The Room 101 thread - for things you hate or just having a bloody good moan

[Wrathbone]

This is turning into a proper debacle. I've got them to reduce the DD payments back to where they were, but they're still refusing the £100 credit refund despite my legal right to it and their failure to provide any reasonable grounds on which to deny it. They claimed (as expected) that it's so I don't fall into arrears in the event that energy prices go up over winter.

So I ran the numbers and detailed it out to them. For me to go into arrears by the end of March with the refund I've asked for and the amount I'm paying, energy prices would have to go up by 28.2% as of today. I asked them if that's something they were planning. They declined to confirm or deny, which is somewhat concerning! Maybe they've got their eye on Greenland...

Anyway, I've threatened them with the Energy Ombudsman, so I'm sure they're shaking in their little energy boots.

Spoiler

Oh, and I have a Complaint Handler now, which is nice. I wonder if they'll listen to any other complaints I have about things. I could refer them to the entirety of this thread.

[Raid]

For me to go into arrears by the end of March with the refund I've asked for and the amount I'm paying, energy prices would have to go up by 28.2% as of today. I asked them if that's something they were planning. They declined to confirm or deny, which is somewhat concerning! Maybe they've got their eye on Greenland...

Nah, give them some credit (though obviously you already have, hur hur), they haven't even started on Venezuela yet.

[Snowy]

This is turning into a proper debacle. I've got them to reduce the DD payments back to where they were, but they're still refusing the £100 credit refund despite my legal right to it and their failure to provide any reasonable grounds on which to deny it. They claimed (as expected) that it's so I don't fall into arrears in the event that energy prices go up over winter.

So I ran the numbers and detailed it out to them. For me to go into arrears by the end of March with the refund I've asked for and the amount I'm paying, energy prices would have to go up by 28.2% as of today. I asked them if that's something they were planning. They declined to confirm or deny, which is somewhat concerning! Maybe they've got their eye on Greenland...

Anyway, I've threatened them with the Energy Ombudsman, so I'm sure they're shaking in their little energy boots.

Spoiler

Oh, and I have a Complaint Handler now, which is nice. I wonder if they'll listen to any other complaints I have about things. I could refer them to the entirety of this thread.

It's almost as if they have realised that if every customer has a couple hundred quid in their safekeeping, they have a zero-outlay investment slush fund to boost profit.

Oh. Wait...

[Wrathbone]

Quite. I did throw the "I am not a bank" line at them, but it's obvious that energy companies are aggressively abusing the system to force customers into building up unnecessary credit.

[Lenny Solidus]

Being introduced to someone irl who actually seems interesting at first but then spoils it all by them adding 'fucking' after every other word.

Not trying to come over as pompous but it's a real conversation killer for me, the nails on a chalkboard kind.

[Wrathbone]

OVO caved eventually and are sending me the refund.

I’d go to a different provider if I thought there was any chance it’d be better there.

[Mantis]

Seriously, give Octopus a go. They're a step above the others for me just on the grounds that when you ring their customer services you can get put through to a human pretty much immediately.

[Alan]

My electricity is about 180 a month, I just leave the DD at 230 then come Christmas I do a refund and Christmas is way less painful because you kind of forget about it and boom, "free" £600 quid! :p. This year I miscalculated and my refund put me £12 in debt to which their automated system calculated my monthly DD should now be £432.23. Thankfully a quick email and they sorted it it. Octpus are pretty decent in all my contacts with them to be fair.

Oh and hey, if you decide to switch to Octopus hit one of us up for a referal and both get £50

[Wrathbone]

Cheers, I’ll have a look at Octopus.

EDIT - Just got a call to say they're sending the refund by bloody cheque. Absolute troll move.

How the hell do you even cash a cheque these days? I've not had to do one in 20+ years.

[Rusty]

If you have a banking app you can submit it through that. You take a photo of the front and back

[Raid]

I think most banks should give you the option of paying cheques in by photographing them using their mobile app - HSBC certainly were when I worked there several years back. Hopefully the software has improved since then, but as a general rule:

- Make sure there's plenty of light on the cheque.
- Make sure it's flat.
- Try to put it on a different coloured surface to help the software to understand where the cheque boundary is.
- Make sure you're putting the guide box over the whole cheque.
- Make sure it hasn't first been eaten by a dog and then regurgitated.
- Make sure it hasn't been used as nesting material for a flight of migratory birds, as this will often mean it'll be out of date.
- Try to ensure it is actually a cheque, and not an IOU from your Great Aunt for eleven cans of Spam.

I'm not saying I have PTSD, but I am having to blink a lot to make sure I'm not showing a thousand yard stare.

[Wrathbone]

Excellent, thanks. Literally no reason why they couldn't have just done a bank transfer though.

[Snowy]

Car trouble. Those who know me know I am a total petrolhead and my car wants for nothing. To have it start to misfire on the motorway this morning, causing a hurried move onto the hard shoulder, was therefore frankly rude, the ungrateful little bastard!

Four and a half extremely cold hours waiting for a recovery truck followed, the car has now been dropped off to BMW to await a no doubt eye-wateringly expensive repair, which they can't do till next Tuesday. Next stop Enterprise to get a hire car for the next 2 weeks at £450 and a £200 deposit.

What a fucking start to the week!