Wherediditallgo’s ‘path to enlightenment’ bankruptcy diary

wherediditallgo

8 October - Thanks everyone. We weren't best friends or anything like that, but we'd sometimes meet up in the staff canteen as part of a larger group & have lunch together. I've known her for years, so it was just a real shock to hear of her dying so suddenly & knowing how young she was.

On a more positive note, going through the mountain of boxes & bags I've still got from moving, I found a cheque from the National Lottery at the weekend, for £10. I was about to hotfoot it to the bank with it when I looked at the date - it goes back to 2003! Obviously a hangover from the days when I had so much money I could afford not to cash a cheque. I rang NL - they took the details of the cheque & said they'll send me a replacement. They don't want this one back, so I'll stick it on the noticeboard in my study as a reminder of 'wealthier' days.

wherediditallgo

10 October - Found out I've won a nice little victory over my electricity supplier - for once, my habit of hoarding paper has served me well. I was approached by my gas supplier in February, with a view to getting my electricity from them. I did all the paperwork, gave them my bank details etc & waited for them to contact me to confirm the switch-over. They did that, but didn't set up the direct debit. A couple of months went by, still no direct debit. When I rang them, they said I was on a pre-payment meter, so they'd have to get that exchanged for a standard credit meter before the direct debit could be set up.

Long story short, I've always had a standard meter here, but because they didn't bother to come to check despite at least 6 faxes & at least 10 telephone calls from me about it, they've got no record of how much electricity I've used since February, & they can't prove I was responsible for any usage as they hadn't set the account up properly! :eek: They tried to say they wanted to do an estimate of what my bills would have been, but I refused to give them copies of my previous bills from my other supplier, & my previous supplier refused too, as to do so would breach my confidentiality. After a bit of hinting at trouble from Energywatch & other consumer bodies, they've agreed to charge me nothing & will start billing me from today. So I've had nearly 8 months of electricity for free! :j

tigerfeet2006

Wow! WDIAG that's fan-blooming-tastic. Well done you on that great news. We had a problem with a DD when we changed supplier and ended up oweing them nearly 2k and they put on us a key meter which is a royal pain in the rear. Still when we can afford to go BR that'll show 'em mwaaahahahaha.

wherediditallgo

I couldn't stop laughing when they admitted defeat - it wasn't in anyone's interests except theirs to see my previous bills, so there's no way I was handing those over! They've had to set my direct debit up for £5pm as that's the lowest they can do it for, but they haven't got a clue how much my bills are likely to be. They can't cut off my supply because they can't prove I owe them money or have misused the supply, so they've got no choice but to allow the account to owe money for the first quarter. As much as it's saved me loads of money so far, I know my quarterly bills will be much higher than £15, & I know they'll want the first one paying immediately so that they can adjust the direct debit for future bills, so I'll put aside what I used to before so that I have it when the bill comes. The problems wouldn't have happened if I hadn't also moved, but the move followed by the change of supplier, plus them not having up-to-date records on the property, meant they got themselves in a real muddle. Long may they stay that way, I say.

wok_boy

wherediditallgo wrote: »

10 October - Found out I've won a nice little victory over my electricity supplier - for once, my habit of hoarding paper has served me well. I was approached by my gas supplier in February, with a view to getting my electricity from them. I did all the paperwork, gave them my bank details etc & waited for them to contact me to confirm the switch-over. They did that, but didn't set up the direct debit. A couple of months went by, still no direct debit. When I rang them, they said I was on a pre-payment meter, so they'd have to get that exchanged for a standard credit meter before the direct debit could be set up.

Long story short, I've always had a standard meter here, but because they didn't bother to come to check despite at least 6 faxes & at least 10 telephone calls from me about it, they've got no record of how much electricity I've used since February, & they can't prove I was responsible for any usage as they hadn't set the account up properly! :eek: They tried to say they wanted to do an estimate of what my bills would have been, but I refused to give them copies of my previous bills from my other supplier, & my previous supplier refused too, as to do so would breach my confidentiality. After a bit of hinting at trouble from Energywatch & other consumer bodies, they've agreed to charge me nothing & will start billing me from today. So I've had nearly 8 months of electricity for free! :j

RESULT :beer:

wherediditallgo

23 Oct - I'm returning to work tomorrow after nearly six months off (part-time to start with), & I'm really not in the right frame of mind for it. On the one hand, I want to see everyone again, as I've missed the social side of being around people during working hours. I also want to get some structure back into my day - when you're off for that long, it's very easy for one day to drift into the next, & also to put things off 'til another day. On the other hand, it's been great to be able to properly recuperate without having my day interrupted by meetings, phone-calls & people asking such critical questions as do I have a spare stapler! I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow, but I've got to do it some time (as the lottery win hasn't been forthcoming :rolleyes:), so it might as well be now.

wherediditallgo

24 Oct - Went back to work today - wasn't as bad as I thought, but there's lots to catch up on. A lot of new people have joined & some of the other staff have left (some under dodgy circumstances which I've yet to get the full rundown on :eek: ), plus there are loads of new policies to read up on. I had to get myself re-authorised for loads of programs as my passwords had all expired, & I watched over 1500 e-mails download to my inbox - I'm going to just delete 80% of them as the content won't be relevant any more, but that still leaves quite a few to read & respond to. Everyone was very nice, but I felt a bit like a new girl again - I couldn't even remember the access codes for certain areas, so I was a bit of a pest until I managed to write them all down. Got home exhausted after less than 4 hours there & had to have a nap before I was fit for anything at home.

rog2

I hope you soon get back into the swing of things at work - and catch up with all the gossip. :rotfl:

wherediditallgo

26 Oct - Heard today that they're organising a memorial service in the hospital chapel for my colleague who died recently, so that those who couldn't attend her funeral will still be able to pay their respects. I'll be going to it, but hearing about it today reminded me of how important it is to do what you want to do in life rather than what people expect of you.

wherediditallgo

31 Oct - Heard unofficially that I probably won't be able to get early retirement on medical grounds, as my health impacts on my ability to do my particular job now but won't impact on me being able to do other work for the same employer. That narrows down my options somewhat, but at least I know before putting in my application - I didn't want to do that unless I was sure of getting it, as if you don't get it they can say that you're not fit to continue working & make you redundant or sack you.