Archive - Adversities of life in the 21st Century

I'm Waiting!!!

by osmodiar @ 31/05/08 – 22:45:32

It has now been more than a month since I wrote to the Energy Ombudsman Overseer, and I still don't know if he has received my letter. I have had no acknowledgement whatsoever. It is also now 1 week since the Ombudsmans deadline passed and I've heard nothing from them or for that matter, Scottish Power. I wish someone would please tell me what is going on. I would have expected Scottish Power to be in touch within 24 hours of the deadline expiring, seeing as its been almsot 18 months since I last paid any serious money to them.

I need to know what preparations I need to make for taking this matter to court. However I don't know what to do since my last contact with Scottish Power appeared to suggest that they were investigating the matter again. I suppose I just have to continue waiting.

No News is ... No News!!

by osmodiar @ 28/05/08 – 22:40:40

Well Here we are, beyond the Ombudsman deadline and no news from anyone. Nothing from Scottish Power, Nothing from the Ombudsman and nothing from The Ombudsman Overseer. In fact all I've had from the postal service lately are letters from insurance companies offering me insurance for my car - or more specifically offering the female me car insurance. Morons!!

During my last post I mentioned my boss wanting to put me on a rotational shift pattern and amending my contract to suit. I had said to her that I did not do night shift, and besides that I was leaving this employment anyway. I also said that my GP has decided I am Diabetic and under such circumstances I was not prepared to do night shift. I have read that night shift can adversely affect the health of Diabetics. There are studies which show that rotational shift patterns have adverse effects on Blood Pressure, Cholesterol Levels, Stress Levels, Depression and Blood Sugar Levels. However I do not wish to do night duty as I have done this job for 25 years and never before done night duty. Under UK Empolyment Law I can refuse the amendment as wholly unacceptable, and this is how I intend to pursue the matter.

I received a letter several days ago from my boss saying that as I was siting Diabetes as a reason for not doing night duty, then she was referring me to Occupational Health. Today I received a letter from Occupational Health, offering me an appointment to discuss my health problems. This appointment is clearly a waste of their time and my time as I am not using Diabetes as an excuse.

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I dispute the diagnosis on the basis that the diagnosis of Diabetes was made on the strength of a Glucose Tolerance Test which I believe was not carried out in the best of circumstances. The Glucose Tolerance Test was carried ouit within days of being started on a new tablet known to affect blood sugar levels, and within days of having the dose of another tablet increased which also is known to adversely affect blood sugar levels. Also the second tablet, when increased caused me to suffer side effects.

Latest Update

by osmodiar @ 22/05/08 – 22:11:40

So far I have heard nothing from anyone. Nothing from Scottish Power, nothing from the Ombudsman Service and nothing from the Ombudsman Overseer. I have today written to the Ombudsman reluctantly accepting Scottish Powers terms as an interim measure. I have added 2 conditions of my own. My conditions being that Scottish Power understand that I am only in agreement until such times as I have my court case prepared, and that I am immediately allowed to switch suppliers. I do not wish to give them any more of my money than absolutely necessary. In my estimation they have fleeced enough cash out of me.

The net result of my electrical cosumption was that in the year since the digital meter has been in my house I have used over 5960 units of electricity less than previous years. Surely this is conclusive proof that I am telling the truth - that I do not use the rediculous amounts of electricity that Scottish Power believe I use. I believe that the usage shown on my meter is still higher than I actually use, but it is a more normal figure.

Otherwise my life continues to lumber along miserably. After 21 years of working day duty, my employers deem it necessary that all staff should rotate onto night duty, however that is another story.

Familiar Ground!!

by osmodiar @ 13/05/08 – 20:49:33

Well here we are - more than one week on from contacting the Ombudsman Overseer and guess what - I don't even know if he has received my letter. I have had no contact with anyone concerning my ongoing complaint. It seems that if you are unhappy in this country with the level of service you get from whatever utility, shop or even the service industry. You can expect to be treated as a leper. You are shunned, people are always "getting back" to you, or waiting to speak to their supervisor, or anything other than deal with your complaint. Unless you find someone with that old fashioned quality - knowing their job.

As a further example of this - I lost access to 40 TV channels on my digital TV service around 2 months ago. Despite several communications I got nowhere trying to get someone to repair the problem - to the extent that last Sunday 04/05/08 I ended up speaking to 2 Asian people (presumably not UK based). After around 1 hour on the telephone I was told that the problem would have to be forwarded to their technical support team and someone would be in contact with me. I accepted this, however on Friday 11/05/08 I received a call from someone in Liverpool telling me the job was now being closed. As soon as I received this message I called back to ask why the job was being closed without anyone coming to check what the problem was.

Luckily this time I was speaking to someone who knew what they were doing. She asked various questions and then said she would get an engineer out on Saturday 12/05/08 between 12:00 and 16:00 hours. Then at around 14:30 on Saturday the gentleman in question turned up. After checking various parts of our system, he concluded that the fault was out in the street. He said it probably would not be fixed until Monday, but would call in the fault anyway.

Around 17:00 on Saturday, I was just about to go to Asda's Supermarket when my daughter came out to say that the TV in the living-room and her bedroom had suddenly stopped working. I asked what she would like me to do about it, since I was on my way to the shops. When we were in Asda, my wife went to get one or two items herself as I went to get the main shopping. When I met up with her again she was in a foul mood. It seems that she was standing in a queue waiting to be served for around 10 minutes, but when she got to the check-out the girl stated that they no longer took handbaskets at that particular cash desk, and my wife had to go and stand in another queue. We had to pass the said desk on the way out. so as we approached I asked my wife in the loudest voice I could muster
"So this is the queue you stood in and these nuggets made you wait for 10 minutes and then said they don't take handbaskets anymore, well I don't see a f**king sign that says they don't take handbaskets anymore."
Generally this behaviour would have embarrassed my wife, but not on this occasion, even with a large crowd of people watching, she agreed with me. We have noticed since then that sometimes they do take handbaskets and sometimes they don't. I wonder what the shops policy actually is regarding this matter. Anyway to cut a long story short, by the time I got back from Asda the TVs were working again. It appears that the TV company had repaired the fault that day instead of waiting until Monday.

The Next Step

by osmodiar @ 04/05/08 – 00:32:45

This week I received a reply from the Ombudsman Service, regarding the letter I sent stating that I intended to take the matter futher - and my reasons for doing so. The letter thanked me for my updated information, but also stated that an Ombudsman's decision is not negotiable (which suggests to me that seeing just the facts has shown that I am right), but now they are reneging on their responsibility and hiding behind their system. So I have taken the complaint to the Ombudsman Overseer - Rodger Jeffries, outlining the problem.

I have also looked into the possibility of legal action, checking out all the local Solicitors firms. There are 6 who take on work covered under Consumer Law. So there is no shortage of options should this be a necessary step.

Also in recent developments - my wife and I disagree about the next point. She thinks it is only due to the involvement of the Ombudsman, but I see it differently. I am referring to our latest contact with Scottish Power. They sent a statement of account rather than a demand for money. As I said, my wife thinks this is due to the ongoing Ombudsman process. However, I think that Scottish Power have noticed that as we said - since the new digital meter was installed our usage has dropped by around 50%. As a year has now passed and our usage is consistently lower (by around 50%), I think Scottish Power are having a rethink. I could of course be completely wrong, but I'd like to think that perhaps someone in their organisation has a little bit of common sense!!!