Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

Today's saga with A2Dominion, the Housing Association that owns the other half of my flat:

On that £800 service charge bill (over and above the £140 they take from me every month, in a building where entropy and disrepair seem to be taking a firm hold):

https://www.facebook.com/flaviomatani/posts/10158069696999919

and on Twitter, which seemed to get a quicker response but then... nothing. Still waiting for them to call back:
https://twitter.com/flaviomatani/status/1228728580517044224
https://twitter.com/flaviomatani/status/1228729345251987457
https://twitter.com/flaviomatani/status/1228730523700408320

a very frustrating phone call, put on hold for over 15 min. to bad music, conversation going in circles without getting anywhere, the person I 'needed' to speak to 'was busy' and would 'phone me back'. They still haven't. The conversation wasn't threatening or rude on their part but they clearly were following a script and I came out of it shaking, as if I had just had a fight or a fright.

https://twitter.com/flaviomatani/status/1229728480432214016

Putting it on Twitter resulted in their contacting me on that medium straight away. But still nothing. As far as I know the £800 charge still stands, haven't heard from them. Frustrating.

https://twitter.com/flaviomatani/status/1229728987896799232

Spent a good chunk of the afternoon yesterday on the phone to First Utility, who for the last three years supply me with electricity, gas and inflated estimate bills that they send to me in duplicate as they have me with two different customer account numbers. To try and make that simpler, they have issued a third account number and decided that I have never paid electricity or gas and I therefore owe them 2.393 pounds and pence. I'm getting final notices of payment on that last, third account number, mentioning legal department, etc. Yesterday I phoned them for the third time -the two previous calls had fallen through exactly twenty minutes into them, after being put on hold while the person at the other end 'was sorting things out'. This is on an 0845 number. Every time you speak to someone different so you have to go over the same story again. They have 'smart' meters that don't work and I have been sending them emails with the readings (including photographs of the meters..). Long history of email and phone correspondence which goes from the surreal to the Kafkian.

Haven't moved away as there is that ghost second (third?!) account that would still be hanging over my head, as is happening to a neighbour in the building right now (First Utility was already set up as the provider in this new build). I'm also finding that they have the very worst reviews of all gas/electricity providers..

I put a small personal recommendation on Twitter ('never ever consider using these people as gas/leccy providers') and they came back to me asking whether they could help. Can they?

Sorry about the lengthy post!

The gas bill saga continues.

The company, First Utility, was supposed to have sorted out the second 'ghost' account, with different number, according to which I would never have paid electricity or gas in the time I've been here (about a year and a half by now). I'm still getting those bills.

I also received the 'normal' bill for this month. They'd installed a device that allegedly sends meter data via 3G to them. The bill, according to which I spent £80 on gas last month (during which, as an experiment, I was cooking on an electric range instead of the gas hob, there was no central heating use, etc) is an _estimate_, which is supposed not to happen. I'll happily move supplier when this is over but I suspect that wouldn't be the end of it if I did it now. This is turning into something like a Kafka story, or a zombie movie, where when you've think you've killed the monster the hand pops again out of the ground...

 Took many months to get First Utility, who provide most flats in this building with electricity and gas, to acknowledge that there might be a problem with my gas meter, its readings or its billing. I pay more for gas in this tiny 36 m2 studio flat than we used to at the old, five times larger, four bedroom flat I used to live at before, with two or three other people in it. Eventually after over a year or so of this they issued a £400 credit, which is still running, as they might have been billing from the wrong meter. There had been another issue, a bill addressed to me, right property, wrong post-code, different account number (but it would seem to be the same meters)  according to which I had never paid my bill and owed them £1300 and pence. I called them, alarmed as you would be, and they said 'sorry sir, mistake; will be rectified'.  Today I have just received another bill for that second account number. It would seem that I have never paid my bill and I better pay them now those £1400 and pence or else.

If you were thinking of switching suppliers and were considering First Utility.... what can I say, I can't recommend them enough. Er, meaning really that I cannot recommend them at all!  So much hassle over this! Over a year of this saga and still going...

 These guys supply me with gas and electricity. I have complained several times that I pay too much for what is a tiny flat, perhaps an eighth of the size of the previous, 4-bedroomed flat. Now I get a letter from some debt collectors threatening with disconnection and legal and reconnection fees in the thousands of pounds, etc. Right address, different customer number. Grrr. Just spent half an hour on the phone trying to sort that out.

Ok, granted that perhaps the way to get best customer service is not, when they reply with a dopey 'Huh?' to your attempt at explaining your problem, with a 'Sorry to wake you up, mate...'

first of all, Happy Birthday, monted!! Hope it's a very good one!

At this end of things, this was a second week-end of moving house. I had moved most of my stuff last week-end but there was a lot left behind -and a horrendous mess which I had to try and clear. With a lot of help with redd_foxx and several trips to the dump recycling centre.

Haven't been out much this week-end, apart from a brief excursion to Blacklist at the Elixir and then Inferno, but I left early (around 2:00 am) -maybe a bit tired after the whole moving thing, shifting stuff, or maybe I'm just getting old... or maybe I'm just enjoying the being in my own space just now, even if I'm surrounded by a million cardboard boxes at the moment..

I'm liking the new flat a lot. Apart from the looming parking nightmare (have I mentioned this?). Now I only have to pay for it...

Left the old flat in an unbelievably chaotic mess. Have to sort that out (and sort what I want to keep and what is rubbish) in the next week or so. No fixed telephone or internet at home just yet, just a 3G dongle. BT screwed up my order and this will cost me one week's wait more for the internet. Maybe their little revenge for me having broadband with somebody else.

So, some things have to go. Anyone wants a mini-fridge in perfect working condition? Perhaps £20 or so... also the sofa-bed in the new flat has to go, I hate it with a passion. But you might like it..

ION, Happy Birthday, miss_kat!! Have a good one!

I'm moving house in a couple of stages. Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. If you think you could give me a hand at either end of things -both in Kentish Town, a few blocks away- it would be very, very helpful. If you think you can, gimme a ring on 07958527692 and I would really, really appreciate it, as it would seem I'm not getting younger except in my mind and I do need help carrying stuff.

So I didn't make it to Black Plastic, Invocation or any of the other options. Instead, I've been sorting out what CDs, records, DVDs and books I can keep and which I can not, when I move.

Also reading 'The Singularity is Near' by Ray Kurtzweil. Fascinating exercise, but I wish I could be so optimistic.

Finished my last lesson for today. I'd had a late lunch with that (rather garlicky) pesto I'd made earlier, maybe I should wonder whether those pupils are going to come back now:P

Tomorrow may be a somewhat intense day. Have to deal with the flat lawyers, also go to the letting agents and try and unravel the complication with the flat I'm living in 'at the moment' (quote marks, because I've been here for nearly seven years. It's beginning to feel like I'm detaching myself from it, though -maybe prematurely so, we'll see).

I'm beginning to dread the moving house thing. Just the thought of unpick and pack my life (and I've got so much stuff, a lot of which I do not want to part with), sort out the mess of this flat in the process, carry it all to the new place and sort it there, leave this place in a state vaguely resembling habitability, etc etc, fills me with dread...

Ah, yes, one more thing today: Happy Birthday, gemlins!! Have a good one!:)