sandyman

Martin Lewis did a bit about water meters on his TV show this week. He echoed the thought here that smaller households in bigger houses will benefit the most. One thing he did add though was that if you try a water meter and it turns out to be more expensive than the old rate, some companies will let you go back to the charge based on the rateable value. But other companies once you switch there's no going back whatever the cost, and i've got a niggling feeling Thames Water is one of those. If I can ever get through to them on the phone that's the first thing I'll ask before I ask to have my meter activated.

Are any of the people who are now better off on smart meters living with more than one other person? I get the impression they might be a good deal for one or two people living together but not for larger numbers.

The first house we bought was at the goose green end of Crystal Palace Road but if you looked in the old A-Zs at the time the P of 'Peckham' started on Crystal Palace Road, but I'd definitely say we lived in East Dulwich. Though these days I might claim it was in Peckham or at least Bellenden - much cooler.

yes, i looked at my online account and no comparison info - i presume because it hasn't been activated.

I can see that the meter is working by lifting the lid and looking at it, I presume it just isn't sending the readings that would be used for billing through. Can't be that difficult to activate.

Thanks - yes that's pretty much what their leaflet through the door said when they fitted the meters in the street, but it said it would be 12 months from activation and their chatbot tonight said they meters have not been activated yet. Chatbot did give me a phone number though so maybe i can get a clearer answer from a human tomorrow as to why the meters have not been activated.

did you request a meter and was it activated quickly? they were put in all the way up our street without us asking but over a year later they've not been activated. It's almost as if they know bills would be lower if the meters worked...

just wondering what peoples thoughts/experiences are of smart water meters? They were installed in our road in November 2022 and it was explained we would be told when they were activated so that we could compare metered charges with charges based on rateable value - with no obligation to change at this stage. I've just checked and 13 months later they've still not been activated. As there are only two of us in the house now with no kids having endless daily baths I'd imagine we'd save money if metered so would like to know what people think and what's going on any thoughts?

yes, i did find that the card i posted to myself arrived at the same time as the cards i sent to north london, but i'm not going to praise RM for delivering the service we pay for.

I think the problem is largely to do with deliveries to addresses in East Dulwich, not collections in East Dulwich of letters going elsewhere. In fact just to test this out I'm going to post my Christmas cards in the morning to friends all over UK and at the same time i'm going to pop a card in the same letterbox, which I can see from my lounge, to myself. It'll be interesting to see which arrives first...the one from SE22 to Edinburgh or the one from SE22 to SE22...

if you mean the one at Camberwell Green it sadly turned into flats a few years ago. Spent many a night there in my youth. There was one at south end of Rye Lane but i think that's also gone.

Caught the tail end of a news report on this over breakfast so it should also be on local BBC news at lunchtime and this evening.

Fascinating - I'm fairly local though not that old enough to know for sure, but I would guess the bomb site was on the left as you drive up Townley towards the lights where the box-shaped smaller houses (probably 1960s) are.

Story is behind a paywall but no need to read it - it's the same story as ours all over the country. In fact ours is worse than some of the stories mentioned here of people only getting post once a week. Some people in SE22 dream of getting post once a week! https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/royal-mail-investigated-over-delivery-failures-ksw8b6qgb

Interested to see other reviews. Just for balance I thought it was nice but my partner wasn't blown away. Although everything is freshly prepared she felt the starters - prawn toast and gyoza – were the kind of thing you could buy in a supermarket. Mains - stir fry and pad thai – were good. Service polite and friendly but mains were brought rather too quickly -while we were still eating starters. I'd read above that it could get busy so we booked for 7.45 on a Thursday which is usually the busiest midweek night. There were two other couples when we arrived and I think about one couple there when we left around 8.45pm. I imagine it could have a nice buzzy atmosphere if busier. I do hope it does well - it's definitely good value at the moment, soft launch lasts until October 27 so I hope more people try it and post their thoughts here. (edited to add corkage is £2.50 but per person not per bottle so a good deal if you want a boozy night, not so good if you are driving and only have half a glass).

Amazingly we had deliveries on two consecutive days last week which, given how awful things usually are, feels like an improvement - even though they were both at around 7pm!

You'd better not go to the Palladium then - two glasses of red wine in the interval last Saturday – £26.

I recently received a credit card that i hadn't applied for. Don't know how they had enough info to apply for it.

Having recently become a pet owner I now say to people if you want to know what the NHS would be like if it was privatised get a dog and take it to a vet.

Similar problems here - had a few calls - most times the line went dead when I answered, but one got as far as saying my name and then appeared to put the phone down. It feels as if they are an agency/call centre and are maybe being paid per call they make, not per appointment they make.