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So, we need a new gas meter installed, so that the nice gas man around the corner can come round & hook up the pipes, so that our lovely new gas hob will work. Splendid.
I'll admit that ideally we should have started this procedure earlier, but this is the sequence of events so far:
- Mon 29 Nov: gas man comes round, inspects pipe, informs us that he doesn't do meters, you have to get the Gas Board (now: Transco) to do that. Pete investigates further and discovers that in *fact* these days you have to go via London Energy (or your gas supplier of choice). Does so, books fitting for Tue 7 Dec.
- Slightly later in week: get piece of paper informing us that actually fitting will be Fri 10 Dec. This is irritating, but non-fatal to the Schedule. Make provisional arrangement for nice gas man to return on Mon 13 Dec.
- Fri 10 Dec:
- Transco arrive, fit meter, go away again.
- Inspection of meter reveals that a) they have put it right in front of the little box housing the electricity meter (so whilst you can read the electricity meter, you can't open the box to e.g. service the meter without taking the little door off its hinges), which is non-ideal; and b) they have failed to attach the meter to the wall, so the whole weight is taken by the gas pipe. This is not only non-ideal but unsafe.
- Phone calls, various, ensue.
- Different chap from Transco returns, makes tutting noises, and tells Pete that They Have Sent The Wrong Person, whilst agreeing that the current situation is a Bad Thing. Goes away without doing anything, but says Someone Else Will Be Sent. Nothing more is heard that day.
- Mon 13 Dec (i.e. today): Having heard nothing over the weekend (& we are genuinely a bit concerned about that meter hanging off the gas pipe), Pete phones Transco. Argument with Transco woman ensues, during which she says various things, including that moving the meter is a billable service (er, no, you screwed up in the first place, we are not paying for you to fix your own mistake), and that she will not be able to book us in until the 27th as attaching a bracket to a wall is a 10-day waiting list service. Pete's increasingly cross representations about a) the safety aspect, and b) the fact that this will mean we can't do anything on the kitchen for 2 weeks and will be without kitchen (and hey, this was THEIR SCREWUP and they need to fix it NOW), leads to agreement that Someone Will Come Round within 4 hours. Thus, the current situation.
Am a bit cross. Thumbs crossed that the engineer *this* time will be prevailed upon to at least attach the damn thing to the wall. Ideally to move it to somewhere sensible (though we'll settle for attaching it to the wall, so we can get the pipes fitted, and then we'll fight the 'paying for it to be moved' battle after Christmas). Growl. This has not improved my day any.
Update: Transco man turned up, inspected, & informed P that it is entirely safe, since that's a fixed gas pipe & therefore sufficiently solid to take the weight of the meter. He suggests getting our gas man to move the meter (apparently he's allowed to do that), which is a 5-min job involving a small quantity of fixed pipe. I intend to get him to itemise the bill, at which point I will send the meter-moving part of the cost to London Energy. Growl some more. So, have phoned gas man & left a message asking him to come round tonight if at all possible, as per original arrangement. [sigh]
Update 2: have contacted gas man who is going to come round tonight & fit pipes. Hurrah. Even more hurrah is the fact that Dad & Pete will be there, & I won't (till a bit later on), so they can talk to him about exactly what needs done/what goes where in the kitchen. (for some reason I have found the gas-pipe part of things to be one of the scariest bits. I think possibly because of the complicated 2-gas-main situation).
