is british gas now a bank?

[wheresmyhairgone]

Hi
some advice would be welcome please.

I decided to switch from electric from bg to another supplier. I had to give bg a meter reading and received a nice bill for just under £400 (they have never been to read the meter, apparently its not up to them to do it thats the job of the company that originally installed it. how that works i don,t know)

I received a letter from the company i wanted to switch to saying that BG have blocked the switch.

I rang BG and informed them that i couldn,t pay the bill all at once and told them i will pay it of in instalments. I,ve got it down to £168 in a month. My problem is they keep sending me letters and charging me £14 for each letter. i rang them again and was told they can,t be stopped because i owe them money.

Today i received another letter telling me they are disconnecting me on the 29th october. This is what is says:

WE WILL GET A WARRANT TO ENTER YOUR HOME AND DISCONNECT YOUR ELECTRICITY SUPPLY.

YOU WILL INCUR FESS OF UP TO £361 AS WELL AS THE AMOUNT YOU OWE. IT WILL TAKE SEVERAL DAYS TO RECONNECT YOUR SUPPLY.

THE POLICE MAY BE PRESENT WHEN WE CALL

WE HAVE CHARGED YOU £14 FOR THIS LETTER. WE WILL CHARGE YOU AN ADDITIONAL £50 FOR THE COST OF A DEBT COLLECTION VISIT.

I rang them them and told them i would take them to court if they disconnected me, because i can prove that i was trying to pay of the debt and the judge wouldn,t take to kindly to their attitude( i have two young children).

They responded by putting the phone down on me.

Any advice welcome please

[davethorp]

Well the £14 seems to be a penalty and can be reclaimed the same way as the bank charges.

Have you confirmed that the meter reading when BG opened the account for you was correct as well as the current reading as that could have caused the large bill esp if no readings inbetween.

Not an ideal solution but may be worth asking them if rather than disconnect you they would install a prepayment meter. The meter rate is generally a little higher than paying on a normal credit meter but they can set it up so the meter takes money off towards the debt which may help get it paid off