled in at 7.8% which recovers all of our GDP by the end of 2021 based on the measure they use.

    Also, there is a solution to being left at the mercy of Germany. 🤷‍♂️
    I can't tell you the grief I get over the UK leaving the EU, mostly because I don't participate in gleefully hoping it all goes horribly wrong and saying Boris Johnson is an idiot and the electorate were tricked - Danes are mostly now looking on and suffering major jilted ex syndrome. They HATE the idea Brexit might not be that big a deal economically to the UK.
    Too much guardian reading and CNN watching I think. If there is a brexit effect, even in the short term, it is mostly going to be carried by the food/fishing industry because of EU border pedantry. Most of everything else will just get on with life. Speaking from my position in financial services, the death of the City that everyone in the EU keeps hyping up doesn't seem likely, hiring is stronger than I've ever seen it and we're winning clients from outside the EU much faster than we were when we were in it and for us it's made up for the difficulty in servicing EU based clients and more. I think 2021 will be a record year for us in terms of asset gains and 2022 will be a record for profitability.
    Thanks for the "I'm alright Jack" anecdote. There are plenty of very real businesses that have suffered so that those that jerk off about "sovrinty init" can have their moment of ecstasy.

    The reality is that Brexit is and was a massive upheaval. Whether it was economically worth it I am happy to concede will now need to be decided by impartial historical economists probably long after I have ceased to care, and though I am not dead, I am already not far off not caring now.

    As far as I was concerned, the worst thing about Brexit was that it was so massively divisive. Some people and some politicians get off on that, just like the SNP in Scotland. It might be helpful if people who were in favour of Brexit owned a bit of humility instead of constantly trying to justify Brexit when there is no need to do so. We are not going back in. You don't need to keep picking at the wound.
    That's not really what I was going for and I do accept that there will be some tough times for specific industries, mostly in food and fishing.

    I think what you fail to see is that EU membership was also massively divisive, as someone who benefits from it's not easy to understand why it would be but communities across the whole country have been destroyed by wage deflation and stagnation in lower-middle income jobs and the resulting increase in population has also resulted in a crash in owner occupation of houses.

    As much as I'm a realist about what brexit is and isn't (and there are many items in each column) I think you should be realistic about what EU membership had turned into for large swathes of the country. That resentment and divisiveness was already there with or without a referendum. In 2015 4m people voted for UKIP, by a quirk of our voting system they didn't get any seats. In the road not taken where Dave refused a referendum how many cycles do you think it would have taken for PM Nige to become a reality? Pretending that EU membership was all sunlit uplands isn't realistic.
    I am trying not to be drawn into EU arguments as I think we need to move on, but I think your argument about "EU membership" has some validity EXCEPT that a lot of the associated problems with free movement were as a result of British government immigration policies, and the reality that 50% of UK immigration had nothing to do with the EU and yet successive Home Secretaries (including Mrs May) did nothing about it and tacitly encouraged it. The EU was blamed for immigration because it was convenient. It is all history now though!
    Did nothing? May was far, far too authoritarian with immigration from the rest of the world! Unless you want zero migration, to say that 'nothing was being done' is just untrue - one irony is that many voted to Leave the EU to make it easier for the rest of the world to get a visa to come to the UK not harder.

    I'm glad the authoritarian May Home Secretary has gone as well as her ludicrous and xenophobic "hundreds of thousands" pledge. I'm glad that we have liberalised getting a visa for many skilled migrants from the rest of the world post-Brexit.
    Not according to wiki. Breakdown as follows -

    Voting Leave to get lower net migration: 17,410,741
    Voting Leave to get higher net migration: Richard Tyndall
    Wrong. Vote Leave and immigration doesn't matter.

    My aim is not for higher or lower migration, it is migration to cease to be an issue. Now I know that is fanciful but the point is that it had zero impact on my view of the EU. Nor am I alone in this. Indeed PT's views are very close to mine - if perhaps not quite so extreme in this respect.

    I realise that kind of spoils your little meme but that is your problem not mine.
    Don't go spoiling my meme (I won't go spoiling your meme) ... don't go spoiling my

    No, but I was doing the old 'exaggeration to make point' technique. Looking for more immigration was not a big driver of Brexit.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,957
    ping said:

    ping said:

    RIP to all those pointlessly killed in Israel/Palestine.

    I don’t know who I despise more; The Israeli right or the Palestinian Islamists.

    Peas in a pod

    The Promise (Claire Foy's first major outing) is extremely good.
    I haven’t seen that. It does look well reviewed.

    Many years ago, I was lucky enough to go on a tour around Hebron with a Norwegian police unit who were trying to keep the peace there.

    The daily reality of life is seriously fked up and I totally get how all sides end up radicalised.

    Fast forwarding to today, the new dimension is activism from Israeli Arabs. Looks like the Israeli right is in no mood for deescalation.

    La tristesse durera
    What were your impressions/conclusions about your visit? Was it work or play (don't tell me if you can't).
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Novarra broadcasting later on the Israeli bombardment of Gaza - seemingly not interested in traffic going the other way.......

    Shocked I tell you
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,497
    ping said:

    RIP to all the innocents pointlessly killed in Israel/Palestine.

    I don’t know who I despise more; The Israeli right or the Palestinian Islamists.

    Peas in a pod.

    Tragic and terrible. Why does it get so much more coverage than the 380,000 who have died and millions displaced in Syria?

  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    @Floater

    Was your son mining Dogecoin? In which case, the electricity bill might be very genuine.

    Are YOU mining bitcoins?

    "I'm proud to be a bitcoin miner's daughter
    Raised in a condo on the beach in Santa Monica"
    I last mined bitcoins when the price of BTC was sub $30.

    And I got scammed by an eBayer. I sold my Bitcoin mining rig on eBay, the guy used it for two months, then he claimed it didn't work (when I could prove he'd used it), and returned it.

    I complained to eBay, but they weren't interested in my evidence that he'd used the rig.

    He basically robbed me of about £10k.
    Yikes! Confirms my gut feeling about the whole enterprise.

    And so your daughter (think you have at least one IIRC?) really IS a bitcoin miner's daughter!

    Do you also live in Santa Monica?
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,957
    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    I see today's topic of discussion on PB is architecture.

    Yes. And is liking modern architecture Woke, I'm wondering? Does it show a sneery disdain for ordinary people? I'm betting it does!
    Interesting you call it modern. What is your view of the Isokon Building?
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,822
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Perhaps it's me but I don't detect a lot of warmth on here for Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron or Theresa May?

    Who would be Prime Minister? I don't know but it seems preferable to being an ex-Prime Minister.

    Do we need to go back 30 years or more to find a Prime Minister who enjoyed widespread admiration among PB contributors?

    Are we still Thatcher's Children and does her shadow really extend that far?

    Are there really more questions than answers?

    I am warm towards Major, Blair and Cameron, and have respect but not admiration for Thatcher, Brown and May. All better than the incumbent, albeit not luckier.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Perhaps it's me but I don't detect a lot of warmth on here for Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron or Theresa May?

    Who would be Prime Minister? I don't know but it seems preferable to being an ex-Prime Minister.

    Do we need to go back 30 years or more to find a Prime Minister who enjoyed widespread admiration among PB contributors?

    Are we still Thatcher's Children and does her shadow really extend that far?

    Are there really more questions than answers?

    There’s Major, who is thought of rather more kindly as ex PM than he was as PM.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,339
    The endless cool grey weather is really raping my vibe
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Politico.com - Panic buying drains Southeast gas stations, Biden widens efforts to ease shipments - The Biden administration is trying to ease the supply panic that started this weekend.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/12/gas-shortage-biden-487573

    Gasoline shortages caused by panic buying after the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline spread across the southeastern U.S. on Wednesday as the Biden administration widened its efforts to ease rules for fuel deliveries.

    What: The Department of Transportation will allow overweight truck loads of gasoline and other fuels across the South and up the Atlantic Coast states as far as New Jersey to use the interstate highway system, the White House said Wednesday morning. The Department of Homeland Security has also concluded a review of shipping capacity on the water and "stands ready to review any temporary Jones Act waiver requests" to use foreign vessels to move fuel between U.S. ports, the White House added.

    Context: The administration is trying to ease the supply panic that started this weekend but reached fever pitch on Tuesday. Drivers in the Southeast have flocked to gasoline stations to hoard fuel in a reaction to the continued outage at the Colonial Pipeline. That 5,500-mile conduit supplies the East Coast with nearly half its fuel supplies and is currently offline after hackers succeeded in hitting its business computer system with a ransomware attack Friday.

    Colonial could announce by the end of today whether its computer systems were sufficiently sound to begin the days-long task of restarting the pipeline.

    The surge in gasoline demand in some regions has drained retail outlets of their supplies, with about three quarters of the gas stations in Pensacola, Fla., and Raleigh, N.C., and two-thirds of stations in metro Atlanta shut down amid shortages, according to a Wednesday morning tweet from Patrick De Haan, a market analyst at GasBuddy.com.

    Demand across the region was enough to push overall U.S. gasoline demand on Tuesday up more than 13 percent from the previous week even as most of the country experiences only a much smaller seasonal increase in sales, De Haan wrote. There seemed to be enough supply at fuel storage terminals, he added, meaning that the bigger issue seemed to be not enough truck drivers to deliver the fuel to retail stations.

    “This seems to be turning into a not-enough-truck-drivers-to-get-it-there story,” De Haan wrote.

    What's Next: The Biden administration will give a House briefing on the cyberattack at 6 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Leon said:

    The endless cool grey weather is really raping my vibe

    Take it you are NOT planning to relocate to Seattle? Or Vancouver?
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    kingbongo said:

    MaxPB said:

    kingbongo said:

    MaxPB said:

    The commission economic predictions for the UK definitely have a touch of jilted ex syndrome. The city consensus is noticeably higher and factors in little to no brexit related reduction in GDP. I think it would be fairly embarrassing for them to come in at ~7.5% where the city consensus is for the UK, though. Additionally it looks like their projections are done on a nominal GDP calculation basis but the GDP itself is the output model as preferred by the ONS. Most of the city has caught up with this and it's why there is expected to be a big bounceback as schools return to normal and health output picks up as the NHS works through a huge backlog.

    It's interesting reading the economics editor of Berlingske today explaining how the UK economy fared worst of all economies last year "Unlike Denmark" - the whole piece is tinged with a "bastard british have left us at the mercy of the Germans" vibe - apparently there may be some short term bounce back over the summer but by Autumn the warning klaxons will be going off and the full error of Brexit will become visible - I don't know if that will happen but reading the piece it's clear he really wants it too because the UK 'abandoned' Denmark.
    Another bit of jilted ex syndrome. Goldman Sachs have got UK growth this year penciled in at 7.8% which recovers all of our GDP by the end of 2021 based on the measure they use.

    Also, there is a solution to being left at the mercy of Germany. 🤷‍♂️
    I can't tell you the grief I get over the UK leaving the EU, mostly because I don't participate in gleefully hoping it all goes horribly wrong and saying Boris Johnson is an idiot and the electorate were tricked - Danes are mostly now looking on and suffering major jilted ex syndrome. They HATE the idea Brexit might not be that big a deal economically to the UK.
    Too much guardian reading and CNN watching I think. If there is a brexit effect, even in the short term, it is mostly going to be carried by the food/fishing industry because of EU border pedantry. Most of everything else will just get on with life. Speaking from my position in financial services, the death of the City that everyone in the EU keeps hyping up doesn't seem likely, hiring is stronger than I've ever seen it and we're winning clients from outside the EU much faster than we were when we were in it and for us it's made up for the difficulty in servicing EU based clients and more. I think 2021 will be a record year for us in terms of asset gains and 2022 will be a record for profitability.
    Thanks for the "I'm alright Jack" anecdote. There are plenty of very real businesses that have suffered so that those that jerk off about "sovrinty init" can have their moment of ecstasy.

    The reality is that Brexit is and was a massive upheaval. Whether it was economically worth it I am happy to concede will now need to be decided by impartial historical economists probably long after I have ceased to care, and though I am not dead, I am already not far off not caring now.

    As far as I was concerned, the worst thing about Brexit was that it was so massively divisive. Some people and some politicians get off on that, just like the SNP in Scotland. It might be helpful if people who were in favour of Brexit owned a bit of humility instead of constantly trying to justify Brexit when there is no need to do so. We are not going back in. You don't need to keep picking at the wound.
    That's not really what I was going for and I do accept that there will be some tough times for specific industries, mostly in food and fishing.

    I think what you fail to see is that EU membership was also massively divisive, as someone who benefits from it's not easy to understand why it would be but communities across the whole country have been destroyed by wage deflation and stagnation in lower-middle income jobs and the resulting increase in population has also resulted in a crash in owner occupation of houses.

    As much as I'm a realist about what brexit is and isn't (and there are many items in each column) I think you should be realistic about what EU membership had turned into for large swathes of the country. That resentment and divisiveness was already there with or without a referendum. In 2015 4m people voted for UKIP, by a quirk of our voting system they didn't get any seats. In the road not taken where Dave refused a referendum how many cycles do you think it would have taken for PM Nige to become a reality? Pretending that EU membership was all sunlit uplands isn't realistic.
    I am trying not to be drawn into EU arguments as I think we need to move on, but I think your argument about "EU membership" has some validity EXCEPT that a lot of the associated problems with free movement were as a result of British government immigration policies, and the reality that 50% of UK immigration had nothing to do with the EU and yet successive Home Secretaries (including Mrs May) did nothing about it and tacitly encouraged it. The EU was blamed for immigration because it was convenient. It is all history now though!
    Did nothing? May was far, far too authoritarian with immigration from the rest of the world! Unless you want zero migration, to say that 'nothing was being done' is just untrue - one irony is that many voted to Leave the EU to make it easier for the rest of the world to get a visa to come to the UK not harder.

    I'm glad the authoritarian May Home Secretary has gone as well as her ludicrous and xenophobic "hundreds of thousands" pledge. I'm glad that we have liberalised getting a visa for many skilled migrants from the rest of the world post-Brexit.
    Not according to wiki. Breakdown as follows -

    Voting Leave to get lower net migration: 17,410,741
    Voting Leave to get higher net migration: Richard Tyndall
    Wrong. Vote Leave and immigration doesn't matter.

    My aim is not for higher or lower migration, it is migration to cease to be an issue. Now I know that is fanciful but the point is that it had zero impact on my view of the EU. Nor am I alone in this. Indeed PT's views are very close to mine - if perhaps not quite so extreme in this respect.

    I realise that kind of spoils your little meme but that is your problem not mine.
    Don't go spoiling my meme (I won't go spoiling your meme) ... don't go spoiling my

    No, but I was doing the old 'exaggeration to make point' technique. Looking for more immigration was not a big driver of Brexit.
    Bollocks it was a serious campaign issue.

    2016 - Priti Patel, Vote Leave: It is unfair that there is free movement with Europe alone and very tough migration from India. Voting to take back control will allow the best and brightest from India to be able to migrate. https://www.facebook.com/voteleave/posts/statement-from-priti-patel-mp-employment-minister-on-how-uk-india-relations-will/556891701154425/

    2021 - Priti Patel, Home Secretary - UK and India sign ground-breaking partnership migration deal https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-india-sign-ground-breaking-partnership-migration-deal
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,957
    edited May 2021
    algarkirk said:

    ping said:

    RIP to all the innocents pointlessly killed in Israel/Palestine.

    I don’t know who I despise more; The Israeli right or the Palestinian Islamists.

    Peas in a pod.

    Tragic and terrible. Why does it get so much more coverage than the 380,000 who have died and millions displaced in Syria?

    People have funny obsessions. Yesterday @Foxy was comparing HMF killing 300-odd people in the Six Counties (and a teeny bit beyond) to the Latin American death squads.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,497
    Chameleon said:

    I see that, in keeping with the acute concern felt by many about Scottish independence, the thread is full of discussion about the by-election in Scotland TOMORROW.

    Er, not.

    Batley, Amersham, interesting future by-elections. But, without wanting to sound all SNPish, why does nobody care about Scotland?

    Because we all know that it's an SNP hold, and there's very little interest in discussing universally agreed certainties.
    Because Wm Hill have the SNP at 1/200 to take the seat? And TBF Scotland get lots of PB coverage when there is something to say. Like if the SNP failed in this one, or actually started moves for Ref2.

  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,957
    Leon said:

    The endless cool grey weather is really raping my vibe

    At four pm today the weather was amazing I nearly broke out the rosé. Now it's effing freezing.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468

    Leon said:

    The endless cool grey weather is really raping my vibe

    Take it you are NOT planning to relocate to Seattle? Or Vancouver?
    Try Geneva ...
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    ping said:

    RIP to all the innocents pointlessly killed in Israel/Palestine.

    I don’t know who I despise more; The Israeli right or the Palestinian Islamists.

    Peas in a pod.

    I was reading that the Palestinians have not had an election since 2006 and Abbas recently postponed the latest one indefinitely.

This discussion has been closed.