We ourselves fell afoul of London Electricity's unique selling schemes. One day about 6 months ago we got a letter from them saying the usual "congratulations for signing up with us" routine.
Problem was, we hadn't.
A brief word of explanation is needed, I suspect. In the UK there are several electricity suppliers, some of whom started out as gas suppliers, and some even supply telephone lines as well. You get to choose which one you go with, although as far as I can tell all that changes is the name at the top of the bill, and the amount at the bottom (which changes minutely). It's absurd, and I don't understand it, but it's the free market and better than the old state monopoly, apparently.
So we start a long round of letters and phone calls. First problem is the very name the letters are addresed to, a Mr. S. Tostevin. Tostevin is my wife's maiden name, there's never been a Mr. S. They keep refusing to believe this. We eventually get a copy of the signing-up form and it's an obvious forgery. Problem is they then demand copies of her signature on official documents as proof - no way are we going to give them what they ask, all that will happen is the next (non-)caller will know what name and signature to put on the form.
So we copy the next letter to the MD of London Electricity, full of mentions of Ofgem and BBC TV's consumer protection programme Watchdog. A few days later we get another snotty, stalling letter from the customer services rep we've been dealing with - AND a roll-over-and-play-dead, rub-my-tummy-please letter from the MD, full of apologies and containing a cheque. We'd been bought off. Yes!
And we're not the only ones we know about, and obviously some people did actually go as far as contacting Watchdog! I just have this feeling, given the size of the fine LE are facing, we shoulda held out for more money. . . 8)
So, there. Americans will no doubt have their eyes glazed over by now, stunned by the existence of a thread that contains no mention of Iraq or Democrats or God. . . actually, there, they just got mentioned. Happy now?
Anyone else have any tales of consumer woe to share?
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
Are your industries taking lessons from us....
We should charge???
Posted by Tahna Los (Member # 33) on :
...
Posted by O Captain Mike Captain (Member # 709) on :
i was buying a bag of chips from a vending machine at the Lincoln Flanagan campus and it got stuck on the little springy thingy its sposed to roll out of. i was infuriated so i went to the cafeteria and they said i could take any bag of chips i wanted from there. finally i win against their out-rrrrrageous vending tactics!
Posted by Free ThoughtCrime America (Member # 480) on :
My phone was disconnected for about two weeks due to AT&T switching my long distance plan, and in the process somehow erasing me from the system.
Leaving out the aggressive mess of having them turn my number back on, they also deemed it worthy to go ahead and charge me full price that month.
At the time, I believed the only sensible thing to do was blow up a few of their switching stations in retaliation, but I restrained myself.
Posted by Daryus Aden (Member # 12) on :
How bout this. They privatised the Melbourne railways about 3 years back. The only problem was, the private contractor who did the ticketing mucked up, so people basically got away with riding the trains free for about a year. Or so they say...
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
i started a new bank account a month ago. over the course of one day, i paid $2500 in tutition money. my bank, seeing an "unusually" large transaction, froze my account. some checks i wrote then bounced. i was fined $200. took me three days to get my fines erased (damn bastards had the balls to say it wasn't their fault), and a while to get all those places to trust my checks again. i knew that credit card companies sometimes did this kind of stuff if there were unusually large transactions, but i've never heard of a bank doing it.
Posted by E. Cartman (Member # 256) on :
I, on the other hand, have never heard of a bank that considers $2500 transactions "unusually large".
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
You did of course, put money in the bank account before you paid your tuition right?
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by E. Cartman: I, on the other hand, have never heard of a bank that considers $2500 transactions "unusually large".
It depends how it was payed. It also might depend on the type of account. If a 17 year old kid with a normal 17 year old kids type of bank account suddenly had 3 grand go missing from the account, the bank might leap to the not unreasonable assumption that someone has stolen his cards or cheque book or something, and they might freeze it while they cheque up on him.
I suppse it also depends on how it was payed. Most accouts that students have only allow you to take out �200 from cash machines a day. Cheque guarantee cards, VISA and Mastercards normally have similar limits. But then again, pretty much everyone has a student/undergraduate account, and since everyone pays their tuition fees at the same time banks expect a grand to go out of them during September, January and April.
So if you're a business, then yeah, $2500 isn't "unusually large". If you're a teenager/early 20s person who never takes more than 20 quid out a day, then the bank might be forgiven for baulking at a two and a half grand withdrawl.
And to go back to Lee's point, we use British Gas for out electricity, and Manweb for our gas. It's crazy madness.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I thought the train was bad enough. Now there's a man web?!
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Oh, certainly. Simultaneous mantrains crisscrossing in all manner of directions.
Liam gave me quite the introduction.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
I AM WELL ORGANISED!
Posted by O Captain Mike Captain (Member # 709) on :
This thread is too funny. I'm not sure what to do about it.
Just look out for this man:
[ October 14, 2002, 23:11: Message edited by: O Captain Mike Captain ]
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
He looks as if he's just planted a bomb in that car...
Posted by Magnus de Pym (Member # 239) on :
You have been playing too much Hitman, I think.
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mucus: You did of course, put money in the bank account before you paid your tuition right?
yes, i had money in the account .
quote:Orginally posted by E. Cartman: I, on the other hand, have never heard of a bank that considers $2500 transactions "unusually large".
it was "unusually large" because up until that point, the largest that had been taken out was $20.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
So, as I said, a not-unreasonable assumption for them to make.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
*doorbell rings* "Hello?" "Hi, I'm from Manweb. I'm here to lay some pipe." *funky porno bassline*
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
A while back my wife got phoned by the bank because quite a lot went out of her account in one day, and that time it was no more than �500.
Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :
$16,000 went in and out of my bank account inside of a week, and I never heard a thing from them.
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
maybe they realize that you are a drug dealer, so it was ok with them.