British Gas profits

[Scouse]

So many people mainly elderley struggling to make payments for their energy bills and British gas announce a profit of £571 Million

That's seriously not right!

[Itchy]

571 million is small change.

Also its not quite as simple as that,many companies invest in the stock market for their profits and or growth , pensions for example and insurance companies , the money you pay is used as capital to invest.

Companies make no profits? , you retire at 67 , and your pension is worth squat, pretty much like my dad who retired when the dotcom bubble burst and the market imploded making his pension worth £300 a year.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Scouse]

It must of been a good year for investing then considering they only made £96 million the year before.

[JonB]

It takes the piss really.

Everything to do with fuel and energy does, forever lining the pockets of these companies.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[LeeR]

I blame all the cunts who bought shares when it was privatised, oh and that bitch Thatcher of course...
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My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...

[Itchy]

Why does everybody seem to think the government can run things efficiently and thus privatisation is bad?.

Private companies = corporate responsibility to itself, ie you miss a target , something goes over budget , you get fired.

Something in the public sector goes over budget they just pile in more cash , as the cash isn't percieved as their own , Bolton council writes HUGE cheques as the money isn't seen as theirs , my bosses require anytihng over £100 to be approved as the money is defacto theirs.

If anything the government seeks to reduce efficiency of things , thus HMRC in 1997 took 2 people to inspect a tax return it now takes 7, and in 2008/09 it';; take 9 people.

As said in private companies there is motive to suceed , ie profit and associated performance related benefits, in the public sector there is not, you can be incredibly incompetent in public sector and not be fired.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[ColdInsomnia]

It's fucking obscene.

This country is nothing but a cash cow which is being milked for all it's worth by the financial know-hows at the top.

Energy companies, Northern Rock, even the government themselves. All of them are in it for the profits and they will shit on our heads from an increasingly great height - because we all know we are powerless and our government will do sweet fuck all to protect us from giant corporations.
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Yamaha YB100 | Yamaha TZR125 | Yamaha XJ600S | Suzuki GSF600
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
John Lennon

[Itchy]

What do you mean now?.

Capitalism has ALWAYS been this way , if you read Adam Smith's economic theory , greed = benefit to society, which doesn't quite square with globalisation.

Ie British gas needs employees to do its bidding this is percieved to be a 'good' side effect.

The opposite is communism or socialism , considering the only ones I can think of off my head are North Korea and Oil states, this is a failed form of society.

As a car manufacturer once said we don't make cars we make money and we make cars as a method to make money, same with virtually everything , if Honda didn't want your £10,000 for its fireblade, why would the make it?.

Without motivation theres no innovation , Honda doesn't make its fireblade to make motorbikes it does it to make money, if Honda didn;t want a bigger market share and thus a bigger market and thus bigger profits why would they make a fireblade? .

Thus you can't have it both ways , you cannot have profitless societies and have innovation.

EDIT

If you want to change it vote with your wallet, I have a dislike of supermarkets and don't go in them often , I buy in Bolton or Bury market a perfect competition sector where there are virtually zero profits. And thus you might complain now but still use them I bet.

EDIT 2

Also fuel , erm why not make your own? , laws changed last year which allows you to make 2500 litres of your own fuel. Since you can buy like 25 litres of cooking oil for £5 , and probably make some sort of burner for it for heating or what not.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Kickstart]

[Itchy]

[Kickstart]

[Walloper]

Fciknig Gas Bill

I got a bill today.

Top line:
Balance -£336.00
Gas Charges £148.00
Elec Charges £ 75.00
Ind Trans Chg £ 11.00
Discounts £ 4.00
VAT £ 11.00

I m in credit by £ 94.00

Who the fck does the math in that building?

Some stupid arsed way to set out a bill.

I know what I was charged etc.
But could not resist calling to ask how the -£336.00 becomes a +£94.00 at the bottom.
Strangest way to set out a bill I ever seen.

Wankers.

Is this normal?
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W-ireless A-rtificial L-ifeform L-imited to O-bservation P-eacekeeping and E-fficient R-epair

[Scouse]

When I was with british gas I used to get bills for over £800, I would phone up and dispute, give my meter reading and the bill would instantly drop to £200. Within two days of said call they would send a new bill at the new price followed the next day by another newer bill at the higher price again. They weren't my favourite people.

[Itchy]

It is intentional to charge you extra much like the tax office, they charge you extra (keeping the NI) , £94 might not be alot to you but multiply this by say 10 million customers and they have 94million in the bank , @6% , each day they make

£15453 of interest non compounded.

and 94 million is as said 20% of their profits, which you can loan at overnight rates or stick them in monthly high risk things which give 10-15%.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Not really intentional to charge more. However consumption does increase and they have a pretty accurate system to guess how much your consumption is.

Trouble is that there are muppets around who cannot read a meter / cannot be bothered to read a meter. Even worse are those on prepayment meters as very few people understand how the system works. Putting a card in the meter is meaningless as far as paying for the electricity you use. What actually pays for the electricity is paying for the card and giving them your reference number so the payment can get credited to your account.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Kris]

[Kickstart]

[Kris]

[Kickstart]

[Walloper]

[iooi]

Many folks are now working out its better to go back to a quaterly bill and pay in arrears.
That way you can put aside a fixed amount into a good savings account and have the interest in your pocket, not theirs.


Where they make it is on the overpayment each month, that must run into millions of ££ a month which will be a nice tidy profit for nothing.
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[LeeR]

I went back to quarterly billing 18 months ago, "paying for what I actually use" I've now got the combined bill for gas and electric down to £750 p.a. for a family of four in a 3 bed detached house. The ridiculous chimp on the end of the phone wanted £78 p.m. 18 months ago before the current raft of price rises, kept telling me I was in debt, switched to quarterly and I was £90 in credit. To say I hated them isn't entirely accurate, but I really don't like them.

As regards innovation in this particular instance of business I'd like to see some evidence that the gas industry in Britain is "innovative". I mean if you call buying gas from Russia, then burning it to make electricity innovative, well then I'm convinced...
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My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...

[Kickstart]