Across the pond

The BT story gets more unbelievable every day. Not content with connecting my London telephone to a number owned by someone else for 16 years without telling him or me, they have sent a letter to my London address demanding payment for October for connecting my old London number, which I had had for 39 years.

They have got the right number on the bill, but, according to my wife who just arrived back in London, the line is dead.

Which is a step backwards. Because since we moved on August 1st, the line has had a dialling tone, but when you attempted to dial, it told you that you had dialled an incorrect number. And when you rang it from outside, it told you either that, or that the number had not been recognised.

Two months of treatment like this makes me think that if I were not already a certified manic depressive, I would have been driven mad by all this.

So how much are companies like BT and npower adding to the bills of the National Health Service? They must be driving thousands of normal people quite mad. The repeated message, delivered by the automated responses, and the written responses when they finally come, is that we, the customers, are making the mistakes.
And why are journalists not paying attention to this?

Is it all the result of the Thatcherite determination to privatise pubic utililities? It might be.

Not having a telephone landline is an inconvenience. But I had to deal with a rather more serious matter as well. My Dorset electricity is delivered by overhead powerlines, which are surrounded by the prolific apple tree in my garden. Which might be brougt down when we have a serious storm, which in the last few days I thought might be imminent.

This is an emergency. But I had to spend an hour ringing five telephone numbers. Because Southern Electric, who collects my money, does not own the telephone line. That is a body called SWEB, which is nothing less than the new version of the old South Western Electricity Board, which used to supply power before Thatcher went mad for privatisation.

They have told me they will deal with it in two working days. Which are nearly up.

And nothing has happened.