British Gas - Crap Service Continues... Do These People Ever Learn

I’ve been using a fridge freezer that switches itself off when it wants, rots my food and doesn’t freeze my ice cubes. Yes, life’s a bit dull and you may wonder why I don’t just buy a new one…

Hmmm…. The thought has crossed my mind. But then we’re one of those suckers who pay for British Gas Homecare – £44-odd pounds that we fork out to them every month to cover our boiler, five domestic appliances, pipes (which by the way does not cover our dripping tap… ok, I see the logic in that) I have no intention of getting rid of my fridge! – and as far as I am concerned, we’ve bought a new fridge freezer this year, through our payments to them!

Anyway, it’s been about two months, and we’ve been waiting for a part to come into stock. First lie. Basically the parts department have been waiting for a company called Connect to deliver the part, and that’s what they mean by out of stock. O…k….

Well, last Thursday I heard about the sixth or so of the weekly to fortnightly message from someone from the Parts Department. She – Stacey – didn’t even sound sympathetic when she left a pathetic message saying that the part was still out of stock “sorry”! But her tune soon changed when I demanded to speak to a manager that day or I was going to a) cancel my Homecare Agreement b) going to ring the new desk at the Sun. oh and I forgot about the complaints letter I threatened to write, which I told her would have her name on it.

My kettle hadn’t even boiled for my herbal tea when a manager called – surprise, surprise – and all of a sudden my part was ready and had instantly moved from out of stock status to in-stock status. All the manager – Jo – needed from me was availability. Needless to say, when I raised the coincidence of the Sun’s news desk and my fridge freezer part miraculously coming into stock to her, she didn’t have a response to give me… wish I’d thought of this eight weeks ago.

hey, and it looks like I'm not the only one whose had too much hassle to get the service I have been paying for...

http://money.guardian.co.uk/utilities/story/0,,2062011,00.html

http://anmblog.typepad.com/this_is_money_blog/2006/12/my_british_gas_.html

http://www.clik2complaints.co.uk/DPs/bgas12.html

http://www.webstermarketing.co.uk/bgas.htm

http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1449

And what hope does anyonehave when the new boss asks us to stick with them because they're a British company... hmmm I guess that makes it alright then.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/bills/article.html?in_article_id=417561&in_page_id=510

What planet are these people from? Dealing with the level of incompetence is like having an extra part-time job or something... who needs that kind of stress when you're not even getting basic manners from the advisors?

Mind your cheesy feet please!

Public transport is such a cheap shot when we want something to moan about, because quite frankly, from the sweaty trains to the inaccurate train times, there is something to gripe about every day of the weak.

I’m going deeper than that and talking about how nasty people can be on the trains in particular. Nose pickers and feet lifters, you know who you are!

On Friday, I was on the train and after swishing on the last bit of lipgloss, my eyes were drawn to unpedicured feet. Not great first thing in the morning, so lucky for me that I do breakfast when I get to the office.

Upedicured, cheesy, crusty feet on a seat that I could well be sitting sometime in the future. It started off with one foot at the edge of the seat… I grimaced and looked away, but when the foot actually got higher until it was on the actual seat, I had to whip my phone out – almost chipped my nail varnish so I wouldn’t miss the snap.

Then low and behold, the nasty put both feet on the seat… so that’s when I took the second snap! How vile…

The Modern Man Part 2: The “In My Own Time” Syndrome

Since the first posting about the modern man, I’ve had more than a few comments – mainly off-blog because people feel that even an anonymous posting will expose them somehow… mainly the guys, so that says it all!

Anyway, there’s this response that I call a syndrome of the domestically comatosed man, which a few male friends have thrown towards me as if to imply that that doesn’t make them less of a modern man than they think they are: “I’ll do it in my own time.”

Basically, this is as close to not doing the outstanding domestic chore as the lazy man, but this guy thinks he’s smart. And it’s one that “fake” modern men use to buy more time. While the lazy slob type of man won’t even commit to the idea of doing, say, the dishes, the modern man impostor prefers to give false hope to his partner, buying himself more time. And the “in my own time” period generally comes when modern man impostor:

gets the cold shoulder from his partner
gets a blast from his partner
wants to impress partner’s female friends or family when they come round to visit.

From what I have been told by confiding male friends, on the surface, most modern men are actually impostors and will never change. They basically tell women what they think they want to hear – before they are fully committed with their partner. Once they have snared the poor unsuspecting woman, he will slowly show the true depth of his modern capabilities.