All energy companies get my address wrong
Comments
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One might rightly argue that it is you who is being ignorant.raleighjoan wrote: »Sorry, but that is sheer ignorance.
The 1/2 and 1F2 systems are traditional and well-established in Scottish cities. Yes, it's unfamiliar to those of us who live elsewhere but for a meter reader in that area it would be basic, everyday knowledge. It is not complicated, it's just different to how England does it. Neither way is more "correct".
I see no reason why people living in Scotland should completely change how they address their homes just to suit energy companies' poorly-designed computer systems. There is really no excuse for databases not handling basic punctuation in the year 2018.
Just because one city or town is using their own convoluted addressing system, it doesn't mean everybody else should know it. In fact they probably don't know it for sound and established reasons.
Just write your address in a way everybody can universally understand.0 -
windyhorace wrote: »Hi all,
Whenever I switch energy companies, they get my address wrong.
Which utility companies have you used?0 -
Thanks very much to everyone who offered helpful advice, especially those who have confirmed that yes, it's down to me to chase the energy suppliers to arrange to have the database updated. That's exactly what I will do. Thanks again.
However...
Quite an astonishing level of ignorance and downright arrogance going on here in response to this clear and simple query.
To all the people saying "oh just use the correct address": The method in my OP is exactly how Royal Mail keep the addresses for my entire street. It is grimly amusing, and a tiny bit offensive, that you all seem to think I don't know my own address. It's also, if you read my OP, and actually think about it, completely and utterly beside the point.
To the person who works in IT: I am an IT professional (systems and database development, system support, server support). Yes, certain characters are dangerous in some contexts, and data spiked with, e.g. SQL commands, can harm insecure systems. So yes, the stripping was obviously deliberate and no doubt well-intentioned, however it was over-zealous to the point of damaging the data. Blanket stripping non-alphanumeric characters is a very poor response to the above risk. If you really must strip non-alpha characters from string data, it's good practice to replace them with a known safe alternative (e.g. hyphens or underscores) so as to minimise data damage. Besides... as above, Royal Mail and everyone else who sends me mail have all - every single one of them - successfully and correctly incorporated the first line of my address, in full, into their databases.
My thanks to those who have already replied to certain of these posters pointing out their lack of knowledge on the subject and/or incomprehension of my post.
To the absolute melt telling us all about how Scottish Power is "really Spanish" (so?) and then going on with a complete lack of self-awareness to bang on about "provincial little ways" in Scotland: your opinion is noted and dismissed as that of an obviously chronically angry little man. Get help.0 -
House_Martin wrote: »Please bear in mind that Scottish Power have absolutely nothing to do with the little province of Scotlandshire.
Where have Scottish Power been mentioned?0 -
I am a very "angry little man " because I ve spent over 20 years trying to decipher rubbish addresses like yours. You cause me to lose time and money, so that makes me very angry.windyhorace wrote: »Thanks very much to everyone who offered helpful advice, especially those who have confirmed that yes, it's down to me to chase the energy suppliers to arrange to have the database updated. That's exactly what I will do. Thanks again.
However...
Quite an astonishing level of ignorance and downright arrogance going on here in response to this clear and simple query.
To all the people saying "oh just use the correct address": The method in my OP is exactly how Royal Mail keep the addresses for my entire street. It is grimly amusing, and a tiny bit offensive, that you all seem to think I don't know my own address. It's also, if you read my OP, and actually think about it, completely and utterly beside the point.
To the person who works in IT: I am an IT professional (systems and database development, system support, server support). Yes, certain characters are dangerous in some contexts, and data spiked with, e.g. SQL commands, can harm insecure systems. So yes, the stripping was obviously deliberate and no doubt well-intentioned, however it was over-zealous to the point of damaging the data. Blanket stripping non-alphanumeric characters is a very poor response to the above risk. If you really must strip non-alpha characters from string data, it's good practice to replace them with a known safe alternative (e.g. hyphens or underscores) so as to minimise data damage. Besides... as above, Royal Mail and everyone else who sends me mail have all - every single one of them - successfully and correctly incorporated the first line of my address, in full, into their databases.
My thanks to those who have already replied to certain of these posters pointing out their lack of knowledge on the subject and/or incomprehension of my post.
To the absolute melt telling us all about how Scottish Power is "really Spanish" (so?) and then going on with a complete lack of self-awareness to bang on about "provincial little ways" in Scotland: your opinion is noted and dismissed as that of an obviously chronically angry little man. Get help.
Its not just suppliers who have to hunt out your correct address , its the legions of various courier companies, many staffed by Eastern Europeans , who will not understand the local lingo.
I hope you have`nt registered your address in that form you use on the big internet sites like Ebay/Amazon because the couriers will spend even less time than I do hunting you out and you will be quite rightly wasting your time and your money driving to depots or post offices collecting parcels.
I would put flat dwellers addresses up alongside people who give their properties stupid names instead of a house number, eg the annoying acronym Olcote ( our little corner of the earth ) as the worst offenders . The reason is even if you get inside the communal locking systems of flats then you find half of them can t be bothered to put a number on the door...grrrrr.
The local Postie will know where you live but the rest of us are guessing0 -
House_Martin wrote: »I would put flat dwellers addresses up alongside people who give their properties stupid names instead of a house number, eg the annoying acronym Olcote ( our little corner of the earth ) as the worst offenders .
Dear Mr. Angry, how do you suggest us country dwellers identify our houses when we are the only house for miles. Would you prefer us all to be simply "No1"?0 -
I go to plenty of villages where the council, sensibly have stopped the little Englanders trying to go one up on their neighbours with their pathetic house names. You can call your gaff anything you want but you re allocated a number. Ok the few original houses were named , such as The Smithy, Home Farm, etc but all the new builds join in the confusion with stupid names. I even see whole new estates nowadays who are just given house names instead of numbers, all to keep up their pretentious one upmanship of a named house.bertiewhite wrote: »Dear Mr. Angry, how do you suggest us country dwellers identify our houses when we are the only house for miles. Would you prefer us all to be simply "No1"?
Yes, Peacock Cottage and Curlew Cottage etc are brand new terraced Barret houses in little neo Georgian god awful estates.
Yes you could have number 1, then 1A, 1B , 1C 1D ,etc if new houses are built in between the first and second properties in any rural village.
Only in the UK is this stupidity allowed to happen with couriers cruising up and down frustrated, late , fuming, losing money ,trying to find some berks Rose Cottage name plate hiding behind a big tree 100 yards from the road. We love it in the UK which is full of jumped up poseurs always trying to impress. The emergency services are nt impressed as paramedics try to get to the heart attack victim in rural villages wasting valuable minutes hunting the place out.
Only the local Postman knows where they are, the rest of us are wasting half a day , lots of petrol searching out these selfish occupiers. I ve spoke to frustrated couriers who say they only give it a couple of minutes and if they have nt come across the Laurels they send it back to the depot for them to waste their time and money0 -
House_Martin wrote: »Ok the few original houses were named , such as The Smithy, Home Farm
As is mine - my house has a Welsh name meaning "Hill of loveliness" and has been called that since it was built in the 1800's
You haven't read my question correctly - what would you prefer for houses that are ON THEIR OWN in the middle of nowhere? Because as far as I can see it's better to call a house an individual name than to give every singular rural house the number 1.House_Martin wrote: »Yes you could have number 1, then 1A, 1B , 1C ,etc if new houses are built in between the first and second properties in any rural village.0 -
No its not ! I ve worked out in the rural Fen country south east of Peterborough area where individual properties miles apart were numbered. . It worked well and I could drive direct to a property without wasting valuable time .Its the only place I ve seen this in operation. but it worked fine and the numbering system was up into over a 100 properties spread out over 10 miles or so.bertiewhite wrote: »As is mine - my house has a Welsh name meaning "Hill of loveliness" and has been called that since it was built in the 1800's
You haven't read my question correctly - what would you prefer for houses that are ON THEIR OWN in the middle of nowhere? Because as far as I can see it's better to call a house an individual name than to give every singular rural house the number 1.
The major problem with the house name freaks is that they don t display their ridiculous pretentious house names properly which can be seen clearly from the road. Many use "olde worlde " script or just dont even bother displaying them ( Reedness near Goole is the worst place I ve seen ) . I have to march down the path right up to the front door to decipher some atrocious script the owner has scrawled !.. I really hope he needs an ambulance in a hurry one day lol .
Any sensible parish council would outlaw all this, and many have.0 -
Presumably you can have your bills and letters sent elsewhere for example if this were your second holiday home? So ask for a different billing address - but make the billing address the "right way" instead of actually a different billing address?
Hope that makes sense!You're not your * could have not of * Debt not dept *0
This discussion has been closed.
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