From:  google@woodall.me.uk
Newsgroups: uk.people.consumers uk.d-i-y uk.finance
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?q?Re:_can_I_avoid_a_=A370_for_having_my_gas_meter_checked=3F?=
Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2007 04:36:35 -0700
   posting-account=PD8wmAwAAAAX-12HCfGSGclgQNEuSslv
Bytes: 4039

On Jul 7, 10:01 am, Thom Ian Turner  wrote:
>
> That had to be EDF - I've just had five bills from them before it was
> correct (and I had to read the meter!)
>
It's scary when people can guess the gas company from the problems
with the bills :-(

Things like this disgust me. I'm in the fortunate position now of not
really having to worry about money - indeed, even when I got that
thousand pound gas bill it wasn't going to be a problem to pay it
while I had to sort it out (I didn't actually ever have to pay the
huge bill) but there are a lot of people who even temporarily having
to find sums of money like that will start them on the spiral of debt.

I recently had an issue with Tesco (online) where they accidentally
charged me twice. This wasn't completely their fault - I wasn't in for
a delivery so they should have charged me the delivery charge and then
charged me for the entire order when they redelivered but they
actually charged me for the entire order twice.

By the time the money was actually refunded I'd already had to pay my
credit card bill. I could probably have done something to prevent
paying part of the CC bill but it shouldn't happen - once I rang (and
emailed) Tesco to tell them the mistake the refund should have gone
straight onto my account and they I could have rung Barclaycard to ask
them to send me an adjusted statement with a correct amount. Instead I
was ringing Barclaycard each week to find out if/when the refund had
been credited.

Many, many years ago when I was hunting for my first job straight out
of University I was doing bar work. I got my first job but they
weren't going to pay me for a month so I went to the benefits office
to find out if I could claim anything (even just a loan) to cover me
for those first five weeks[1] but no I couldn't. Even more galling, I
was told I could have been claiming while I was looking for work
because I wasn't earning enough but because I'd managed I obviously
didn't need that money so I couldn't backdate a claim - except that,
it seems to me, I did need to _save_ that money so that I could afford
to start permanent employment. (My parents gave me enough to see me
through)

I can fully understand how even the most careful person can suddenly
find themselves spiralling into debt because of no fault of their own.
I'm not sure what can be done about it that isn't then open to abuse
but "something should be done" ;-)

Tim.

p.s. I went in to Barclays to tell them about my excess interest on my
ISA but they didn't know what to do. They're going to get back to me.