Utilitarian Incompetence

I'm sure everyone has these sorts of horror stories regarding utility companies, especially when moving, but that doesn't make me feel better. What makes me feel better is ranting. What makes the below worse is the fact that all of them only have 0800, or more commonly, 0845 numbers and I do not have a land line.

npower

I chose npower because uswitch said they'd be the cheapest for us. Perhaps that should have been a warning rather than a recommendation. Our first problem was that they could not accept either of our meter serial numbers, they were apparently wrong, even though I was looking straight at them. Ironically British Gas were very helpful, despite the fact that we were leaving them. (Note that British Gas have raised my ire in the past too.)

We then received a letter from npower saying that the gas had been cancelled and that they were sorry to see us go. I called them and was told it was probably due to the confusion over the meter numbers and not to worry, the gas was going ahead. I thought I better check the electric too while I was on the phone. Oh no, I was told, the electric has been cancelled, due to them not being able to find the address, and that they would have sent a letter out. There is some paradox in there somewhere.

Unfortunately by this time the tariff that I had requested was no longer available. Not to worry, I was assured that they would connect us on Standard and move us over to Sign Online 20 once we were connected. Having heard horror stories about npower's abilities to sign you up for the most expensive tariff I asked for this to be confirmed in writing. A few days later we received a standard letter thanking me for my call and hoping that I was happy. No mention of tariffs. So I called them again and explained that I wanted it in writing. A few days later we received a standard letter thanking me for my call and hoping that I was happy. I called them again and explained the situation. After a few minutes on hold the complaints department picked up, which was a surprise as I hadn't requested the complaints department, but what the hell. I explained the situation and we now have a letter confirming the complaint, but still nothing confirming the tariff switch.

Barclays

A few days after I'd moved I printed out and filled in Barclays' change of address form, including the date on which I moved. They then sent a letter to my old address saying that my signature did not match the one they have on file. Yes, they posted a letter to the address which I had just told them that I had already moved out of. It was only by chance (see below) that I discovered that the change of address had not gone through.

Virgin

I was very impressed with Virgin's service in moving my connection, we only had a matter of hours downtime. My first bill came and all seemed well. But then the second bill came. It should have been £25, but was £80. Eventually it transpired that they somehow had the wrong account number, despite the fact that they'd been charging the same account for the previous 12 months. They had then charged me extra for their inconvenience. I was assured I would have been sent a letter informing me of this. Happily it was rectified quite quickly and they refunded the extra charges made.

UPDATE: Virgin now seem to be doing a 30meg service for less than I am paying for the 20meg service! What's more, new customers are offered free installation, whereas I would have to pay £30 for the upgrade!

O2

Why oh why do 0800 numbers not get included in my monthly minutes? If only I'd known about 0800 Buster a month ago.

British Gas

British Gas have managed to charge me twice for the same, final bill. Not a small amount either.

TV Licensing

When we moved in we found a lot of unopened mail from TV Licensing. We didn't have a TV so I rang them and spoke to a very helpful guy who promised that we wouldn't receive any more mail from them. He was wrong. Not only did we continue to receive their demands and threats, but they got worse. I really object to being spoken to as if my guilt is assumed until I prove my innocence. In fact they weren't even giving us that chance, many of the letters included a leaflet that "might be helpful to you in court." Having got a TV we bought a TV Licence and continue to receive demands to a slightly different address. I am not going to bother replying if they cannot be bothered to check their records, hopefully they will go to the expense of sending someone round.

Barclays' Definition of an Upheld Complaint

A little while ago I made a complaint on the Barclays website about my Barclays Debit Card vs Oyster woes. I wasn't really expecting a response having never had one before, but not only did I get one response, I got two! Admittedly the first was to say that they had promised to keep my updated, and so they were keeping my updated by letting me know that they hadn't finished investigating yet. But the second letter (banks haven't discovered email yet) was the really exciting one. They admitted that some customers had had problems, and went on to say that they didn't have a solution for the problem yet* and then, and this is the best bit, they went on to say that my complaint has not been upheld. Let me just recap, they admit that they have a problem, they admit that they don't have a fix, and yet my complaint is not upheld. One wonders under what circumstances Barclays would uphold a complaint.

* In the meantime I have been to my local branch to request a non-Wave and Pay debit card as suggested. A very helpful chap called the debit card issuing department who said it wouldn't be possible, but after three days he called me back to say that they'd found one down the back of the sofa and that it would be on its way to me soon. I have yet to receive it.

UPDATE: I got on a bus on Friday and did my usual trick of waving my wallet around at the Oyster reader and the bus driver actually asked me if I had a Barclays' card, so it's obviously quite a common issue.

The World Is Not Barclay's Oyster

I started using a new wallet recently. And my oyster card stopped working. My being a cyclist combined with the rush usually associated with public transport I didn't have a lot of opportunity to investigate. It was a bit confusing though as it is just a standard leather wallet. It recently occurred to me however that it could be down, not to my wallet, but my new Barclay's debit card, which has these wavy lines on. I called Barclay's only to be told, rather condescendingly that the two cards will not interfere. So I off I trotted to Blackfriar's station, had a little chat with the guard and did some testing. Sure enough, the Oyster card was fine when my Barclay debit card was not in my wallet. The card reader even stated "Too many oyster cards" when my debit card was present. So I called Barclay's again to request a new card sans "wave and pay" technology. No deal. But I was told that I needed to call Oyster and give them my card details which would sort the problem. Needless to say I was not convinced. I called Oyster, but unfortunately I don't seem to have the right sort of card, you have to have a OnePay card to be able to pay for Oyster directly from your Barclay card. I am now bored of talking to people in call centres, do I really have to move banks to fix my Oyster card?

UPDATE: My third phone call to Barclay's got the answer I was after: Apparently I can request to "downgrade" my debit card, but only at my local branch.

See also my further update.

Goodbye PINsentry

Hello EMUE. Bring it on.

Barclay's PINSentry

When I first received Barclay's little calculator-a-like PINSentry device I was pretty annoyed, nobody likes change, and I didn't really want to have to carry it around with me all the time, but I've got used to doing just that, and I now have a Nationwide one too which works with Barclay's card which I keep at home, and obviously the added security is a benefit. However, whenever I try to pay somebody for the first time I have to enter the details ten or so times while the pages cycle from step 3 to step 4 back to step 3 without any error messages. So having tried my ten or so times, and my patience, I finally rang Barclay's to enquire what might be going wrong. The chap on the other end was ever so slightly patronising and asked me to go through it with him, and it worked. He said "you're welcome" without me even thanking him and I felt like screaming "YOU DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING!" But I suppose I should take this as the lesson it is, as it is usually I who stand there watching as the computer miraculously behaves itself while I'm watching trying to keep my patronising and sarcastic thoughts to myself. Just yesterday a client rang to say that our software had somehow deleted a different record to the one that she was on.

Kai has also blogged on this too of course.