Scottish Power RANT

[NozSpark]

Got a call out to day..

Old dear's E7 not working and she had been told to get an electrician as she still had hot water...

Any way I got there and found that the Sangamo E7 timer had failed and was no longer turning.

Phone up the faults line on the back of her bill and got a recorded message beofre I got put on hold..."Thank you for calling the fault and ......line,....."

When I got talking to an operator I said that I had a fault with an E7 timer", they then replied that I'd phoned the wrong number as they didn't do faults.. FFS and that I'd have to call customer services.

So I phone customer services and go through all the blurb and they give us a date for doing the repair...

20th of fekin Feb..... ME "thats 8 days away without heating or hot water in the worst winter for 18 years; and she's a pensioner ----- that's not good enough!! How would you feel if this was one of your parents"......."Can you authorise me to cut the timer seals so I can manually advance it??" "urm, sorry but it's illegal for you to tamper with our equipment..."

All that they would say was that it was the first available appointment.

I phone a someone I know who works for Power Systems and he says that he could do the job today if it gets put throught the system

Eventually after phoning them about 5 times I got someone who managed to get the lady an appointment for tomorrow morning.....

WHY CAN'T THEY TREAT THIS AS AN EMERGENCY AND JUST GET IT SORTED!!!!

 

[Andy™]

WHY CAN'T THEY TREAT THIS AS AN EMERGENCY AND JUST GET IT SORTED!!!!

then tell them its an emergency - like there is smoke coming from meter and its making a crackling sound

 

[batty]

Noz

They have not got the staff anymore that is why I will cut seals if necessary and reseal.

Batty

 

[NozSpark]

I thought afterward that I should have told them that the timer was very hot!!

 

[NozSpark]

NozThey have not got the staff anymore that is why I will cut seals if necessary and reseal.

Batty

But they have..

I did phone a "Energy networks" maintenance engineer who I know.. he said that he could have done the job TODAY if it was put through the system and that that type of job is what he does every day..

 

[batty]

But they have..I did phone a "Energy networks" maintenance engineer who I know.. he said that he could have done the job TODAY if it was put through the system and that that type of job is what he does every day..

Maybe it just the set up then. I know EDF sub out the overhead line replacements in the old days they would do it themselves.

Batty

 

[NozSpark]

It seems that they put this type of work through the metering departments who then class it as maintenance, and the pass it on to Energy networks

 

[elvis]

Got a call out to day..Old dear's E7 not working and she had been told to get an electrician as she still had hot water...

Any way I got there and found that the Sangamo E7 timer had failed and was no longer turning.

Phone up the faults line on the back of her bill and got a recorded message beofre I got put on hold..."Thank you for calling the fault and ......line,....."

When I got talking to an operator I said that I had a fault with an E7 timer", they then replied that I'd phoned the wrong number as they didn't do faults.. FFS and that I'd have to call customer services.

So I phone customer services and go through all the blurb and they give us a date for doing the repair...

20th of fekin Feb..... ME "thats 8 days away without heating or hot water in the worst winter for 18 years; and she's a pensioner ----- that's not good enough!! How would you feel if this was one of your parents"......."Can you authorise me to cut the timer seals so I can manually advance it??" "urm, sorry but it's illegal for you to tamper with our equipment..."

All that they would say was that it was the first available appointment.

I phone a someone I know who works for Power Systems and he says that he could do the job today if it gets put throught the system

Eventually after phoning them about 5 times I got someone who managed to get the lady an appointment for tomorrow morning.....

WHY CAN'T THEY TREAT THIS AS AN EMERGENCY AND JUST GET IT SORTED!!!!

I have had that exact same call.

Can I just return to this thread for a more recent Scottish Power rant.

I changed a DB on Tuesday and I had arranged for SP to attend to change the tails (which weren't long enough.) The customer phoned SP and they passed it on to Hydro Electric who were their suppliers. Was in a flat, big MEM rewirable fuses in an unlocked enclosure on ground floor. So I pulled the fuse, changed the box and joined the mains tails on Tuesday safe in the knowledge that they were coming to connect the new tails on Wednesday morning.

The guy gets there before me (I was on my way) and I get a call from the customer who passes me on to the Hydro Electric guy.

I tell him I have left the new tails in the cupboard and ask him if he could pull the mains fuse, connect the new tails to the meter and I would connect to the DB when I got there (I was ten minutes away.) He asks me if he is connecting to 1 and 2?! so I say, you are connecting the new tails to the domestic side of the meter, so 3 and 4 he asks me. I say, yes, the outgoing side of the meter.

He calls me back a few minutes later, can I just get this right, I am connecting into 3 and 4, I tell him I am about 3 minutes away and can he hang on for me.

Anyways, I get there and the guy who is in his forties (so not inexperienced you would like to think) has cut the incoming tails (1 and 2) to the meter which had absolutely no slack on them.

He has the trunking open, he can see which cables are going from the meter into the DB and he can see which cables are coming in from the landing EASILY (the woman in the house understood what was what) and he has cut the ones from the landing... absolute no-brainer!

This guy was no electrician, he had to move the meter, all the time with his big rubber gloves on and holding his screwdriver like a 1st year apprentice. Before leaving he asks me if I have a martindale to check the polarity before I go!!!

JUST GIVE ME THE CRIMPING TOOL AND A HANDFUL OF SEALS AND F*&K OFF MATE!

Before he left I asked him if he knew what the external Ze was.

"Not got a clue mate" and off he went.

Absolutely unbelievable...

 

[Andy™]

that really is shocking!

 

[green-hornet]

I must admit in my area (north west) I have got on really well with the utilities, and the lads they send out know their stuff.

To hear those stories in this day and age is truly shocking.

 

[Badger]

agreed that is bad when they send someone who hasnt the faintest idea what the hell they are doing and around electricity aswell.

 

[elvis]

I had to restrain myself from pushing him out the way to check his terminations at the meter... seriously!!

 

[Evans Electric]

This is typical TBH. Some years back we would do a rewire, put the new meter tails into Henleys onto the old ones ,( live,) the old MEB would not allow seal cutting. They also did their nuts if you attached an earth to their cable, albeit temporary. We also left the main earth hanging by the incommer because there is no plumbed terminal. We would have a request in the system for a plumbed ( TN-S) terminal to be fitted and remove our Henleys and connect the tails to the meter .

We found ,on checking weeks later , that the tails were left in the temporary Henleys , an earth terminal had been fitted but our 16mm was still hanging where we left it.

On asking the question they said it was our responsibility to go back and connect it !!!!

What fools we were to think that they would obviously connect the 16mm after sweating on the terminal !!!!

One does , however , live and learn !!

Deke

 

[elvis]

You're right Deke.

Not really had probs with any of them in the past (other than attitude probs, as above!) most of them are usually OK but this guy was either a very good interview conman or straight out the adult learning centre... he should not have been working alone.

 

[baldelectrician]

Spoke to a guy doing metering for SP last year. He was a platsterer and had a sore back.

1 weeks training (2 -3 days on electrics) and he was a meter changer

I also have noticed they are very reluctant to send someone out

I called them last week when I went to an old guys house and noticed the terminal cover was missing from the meter.

Called SP faults and emergencies and they wanted to send someone out in 2 weeks

I asked if this was standard company policy when someone had reported EXPOSED LIVE CONDUCTORS.

The old guy (90 approx) wanted to fashion a bit of cardboard himself and put it on

They (after a fight) sent someone out a 2 days later

 

[Andy™]

I called them last week when I went to an old guys house and noticed the terminal cover was missing from the meter.

Called SP faults and emergencies and they wanted to send someone out in 2 weeks

I asked if this was standard company policy when someone had reported EXPOSED LIVE CONDUCTORS.

The old guy (90 approx) wanted to fashion a bit of cardboard himself and put it on

They (after a fight) sent someone out a 2 days later

NEDL are good round here for emergencies. for exposed condutors/ther emergencies, they usually turn up within an hour, and sometimes 15 minutes

 

[elvis]

1 weeks training (2 -3 days on electrics) and he was a meter changer

Not very surprised to hear. I actually worked for SP's contracts devision a good number of years ago and their guys all seemed awright. I would assume they had various procedures for moving up through the grades where if you worked as a labourer for ten years assisting on electrical work then you could get a promotion (usual big organisation stuff), but that 'competent' word springs to mind... ?:|

 

[green-hornet]

Any time you get bad service from any of these you should report them to your governing body so data can be collected. There have been plans to allow competant domestic installers to do some of the emergency works that these companies find hard to do (timewise).You are very much in your rights to effectivley shut off, or disconnect a dangerous installation, this can be done by locking off the main switch. Just see the dno come out then.

 

[barbaricduck]

I feel for you mate. I have spent ages trying to get through to SP and Power Systems. Each time I actually spoke to someone I was told to phine a different number. They are a law to themselves. Thankfully I do not need to contact them often.

 

[elvis]

Know what you mean, and I am the only one who feels that they don't want to talk to the electrician on the phone... rather speak to the clueless bill-payer perhaps??

I have an emergency number for them and I try to find an excuse to use that. Worrying noise, a wee bit hot, safety check required etc. In my experience if you are lucky with the emergency guy who turns up (and up here it has always been an actual SP guy) you can get the job done for free.

In the last year if I have called them for a mains swap-over, more often than not they say they don't do it, we (get a contractor to) install a DP switch at a set charge of