Andrew Speakman

Another ‘Myspace Killer’ is likely to appear soon. My experience of myspace is that it is awkward to use and unreliable. But it’s got the most people on it, and is geared towards music, so I’m sticking with it for now.

Maybe it’s where I live, but we do get an awful lot of door to door sales (as well as illicit cold phone calls). Reading this article in the Times spurred me to write here. As in the Times article, I have had Talk Talk around trying to get me to sign up wit them, but I find Southern Electric a much worse culprit.

Only this weekend a man with braces (on his teeth) came knocking on my door. He started by telling me that I was paying too much for my electricity and that Southern Electric ‘supply’ the power to my home (which I know is not true, it’s EDF who maintain the infrastructure around here), which means that they can give me cheaper electricity. Apparently he had a ‘special’ deal for people in the area. I told him I wasn’t interested, not wanting to enter into discussion. He then persisted to ask me if he could have a look at my meter. ‘No!’ I told him, ‘Why not? We own it!’, he said. This is a blatant lie, it was British gas who came to fit a new meter recently, and it clearly states on it ‘Property of Capital Meters Ltd’. And even Capital Meters couldn’t just turn up on my doorstep to look at the meter. So I told him that he couldn’t come in whether he owned it or not, and sent him on his way.

In the past Southern Electric have used other tactics, like telling me nothing will change when I switch providers (yes it will, my money will go to someone else, and probably in different quantities), and that I should compare prices after I have signed up with them (before would be more sensible). What concerns me is that a more vulnerable person could be trampled all over by salespeople like this. My advice: Never sign up to anything from cold caller, tell them you’re not interested. If you want a better deal, do the comparisons in your own time.

Yet another rant about services / products that I pay for.

First the good. I bought a new camera from a web shop called cameras2u.com. It was a good price and it came the next day, and delivery was free. Plus when I called them to confirm that next day delivery was offered I didn’t have to wait long on the phone, and they had a very useful message when I was waiting telling me what number I was in the queue (I started at number 2). More companies should use this system on their phones, then you can get an idea of low long a wait you face from what number you are in the queue and how quickly it is going down.

 Now the bad. E&L pet insurance. Pleasant people when you get to speak to them, which is more of a challenge than you might think, see my previous post for an intro. I have now figured out that the best way to get to speak to someone at E & L pet insurance is to call, and if you don’t get to speak to someone within about 20 seconds, hang up and try again, eventually you’ll get someone answering almost as soon as it starts ringing.

Anyway, back to the story, I received a letter from E&L about my claim, asking for medical history. It’s been  more than three months since I placed a claim and they still haven’t sorted it out! I’d already provided E&L with medical history, as requested, over a month ago, with a covering letter explaining that our cat was a rescue cat. I had also called to check they’d recieved the information and it was OK. So I was angry. After the usual E&L phone frustration, I got through and explained what was happening, I was told to send a letter explaining that my cat was a rescue cat. I told them I had already done so, and the man put a note on the ‘system’. We’ll see what happens, but I am starting to wonder if my claim will ever see the light of day.

 It looks like I’m not the only one unhappy with E&L:

 http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews-all-57547.html

Plus see my review of E&L at
http://www.reviewcentre.com/review193365.html

 http://www.bullyonline.com/insurance.htm