I have just spent three and a half hours talking to British Gas, trying to get an email confirmation, of the appointment, so that I can book the day off work. No one seems to be able to help me. There is no one in England that I can speak to today. First of all, I am told that all of the appointments over the next few months are gone and to try again in a few months time. I explained that I didn’t need an appointment. I have an appointment. I need an order confirmation. Then I had to go through all of the questions that I already answered yesterday, to be told there are no appointments. I don’t need a new appointment. I have one. This went on over and over again.
          I eventually spoke to a person who did not take me around and around and around in circles, but was equally frustrating. I want an email confirmation for my priority emergency appointing for not having gas or electricity for over two months, which is scheduled for six weeks time. They told me that I cannot book an appointment without photographic evidence of there being faults on the pre-payment meters. I cannot access the pre-payment meters. The gas meter is behind the washing machine. The washing machine was left behind by the previous owner. I will pay for a plumber to un-plumb the washing machine for the appointment. I am not allowed to have access to the electricity meter. It is behind a locked communal door on the ground floor. My maisonette is on the first floor. I cannot get into the cupboard to see the meter. The leaseholder has said that I can borrow the key so that a British Gas engineer can access the cupboard. In order to get access to the key, I need the appointment confirmation. In order to get the day off work, I need to show my manager and the company director the appointment to be allowed to book the day off work as holiday. I have an appointment, I just need the email confirmation. I then get lectured about what a pre-payment meter does. I do not want a pre-payment meter. The property that I purchased just happens to have one. I had to explain this yesterday too, but some days, for unknown reasons, my anxiety gets so bad that I cannot cope having to speak to someone, therefore it may happen that one day I need to top my gas or electric stick up and I can’t, because I cannot hold a conversation with the man that runs the wine shop around the corner from me, which is where I would need to top meter up at. I cannot even order a takeaway, because I cannot meet the delivery driver at the door – that is how bad it can get sometimes. Some days, I cannot go into a supermarket and my mum has to do my shopping for me. It doesn’t happen often, but it does sometimes. Sometimes I can be having a good day, and it just happens. There are no specific triggers or thought processes. There is no logic behind the way my autism controls my brain. I explained this to the lady, from England, yesterday. She said that I need the manual pre-payment meters upgraded to smart meters, then I need to have a second appointment to switch them to credit meters.
          The person that I spoke to toady decided to change the topic and started asking why the supply was cut off. I have purchased a repossessed property. The previous owner stopped paying the mortgage and bills back in May last year. She was completely shut off from gas, electricity and water. Severn Trent have been completely helpful at getting me an new account set up with them and making sure that I don’t have to pay the previous person’s debt. Why is British Gas being so difficult? I don’t even want to be with British Gas, but they are the previous owner’s supplier and another supplier cannot transfer me, to them, until the property has an energy supply.
          This three hour long conversation used up all of my mental energy and I couldn’t take it any more. I had to tell the person that I was talking to that this whole thing was making me suicidal, I can’t talk to you anymore, please can you just email me my appointment confirmation for the 20^th of May. Apparently after three hours of asking me all of these questions was not enough information and they still needed more information from me before they could send me the email confirmation for the appointment that a lady helped me to set up yesterday. All I want is the email confirmation! That is all I want. I had to hang up the phone and cry for over an hour. Now I am having a rant. Why is it so difficult to send me an email, that is most likely automated? I’m sorry, but I have been on the customer service end of a telephone line. I did that job for two and half years. If I didn’t send a customer their email confirmation directly after the phone call, I would have been sacked. If I kept the customer going around in circles for three and a half hours, one) the customer would have screamed at me after fifteen minutes and two) it would have been escalated to the company owner way before three and a half hours. They should be lucky that I didn’t scream at them and that I don’t have it in me to be a horrible person. I just want electricity, British Gas, that’s all that I want. The previous owner had electricity. The oven is electric – even though it is too dangerous to use, because it is coated in oil and I have been told not to use it. The shower is electric. I have had to have it replaced, because it leaked from not being used since May last year, but it had to be replaced the same model, so that I didn’t need the bathroom completely re-plastered and re-tiled. But yes, the previous owner had electricity.
          I feel like I have wasted my day off today. It is 13:43 and all I have done is contact British Gas and then try to calm myself down after a severe anxiety attack. Why is it so difficult to get electricity?


Update: It took over six hours of my day, but I was finally able to get someone from British Gas to agree to send me an email, confirming my priority, emergency appointment for six and a half weeks time. It really shouldn't take six hours of speaking to a company to get someone to send me an email.

The earliest someone from British Gas can come to my property to help me is the 20^th May. That is 46 days away. That was a priority emergency appointment, for someone with mental health issues, who has no access to electricity. I hate to find out what a none emergency electricity appointment is.

I don't even know if the appointment is going to be useful. I have been told several times by British Gas that I can't have smart meters, because the electricity meter is on the ground floor and my maisonette is on the first floor, but the lady on the phone, today, said that the only way to be on a standard/credit meter is to have smart meters. On the 20^th May, someone is supposed to be coming out to install pre-payment smart meters. Then after that, I can phone back up to book for someone to come out and install standard/credit smart meters. And that is only going to happen if the smart meters work. Apparently the gas and electricity meters cannot be further than five meters apart from one another, but mine are.

I have a feeling that I will be spending my birthday crying.


Update: Okay, I don't think the appointment is real. I haven't received a confirmation text message or an email. Now I'm going to have to wait until next week on Friday to phone up again. Oh no, I just realised, I can't. My mum is cancelling the tv, broadband and phone line on Monday, as we can't afford to be with any company. I'm really not sure what to do now. I guess I could use my computer, at work, during my 20-30 minute lunch break, to see if someone on the British Gas online chat could confirm it for me. I don't have any phone signal at work, nor do I have many minutes on my contract, so I can't phone them on my lunch break. I always have to wait 45 minutes to get through too. Why is getting electricity so complicated?

British Gas have said that there is no possible way for me to have electricity, unless I contact a DNO and pay to have the electricity meter moved. I apparently can’t have smart meters, because the electricity meter is on the ground floor, behind a locked box, and my gas meter is on the first floor, in my maisonette. I cannot reach the gas meter because it is behind where the washing machine is plumbed into. I cannot access the electricity meter, because it is behind a locked communal door. I asked how the previous person had electricity and they tell me to use the gas card and the electricity key in the meters. One) I can’t access either of the meters and two) the gas card and the electricity key and both of the meters have hundreds of pounds of debt on them. I’m not paying the previous owners debt. I’m not allowed a direct debit meter, because I do not have two children under the age of two years old, nor do I care full time for an elderly relative that is over 75 years old, nor am I diabetic and have medication in the fridge. I just want electricity. I can work around not having gas, I just want electricity.