Dad diary: Baby routines, british traditions and a pile of other stuff...

It has been quite a while since I posted my stuff, but I have been very very busy and nipping on to the site every other day to check that it is still here.

Baby routines?
Sprog2 is no longer a baby really, at just over two years old, she's growing in every way and pushing boundaries, etc.
I only wish I could remember the bloke's article, I read when just after sprog2 was born. I was sceptical in that here was a bloke telling newborn parents how they should manage their babies into their infant stages.
His theory was that it was a waste of time and energy to get babies into a routine, he claims that they will develop their own routines and slowly cotton on to what's what, by the age of around 3 years old.
This way they will accept the routine for stability and come to enjoy it.

I have to say, he was on the whole, absolutely spot on.
There have been numerous calls from all directions, mostly from the women in my world, to get sprog2 into a routine at a far younger age than my reading and theory advised me to do. I have for the most part, resisted and been mocked for doing so.

Baby sleeping routine is a shining example.
Since she went on the bottle, she has almost always slept in the afternoon for an hour or so, we haven't been quiet around her so noise doesn't wake her up.
At night, she plays and runs around, then a late change and wash between 9-10pm, then it's a cup of tea in a bottle and chilling out in her chair watching television until she nods off. Then I cover her up with a huge thermal blanket and there she stays until I go up to bed.
Very rarely does she wake up when I put her down in our cot, which is at the foot of our bed, deliberately facing away from us so we cannot be seen.

For months now it has been expressed to me that she should be in her own room and be sleeping in her own bed. I disagree. Obviously happy with her routine, I would prefer to let it ride until such time when her attitude towards bedtime changes on its own.
Last night I think one of the gear cogs in her swede clicked.
Waking up at 3am (I'd been out driving) in her chair about to go up to bed, she was wide awake. Oh no I thought, I'm going to be up for the rest of the night as she won't like going in her cot.
I explained that it was dark and that we were going to snuggle in, in bed. I placed her in her cot and asked her to lay down, which our wide awake little girl did no problem at all, laying there for about 30 minutes before nodding back off again.

To me this is a sign that her natural routine is now ready for going in a bed, in place of her cot in our room at first I think, before moving into her own room in a couple of months. I know from experience that all babies are different, some cry for England others are sedate and more composed (for want of a better word) time will tell, but I think that she is better suited to doing things in her own time. Famous last words and all that.

British traditions:
On the way home today, the radio tells me that the halloween industry is now worth more than £300 Million to businesses in the UK. After nipping to the supermarket for my bread for the week (buying six loaves and then freezing them means I never have to go there midweek and spend more than I want to) sprog2 and I had a quick look around the last two aisles, the sheer panic buying of joe public never fails to amaze me.
Rushing around, fighting over a child's witches hat. Banging bags of over priced sweet mixed bags into their trolleys like we used to throw hay bails around on the farm.

I am the first to uphold traditions that I was brought up with, sprog1 was always involved in halloween and bonfire night, but the sheer expense of the absolute pap that people buy, they need to stop and ask is it worth it?
Paying £9.99 for half baked costume, many of which are not even remotely scarey or in the spirit of halloween [no puns intended] that will last just as long as yesterday's newspapers or end up for sale on ebay for a buy it now price of £7, but will eventually be dropped to £3 after no one buys it, and the postage will cost more.

You've got an old sheet? Why not show your child some real worth and encourage tradition at the same time?
Halloween tradition won't be passed on to children who are shoved into a trolley or dragged around a supermarket on a Sunday afternoon, think about it, every halloween they'll think back to their childhood and dread taking the occasion for their own family.
What exactly has the trick or treat tradition got to do with giving money?
Some of the early door knockers costumes have been very poor.
Spend some time with your children making a costume, they will thank you for it plus it's cheaper. Even if you turn your child's face into a mush, think of the fun you'll have. Is this not the duty of a parent?

Ever tried ducking for apples?
Here's a crazy idea, if you knock on my door saying "trick or treat" I often say trick...... SO HAVE ONE READY!
Don't just stand there with your gob open, catching flies, put some effort in.
One final thing before my swede pops, for the past two years I've had people knocking on my door, whom I have never seen before let alone want to hand out sweets to. One woman has brought her toddler two years running, standing at the gate whilst her little angel walks down the path and knocks on a stranger's front door * which I sometimes dive out of wearing a mask and frighten kids as its halloween and they are fair game! What is that all about?

Other stuff:
Whilst you were sunning yourself back in July/August on some luxurious isle or after paying way over the odds for a caravan in Hebden Bridge, bad old me decided to spend the family's half holiday money on rendering and a wood/coal/peat burner. Well at long last, everything has been finished and it's finally in. More on the burner laters.
The culmination (ooooo a big word!) of all that meant a very busy summer holiday/early autumn period for me.

Will have the van out, pallet hunting next week ready for our bonfire, you can't miss it, it's in the front garden (read: drive) and fireworks will be going off in the street, whilst we have a few beers and enjoy baked potatoes, with cheese and butter on them * with the added bonus of friends and neighbours coming round to incinerate their burn bins - bags of bills and official stuff that needs getting rid of. I'm thinking of making some parkin and if we are really lucky, our neighbour Bel will do us one of her gorgeous broths.
As it stands, nothing is in place yet, hopefully by Thursday we will be almost there...

Finally, of this dad diary entry, a request.
If you are in to computing, please try to learn plain English!
Switching over from windows xp (which started suspiciously needing browser refreshing on popular websites) to windows 7 was hard work getting all the settings simlar to what they used to be. Would it be too difficult to develop an operating system that can save to a folder somewhere, the set up for folders, browser, etc, instead of leaving the end user starting from scratch?

DIY superstore staff are beyond help...

I get my fair share of stick for criticising store staff who are employed by high street companies.

I understand that they are, "just doing their job" but I believe it is fully warranted. After 17 years in the retail trade, if I was to treat customers in the same manner that is done today, I'd quite rightly deserve severe criticism at the very least. In some instances, the "customer service" I have received would warrant the sack - clear false information, misrepresentation at the point of sale, etc.

On occasion, one such type of store staff (for want of a better term) are those that represent their companies in the DIY sector of retail.
I loathe dealing with them, as their advice (using that term loosely) is often inaccurate, completely false, or down right dangerous!
Sales staff in stores are the face of the company to the customer. When combining potentially dangerous tools/chemicals, etc, with these people, I would surmise that it would be in the best interests of the company concerned to at least arm their staff with some basic product knowledge?

Take for instance the two (yes 2) B&Q staff that advised me that the reason why their 50,000 square foot warehouse no longer had any 15mm copper pipe fittings instock was because "they have stopped doing them!" - with an industry standard of 10mm, 15mm and 22mm copper pipe on sale at the very same store, and every home in the country having some form of 15mm pipework, I questioned the validity of their statement, which received a wide open-mouthed gawp, that could only be said to resemble catching flies.

However, there are occasions when I need to resort to visiting these DIY stores, Sundays, late evenings, bank holidays, etc.
This evening, I logged on to two DIY company websites, B&Q and Wickes.

My request was a simple one, specialist high temperature paint, for a fire surround.
On the B&Q website my search resulted in pages of fire doors?
On the Wickes website the results listed several types of wood screws?

Not to be defeated I rang Wickes order and reserve type of thing and spoke to a young man.
"I need high temperature paint, but for a fire surround, so therefore radiator enamel paint will not do!"
Five minutes of coldplay instrumental later, the young man returned on the line to advise that what I needed was "enamel radiator paint!"
*sigh*
"As I explained, radiator paint will not do as it will bubble, crack, peel and give off dangerous fumes, I need paint that will withstand temperatures upto at least 1200 degrees"
Another five minutes later, came the reply, "You need enamel radiator paint that does high temperatures, but it is not something any of our stores will do."
Thanks for nothing then...

Next up was a call to B&Q, which hardly inspires confidence at the best of times.
After ringing for 10 minutes finally I was transferred to the operator, only to have the phone picked up and put straight down again.
I called them back and had five minutes waiting on the line for the person to "find a member of staff"
That simple task was too much for them, so they took my number and said they would find a member of staff and ring me back.
Obviously, they are the only person working tonight, as one and a half hours later, I am still waiting a return call.
Utter rubbish service.

So the upshot of all of my dealings today with Wickes and B&Q, one didn't listen to the customer at all, then advised I purchased something that would have endangered life of everyone in the house, the other company, B&Q, [apologies for the bad language] simply could not be arsed to find a member of staff or ring me back when they had promised to.

Both DIY companies wasted over two hours of my time and a simple job of painting a fire surround has turned into a two day, over complicated process.
Evidence if ever there was for people shopping in local shops!

UPDATE:
At the request of my better half, we decided to chance it and drive the 28 mile round trip to B&Q warehouse, enquiring in person as to the possibility of buying paint suitable for for coating the surround in which our multi fuel burner will sit.

I may as well have tried to plat sand!

On arrival, we made our way to the paint section, where the man on the desk had to ask another member of staff "do we do high temperature paint?"
* Please note: B&Q sell wood burning stoves, they also sell high temperature paints in an extensive paint area, all the omens for finding a product suitable and safe were looking good.
A lady appeared and took us to the temperature paint section.
"It's for painting a fire surround, so radiator paint will not do, also, we need brush on not spray please"

"We only do spray on paint"
"In all these paints you don't have a brush on tin of high temp paint?"
"I had someone phone in about this earlier..."
"I know, that was me, I was promised a call back but two hours later no one had the ability to pick up the phone and ring me back as promised!"
"The lady on the front desk passed it on to someone else, who came and asked me. I told them to ring you back...."
* Please note: It is of no concern to me what-so-ever the inner workings or reasoning behind why I was left waiting hours for a call back. I took my time and expense to call your business, if you cannot be bothered to pick up the phone [or train your staff to do so] then you are not deserving of any custom.

No apology was forthcoming, [clearly my time and money are not valuable enough to B&Q staff]  the lady continued,
"How far away from the fire is the wall you want to paint?"
I should have asked her if she was HETAS qualified to sign off an open/multi fuel fire fitting but I am not that quick these days.
"The only other thing I could recommend would be exterior paint, which we sell as a brush on?"
"But that would be no good would it" I added sarcastically, "as it is designed for outdoor use and is not high temperature paint is it?"
No reply...
"Using a non high temperature paint instead would give off fumes when it heated up and I'm not into gassing my family..."

With this I walked off, muttering about how rubbish B&Q were and yet again, I'd driven 28 miles round trip to find that their huge warehouse didn't have a basic item instock.
One consolation though, sprog2 has a habit of repeating certain words I say, right on cue, as a couple walked past, she shouted "Rubbish!"

Car insurance - person or vehicle?

In pre price comparison website times (ie, run by journalists posing as "experts") - as with most other industries today - the car insurance industry was run, where the customer was king.
The prices charged for your car insurance policy were based on a few factors;

* Engine size
* Modifications
* Crime levels in your immediate area (Usually postcode related)
* Your personal car insurance record

The price comparison websites decended upon us all and the world of information analysis and sharing (read: selling on for profits) was now in full swing. Customers now became just a number, prices across the car insurance industry became much of the same as all companies now knew what other companies were charging. Minor savings on price could be obtained, but for the majority that didn't "compare" we were penalised by paying the top whack. Customer loyalty had gone out of the window.
With this, came the bane of all customers, pricing by demographic.

New catagories sprang up, to decide the cost of your car insurance policy for the year;

* Your job - A company director pays less than a manual worker
* How many cars in your household

Car insurance companies added on costs, for paying commissions to affiliates and price comparison websites, for getting you to sign up, currently running at around £60 per sign up, the cost of which is factored into all their car insurance policies.

In the early 2000s I was told by staff of a direct car insurance company that there were 147 catagory/different criteria for calculating a car insurance price for the year!

The progression of all this has lead to one of the worst positions for customers today, with car insurance prices being at record levels.
Are we insuring ourselves or is our vehicle being insured?

The Financial services authority (FSA) do not know - I have asked them.
The government of the day do not know - their policy on insuring cars demands that each car has an insurance policy taken out on it, yet when car insurance is requested, the price is calculated on the personal data of the driver.
The insurance companies don't know - they produce differing responses, depending on the questioning of the individual.

When I asked how much it would be to insure me on a second vehicle I was thinking of buying, the result was mind blowing.
I could insure the new vehicle (a cheap used car with a tiny engine size) but...

* I couldn't use my 17 years no claims discount against the policy - apparently, you can now only use it against one vehicle. I have yet to develop my skills in driving more than one vehicle at any one time, the policy would insure myself the person, not a vehicle.
I asked why I could drive any other vehicle under my comprehensive policy, yet if I wanted to own a cheap little run around, I was required to pay full price for an insurance policy?
"Every other company on the market does this now" - that makes it alright then does it?
* My new policy was more expensive than the sprog's who has only been driving for 2 years - I was told that if I owned this car I was "more likely" to have an accident that needed a claim.
I can only drive one car at a time, the sprog has less driving experience than I and would be paying less for his insurance than I would - it fell on deaf ears, no reply. (I had visions of the advisor sat there with gob open catching flies)

To summarise, unless I took out a brand spanking new insurance policy with no, no claims discount, I could not insure the car, as this is what's required to put road fund license on the car.

Those in charge do not know what's going on - the regulator shows no interest in doing anything whatsoever - car insurance companies are ripping customers off - with the added bonus, that we are all paying prices set by demographic.
When prices are by demographic, we have little or no control over our actual costs to the company and all businesses within the industry charge roughly the same prices, killing competition.

For all those people whom public transport is simply not a practical or financial option for working, the insurance companies have got you by the proverbial balls!

New vehicle insurance law (from June 2011)

direct.gov.uk/en/motoring

Car insurance - person or vehicle?

In pre price comparison website times (ie, run by journalists posing as "experts") - as with most other industries today - the car insurance industry was run, where the customer was king.
The prices charged for your car insurance policy were based on a few factors;

* Engine size
* Modifications
* Crime levels in your immediate area (Usually postcode related)
* Your personal car insurance record

The price comparison websites decended upon us all and the world of information analysis and sharing (read: selling on for profits) was now in full swing. Customers now became just a number, prices across the car insurance industry became much of the same as all companies now knew what other companies were charging. Minor savings on price could be obtained, but for the majority that didn't "compare" we were penalised by paying the top whack. Customer loyalty had gone out of the window.
With this, came the bane of all customers, pricing by demographic.

New catagories sprang up, to decide the cost of your car insurance policy for the year;

* Your job - A company director pays less than a manual worker
* How many cars in your household

Some car insurance companies added on costs, for paying commissions to affiliates and price comparison websites, for getting you to sign up, currently running at around at £60 per sign up, the cost of which is factored into all their car insurance policies.

In the early 2000s I was told by staff of a direct car insurance company that there were 147 catagory/different criteria for calculating a car insurance price for the year!

The progression of all this has lead to one of the worst positions for customers today, with car insurance prices being at record levels.
Are we insuring ourselves or is our vehicle being insured?

The Financial services authority (FSA) do not know - I have asked them.
The government of the day do not know - their policy on insuring cars demands that each car has an insurance policy taken out on it, yet when car insurance is requested, the price is calculated on the personal data of the driver.
The insurance companies don't know - they produce differing responses, depending on the questioning of the individual.

When I asked how much it would be to insure me on a second vehicle I was thinking of buying, the result was mind blowing.
I could insure the new vehicle (a cheap used car with a tiny engine size) but...

* I couldn't use my 17 years no claims discount against the policy - apparently, you can now only use it against one vehicle. I have yet to develop my skills in driving more than one vehicle at any one time, the policy would insure myself the person, not a vehicle.
I asked why I could drive any other vehicle under my comprehensive policy, yet if I wanted to own a cheap little run around, I was required to pay full price for an insurance policy?
"Every other company on the market does this now" - that makes it alright then does it?
* My new policy was more expensive than the sprog's who has only been driving for 2 years - I was told that if I owned this car I was "more likely" to have an accident that needed a claim.
I can only drive one car at a time, the sprog has less driving experience than I and would be paying less for his insurance than I would - it fell on deaf ears, no reply. (I had visions of the advisor sat there with gob open catching flies)

To summarise, unless I took out a brand spanking new insurance policy with no, no claims discount, I could not insure the car, as this is what's required to put road fund license on the car.

Those in charge do not know what's going on - the regulator shows no interest in doing anything whatsoever - car insurance companies are ripping customers off - with the added bonus, that we are all paying prices set by demographic.
When prices are by demographic, we have little or no control over our actual costs to the company and all businesses within the industry charge roughly the same prices, killing competition.

For all those people whom public transport is simply not a practical or financial option for working, the insurance companies have got you by the proverbial balls!

British gas are a disgrace!

It cannot be right that one of the six big energy companies in the UK, British gas, after two years, still have not a single clue how statements or bills are calculated.
If their prices were not at record levels for millions of customers, it would be hilarious. How a company of any size can continue to trade as British gas are doing, successfully avoiding the laws of the land at every turn, is beyond me.

Todays events from British gas, fell to a whole new level of incompetance and at times, broke the law!

I received a new statement of our past 12 months gas usage, which also included the previous year.
According to British gas, we have used more gas over the last 12 months than we have in each of the past 3 years.
Only problem is.... we haven't!
We can't physically have and here's why:

  • We have rendered the outside of the house, all sealed with two coats of sand and cement. We previously only had breeze block, so despite the wall insulation, heat was going out through the walls and the house was drafty. This is sealed.
  • 9 months ago we installed a spanking new A rated boiler - replacing our almost 40 year old back boiler that was rated G in "energy efficiency" - as explained in other posts, the costs involved never recoup themselves, leaving us permanently out of pocket. I digress, to the energy saving trust and british gas, our A rated boiler should make anything upto £220 in savings on our gas usage over each year, over our old G rated back boiler.
  • New thermostat has been fitted and TRV (thermostatic radiator valves) have been fitted to four of the 7 radiators.
  • We have added a layer of loft insulation to the back of the house. Not the full recommended thickness, but better than none at all.
  • The gas fire was disconnected and removed in December last year, so this appliance can no longer be used.
  • Our gas meter has been checked and double checked by british gas' own "engineers" (I use that term loosely)
  • Our new boiler and pipework have been checked by both an independant gas safe engineer and british gas' own qualified engineer - both reported no leaks, no drop in pressure, no faults.
  • For the best part of the year, there has been one less person here, that's a lot of baths/hot water and heating needs no longer taking up any gas.

With this in mind, I contacted british gas with one simple question - how on earth can we have used MORE gas than last year?

The first call went through the automated messages then cut me off straight away.
The second call was answered by Tamir - for the fourth data protection check, Tamir wanted confirmation of my date of birth.
My date of birth is private and has no valid reason for being on record with british gas, or any other business for that matter. Tamir disagreed.
I asked how british gas got my date of birth when I do not give it out to any company, he replied, "Well you have obviously given it to us!"
I obviously haven't as unless it is a government body, it is and remains always, confidential information!
Without any warning, Tamir then put me on hold and let me listen to music for ten minutes. He came back on the line saying that completed data protection and what was my enquiry?
I asked how we could use more gas in the last year despite all the changes?
Tamir though it perfectly acceptable to put the phone down on me.

I rang back immediately, speaking to Tony in british gas' scottish call centre.
After outlining the above and asking my question, Tony went on to tell me how "the other gas companies send out a bill instead of a statement and demand payment immediately" - a complete lie, as all energy companies supplying prepayment energy are required by law to send out a statement.
"I don't know why we send out statements as they are never accurate, you may as well rip them up and ignore them!" - stunning in his negligence, how on earth can british gas have trained their staff to his ability?
After pointing out that not only did Tony agree with me after I outlined why I was questioning british gas' claims that we had used more gas, he specified that the statements were not telling me how many kWH of gas we had used, it was just an estimate!
It has on the statements, clear as day, the number of units kWH of gas that we had used for the last year in large print!
Tony then felt the need to insist, that british gas only recorded how much gas we used, how this was so much was down to myself and my investigations.
When I pointed out that british gas engineers had inspected pipework/boiler/meter/pressures, etc, and asked physically what else could I do, in his infinate wisdom stated...... "I don't know!"

As if this wasn't breathtaking enough, he then attempted to palm me off on their energy efficiency team to talk for an hour about loft insulation!

I then pointed out that he still hadn't answered my question of how I had used more gas, despite having less appliances/people to use it, the line went silent at his end. I waited for five minutes incase he had just muted me or put me on hold, after five minutes the line went dead.
Tony thought it was acceptable for british gas to put me on mute and then hang up on me AGAIN, without any warning!

I rang back immediately again, asking to speak to a manager and requested account notes be read back to myself. When the lady read them back, the last entry was dated March 2011.
Tamir and Tony hadn't logged my calls, so conveniently there would be no way to trace the recorded calls either!
The manager did inform me that my account was still open by someone called Tony.

** Lesson learned here - if ringing up with a complaint, ALWAYS get the advisor's name, extention number, call centre, time and date of call, BEFORE discussing the complaint, this way the call can be traced and the recordings listened to when, as is almost always the case, the call is terminated without warning by a large company staff member and call notes are not updated (which is a criminal offence!)

I was once again greeted with the same "I don't know!" answer to my questions and advised that someone else would be asked and a call back would be made, I won't hold my breathe.

Bear in mind that many millions of customers face a harsh winter with less disposable income to cover their bills this year, I would have expected a company the size of british gas to have at least a basic understanding of how they charge people.... it appears all too often that british gas haven't the first idea about customer service and don't care in the slightest for their customers. Why else would british gas make statements that they send out as confusing as possible? They are not even consistent with the dates each statement covers!

OFGEM and the information commissioner's office, why are you not taking any action whatsoever?
Is it acceptable for an energy company to treat customers with a complete lack of respect, record prices and in a deliberately confusing manner?
Is it time that the Fraud act was used to prosecute british gas?
Manipulating a contract by one party to the detriment or loss of another party, even by accident, can be deemed as fraud.
How are confusing and conflicting energy statements, to validate their record high prices, not causing detriment to the other party (ie, me) in this case?

UPDATED:
After waiting for another two days for the magical "call back" that was promised, no call back came. (More lies!)
I contacted British gas via their twitter feed with our customer number, to let them see for themselves how their recorded reality differs from the real world.

This afternoon I got a call back from Brian.
Brian had Tony's call notes open and told me that according to Tony's notes, "I went to check on last two years spend on gas meter after putting the customer on hold, when I returned the customer had hung up"
- Now what happened in real life - As Tony had agreed that all the circumstances would, as I said from the start, cut the gas usage in the house, he now suggested that it was "because british gas don't know about these changes that they don't reflect the amount of gas used on your statement,"
Whilst pointing this out, Tony put the call on mute, the line was silent. After holding on the line for five minutes the dead tone then indicated that the call had been terminated at the british gas side.
* If I was on hold, why no music playing?
* Why no offer for someone to go back and listen to the call recording?
This would show that the call was muted without any warning or statement from Tony the advisor, it would also reveal that the call notes were falsified (a criminal offence!)

Back to Brian, "I'm sorry if there has been a misunderstanding!"
-
Excuse me? No misunderstanding at all, check the previous call notes, what has Tamir logged?
Nothing!
Tamir put the phone down on me and didn't even log the call... again, this illegal!

At no point was any formal complaints procedure even mentioned, nor was an offer to have a manager listen to the recorded call.
Anyone would think that after a certain period of time, British gas delete recorded calls?

Brian continued, saying that as regards gas usage, the statements that british gas send out are not accurate.
This begs the question, what is the point of sending out an inaccurate statement then?
The fact remains that the statements contain in black and white, the ACTUAL gas units used per kWH to two decimal places.
Brian didn't want to acknowledge this at all (I tried several times).

To quote Brian, "I would agree with Tony, just rip up the statements and ignore them, they will balance themselves out by next year!"

I am now once again awaiting yet another "call back" - to date british gas haven't even acknowledged a problem, all they have tried to do, unsuccessfully, is blame everything on inaccurate statements or accuse me of using their accurate recording of gas units used.

Points to note:

  • As every british gas member of staff has acknowledged this year, with the change in circumstances and appliances made this year, less gas should be being used. Not one single british gas employee can understand why this is not reflected in the units of gas being used and reported in my statements - a british gas engineer who checked the meter/boiler/pressure of the system stated that excessive charges for gas are common place when dealing with british gas.
    To date no british gas employee has even attempted to explain why this is.
  • British gas say that the ACTUAL units of gas used on the statements sent out are inaccurate, but when asked for the actual units of gas used from my account, not a single employee has been able to give me the accurate figure!
  • British gas staff refer constantly to made up scenarios like Brian today, who stated, "If the statement said you had paid £1 million pounds for gas, you would obviously not have paid this amount!" to deflect customers from the fact that actual gas units used are accurate on the statements (to two decimal places) and they show an increase which then cannot be explained (as in our case)
  • British gas staff will not acknowledge that call logs are being falsified on account notes, if they are recorded at all.
  • British gas staff have not on one single occasion offered to have a manager listen to the recordings of any calls made, even when a time, date, advisor name is given to them.

British gas have made no attempts whatsoever, to address the facts in our case, the changes we have made would in anyone's world, result in LESS gas being used. The figures that British gas do produce, wether accurate or not, show that we have been using MORE units of gas.
British gas simply do not have any answers at all.
The response from British gas staff (from advisor to management levels) has been a complete disgrace!