British Gas again!

[fiyah]

ive been with british gas since buying my first home 6 years ago.
in may this year i was approached by another utilities supplier to switch to them for cheaper gas and electric, at the time i was paying british gas 90 every 4 weeks for gas and 70 every 4 weeks for electric, the other company said that they could cut this amount quite a lot so i switched.
British gas contacted me as to why i was switching and i told them they were too expensive and id had nothing but problems, they then informed me that they would send out my final bills to be paid in full.
this meant i would have to pay nearly 600 striaght away to clear my debt with them, couldnt afford to do that so i switched back to british gas ( stoooopid i know)
after my 28 days with my other supplier i got a phone call off british gas confirming that i was now back with them and as a thank you they would credit my gas and electric account with 25 pounds.
i asked the fella on the phone how much my new monthly payments were going to be to help me clear the debt and he said 76 for elctric and 99 for gas, so i said that i would alter the details on my online banking and change it from monthly to 4 weekly standing order, he said that was fine.
i then asked him to confirm that my 2 previous accounts with them were closed and all balances transfered over to my new account, he checked and said that he had done that there and then. i even said to him your sure that im not going to be paying money onto my old account and he assured me it was sorted.
all well and good i thought, until today, i have received 2 letters, one for gas one for electric stating that they havent received my monthly payments for my gas and electric. now this is the best bit, they say that my new payments each month for gas and electric have doubled! i now have to pay 198 for gas and 152 for electric!
nearly 4 thousand pounds a year for gas and electric, thats a quater of what i earn each year.
i dont have a huge mansion either, 3 bed mid terrace, no central heating, 2 adults and 1 child live here and we both work full time so theres no one usually in during the daytime.
due to the postal strike i have missed the 7 days to comply or else we will cancel your monthly payment plan, so now im going to get sent quarterly bills which if their figures are anything to go by im going to be working to pay their bills!
ive just checked my internet banking and lo and behold my old accounts are still there with my old account numbers, nothing in place for my new account.
so ive paid every 4 weeks for my gas and electric on my old account since end of may.
im on hold to the phone with them right now, gonna get this sorted once and for all.
fuming atm, god help whoever answers the phone!

[2Grumpy]

I can understand your feelings but try to keep your cool.

They will put the phone down on you if you swear / shout

take a deep breath or hundred

quiet persistence is the best approach

ask them to explain everything, including readings, etc, justify the amounts

tell them what you are using (appliances, hours), ask if your meters might be faulty or misread. If they are using estimates, they will be incorrect

Take your own readings now to compare with what they say

Good luck and post again with how you get on

[fiyah]

well i was surprisingly calm, she was a really nice lady on the phone and couldnt apologise enough for the mistakes that had been made.
its all sorted now fingers crossed, and to top it all off she said that there is a cheque on its way for the payments ive made since switching back to BG that i had made on my old account..........going out this afternoon to buy a Wii
she couldnt understand why id been sent those letters with the monthly payment figures on it because what she had her end was what id been told months ago, but she has reduced my monthly payments from 152 to 76 for gas and from 152 to 80 for electric.
shes asked me to keep a record of my meter readings for the next 8 weeks and to phone in/email my readings after the 8 week period, so at least sumones listening to me when i say im paying too much.
hopefully this will be the last of it *crosses fingers*

[fiyah]

oh how wrong i was!
i allowed for the post strike and the delay in post before i contacted BG as to where my cheque was.
now, bearing in mind the previous conversation i had had with BG, i just wanted to know why i hadnt received my cheque in the post.
i got thru to some person who sounded like he couldnt give a toss, explained the conversation i had had previously and queried where my cheque was.
after being put on hold for 27 minutes!!!! i was told that according to his screen the 4 payments i had made in error had been used towards paying BG what i owed them and that the money had cleared my debt and the only money i was going to receive was a cheaque for 15 pounds.
he asked me "does that sound about right to you because i dont really understand whats gone on" well no that doesnt sound right considering one person could tell me exactly whats dates id made the payments and that no the payments hadnt been used to pay off my debt to BG.
i asked him to check again, i was then put on hold for a further 7 mins, he came back by saying the computer systems had crashed and he would phone me back.
yep you guessed it, 3 hours later and still no call back......so i phoned them.
explained the situation again, once again told the same thing. so i asked had my debt been cleared with the 4 extra payments that i had made in error and the fella said yes, i then said so ive got 15 pounds coming back to me as thats the difference from what i owed to what i paid, he said yes i think so, im not sure......does that sound about right????
i said no it doesnt sound about right as the amount stated on my first bill from BG is exactly the same amount that BG sent me in my final bill.
he couldnt work it out and i was getting annoyed!
i requested a copy or something to state where my money had gone.........."yes np Mrs Fiyah....but you need to pay for that information, i can give you the address if you like"
i stated that i would send in a Subject Access Request and he said "oh another one of those, they are only used for bank charges"
time for me to send a Subject Access Request i think, the ones we just send to banks