Business as usual.

"Hi I represent BT it's about your Business Broadband package"
"Uh-huh"
"We're going to upgrade you to 8Mbits and reduce the charge"
"Okay, but we're already on the 8Mbits package or at least 5-6 which is all we can get, but the price reduction sounds good"
"Oh well all you have to do is agree to stay with BT for another 12 months"
"Well we're likely to anyway, but if we're signing up for another 12 months I'll need to see the contract"
"It hasn't changed since last time"
"Well I could do with a copy anyway"
"We can send it out with the confirmation letter"
"No you can't because I'm not confirming anything without seeing the contract first"
"But it'll be with the confirmation letter"
"But I can't confirm anything without seeing the contract first"
[We went round this cycle a few times]
"Oh well we haven't got it here"
"Well can you get someone to send a copy?"
"Uh, I'll get back to you"

Ah professionalism.


A vacant property needs its supply switching over to the Landlord's package, the current supplier sends in their details "As you don't have a contract with us you're now on a deemed contract, you can however sign up for this yearly contract at the following rates..." Um well firstly you don't get a fixed term contract on a vacant building, because we may have to break it at any time; and as for your rates 65p/day standing charge plus electricity use I almost choked. So I called our standard supplier; slightly higher electricity rates, but no standing charge. now seeing as it's empty and the amount of electricity used will be negligible which would you go for?

Trouble is the time it's going to take to switch. From the vacating date until the new supplier takes over we're on a deemed contract and I know how much fun that is. Somehow we're supposed to predict when tenants leave, fine for those in a long term contract, not so fine for the short-termers or the fly-by-nights (this was a short-termer) all the lovely laws about utilities take none of this into account and give the suppliers free rein to do whatever they like. Essentially the supplier can pull down your trousers, roll you over a barrel, and paddle your arse while OfGem and EnergyWatch look on and say "Yes they can do that" the laws have been written to protect them.


Oh and a note about spam, all the Alliance and Leicester emails begging me for my password details (which I don't have not having an account) have now been replaced with Royal Bank of Scotland emails begging me for my password details (which I also don't have again not having an account). I doubt anyone reading this is silly enough to believe them, but there's the warning anyway. Looks like a server in Hong Kong that's doing the asking.