Holes

cthornley

Came home tonight to find my garden cordoned off and a bloody great big hole in the middle of my lawn!
We got a letter a while back saying that they would be replacing the gas main in our street. It said that they would be digging up our street over a period of 3 weeks and during this period they would need to shut off our gas for the day and we would need to be around so that when they had finished they could come in and turn the gas back on again and test for any leaks. We would get a minimum of 24 hrs notice of this work... Ok it's a pain but they are just doing there jobs.... Ha yesterday they dug up the pavement next to my car door so I couldn't get in my car to pick up my son, today they've dug up my garden with no warning (24hrs notice anybody) and have said I need to be in all day tomorrow between 8am and 9pm to let them into my property ( seeing I was in at 8am and the letter wasn't I'm not sure how this is defined as 24 hours notice either) and if I have a problem with this I had to inform them by 5pm ( I got the letter at 6.15pm when I got home from work) either way they will shut off my gas tomorrow and if I'm not there for them to pit it back on and test it I have to pay for it to be switched back on!!!!
I'm livid and not sure what I'm going to do about it... Not only do I have work to go to tomorrow as does my husband but I need to get my son to nursery first thing. Funnily enough nearly everybody in the street is in the same boat as we nearly all work full time and have clients/ patients/ colleagues expecting us to turn up in the morning.
I can't get hold of anybody to speak to about it til 8am in the morning by which point I should be driving down the A1 on the way to nursery.....arghhh this is the last thing I need to deal with this week!
Chrissie

skezier

Hi Chrissie,

can't help you at all cus they are a law unto them selves but leaving you a ((( ))) and a hope they will return your garden to what it was before they went digging.
Fingers crossed its not such a bad day as you think it might be. Cris x

valval

hi do hope it gets sorted if any workmen on street before you leave for work have a friendly chat might just help you never know hugs val

joanlawson

Hi Crissie

This seems like unbelievable inefficiency, and how do they expect people to suddenly be at home all day? If lots of your neighbours are in the same boat, I think you should all get together to register an official complaint. Some people only get paid for the hours they work, so it could cost them a lot of money to stay off. That doesn't solve your immediate problem though, so I'm not sure what you can do.

Joan

tkachev

you could ask them to contact you by mobile when they are ready. Or maybe one neighbour could take the day off and have all the keys and let them in to each property as needed but I'm not sure if anyone would be happy doing this as a lot of trust is involved.
It's not been a good week has it?

Elizabeth

julie47

Hi chrissie
Seeing the time of your post ,this really upset you and I am not surprised.
I hope you eventually managed to get some sleep and that you have managed to sort something out regarding entry to your home.
Sending a hug(((((())))))
Juliepf x

NinaKKang

Has anyone heard from Chrissie to find out what happened today??

Nxx

cthornley

Well this has turned into a bit of a saga..... Well after much back and forthing with a man supposedly in charge(I had to do all the ringing as for some reason he had no ability to phone back on his phone ), they arranged for a guy to meet me at lunchtime yesterday .... To do the work ' as quickly as possible' and get me back to work sometime in the afternoon....
Great so I head off , get there, find my man, get to the door to find my house key is no longer on the ring, I've lost it!
So after arranging to Do the same again today, I go on a panicked retracing of my steps for the day.
Nearly kissed the man who told me it had been handed in at the petrol station :roll:
Right on to today....open the curtains to a disaster, gales overnight have blown down all the weighted barriers , blocking the road, pavement , our path and across our front door, blocking our way out! No chance of moving the damn things so finally shifted the ones across the door enough slip out and picked our way out in obstacle course style to my car
Dashed back across town at lunchtime to sort out access only to be thwarted by their compressor breaking down... "Any chance you can get home early flower and well sort it in 1/2 an hour then"...right try again
Dash through my afternoon , offloading urgent work on my colleague so I can leave early, grab son from nursery , race home ....to a freezing house and an awful lot of gas men in my street....
No gas in our street ....lots of holes and irate neighbours , we so far this evening at time of writing have 50% of a connection done
I've had 5 different men ensconced in my understairs cupboard over the past 3+ hrs and 2 more in a hole in my lawn
I've been told we'll have gas back on by some point late tonight .... It's freezing and we have a remarkably small amount of food that can be cooked by microwave alone! :shock:
I am however feeling lucky.... I could be my next door neighbour, the blind one , they not only managed to block off his route in and out of his house without warning but their pipe is not just pushing through so they have holes in their garden, hallway and lounge and their front door has been open for 5 hrs this evening... Newcastle is cold this time of year :shock:
.....so cold tired and hungry and not much closer to getting my gas back on. Can't even go to bed as they are still in and out of the house.
My the letter of complaint is going to be long!
Chrissie
dash across town at lunch time again...get here

cthornley

Update 2.....
They've finished the pipework...in our house
Still no gas
And a man still in a hole in next doors garden
Just as they forecast snow on the weather forecast....
As hubby has just said "I've had enough of today".....and now our house is finally empty of gas men, I'm going to bed at least it's warm under the duvet!
Chrissie

rugbygirl

Sorry to hear about all your problems with the gas men. I hope that by the time you get this you have heat in the house. If you have a child under 5 or a disabled person in the house they should not leave you without gas. Is there any other way of you heating the house?? If they were having problems with that then they should have supplied heaters for you.

Make sure that you make a major complaint about this and make sure that they put your garden back as it was. It has to be put back otherwise you can get compensation for that.

I would let them have both barrels about this

Good luck and I hope that its a bit warmer for you tomorrow