Today I Consign To Hell -the All Saints version

15354565859118

Comments

  • Indeed, Lothlorien, it has been a rather hellish experience. Then again though, All Saints hosts are nice. :) People talk about what they would do if they won a million dollars and make "bucket lists" but I would be glad to have someone to coordinate all the medical stuff.
  • ICTH the monkeys who built our boiler. From installation it has caused problems - pilot light going out, not responding to programming, pump dying (twice), etc, etc, etc.

    Final straw: today we have no hot water, either for washing or in the central heating system. An engineer has just visited and says he thinks the whole thing is shot. So, a top-of-the-range boiler that cost over £3,000 less than 7 years ago is dead - a stark contrast to the one it replaced which was a cheap-and-cheeful model that was at least 30 years old when it was replaced. This latest one has never proved cheaper to run than the one it replaced and over the years has cost (literally) thousands in visits from engineers and replacement parts.

    The engineer has asked the company to send somone to look at it because he feels it has always been faulty; I'm not sure what he said but they're coming tomorrow so I think he suspects something serious. We had a visit from a company person 6 months or so after it was first installed and it has always been looked after by someone who was trained by them so it will be interesting to see what they have to say.

    Meanwhile, thank goodness for electric showers, dishwashers and kettles :rage:
  • All good luck with the visit from the company engineer tomorrow. Your boiler sounds as if it has been a nightmare.... I very much hope they find something wrong and are able to do something to sort it out. (XX < crossed fingers.)
  • We bought a new gas-fired boiler for our Church Hall a couple of years ago, and it's been troublesome ever since. Nowhere near as bad as TheOrganist's, but it does make one wonder whether some sort of built-in obsolescence scam is going on...
  • I just want the damned thing gone. The boiler takes up valuable space that would be better used for something else. And I want some compensation for the endless trouble, expense and sheer embu**erment we've endured. Looking through gas bills this afternoon the wretched thing has consistently used more (and a lot more) than the supposedly inefficient 30 year old model it replaced. The only reason our energy bills haven't been more is because we switch off appliances, moved to LEDs ages ago and have a dual-fuel deal.
  • Could you manage without gas at all? Though that might involve Desperate Measures in the event of an electrical power failure!
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    TICTH the ADT security company. I have long had a household alarm system with them; when I went to the wheelchair last year, I added a medical alert pendant.

    A week ago Sunday, all the alarms - smoke and carbon monoxide - started going off. Neighbors had to come in, disarm everything, turn everything off at the breaker box and pull the wires on ADT's box. (I can't do ladders, and I can't reach any of that stuff.) My contractor came in the next day and fixed it up. This past Sunday, it happened again. (I shudder to think what I owe my contractor.)

    That's when I was told that my service had been canceled, as of the end of the month. Today their technician came in and worked on things all morning - and my service has already been cut off.

    I spent a half-hour on the phone trying to discover how this happened, and why no one had notified me - no email, no snail mail. I was finally told that there was a mixup because of the medical alert service. But I paid for that a year in advance, and there was no communication about that, either.

    To say that I'm angry and frustrated is to be guilty of a gross understatement. And I still want some answers.

  • Rossweisse--

    Yikes! (:votive:)

    A couple of thoughts, for what it's worth, and it might be good to get your support network to help out with this:

    --Do any of your local radio/TV stations have any kind of consumer advocacy dept.? They might well be interested. They might want you on air, with your name; but they don't always do that.

    --Is there a local disability rights group? (Apologies if you don't identify as disabled!)

    --Try contacting your city council member, mayor, etc. Even your state legislator.

    --Women's groups. (Considering the safety issues, maybe call a rape crisis center's non-emergency line, and explain the situation. They might well have experience with the company, or similar ones.)

    --Do they have a page at review site Yelp.com? At our local section of the site, many companies monitor their reviews--and some even try to make things right.

    --Contact the company's corporate office, whether it's local or elsewhere. Info should be online, and there are even sites that list "talk to an actual person" numbers for lots of companies.

    FWIW, YMMV.

  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    Thank you, @Golden Key. Yes, I do qualify as seriously disabled at this point. I have a Yelp account, and I'm planning to pan them. I'm also planning to write to the president of the company; they usually have flunkies in charge of handling such complaints.

    There's a postscript: I finally got into my phone app, and discovered that my system was offline. I called ADT and (mercifully) got a compassionate young woman who patiently worked through it with me.

    I had to go downstairs (thank goodness I have a stairlift), look in my office for their special modem (not there), use my walker to go to the other end of the lower level of my (fortunately small) house, find it there in the unfinished area, unplug the power, go back to the office, unplug the regular modem and replug it, go back to the unfinished area, plug in the power, and wait five minutes for it to come back up. Then I went back to the lift, back upstairs, back to the wheelchair...

    I'm going to have some wine with dinner tonight.

  • The Clydesdale Bank will be moving to somewhere much hotter if I have my way after three phone calls and over an hour on hold altogether. Need to use their new 'one-time passcode' to get into my account, but despite their protestations they can't send it by land line or any mobile number we give them. Then they admit that their system isn't set up to accept overseas phone numbers. "Oh, but you can use your security token too'", followed by telling me that mine is obsolete, and they hadn't bothered to advise me, but will be happy to send a new one in the mail. Then they ask for account information to verify that it's really me, and I have to explain that I am locked out of the confounded account and haven't used paper bank statements for donkey's years. Meanwhile, we're still locked out of our account and probably won't get back in until we're in Scotland next week and can talk to a human across a counter. If we can find a branch - there hardly any left now.
  • I thought that the Clydesdale had folded altogether.... sure I read that, but maybe it is only in the process - hope so for your sake.
  • It was bought by National Australia Bank, but was spun off again as Clydesdale Yorkshire Bank Group some time ago.
  • caroline444caroline444 Shipmate
    edited September 2019
    @Rossweisse bravo to you for tackling that gargantuan mess up with the ADT. My stepmom used their alarm system and it was always going off for no reason, (inevitably at about 3am in the morning.) Glad to hear that eventually you got to talk to a helpful human being who worked for them.

    @Stercus Tauri - Grrrrrr to endless telephone waiting and to the right royal tangle you seem to have ended up in with your bank. I hope you are able to solve it before too long :angry:

  • The boiler man was here at 8am!

    He took a lot of photographs, then looked at our gas bills for the past couple of years. My local engineer/service person left him to it and the two of us had a cup of coffee and looked at the rain. Boiler man then called someone at Head Office and used the word Urgent.

    Now the Big Cheese is speaking to my local chap - they're murmuring in another room.

    Watch this space!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Good. Wear an expression as of Someone Who Could Very Well Sue.
  • WELL!

    The first Big Cheese spoke to my chap, then went out (to get better mobile reception) to speak to an even Bigger Cheese, and it has been decreed that the boiler is ... faulty, has always been faulty, the diagnostics run on it haven't worked properly and they (not me, note) estimate I have paid for at least three times more gas than I should have done over the past 7+ years, plus the parts, call outs, etc, etc, etc.

    At the moment they are taking copies of all my gas bills, all the servicing records, etc, and sending them to their accounts department to work out how much extra the thing has cost me. Then they will discuss the issues and Make Me An Offer.

    One part of the offer is going to be a new boiler FREE but I'm going to call in an independent heating consultant to advise on that: I have an idea in the back of my mind that might just fly.
  • as they say in these parts, gaun yersel'

    (I am pleased for you, and wish you every success in the next part of your endeavour)
  • So-called social workers at the hospital. They have determined, without looking at my converted study, that it must be completely gutted of everything (including the TV) except the hospital bed or they will not provide carers to look after the discharged patient. They claim that the carers will not be able to work on both sides of the bed. Without looking. They claim that the OT said the room needed to be cleared. Which it did when she looked at it. They wouldn't have got the bed in if it hadn't been done. They claim that the private assessment company had concerns about space for one carer. They never told us. And part of the space was taken up by a commode and a hospital chair, which have now gone.
    We have the feeling that any excuse will do for them not to spend their money on caring for a very old, very frail lady. It wasn't them that found her not to qualify for continuing care on the grounds that she could do things she can't, but they are joining in with the campaign.
  • @TheOrganist I feel quite teary that everything has worked out so well! Who'da thought! At last it sounds like justice is being done.... I am happy for you.
  • @Penny S Your situation sounds immensely frustrating, considering that the social workers haven't back to check out the study since the OT's original assessment. I wish you tenacity ....
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    Thank you, @caroline444. I'm working on a stiff letter to the president of the company, and a better security firm.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Wow, @TheOrganist - that sounds like A Result!
  • Cancer. That Is All.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Hear, hear.
  • Whoever thought that changing their minds and phoning a couple of hours ahead of discharge without any discussion about care plans (in place now) was a professional way to behave. (I was lining up evidence. Them's what's seen the room have cared in much smaller spaces. But no call to say "We've reviewed the situation and have come to the decision that the room is adequate." Just "She's on her way.")
  • They are now fitting a temporary boiler while A Financial Offer is finalised.

    Meanwhile I've had a meeting with my builder, plumber and a heating engineer and I may end up with what I wanted when we moved the kitchen from one side of the house to the other - watch this space!
  • Fingers crossed!!!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Good luck, @TheOrganist!
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    edited October 2019
    In today's episode of The Incompetent Security Company (get a drink and some popcorn and settle back), I was sitting in a hospital waiting room, awaiting (what else?) the call to see the oncologist, when I checked my phone and discovered a call from ADT. Both my carbon monoxide detectors, upstairs and downstairs, were going off. I called and arranged for a technician to come by on Tuesday morning.

    When I got home, the damned things were still going off every 45 seconds. I called again, and explained the problem, including the fact that I was in a wheelchair. "What I need you to do," said the agent, "is take the batteries out of each of the detectors."

    I explained that this would require me to get an 8-foot ladder from the garage, and climb up it, and then take the ladder downstairs to repeat the process. "Yes?" she said. "I'm in a wheelchair," I said again. "Yes?" That means no, I can't do that. "Well, don't you have anyone there who can do it?" No. "Well, I see that you have a technician coming out tomorrow between 8 and 12." How am I supposed to sleep with all that screaming in the background? "Well, can't you get someone to do it for you?"

    I gave up on that Village Idiot, called my contractor, and tried again. I got a similar result. With the the third try, I was told that someone could call tonight, "but it's going to cost you a lot of money." I pointed out that - given that they and their equipment had now done this three times in two weeks - and that I'd had to have my contractor out twice already, I thought they could cover it. That VI (there are a lot of villages missing their idiots) put me through to a local manager. He promised to put me through to a regional manager. He called back three hours later, and said "I'm awfully sorry you're having to go through all this," but offered nothing else.

    Meanwhile, my contractor came over and pulled the batteries, and I called a local security company with a high rating on Angie's List (which allows people to rate firms). That company's representative is also coming over tomorrow morning. I almost hope that he and the ADT chap run into each other.

  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Hell's teeth Rossweisse. That is horrendous.

    I feel almost embarrassed - but my call to hell is Kneipp, the German company who make the world's best bath salts and shower products IMHO. They are no longer exporting their products to NZ :cry: :disappointed:

    Their lavender bath salts are more effective than any tranquillizer I have ever had (without nasty side-effects) and the red poppy and hemp ones totally bliss me out.

    I wonder if I could make a case to the International Court of Justice?
  • Huia--

    Are you getting them directly from the company? Maybe you could get them through Amazon, Walgreen's, Pharmaca, etc.? I don't know what shipping would be, but might be worth a look.
  • @Rossweisse More sympathy from here about the incompetence of ADT. Plus sympathy for the awful racket their alarms make when their go off for goodness knows what airy fairy reason. Plus they ought to have a system in place for people with special needs.....

    Grrrrrrrr :angry:
  • {{{{{{{Rossweisse}}}}}}

    Does your area have an "Independent Living Center" for folks with disabilities? If so, they might be able to help over the phone.
  • Also {{{{{{{Penny}}}}}}} and {{{{{{{TheOrganist}}}}}}}.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited October 2019
    Thank you very much. We are currently having lovely carers in pairs, but what happens next we have no idea.
    And I think I'd like to call here whoever it was thought it was a good idea to keep to the Elizabethan (I) method of care by local area and not across the country. We are back to "she is normally resident in X, so she isn't our business" and X won't do anything because she isn't there. The OT who came today is worried.

    [Edited to remove personal information - T]
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    Golden Key wrote: »
    {{{{{{{Rossweisse}}}}}}

    Does your area have an "Independent Living Center" for folks with disabilities? If so, they might be able to help over the phone.
    Thank you!

    I'm not sure. But my contractor came and shut them off (say a prayer of blessing for Dean), a kind and competent ADT technician came over today and, I think, got it fixed - and I'm getting a quote from another company delivered by tomorrow at the latest.

  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    jedijudy wrote: »
    TICT the deepest, darkest regions of H- Scammers taking advantage of the elderly. Specifically my very own personal elderly folks.

    Since that post, I have contacted the scammers by phone to demand that they take my parents off their mailing list, and Dad has gotten several more scam collections notices.

    This is how they get to the elderly...they have harassed Dad enough that he was beginning to doubt his memory of not ever having dealings with the company the scammers claimed he owed money to. Today he showed me a letter he wrote to the scammers. In it, he had made the statement (twice) that perhaps he had forgotten about being a customer of the company the scammers billed him for, and would they please send documents spelling out the amount owed. I tore the letter up and put it in the circular file.

    That is how they get money from elderly people!!! They harass and harass until the elder doubts their memory. In my fair state of Florida, there are a multitude of elders with no nearby family members, so they have no advocates. I think the scumbags count on this.

    I actually called the company Dad was supposed to owe money to. They, of course, affirmed that Dad had never been one of their customers. But Dad is still somewhat alarmed. I told him to collect the mailings from the scummy scammers and someday, when we don't have anything better to do, we'll go to a lawyer to see if we can mete out some consequences to the rats.
  • People who can't carry plastic tat more than a few yards so park over our drive.

    We live a hop away from the local Ancient and Huge Fair, so parking is always difficult whilst it's on. Today a white van belonging to one of the sellers of things like inflatable unicorn heads and light-up swords parked over our dropped kerb so our car has ended up 2 streets away, and not on our drive.

    We have got our revenge by getting the traffic wardens to come and ticket him, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've got a few more people on our road tonight, especially as there are more vans on the double yellows at the bottom of the road.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    jedijudy wrote: »
    Since that post, I have contacted the scammers by phone to demand that they take my parents off their mailing list, and Dad has gotten several more scam collections notices.

    This is how they get to the elderly...
    Can you call in law enforcement, or are they foreign criminals?


  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    Thanks for your suggestions!! We were already talking about calling law enforcement!
  • People who say they are coming before 11 and aren't here by 10.59.
  • My plumber and builder have got together with the independent heating engineer and have produced a costed "If everything and anything were possible and affordable" best solution for the heating of the house and our hot water. There are three possible solutions: either heating house and hot water independent of cooking (as now); having a range cooker to provide hot water and a boiler for heating; or having a range cooker to do the whole thing - in other words, its a toss up between an AGA or a Rayburn. Looking at the whole thing, the best solution for us is going to be a Rayburn.

    A fantastic bonus is that the heating engineer's accountant son-in-law has gone over our gas bills from when the boiler was fitted - 2010 - comparing usage figures and costs with what we had before and with what the company said should have been the case: the discrepancy is mind-blowing :rage:

    On Wednesday the boiler company made their Financial Offer and it was big; however, the accountant says it isn't big enough, and also noted that it didn't include anything for interest, nor for the embu**ment we've had so its back to the drawing board for them :grin:

    They have now telephoned the accountant to "modify" (their word) their offer - an increase of over 50% :open_mouth: Watch this space!
  • @TheOrganist Can't believe the way that this is working out! :flushed:
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    TICTH the people who go to a concert of classical music and leave their devices' alarms on. Today a woman sitting near me sat there stony-faced as first her watch and then her phone alarm went off, the latter for a full 60 seconds, while the usher looked for the source of the interruption in vain. There are spoken reminders to turn these things off for a reason: it's a concert.

  • A priest friend had this happen during a funeral, during the final commendation in church: the device in question belonged to the DiL of the deceased, a woman who had treated the deceased with disrespect in life and who obviously intended to carry on that way after he had died. Unbelievable.
  • @TheOrganist Can't believe the way that this is working out! :flushed:
    I'm not counting chickens just yet: to get the best solution I want I'll need the approval of the Heritage Conservation Officer, a person not renowned for their common sense, sympathy or flexibility.
  • TheOrganist--

    I'm not a lawyer; but I think that here, in the US, what the company is doing, in trying to sort the mess out, would likely indicate they're afraid of a lawsuit.

    Hope things get rightly straightened out for you soon!
Sign In or Register to comment.