Another British Gas Dispute

[marcelle]

Hi there... I'll make this sort and to the point:

1. Moved to new property in November 2006.
2. Emailed British Gas my meter reading number and new address, etc.
3. Attempted to also telephone them but after 45 mins on hold decided to put phone down and thought well at least i emailed them.
4. In April received a threatening letter for £299 that apparently I owed
5. Wrote letter to Managing Director stating don't appreciate this type of letter, contacted BG in November but didn't hear of anything, want a full breakdown of what I've used, etc.
6. His office wrote back with a big apology and said they'd scrap the debt and will send me a revised bill with new account number soonest.
7. They sent a new bill for £58 which I prompty paid.
8. Few days letter got another threatening letter for BG stating I still owed them £299.
9. Ignored it as everyting had been settled (or so i thought)
10. Received another threatening letter so I rang BG who said it seems the bill is for the old property but said I paid that in full upon leaving. Then the lady told me to call the following day and they'll investigate.
11. Sent another letter to the MD's office to update them on why is this happening.
12. Called BG again and the nice lady said it seems that the new number is for someone else's address but she will put a 30 day block on my account to get this sorted.
13. I sent the Debt Manager at BG copies of all correspondence sent to the MD and conversation regarding paying the wrong bill, etc. Did not receive anything but felt they were probably investigating matters and will get back to me.
14. Friday last received a telephone call from 1st Call (DCA) saying they're calling on behalf of BG and wanted me to clarify my DOB - I told them NO I'm not giving them my DOB;
15. Sent another letter to Head of Debt at BG regarding him ignoring my previous correspondence and will now report this to Energywatch.
16. Yesterday received a letter from 1st credit stating I owe £312 and need to pay or they will issue a warrant of entry.

OK, my question is considering all the above, what can I do?

[mree]

Write to Energywatch now, don't waste any more of your time trying to communicate with BG. If the DCA calls again, inform them the debt is now in dispute and you insist any future communication is done in writing.

[marcelle]

Thanks Mree!!!

[marcelle]

Update:

Contacted Energywatch and they in turn contacted British Gas. Received a letter from British Gas yesterday with a long apology stating they have added up charges from November to date and it's £161 I now owe - also they'll give me £10 as goodwill gesture (nice of them!) but of all the stress I went through and the amount of calls I received from their DCA, I shall be asking for more - am i being greedy???

[2Grumpy]

you are not being greedy

BG do compensate for their mistakes - usually £10 per mistake

Add up the number of mistakes - sounds like a few - wrong bills, referring to DCA etc, add time & phone calls, tell them what you are expecting as compensation and why. If they don't like it, send an invoice.

[marcelle]

Great.... thanks a lot Grumps! Will be sending them an invoice with explanatory letter asap.

(I've jangled your scales!)

[marcelle]

OK, well after much to'ing and fro'ing with British gas via energywatch, BG are saying they do not make compensatory offers for inconveniences and frustrations, only for out-of-pocket expenses. Energywatch say they cannot force BG to do anything regarding getting compensation. OK, is this true or shall I take this case up with their Energy Supply Ombudsman??

[marcelle]

does anyone know??

[2Grumpy]

They offered me (actually told me they would) give ne a token gesture or something when I had problems with them (refund of DD overpayment & invoice wrong). I had gone via energy watch. They gave me what I think was 1 or 2 lots of £10 & £20. (credits on next bill)

They even offer that for missed appointments.

You have been through so much more. Wrong invoice, having to escalate to MD to get it sorted, promises not kept (ie not put on hold for 30 days) stress & distress of being referred to DCAs & threatened with warrant of entry! (BG are responsible for their DCAs actions)

I will look on BG website to see if I can find the information.

Energy watch are toothless and can't make BG do anything.

I will post here again with any more findings - got to get off to work now

Grumpy

[2Grumpy]

Couldn't find it on the BG website but on Google I found several references to £10/£20 standard compensations - even for missed appointments.

As I said, I got several for 1 statement (though I there were a few problems)

So with what you have gone through, even though the original problem was 1 bill wrong, they have compounded this through either institutional, systemic or individual incompetence. I would say that their £10 goodwill gesture would be fine, provided that they made that gesture for each incident - which is what they did with me.

I would write a letter - to the MD - saying that a £10 gesture in the circumstances was derisory and would suggets £10 per incident, then list them:

Also remind them that DCAs are their agents and BG are responsible for their actions

Resolving original wrong bill
Dealing with BG threatening letter
BG referring the original bill to DCA after everything had been resolved
Continuing ith DCA activity after saying that it would be put on hold
Harrassing DCA calls
Threat of warrant of entry
Plus cost of phone calls?
Plus £6 to check your credit files

By the way - what type of number did you call them on for 45 minutes - was it 0870/0845 - they cost a lot - maybe you should add telephone charges

By the way, have you got credit reports (the £2 variety) to ensure that the DCA / BG has not registered anything adverse against you while this was happening? That would be £6 (3 CRAs) to add to your bill.

I feel that this would be fair & justified and worth contacting BBC watchdog program & papers if they don't do more

Having said all this, I hope that I'm not being unrealistic. I would certainly go for it.

Grumpy

[marcelle]

Thanks for this Grumps.... I will take action!!!

The number I called was their 0870 number but in their goodwill gesture, they already said the £10 covers for the phone bill.

Yes, I did my credit check about a month ago and it was clear and they stated in their letter that it would not be documented as that was one of my worries.

I always put cc. Watchdog on all my complaints as I think they take it more seriously then but shall write to MD and sock it to him (but in a nice way mind!)

Thanks again grumps and I've jingled your scales!!!!!

[marcelle]

Hmmm .... i tried jangling your scales but it says I must spread my giving of reputations around (I must have jangled yours before but surely you can ding someone's dong more than once????)