Elliott Rodgers

When I last checked the petition had generated 222,000+ signatures, unfortuantely it may not be enough to get it discussed in parliament – Parliament has no time for 100,000+ signature e-petitions.

Update: 816pm The goverment’s website is throwing 503 Server Errors due to the unprecedented demand that the petition is causing, please be patient and keep trying. I didn’t make the petition or have an special or secret way that people can access it.

I had planned something else for today but after chatting to friends who are work for the emergency services I changed my mind. One in ambulance control tells me these oxygen wasting scum broke into a school… and in another incident threw stones at an ambulance on an emergency call. I also read this press release from Oxfam Rioters damaged our music shop in Ealing Green last night. We’re not yet sure of the damage or loss, but the shop team is safe. Our other shops in Ealing Green and Ealing Broadway weren’t damaged and our volunteers are working hard to keep them open in these difficult times. We’ll keep an eye on the situation, and we’re taking police advice to shut some shops early today so everyone can get home safely. Thanks for your messages of support. We’re thinking of everyone affected by these events.

So instead I’m going to promote an e-petition that a friend posted on her Facebook wall.

Convicted London rioters should lose all benefits

Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions

Any persons convicted of criminal acts during the current London riots should have all financial benefits removed. No tax payer should have to contribute to those who have destroyed property, stolen from their community and shown a disregard for the country that provides for them.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/7337

When you’ve signed the petition why not try and help identify a rioter.

Given everything that has happened so far you would think someone, somewhere in British Gas would decide something along the lines of “We really need to make sure this appointment with Mr Rodgers happens correctly or he is going to be really f****d off if we balls it up again. “

Seriously you really wouldn’t think they would want to fail again?

They failed. Appointment slot was 1pm – 5pm. According to one member of staff on the phone, my apoointment was sent to the engineer at 3pm and he is on his way to my flat (on a seperate note why wasn’t the engineer told earlier about the appointment? Why do they expect customers to wait in their homes when an engineer hasn’t even been told about the job?!

1735: While typing this post I had another call from a different member of staff who says the engineer is coming from home and lives in the HP area (an absolutely massive area) and is on his way… She is calling me back with an ETA….
1845 No call back and no sign of an engineer…
1910 Engineer has finally arrived, seems polite and nice enough.
1920 In goes meter number THREE, I will be getting a new card soon – card number EIGHT! Engineer has just told me that he was told about this job half an hour ago! So that’s totally different from either of the women who spoke to me on the phone!!

I’ve already blogged about the British Gas IE9 Farce, where you could only use IE 6,7,8 to topup and they hadn’t taken into account the IE9 update. The blog post has got somewhere in the region of 3,000+ hits all on search terms which clearly indicate that a lot of people are being caused grief. I would be surprised if this was even a quarter of the people having problems.

Caution: Angry ranting blog post ahead.

About four months ago I had another card fail to credit the meter after I had put £20 on the card, I was promised by a surprisingly polite and helpful telephone lady that the £20 would be credited to card via the online top up message (you have to download messages and then put the card in the meter).

No refund yet.

Today with card number EIGHT, yes shockingly I have been through SEVEN other faulty cards AND on my SECOND meter) took £20 of my money AND didn’t credit the meter. So that’s twice it’s happened now in four weeks. That’s a total of £40 that British Gas have taken from me without providing anything in return.

Taking money without giving anything in return = THEFT.

I know that it’s not me, my PC or my card that is the problem as the electricity top up worked fine after registering the key. I also have a receipt for the £20 payment.

So yet again I was on the phone to the PAYG helpline, I must have been lucky last time I called, this time the operator was absolutely useless. To be blunt and brutally honest – somewhere, some village is missing their idiot.

Tomorrow an engineer is coming out “to examine the problem”… due between 8am and 1pm. I think it’s quite obvious that the problem is British Gas are a bunch of useless f**kwits.

Update: Apparently the engineers were busy this morning and my appointment was cancelled – no one told me! I rang up and had a “discussion” with a member of staff from the PAYG team – should be getting my £40 sent to the card and £20 compensation – weirdly I have to visit the top up shop 3 times adding a pound on each time for the money/message to be sent. Do I think this’ll all happen as promised – I’m not hopeful.

Disgusting, Vile Game

I was utterly appalled and horrified to find that a game promoting dog fighting of all things had been included in Android Marketplace.

I used to play role playing games as a teenager BUT I cannot believe that someone would even consider creating a fantasy game about dog fighting! It doesn’t matter how much they plead on the Android Marketplace – it is disgusting. Comments from the developers attacking people who are offended and whining “It is just a video game” and arrogantly using the free speech argument. So they want free speech to produce the game BUT apparently dislike people complaining. It may just be a game but they sent this tweet “#DogWars gametip: steroids will help you get stronger but just like real life you still gotta train for max effect.”

What can you do to help?

Please take a few minutes to sign a petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-android-to-block-dog-fighting-app

Request that the App is taken down via http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/request.py?contact_type=takedown

Caution Rant Ahead!

As most people who know me (or have read some of the About Me pages) I’m pretty capable at dealing with adverse weather, emergencies and the like.

The rest of this post is ranty and has mature, adult language of a swearing kind… Read more »