Nob of the Day.......

[Fiddlesticks]

1 hour ago, Fender1515 said:

I had an absolute dim wit yesterday, and this is not a generalisation but a specific event!

My energy services supplier has been "encouraging" me to get smart meters installed.

Umm, some bad stuff in the press, but i guess it's the way to go, I am not great a remembering or being arsed to send in monthly meter readings.

Installation engineer pitches up at the prescribed time yesterday morning, starts moaning that my gas supply is on the back wall of the house and it was, hissing down, but first he wants to check all the gas appliances, i show him the gas safety certificate issued 10 days ago, response, don't care mate, i need to check all the appliances, OK fill your boots, oven checked, we have a gas fire in the lounge, never used from one year to the next, but was checked out and passed as fit for purpose 10 days ago, so he gets on his knees, takes a look at the unit and, I don't like the way the coals, imitation type, are stacked, and the unit looks very old, me, it's 10 days older than when it was last checked and passed as being serviceable, what's this got to do with fitting a meter? him, I am going to write this up, me, what your going to do is pack up your kit and exit through that door, him, I got a job to do mate, me, shame you don't know how to do it,   i think you need some customer training before they let you again.

 

He promised to report me to his supervisor, I said get him on the phone now, and I will happily have that conversation, he didn't accept and left.

I work in the property business, I work with trades day in day out, I can honestly say, we get on fine, most of the trades I have worked with for years, they are pals, this guy, arrogant arse, but feel free to  make up your own minds 

 

 

 

I took the other route. Fed up of clicking Unsubscribe on the nagging emails I got onto EDF's live chat.

 

"How can I help you today?"

 

"I'm wondering what the purpose of the Unsubscribe link is on all those Smart Meter emails you keep sending"

 

"That's just if you don't want to receive them in the future"

 

"It's not working. Please put me down as a 'no thank you' and stop sending them"

 

- will see if that works. "Essential upgrade". Pah.

[Mickly]

Don’t get me started on f*kin smart meters !!

Scottish Power fitted ours Jan 2020, they are still not able to connect to them & I have to provide readings … there has been a very long saga of corporate incompetence along the way, I have now give up trying to get it sorted … so my advice is DO NOT agree to have smart meters fitted !!

Edited February 22 by Mickly

[Fiddlesticks]

41 minutes ago, Mickly said:

Don’t get me started on f*kin smart meters !!

Scottish Power fitted ours Jan 2020, they are still not able to connect to them & I have to provide readings … there has been a very long saga of corporate incompetence along the way, I have now give up trying to get it sorted … so my advice is DO NOT agree to have smart meters fitted !!

Been there (not with smart meters, but Scottish Power), the installers had a moan about "Mad Scottish Mary" at head office and went home. A year later, no bill, the Ombudsman got involved, wrote the whole thing off, and we switched out.

[RideWithStyles]

3 hours ago, Nick the wanderer said:

Have you ever considered telling them? You know, to help them? There is a kid around here very similar and one bit of me thinks help him out, and another side says no f**k him. What's the worst that could happen? You could have a friend for life!

can't help (or run after) the bell when they do 30+in a 20 with very little regard for other users...when it's that loud it over takes all other traffic sounds and distinctive.... you can't ignore that from inside a car, you know something is very wrong....

[RideWithStyles]

problem is if your old meter is broken or out of date...what's the replacement? a smart meter...

[S-Westerly]

Scottish Power = Stupid Pricks. We had them once and it took quite some time and effort to get rid of them. They were diseased.

[RideWithStyles]

yep they are terrible, been with them along time ago with british gas and eon that were all horrendous.

we're with octopus , soooooooooooooooooooooo much better, never needed to change supplier since.

[Fozzie]

I think I know what the deal is with smart meters, as I had a lot to do with industrial grade meters around the time they rolled out. 

 

The short of it as I've been told, there are limited suppliers of the types of smart meters, and they have a communications protocol that differs quite a bit as they had no idea on how to standardise. Everyone had their own idea on what the standard should be, and the protocol the meters use can differ by different versions of the same bit of kit. This meant that now they put these devices in and the equipment the energy companies uses to read their data is often mismatched. And they've not a clue how to figure out what you've got, or what they need to connect to it, the call centre staff effectively try to refresh a connection that will never work. Or at least, these are the details passed onto me. 

It's a problem that can be fixed, but as many people have smart meters that work, they aren't motivated to currently. Mine didn't work for 3 years, then seemed to spit into life one day. 

 

 

[rennie]

Mine has stopped working! They're not interested!

[Mickly]

1 hour ago, Fozzie said:

I think I know what the deal is with smart meters, as I had a lot to do with industrial grade meters around the time they rolled out. 

 

The short of it as I've been told, there are limited suppliers of the types of smart meters, and they have a communications protocol that differs quite a bit as they had no idea on how to standardise. Everyone had their own idea on what the standard should be, and the protocol the meters use can differ by different versions of the same bit of kit. This meant that now they put these devices in and the equipment the energy companies uses to read their data is often mismatched. And they've not a clue how to figure out what you've got, or what they need to connect to it, the call centre staff effectively try to refresh a connection that will never work. Or at least, these are the details passed onto me. 

It's a problem that can be fixed, but as many people have smart meters that work, they aren't motivated to currently. Mine didn't work for 3 years, then seemed to spit into life one day. 

 

 

The problem with mine was that it was registered to the wrong f*kn address when fitted, took them 2 years, a complainant raised with the Ombudsman and £100 compo to realise & then the address it was registered to wouldn’t cooperate at all ( don’t blame them )
When the Haggis botherers finally realised the error of their ways they had to come to our place to sort it out … twice they sent an appointment & twice I said it wasn’t convenient & arranged a different time/day & both times the turned up on the original one … of course I wasn’t there and was greeted by a pathetic piece of card on the mat saying I’d missed the appointment … Bunch of

 

 

[RideWithStyles]

1 hour ago, Fozzie said:

I think I know what the deal is with smart meters, as I had a lot to do with industrial grade meters around the time they rolled out. 

 

The short of it as I've been told, there are limited suppliers of the types of smart meters, and they have a communications protocol that differs quite a bit as they had no idea on how to standardise. Everyone had their own idea on what the standard should be, and the protocol the meters use can differ by different versions of the same bit of kit. 

 

 

 

just like electric cars and bikes not standardised....still a mess.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

I bought a small air blower as recommended by @V650 for drying the bikes. It was on the kitchen worktop this evening so after tea I opened it and plugged it in.

 

It is a quite a tiny thing so I was expecting a fairly gentle waft of air....this was my first mistake.  My second mistake was pointing it towards my dear lady wife who has just had her hair done. Third mistake was quickly realising my second mistake and deflecting the rather vigorous airflow upwards towards the ceiling. 

 

We have tracks with LED spotlights on the ceiling. Apparently these do not get dusted as frequently as they might be. Over the years this has resulted in a large amount of dust gathering. This was instantly and very effectively blasted clear. 

 

You may have thought my impromptu cleaning of the light fittings would have been greeted with delight. Not so.....not only was visibility instantly reduced to just a few feet but it transpired there were several open containers of meals cooling prior to freezing. These now have added ingredients which are not in the recipe.   

 

If you buy one of these blowers be advised that the airflow is somewhat brisk. Operate out of doors and under the supervision of a responsible adult. 

[V650]

2 hours ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

I bought a small air blower as recommended by @V650 for drying the bikes.

Operate out of doors and under the supervision of a responsible adult. 

And miss all that fun

[onesea]

On 22/02/2024 at 09:16, Fender1515 said:

I had an absolute dim wit yesterday, and this is not a generalisation but a specific event!

My energy services supplier has been "encouraging" me to get smart meters installed.

Umm, some bad stuff in the press, but i guess it's the way to go, I am not great a remembering or being arsed to send in monthly meter readings.

Installation engineer pitches up at the prescribed time yesterday morning, starts moaning that my gas supply is on the back wall of the house and it was, hissing down, but first he wants to check all the gas appliances, i show him the gas safety certificate issued 10 days ago, response, don't care mate, i need to check all the appliances, OK fill your boots, oven checked, we have a gas fire in the lounge, never used from one year to the next, but was checked out and passed as fit for purpose 10 days ago, so he gets on his knees, takes a look at the unit and, I don't like the way the coals, imitation type, are stacked, and the unit looks very old, me, it's 10 days older than when it was last checked and passed as being serviceable, what's this got to do with fitting a meter? him, I am going to write this up, me, what your going to do is pack up your kit and exit through that door, him, I got a job to do mate, me, shame you don't know how to do it,   i think you need some customer training before they let you again.

 

He promised to report me to his supervisor, I said get him on the phone now, and I will happily have that conversation, he didn't accept and left.

I work in the property business, I work with trades day in day out, I can honestly say, we get on fine, most of the trades I have worked with for years, they are pals, this guy, arrogant arse, but feel free to  make up your own minds 

 

 

 

My misses had at Smart meters fitted at work. She chatted with them about them, his comment to her. 

"No I won't have them in my own home they are not good enough yet."

Nice guy great customer service, there's no more discussions about having one at our home.

 

[Fish]

Has to go to the guy who did't like that I was filtering through the traffic, road then opens up to a dual carriage way and he goes flying past. Couple of miles down the road and there he is sat in traffic, and as I'm coming back past him again, he gives me the one finger wave. I stop, ask what the issue is and he gets all upset that I can filter and he's stuck in the queue of cars.  

 

Sat behind him as the traffic started moving, and he's brake checking and playing silly games, so back into the traffic and I go past with a wave goodbye. 

 

Why can some idiots not accept that we don't sit in traffic like they have to, I accept it when I'm in the car.

[Simon Davey]

21 minutes ago, Fish said:

Has to go to the guy who did't like that I was filtering through the traffic, road then opens up to a dual carriage way and he goes flying past. Couple of miles down the road and there he is sat in traffic, and as I'm coming back past him again, he gives me the one finger wave. I stop, ask what the issue is and he gets all upset that I can filter and he's stuck in the queue of cars.  

 

Sat behind him as the traffic started moving, and he's brake checking and playing silly games, so back into the traffic and I go past with a wave goodbye. 

 

Why can some idiots not accept that we don't sit in traffic like they have to, I accept it when I'm in the car.

 

Sounds like you kept your cool, and made the rest of us look good at the same time. 

[S-Westerly]

We might be able to filter but when it's freezing cold and / or pissing down with rain we get the crappy end of the stick. 

[RideWithStyles]

5 hours ago, Simon Davey said:

 

Sounds like you kept your cool, and made the rest of us look good at the same time. 

Eye for an eye:

i would have sat infront of the mofo and braked check the mornoic mofo, gave the finger then fooked offd. 

Edited March 17 by RideWithStyles

[S-Westerly]

Trouble is on a bike you are a lot more vulnerable if the idiot rear ends you. Just take satisfaction in giving him a polite wave as you steam past when he's stuck in stationary traffic. Guaranteed to wind him or her up. 

[RideWithStyles]

yep i know but some only realised it when there in the shit of a sol shite letter fest/ courtroom.

[Fozzie]

Someone has scuffed up my car down the passenger side.

And I know whose done it, a resident who has been consistently a problem with dumping her car in the road out front blocking delivery vans and sending them on a mission to drag her out and move it "I was just on a quick lunch break" was one excuse I overhead one time. 

The parking area is unmarked, so some residents try to leave their car in the same spot to better manage the space, using the access doors to the apartment buildings as a reference. The hit and run resident will routinely sling her car diagonally across two spaces that two residents normally occupy, and she's in a little Mazda for reference, filling a spot usually occupied by two saloon sized cars. 

 

I can see blue paint on her bumper from my car, there's white all down the side of mine, it's at the right height. I can also see where she's furiously tried to wipe it off, as the rest of the car is filthy. Both cars I've known her to own here have been badly beaten up over the course of her ownership, she's not someone you want to find yourself parked next to out and about. Since the damage, she has tried to park her car on the other end of the car park, which the sudden change in character further indicates guilt. 

 

Absolutely f**king fuming. Both passenger side doors, the scrape is over a metre long. Luckily, I've got a local bodyshop that will fix it for £400. 

 

I'm investing in some CCTV for my spare bedroom window, to watch the carpark. I've put up a firmly worded notice asking them to come forward and contribute to the cost of the damage and apologise, and without giving detail that I have my suspicions (with pictures taken to prove them). I'm guessing she's kept quiet as she's got an insurance record a mile long.

 

I'd say nob, but I think she's a bit of a ****. 

 

 

[Simon Davey]

1 hour ago, Fozzie said:

Someone has scuffed up my car down the passenger side.

And I know whose done it, a resident who has been consistently a problem with dumping her car in the road out front blocking delivery vans and sending them on a mission to drag her out and move it "I was just on a quick lunch break" was one excuse I overhead one time. 

The parking area is unmarked, so some residents try to leave their car in the same spot to better manage the space, using the access doors to the apartment buildings as a reference. The hit and run resident will routinely sling her car diagonally across two spaces that two residents normally occupy, and she's in a little Mazda for reference, filling a spot usually occupied by two saloon sized cars. 

 

I can see blue paint on her bumper from my car, there's white all down the side of mine, it's at the right height. I can also see where she's furiously tried to wipe it off, as the rest of the car is filthy. Both cars I've known her to own here have been badly beaten up over the course of her ownership, she's not someone you want to find yourself parked next to out and about. Since the damage, she has tried to park her car on the other end of the car park, which the sudden change in character further indicates guilt. 

 

Absolutely f**king fuming. Both passenger side doors, the scrape is over a metre long. Luckily, I've got a local bodyshop that will fix it for £400. 

 

I'm investing in some CCTV for my spare bedroom window, to watch the carpark. I've put up a firmly worded notice asking them to come forward and contribute to the cost of the damage and apologise, and without giving detail that I have my suspicions (with pictures taken to prove them). I'm guessing she's kept quiet as she's got an insurance record a mile long.

 

I'd say nob, but I think she's a bit of a ****. 

 

 

 

With evidence like paint marks, I'd be banging on her door, she'll deny it, but she'll know you're on to her, which is far better than her getting away with it completely.

Any dashcams in neighbours cars?

Edited March 22 by Simon Davey

[Angela Collen]

So sorry you've had to go through that Fozzie, I know exactly what that's like, even down to the paint marks matching, but unless you go full csi it's difficult to prove, the person who did it always park well away from me now and can't look me in eye, bonus, but doesn't help with cost though, very frustrating, glad you've got someone who can fix it, but £400 still big hit

[S-Westerly]

Entitled bitch I'd say. Not just nobs about.

[Fozzie]

Confronting isn’t my style when there’s deniability, as you end up putting them on the hard defensive. And once they know you haven’t got hard proof, they can often be emboldened.

 

My notice states “there is reason to believe it was another resident” which I’m hoping will leave them on their toes. And that I will be implementing CCTV and watching from now on, and damage to me or other residents will be unsympathetically passed on to insurance/police/residents with no middle ground for dealing with outside of insurance.
 

Might be a bit extreme, but repeat offenders that don’t learn from their mistakes in my view haven’t hit hard enough consequences yet to actually change. And it’s a lot more reasonable than I felt like being at the time I found the damage