Never thought of anything like this before. Sunday was the worst possible day for me in London. It had been raining all day, and was pretty cold, and just around 5:15 in the evening, the gas meter went off. Initially we thought, we ran out of the gas, so went into the nearby store, topped up the gas, and inserted the card, but it wouldnt accept the card.
Frustrated, we tried all possible things, but it wouldnt budge! Then wonderfully, after about half an hour, it displayed a message on the display of the meter "CALL HELP - BATTERY". Out of the whole world, this message was quite precious, as then we started searching for any contact details of the Gas supplier. As if selected for the occassion, the customer service department is closed on Sundays, and even on weekday, they close at 5pm. We tried our luck, as gas emergency center, but they just simply said, if we can smell gas or technically if there is a gas leak, only then, they can jump into picture, and they can pretty well do nothing but switch off connection from the house in that case.
So jump on internet, thank God, the technology is still there to rescue humans! After googling for few more minutes, we finally found out that we are suppose to contact national grid, as they are responsible for maintaining the gas meters. Why dont they write this stuff in the welcome pack?
So called up them, again using the 0845 numbers (for all those outside UK, these numbers are the hidden charges, that the customer is suppose to pay, to call for support almost in every company!), and the lady in a very beautiful voice booked an appointment for the engineer next day!
Hello! It is freezing outside, and you want us to stay in cold, even when we have paid the money for gas! Unfortunately, they hand out the jobs at about 5:30 in the evening, so if the gas supplier (read Npower) had the information needed to contact the national grid, we would have been the fortunate ones to get the stuff done that night itself, but because of that we had to spend the night in freezing cold.
Next day morning, had to take a day off, as the engineer who would come at any time between 9 to 6 in the evening, had to be granted access to the celler! After waiting for about whole day, the engineer comes in at 3:30, opens up the meter, removes the battery, inserts the new battery, and closes the meter. To be specific, 67 seconds, is all it took, and there it is the gas running! Just for this 67 seconds, we spent the night in the cold wearing 3 shirts, jacket, denim, and socks on feet! Can you believe it?
So next time something happens to the gas meter, you know the first place to contact!
Frustrated, we tried all possible things, but it wouldnt budge! Then wonderfully, after about half an hour, it displayed a message on the display of the meter "CALL HELP - BATTERY". Out of the whole world, this message was quite precious, as then we started searching for any contact details of the Gas supplier. As if selected for the occassion, the customer service department is closed on Sundays, and even on weekday, they close at 5pm. We tried our luck, as gas emergency center, but they just simply said, if we can smell gas or technically if there is a gas leak, only then, they can jump into picture, and they can pretty well do nothing but switch off connection from the house in that case.
So jump on internet, thank God, the technology is still there to rescue humans! After googling for few more minutes, we finally found out that we are suppose to contact national grid, as they are responsible for maintaining the gas meters. Why dont they write this stuff in the welcome pack?
So called up them, again using the 0845 numbers (for all those outside UK, these numbers are the hidden charges, that the customer is suppose to pay, to call for support almost in every company!), and the lady in a very beautiful voice booked an appointment for the engineer next day!
Hello! It is freezing outside, and you want us to stay in cold, even when we have paid the money for gas! Unfortunately, they hand out the jobs at about 5:30 in the evening, so if the gas supplier (read Npower) had the information needed to contact the national grid, we would have been the fortunate ones to get the stuff done that night itself, but because of that we had to spend the night in freezing cold.
Next day morning, had to take a day off, as the engineer who would come at any time between 9 to 6 in the evening, had to be granted access to the celler! After waiting for about whole day, the engineer comes in at 3:30, opens up the meter, removes the battery, inserts the new battery, and closes the meter. To be specific, 67 seconds, is all it took, and there it is the gas running! Just for this 67 seconds, we spent the night in the cold wearing 3 shirts, jacket, denim, and socks on feet! Can you believe it?
So next time something happens to the gas meter, you know the first place to contact!
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