A frugal life is an easy life!

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!

We have had the pleasureable company of the better half for the last two weeks, so of course the number of jobs that "can" be done has increased.
I struggle to finish one job at a time, so don't take any more on, until what I get the job in hand finished. With the rendering completed three days into her summer break, there's lots of mess, cement on windows, scaffolding, stones all over the back, etc.
Upstairs windows have been scrubbed (four times on the outside) to return them to some kind of normality. The scaffolding is only this weekend coming down and finally being taken away, which leaves just one other major job to be worked on, fitting our multi fuel burner.

To the untrained eye, it is relatively easy:
* Take out the old back boiler and fire
* Smash the brick out to make the hole big enough
* Clean up the remaining brickwork
* Fit the retainer tray for the flue to go through
* Lift burner into place then start small fires

If only it were that simple...
The boiler, fire and upstairs tank have all been removed, along with old unused pipework, which also involved pulling out the airing cupboard that was nailed into the walls back in 1972. Draining off all the water from pipework and tank in the process.
Next I had to remove the plaster from the wall to find where the lintel is in the existing brickwork - this is vital, as the whole burner project will need to be signed off for the building regs, or it would invalidate the home insurance. There has to be minimum gaps in width and height from top of burner to retainer tray.
This done, we could now start knocking out the brickwork around the old gas fire, taking it back to the red brick pillars where a coal fire was fitted pre 1972.
Of course, the brickwork then needed repointing as chunks came out during removal.
Weeks of waiting (and grief from the better half) finally our friend came to sort it out.
In the meantime, plonkhead here had the brainwave to look for alternatives to pointing the red brick, which involved picking up some glasroc boarding - as advised by the company that sold us the burner (Google "Natural heating" very efficient and way cheaper than the local showroom prices round here).

I ordered the boarding in at £70 for two 8 foot sheets, it doesn't come cheap. As my friends will know, not all goes well for me, so once the side panels were cut, the Mrs Frugal advised me that if fitted the boarding would make the width to small for the building regs. (Why I wasn't told of this before I cut them, you tell me!)
I measured it all up and sure enough, it would be too small a gap, so that option was done with. It didn't help that none of the red bricks were level.
After tracking down two alluminium strips - to hold the retainer tray in place - these were drilled into the red brick (took ages) and we were ready for the rendering.
Five buckets of render later, and the base coat is on, it must be mixed with lime I am told to prevent cracking - which it has already done just whilst drying out. The red brick walls have had to be PVA'd in prep for the sand, cement and lime mix to go on.
As it stands now, I am weeks behind schedule fitting it in, I've wasted £70 trying to speed things up, got a bag of metal rawl plugs that did not fit the hole size advised by the engineering firm that sold them to me.
However, I am hoping that said tradesman will land tomorrow and skim the finish and place a stone flag in the base. After that all that remains is for a cardboard cut out to be used and then a template made so we can cut out the retainer plate that's been sat in the kitchen for weeks, along with bags of sand, sharpsand, cement and lime.
Things obviously take time and I know it's a constant frustration, but I want the job doing right as it's got to last. No good rushing a job then having to take the burner back out and fix shortcuts made. By the end of August we should be just about ready for winter, meaning work can start on the inside.
I've already been sounded out by Mrs F, that the wiring hanging down from the ceiling "can be moved no problem" *sigh*

Tradesmen:
Despite ranting about all and sundry on here, I do have a lot of time for tradesmen.
If they offer good value, I will first take them on and secondly, pay them a healthy tip.
Just because I am frugal/thrifty, does not mean I don't recognise good value when I come across it. Good value for money goes hand in hand with trust, the local tradesmen will be rewarded with a decent tip and follow on work.
Tradesmen are useful to know - not least as they can give free advice, but also they can be trusted. The stories I hear about people paying thousands for a tradesman to do two/three days work would make your ears curl.

Time off?
Whilst many of you have been taking your well earned summer breaks, here at the building site, we have been getting things in order for the winter ahead. Yes it has involved long hours - plastering up until 11.30pm is no fun - but the money I have saved has been substantial.
For example, the cheapest relatively local quote for fitting the burner came in at £650 - when I broke it down wages were way in excess of £25 per hour. Who do you know gets paid that?

I will think back to the past few weeks when I can sit on the toilet or in the bath, without a force ten gale blowing through the unprotected breeze blocks. At minus 5, this experience was no fun.
It should be noted though, that despite giving the appearance of being a workshy lazy twonk, I do actually need to have a break, even if only for a few hours, to catch up on sleep or spend sometime with the family.
It has been more than five years, plus one new sprog, house building and renovations inside and out, etc, since our last holiday. I am hoping with this multi fuel burner in place that now the choice is there to go for either the gas boiler or the burner, we shall have enough of a saving (which I estimate) will be in the region £500 by the end of winter. This would buy a flight to the sun!

Health visitor:
I end my wittering with a note about our health visitor. We are very lucky, in that A, Our health visitor is younger than most and has been there before with her own children, and B, We don't see her very often!
Today was sprog2's two year check up. Conveniently taking place at the building site.
Arranged for 9am (Who's idea was that??) we had to wake up sprog2, which made her tired and grumpy. Although Mrs F didn't care, wasn't bothered, the house was semi scrubbed from top to bottom the previous day. Mrs F was hoovering at 8am this morning!
I came downstairs and thought I had walked into someone else's home or a timewarp..... washing out on the line? Both settees were hoovered, toys tidied away neatly, etc. Very efficient!

Who was this mysterious cleaner? Henry the mild mannered janitor?

I am not a fan of health visitors. Don't get me wrong, they are needed I think, but the information that the NHS gave my mum when she had me back in the 1960's I think has changed very little ever since. They just dress it up differently in todays world.
The one over riding factor - from my experience of them - is that they are menhaters!

No matter how many jokes you try to crack to lighten the mood, they don't even titter (maybe my jokes I'll grant you) they cannot seem to get their heads around mum working and dad taking care of the sprog full time.
We were then told about how sprog2 should be feeding herself with a fork and a spoon by now, she should be able to throw without falling over - three witnesses that she can do this we have, lucky to avoid serious injury as she threw a large plastic musical television at my mum's bonce - how is she doing with her writing? Can she drawer circles?
Yes, she can write with both hands, has been able to hold a pen/pencil correctly since she was 8 months old, she recognises animals, etc.
I know that the manhater wasn't taking a blind bit of notice of what I was saying, as despite three warnings about how much the sprog loves bags, especially bags with zips on, whilst firing general questions and going through her rehearsed patter, promoting the local drop in centre, which I find a pointless place, sprg2 was opening her bags (all three of them) and taking things out.

"Do you understand how to deal with her refusal to do things when she has been asked?"
Now this could go two ways, I could appear thick and play along, so that the manhater could reel off another 10 minutes of rehearsed mantra, or I could answer in a way that would prove once and for all, if they were listening to a word I was saying... I went for the latter...
"Yes, it's ok, I have a big stick and if that doesn't work, we've built a cellar!"

All I got back was, "In that case I shall be making a phone call to children's social services" with a sarcastic grin.

I know I shouldn't antagonise people and often, I am my own worst enemy,  but it should be remembered that it is my home, my child, who is my responsibility until she is leaving home.
I must be getting old, as I somehow managed to keep my gob shut just long enough for her to go... I obviously have not built a cellar, nor would I put sprog2 in one had I got one, it would cost me too much in electric and I'd have to buy a bulb!

I know health visitors, you are not all like this, but it has to be said, that many of the ones whom I have had visit, do not take much notice of fathers. Fathers have some important things to say and viewpoints on bringing up a child and should be taken seriously at all times.

Sprog2 (under two years old), mum and dad, thought we would have a look at Blackpool pleasure beach this afternoon.
We looked at it, from outside, that was it.

It was mid afternoon, we were greeted by a Blackpool pleasure beach "ambassador" - a 16 year old young man with a big blazer on - nice enough he was, but lacking in knowledge of rides at the park.

I explained that it would be more than likely that sprog2 (under two years old don't forget), would go on 2-3 rides only, but because of her age, mum or dad would have to go on the rides with her.
The ambassador then went on one about height restrictions and how some didn't have them??
He continued for about 5 minutes, dropping in all the "exciting" rides in nickelodeon whenever he could. I stopped him.
HOW MUCH?

Well for mum, "only £5" - but mum wouldn't be going on any rides? - £5 for a "park pass" was still required.
Well for sprog2, "with nickelodeon?" - "yes" - £18
WHAT? HOW MUCH? (the queue behind us was taking more notice and mum was squirming with embarassment) - but my daughter is not even two years old yet and would go on 2-3 rides at most, plus it is 2.30 in the afternoon?
"It is £18, but for that you get access to all the nickelodeon rides!"
"Mind you, I would be able to go on with her as she is obviously not old enough to go on a fair ride unaccompanied..."
"You would also have to have a wrist band sir"
"Not just the five pound park pass?"
"No sir, you would have unlimited access to the nickelodeon rides for £18"

So to take our daughter around Blackpool pleasure beach - going on 2-3 rides, if any - in the afternoon, it would cost a total of £41?
"Yes sir."
Goodbye....

Off we went, we had more fun walking on the sands and playing on the cranes on the south and central piers. Sprog2 would only go on one ride all day, her first, the teacups on the pier. They did try to charge me 4 tokens (£4.80) for me and a child under two to ride on them for 3 minutes - it would be cheaper to ring the USA on a mobile - but managed to persuade the ride operator to let us on for just two tokens.

As for Blackpool pleasure beach, you are having a laugh, a blatant rip off, which will only damage your business in the long run and damage the reputation of one of the UK's more popular resorts for holidays and days out!
I for one, will not be spending one penny at the pleasure beach, until they sort it out.

Churchill car insurance take a bow, you are the latest company to fail when trying to sort out a customer account. To put it bluntly, you just don't get it!

Simple issue, car insurance renewal, big increase (to be expected from all companies), on the new schedule, it has included "Guaranteed car hire" - instead of the "Legal protection" that should have been on there, both last year and for the next year.
A quick call to sort out I thought.

I rang Churchill's customer service department for their car insurance renewals.
The legal cover I wanted adds just £6.20 extra to the policy.
The lady stated that it was ok, the new monthly premium would be just £3.20 a month more than the one proposed.
12 times £3.20 = £38.40 minus the £6.20 difference between hire car cover and legal cover, leaves a total extra of £32.20 that has magically appeared via my new monthly premiums!

When I questioned why I would be £32 out of pocket for a £6.20 change in policy for churchill's mistake, I got a variety of excuses;
- You have to add on 10% tax for anything added to your policy - but it was churchill's mistake?
- You have not been charged extra for it - add up the monthly premiums and I am paying £32 more
- I'll just speak to a manager - came back ten minutes later, repeating the 10% tax excuse
- The guaranteed hire car was free last year - what's that got to do with charging me £32 extra this year?
- The "system" will let me take off the guaranteed hire car but won't issue a refund at the moment, it will be corrected when you receive your new policy document
The lady just didn't seem to get it at all, I got the clear impression that her department did not want to issue a refund on any policy. I was just fobbed off.

The new schedule arrived and sure enough my impression was correct, the policy had been changed to legal cover from guaranteed hire car, but the monthly payments had not.
It remained an extra £32 cost to myself for a change that should have cost me an extra £6.20

Back on to the phone I went.
The customer service department person agreed with me completely, except that they were "not authorised to issue refunds on an account" - so that's a fob off so your department's figures don't look bad again.
I got through to yet another customer service department, who were exactly the same as the department I'd just been talking to. One good thing, the advisor had placed on the notes that a refund should be issued so that I was only left with the actual extra £6.20 - what could possibly go wrong?

The advisor started telling me that I had not been charged for the hire car which is why the installments would remain the same - WRONG!
They then told me that the car hire was never added to the policy - WRONG!
Next, I was told the legal cover was not added to the policy - WRONG!
Just issue a refund of £32 to the policy as instructed to by the previous advisor will you?

I'll just have to clear it with my supervisor - another 10 minutes on hold - a complaint has been raised for you with our complaints department and I'll issue the refund for you now.
Only it wasn't "now" was it... the system won't let me issue a refund at the moment?
Like I was responsible and advising churchill's staff on how their system should be working!
Don't worry sir, I've issued the refund and it will show on your new documents.
Finally at last!

I have received three (that's 3) complaint department letters telling me how seriously they are taking my complaint, but not actually sorting anything out about it!
Yesterday I received a message from a complaints advisor on the phone saying don't worry I shall ring you back later today..... no call came.
This morning I received a new monthly policy statement to take into account my refund, sadly, the refund was for £22 only and after my monthly payments have been made, I will still be £8 out of pocket more than I should be.

It really is a simple process churchill - I took off a guaranteed hire car policy (pointless as I drive a van) and changed it for legal protection, the price difference was just £6.20 more.
As it stands now after all the messing around I will be paying £14 more to correct churchill's own mistake.
Is it really that difficult to put right?
Churchill have had numerous opportunities to charge the correct price, but instead all I get are excuses and buck passing by incompetant staff.
It really is not good enough!

The whole purpose of having a scale for clothing and shoes is to make things easier for shops/stores and customers to select goods to purchase.
When I buy a 16 inch collared shirt, wether it be from Burtons or Asda, the collar should be 16 inches.
If I purchase a pair of trousers, a 32 inch waist should be the same as a 32 inch in a different design or from a different company.
The simple fact is, what used to be common practice and scale, is no longer the case. It's costing customers time and money they simply don't have, forcing them to return goods, where had the simple sizing clothing scale been adhered to, they would be satisfied customers who would return to buy again.

Two 16 inch collared plain white shirts bought from two retailers, should be standard in size you would think;
Shirt one (A - in this example) purchased from Asda
Shirt two (B - in this example) purchased from Burtons

Collar size - A is tight and can only just fasten the top button, B is comfortable and can be fastened easily.
Sleeve length - The sleeves on A, are more than an inch shorter than the sleeves on B
Shirt length - The body length on B is clearly longer than the body of A

Next example is trousers or jeans;
How is it that I can buy a pair of jeans and a pair of trousers from Asda and the 32 inch waist size is totally different?
The jeans (for lifting heavy things) I need to wear a belt or they are baggy and they fall down, the trousers (pants) I can only just fasten using the button on the pants. Both are 32 inch waist.

The size scale is there to help customers, is should be adhered to!
How many miles have customers travelled to return YOUR goods that are not upto sizes? Each mile is extra carbon emissions, it takes YOUR customers extra time and turns this customer against shopping with you in the future.
It will often cost YOUR customers more money - car parking fees, etc.
The more synical amongst us would suggest that by the frequency that clothing has to be returned and the constant stream of credit notes given out instead of cash or card refunds, it was as if clothing retailers were using this as a way to entice people back into their stores?

Next up... Shoes.

"They are a wide fitting" - "We have our own size scale" - "They are a narrow fitting" are just three of the excuses I have been given, for bad products and poor service on returning shoes.

The shoe size scale is there for all customers to avoid confusion and be able to pick a product with ease based on the size of their own feet.
It is not and should not be used as a vehicle for increasing prices via the back door.
Never was this more apparent than when buying  shoes for sprog2.

Being classed as a toddler, buying clothes and shoes are hit and miss at best, but when a shoe company (we were told) mislead on shoe sizes to obtain a higher price, official action needs to be taken.
Being measured as a size 2, the sproglette was in the cheaper range of sizes, so a basic pair of shoes was picked up and tried on. They fitted so they were purchased.
On inspecting clark's shoes however, were a different story.
At the same shop, we picked up a pair of clarks shoes in a size 2, hopeless, sprog2 couldn't get them on her feet, strange I thought, so I asked the assistant for some help.
The £10 pair of toddler shoes in the correct size wouldn't fit?
"This is because sizes are different in the clark's range!" Said the assistant.
Different sizes? Why and how is this the case?
Surely a size 2 is a size 2? What other size could sprog2's feet be?
"In a clark's shoe, they would be a clark's size 4!"

Puzzled me this did at first, until that is, I spotted the price...

The £10 for shoes the store was advertising, only applied up to size 2, the clarks shoes were size 4 and were more than double the price.
I launched into the staff at the checkout, told them in no uncertain terms, making sure all the other customers nearby heard me, that the store was clearly ripping people off.
Size 2 feet should require size 2 shoes, international scale that it was. A shoe manufacturer should not be making it up as it goes along for financial gain at the expense of the customer!

And finally..... The humble bra!

I can sympathise a great deal with the plight of women. The sheer volume of marketing thrown at you every single day is horrific. Good quality and value for money is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Your world consists of being marketed at about anything and everything, from the latest thing to exaggerated problems and buying any given company's solution for it.
This marketing pushes up prices so when you girls finally do select something from the sea of claims and counter claims, until you try the product, you still cannot be sure it will 100% do, what its marketing campaign advertising says it will do and all the testing doesn't come cheap!

The average bra is a fine example of the complete bull you ladies are fed by shops, stores and marketing.
I think even the non breasted amongst us would agree that being measured up properly for a bra is the best place to start when buying one.
You are measured up by a "professional" who is really just a sales person for a shop/store, then flogged one from their range.
Upon buying two with the wife recently, we left the store with all the right sizes and a couple of their products. All was well.
Until that is, we happened to come across another store that offered measuring and "professional fitting" - throw in a couple of catchy designs and the wife took the bait.

In we went, oblivious (regardless of gender), to the con trick that is buying a bra.
Instantly a shop assistant approached and advised that a measuring be done. Despite informing them that one had just been done, it was insisted upon, as "not all makes of bra are the same sizes, they can vary and a bad fitting bra is no good to any girl!"
To my surprise, after ages standing awkwardly around an underwear store trying not to look at the stock and innocent at the same time, out came the wife with a completely different measurement size and was directed towards the collection/range she liked.
We ended up purchasing another two bras, different in size to the first two!

If bra manufacturers and shops/stores selling bras don't stick to the basic scale of bra sizes and technique of measuring, how the hell is the customer supposed to work out what's correct and what isn't and select a bra to wear?
Or is the confusion created deliberately to sell more product?
What use is a scale if no company sticks to it?
Where is the customer protection?

We haven't mentioned the sheer lack of quality in clothing and shoe sales out in consumer world. The expensive ranges trading on name alone, whilst quality is cut back on.
Transparently thin clothing imported and sold for big profits under an expensive brand name which trades on its reputation of quality is for another post.
If the UK has a scale for clothing and shoe sizes, then all industry companies, wether manufacturing the goods or selling them, should be forced to stick to it.