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April 18, 2023	INDEX
Gas: red in tooth and claw Just heard on the radio (BBC R4 Today) that utility companies like British Gas will have to contact a customer at least ten times before they install a pre-payment meter, according to a new code of practice. British Gas has contacted me more often than that demanding a large sum of money (by my standards anyway). More than £300 for my gas and electricity use between September and this month. I have tried to contact them, but it is impossible. The emails they send me are the non reply type. When I go to the web site they suggest all I get is standard answers to questions I haven't asked. Phoning British Gas is similarly fruitless. You listen to the seemingly endless droning of the mechanical voice and then when it asks me to pick an option it can not understand the key I press because I have an old style telephone. So I am going to get a pre-pay meter? I doubt it. My British Gas contract was for the house I moved from in August of last year. When I left Chatham I went to the web site and told them I was moving. I then sent them my final gas and electricity meter readings and paid my bill. They responded by thanking me and suggesting I take my British Gas account with me to my new house in Millom, Cumbria. I wish I had. EDF, who I now use, are even worse than British Gas.
INDEX	April 18, 2023 Jonathan Brind