Spoke to someone at Eon today who passed me to a guy in the prepayment department. He seemed completely clueless! He said that they haven't received my meter details yet and I'm not due to switch over to Eon until 22nd Jan which is in two days time. He said to insert the key again on 22nd Jan and the new Eon rate should show. This seems nonsense to me. Why would they have sent me the new key and instructions for usage and not mentioned the fact that I shouldn't use it before 22nd Jan? He said the 15.5p rate showing in the keymeter was the old suppliers rate. This is incorrect because my old supplier was 13.3p. He had no answer for this. He was also mumbling something about sending the new rate to the meter as if this could somehow be done using a direct data connection. Maybe he was thinking of using telekinesis .Unless I'm mistaken the only way to send data to the keymeter is via the keycard after a top-up has been made. To be honest I wish I'd never bothered now. I always thought switching energy suppliers was a waste of time and I think I'm being proved right. I shall just have wait until 22nd Jan and see what happens but I got the distinct feeling I was being fobbed off. Why can't these call centre operators just say "I don't know" when they don't know - would save a whole lot of hassle. At least then you could ask to speak with someone who does know.

I have a prepay key meter in my flat. I was with EDF and according to my key meter I was being charged 13p per Kwh at rate 1 (it was actually 13.3p or something similar). I consulted Uswitch. The best deal was with Eon who charge 9.74p per Kwh, this was confirmed in welcome letter I received from Eon. I have gone through the switch process, received my new key, topped up with new key (presenting the letter at the top up shop as instructed) and I have checked my key meter and it says I'm now on 15.6p per Kwh at rate 1! What happened to 9.74p per Kwh? I'm going to give Eon a call tomorrow but does anyone have an idea why this might be?

Sorry bookworm, that wasn't my intention at all! I can see in amongst some of the baiting there's people genuinely trying to help others, for which I'm grateful. Many Thanks D&C

Cheers bookworm. I thought that might be the case hence my post above (which I wrote and posted before I saw your message btw).

What's with all the trolls on this forum anyway. I feel like I've walked into a bunch of self righteous parking wardens. I actually find them quite amusing in a way but have people nothing better to do than attempt to rile people who've received PCN's? Meh, each to their own I suppose.

Everyone who regularly uses those parking spaces was caught out and received a £120 therefore , in my view, signage alone, or at least the signage that they provided was not sufficient warning. You are entitled to your view of course but I think you're just plain wrong. As for "Stop whinging about it and just pay up". No I bl**dy well won't. It's not like I'm alone, most people in this country are ****ed off and frustrated with the draconian, overzealous and unfair parking enforcement we've seen in recent years. It is my right to appeal against it and that's what I'm going to do.

Perhaps they are, which rather proves my point. Signage alone, especially in this case did not give sufficient warning. Besides, after parking in the same motorcycle bays for years, and now paying for the privilege, I think that assuming it's safe to park in said bays is a pretty fair assumption to make. When you say 'drivers' I sense a little a bit of 'them and us' in your tone. Are you a parking warden or a militant environmentalist per chance?

Thanks for the advice Ting. I'll get some pics of the signs. What's an NTO? I've appealed informally to Westminster but I don't expect to get any joy going down that route. I'm weighing up whether to formally appeal. Obviously I'd need sufficient grounds. What they did was underhand and unfair but I'm not sure it was actually illegal unless I can unearth a technicality such as the temporary order you mentioned.

I had. They may well of been Really? So hard to miss that pretty much every regular daily user of those parking bays failed to spot them and got whacked with a £120 fine.

No sh*t. Still doesn't alter the fact that the motivation for PCN's has moved from traffic control to revenue raising for local authorities. And your point is? Even if that was so they still could have used any of the other methods I mentioned to better inform permit holders. And if they REALLY wanted people not to park there they would cordon the area off. I agree it's the motorists responsibility as to where they park but I also think the council have a responsibility to make motorists fully aware of restrictions and in this case that goes beyond putting up a sign seven foot off the ground. As for checking the sign every time I park there. As I said before. I suppose we should all check we're ship shape after we've had a pee. Have you never been caught with your flies undone? I think it's unrealistic in a situation where someone has a permit and therefore parks in said place on a regular basis to read the sign EVERY single day. It's just NOT GOING TO HAPPEN and therefore, is tantamount to entrapment.

It's not a specific space or bay as such, it’s a series of solo motorcycle parking areas, there's space for I'd say about 40 motorcycles. So no I don't think I 'own' the space. Motorcycle parking has always been free throughout London. Westminster have now broken ranks and started charging. The reason given was that they needed revenue to increase capacity to match increased demand. Therefore if I did find that I was unable to park after paying for my permit then yes, you bet I'd bloody complain about it! Would you not complain if you'd paid for a service only to find that service wasn't available? You make it sound as if that's in some way 'unreasonable' in which case why do we have things such as the trade descriptions act. And yes before you say it, I know services like parking are exempt from the TDA and that I'm paying for a 'permit' and not a space yadda, yadda, yadda..... Bottom line is you'd be paying for something and getting nowt and you can't expect people to be satisfied with that situation. But I digress. The reason this series of parking areas is suspended is because Thames Water are digging up the entire road to replace the water mains. It's not like we're talking about a single parking space that has been taken out of action, it’s an entire street. Why is it unreasonable for the council to inform permit holders by email or text? My broadband supplier informs me of all outages via email, what is so different about parking? And why can they not cordon off the parking areas with tape or bollards? Why can they not put some kind of notice on the road surface instead of a sign 7 foot in the air? And more importantly, why, given that the street was completely empty the next day, can they not give warnings on first day of the suspension instead of dishing out PCNs? As for checking the sign every time I park there. Oh purleease do me a favour. I suppose we should all check we're ship shape after we've had a pee. Have you never been caught with your flies undone? I got a PCN because they're a huge money spinner for the council. It's as simple as that.

Email, letter, text message (I pay for a permit so they have my contact details), some kind of sign on the road surface instead of seven foot in the air on the lamp post, bollards or tape to physically block off the suspended area, give a warning notice on the first day of the suspension instead of a PCN. There are lots of ways they could inform me. Unfortunately those methods don't make the council money and PCN's most certainly do. Funny that isn't it. 15 x PCN's to motorcyclists who were unaware of the suspension and who've already paid through the nose for a parking permit generates somewhere between £900 - £1800 for Westminster council in a single day. Nice work if you can get it! I park in that same motorcycle bay 5 days a week, 48 a weeks a year, and I pay for the privilege of doing so. Are you seriously suggesting I should make a point of reading the parking sign on each of the 210 days I park there each year?

I received a PCN for parking my scooter in a solo motorcyclist bay in Westminster on 17 Sept. Apparently the bay was 'suspended' from 17 Sept 2008. I think this ticket is very unfair and is bordering on entrapment. There was a sign but I had just returned from a weeks holiday and this was the first day of the parking suspension and I just didn't notice it when I parked up in the morning. It's not like you look at the parking restrictions in the same parking bay that you use every single day. There was nothing on the road itself to indicate that the bay was suspended, no cones, no taped off area etc. Since August motorcyclists have had to pay for parking in Westminster so to add insult to injury I've actually been ticketed for parking in a bay for which I've bought a monthly permit! Consequently myself and at least six other motorcyclists all received tickets. I suspect it was many more than six as I tend to leave work when most commuters have left for the day. Bearing in mind that so many regular daily users of this parking bay, including myself, were caught out I think that would suggest that the signage wasn't sufficient to make people fully aware of the situation. I say this because the next day the bays were completely empty but only AFTER Westminster had made people fully aware of the suspension. Unfortunately this was done by way of issuing PCN's. I also find it highly suspicious that I parked my scooter at 9:55am and the PCN was issued at 9:57am. I bet there was an enforcement officer lying in wait to issue PCN's to poor souls like myself who happen to have not seen the sign on the first day of parking suspension. I have no proof of course but it does strike me as rather suspicious. Is there anything I can do? I did notice that the PCN isn't signed by the Civil Enforcement Officer. Is that a requirement these days?