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Hive

Grumpy Old Lemons Like You
wheypat
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Hive

#183020

Postby wheypat » November 26th, 2018, 1:29 pm

Where to start?

I have one at home, it's great. I love it. So I bought one for my students (mainly so I can make sure they don't sod off over Xmas and leave the heating completly off and the pipes freeze). So I try to book a fitting on the Hove website. Which I can't do, as my phone number is already registered. So phone them up and eventually they grasp that I have 2 houses but only one phone. They system can't cope with this, so they make a up a phone number and book me in.

Next issue, they confirm they are coming to my home address to fit the hive. Phone them up and the system will not take the new address, as according to BG the street and post code doesn't exist. Which is odd, as the house has a plaque on the front which has 1898 on it. And I've been inside and it defintitly has a boiler. 38 minutes to get the system to accept this, then it rejects it as my phone number already has a hive connected to it. Back to square 1.

Eventually the system accepts the new address, but now they can't book me in until 3 weeks time. But I already have a slot I say, surely you can move me into that slot? Ah, but that's for the original dwelling sir. Yes I point out, a dwelling that has a hive and doesn't need a new one. They must be too far apart to accept the change he tells me. They are 250m apart I tell him. Right, we'll get it moved.

System rejects it as my phone number is already connected to a hive accoubnt and we're back to square 1.

Eventually, 94 minutes after picking up the phone I am assured that the engineer is coming this week to my student hpouse at the arranged time to fit a fit. I'll believe it when/if he turns up . . . .

bungeejumper
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Re: Hive

#183025

Postby bungeejumper » November 26th, 2018, 2:01 pm

Don't you just love being in control? :lol:

BJ

bungeejumper
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Re: Hive

#183040

Postby bungeejumper » November 26th, 2018, 3:39 pm

The Hive advert that really cracks me up is the one where a woman and her daughter (IIRC) are somewhere out and about in town, and are checking up on the situation in the kitchen, via their phone video link to the Hive camera. And as the dog potters around the room, the voice-over says reassuringly, "....so you know there'll be no little surprises when you get home....."

What a vacuous, pointless exercise. Supposing you call up your kitchen camera during your day out, and you discover that the kitchen's flooded and the dog's raided the fridge, crapped all over the floor, disembowelled the cat, jumped onto the wine rack and broken everything in it, chewed the fronts off the kitchen cabinets**, and left the postman's bloodstains weeping all the way down the door from the letterbox. What exactly are you going to do about it, eh? ;)

BJ

** Not all of this is from my febrile imagination, BTW. My teenage mate's parents had a beagle which destroyed a brand new fitted kitchen during a single afternoon, using nothing more than its teeth and its prodigious destructive energy. That's what happens when you leave a glorified foxhound penned up in an enclosed space. More fool them. :twisted:

stevensfo
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Re: Hive

#183057

Postby stevensfo » November 26th, 2018, 5:26 pm

Do we win a prize if we guess what you're all on about? I realised after the 2nd post that you're not talking about a Bee Hive, but a quick search has not helped either.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... glish/hive


Steve

Slarti
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Re: Hive

#183059

Postby Slarti » November 26th, 2018, 5:39 pm

stevensfo wrote:Do we win a prize if we guess what you're all on about? I realised after the 2nd post that you're not talking about a Bee Hive, but a quick search has not helped either.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... glish/hive


Steve


Gas central heating remote control.

Simple!


Slarti

stevensfo
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Re: Hive

#183060

Postby stevensfo » November 26th, 2018, 5:44 pm

Gas central heating remote control.

Simple!


Oh, GCHRC? Now I understand. Why didn't you say?

Steve

PS Why do I feel I'm in a Marx bros movie? :-)

chas49
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Re: Hive

#183066

Postby chas49 » November 26th, 2018, 5:54 pm

wheypat wrote:Eventually, 94 minutes after picking up the phone I am assured that the engineer is coming this week to my student hpouse at the arranged time to fit a fit. I'll believe it when/if he turns up . . . .


I have a Hive and like you I like it. However, the original installation was not trouble-free. As a result I have contact details for the complaints team who report to the CEO. If you end up needing those, PM me and I'll let you have them.

AF62
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Re: Hive

#183361

Postby AF62 » November 27th, 2018, 7:28 pm

wheypat wrote:Eventually, 94 minutes after picking up the phone I am assured that the engineer is coming this week to my student hpouse at the arranged time to fit a fit. I'll believe it when/if he turns up . . . .


Might have been quicker to do it yourself. It took me 15 minutes to fit the Hive I bought...

wheypat
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Re: Hive

#183684

Postby wheypat » November 29th, 2018, 8:38 am

So, I waited in all day and at 16:57 my phone went. It's the engineer.

Him : "Hello, your next on my job list. Unfortunatly I finish at 5 so I'll have to come tomorrow"
Me : "That's no good, I've taken a day off to wait for you"
Him : "Oh well" and he hangs up!!!!

I phoned BG who say thats . . . thats . . . and I chip in with "The word you're looking for is unacceptable" and she agrees, then raises a complaint for me and offer me £30 compensation. I refuse, so they up it to £50. I refuse and say I will have to hire someone to sit in and wait for the engineer next week as I can't take another day off. I suggest my gardener (she doesn't get much work at this time of year) and she charges £25/hr for 6 hours so let's say £150. BG refuse, I refuse to accept so my case has been escalated.

My gardener is, of coursem, my wife, but they don't need to know that . . . . . .

Dod101
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Re: Hive

#183686

Postby Dod101 » November 29th, 2018, 8:49 am

Now that we have established that the OP is not proposing to keep bees, why do people like him not employ a reliable local plumber/electrician? I seldom have problems like that (so far never that I can think of) Large organisations like BG or SSE are totally impersonal and as has been illustrated really do not care and are to be avoided at all costs.

Dod

chas49
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Re: Hive

#183701

Postby chas49 » November 29th, 2018, 9:54 am

Dod101 wrote:Now that we have established that the OP is not proposing to keep bees, why do people like him not employ a reliable local plumber/electrician? I seldom have problems like that (so far never that I can think of) Large organisations like BG or SSE are totally impersonal and as has been illustrated really do not care and are to be avoided at all costs.

Dod


Probably because he's bought a device and the price includes installation by British Gas (because they know how the thing works, and can also contact the helpdesk to get the thing connected or reset etc if needed), and the local plumber or electrician won't have a clue (or the access to the helpdesk).

(I realise this response isn't really a Bitter Lemon one, but the whole topic is a mixture of Bitter Lemon complaining and LemonAid problem solving I think....

Slarti
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Re: Hive

#183717

Postby Slarti » November 29th, 2018, 11:12 am

Dod101 wrote:Now that we have established that the OP is not proposing to keep bees, why do people like him not employ a reliable local plumber/electrician?


Because finding one is very hard and even if you do, next time you want to use them they've gone and done something like retire, or die, because it is over 10 years since they were last needed?

Slarti

Dod101
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Re: Hive

#183727

Postby Dod101 » November 29th, 2018, 12:32 pm

Well I have used the same firms of electricians, plumbers and painters and decorators for about the last 25 years (and some of them longer than that) and get excellent service from them all. I would never use BG for instance. Maybe I am just fortunate but if I wanted to install a hive (I would first need to know what it does of course) I would approach my plumber/boiler servicer and ask him to give me an estimate and then get him to carry out the work.

I have been accused of lacking empathy recently on these Boards but I genuinely feel that sometimes people make life difficult for themselves.

Dod


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