British Gas S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) Help Please

[joe45]

We has just received a letter "arranging legal action" over an overdue amount even though I contacted them when the "red" letter arrived and spoke to one of their "overseas agents" about the outstanding amount £50 was paid off the outstanding amount on the understanding that the balance would be paid in full on July 23rd (pay day)

When the letter arrived this morning it stated that we would be disconnected on 21st July!

My wife has contacted them this morning (call centre over here) and they have no records of the conversation taking place, though of course the £50 has been debited from the total owed.

The agent has said that since numerous arrangements have been broken in 2007 they can not help further (direct debit was broken in October 2007) but bills have been paid regularly if not a little late (normally on the red)

I have duely S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)'d them today to see what info they have about the so called broken arrangements but need to know if action will be halted once they receive the request, as payment will not be possible until the arranged date.

Sorry for the ramble, but hope someone can help.

[old_andrew2007]

IMHO they will not halt any action on receipt of your S.A.R - (Subject Access Request), in addition they might take upto the allowed 40 days to send it to you, have you considered contacting energy watch for help, or even a pre-payment meter

[joe45]

Thanks for your promp response, yes we have considered the options but thought that might have been the scenario, have dealt with Energywatch before (on a business) and find they take the side of the supplier and don't really want to go down the pre payment route. Prehaps we will try and lend the money off family for a day or two. Many thanks anyway.

[old_andrew2007]

not sure about what energy watch might do, I see your point about prepayment, it is more costly, once set up its hard move to another tariff.
Still with your S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) paperwork you can see what the customer service operator agreed too, one last point illegal or not I record calls and never tell them, you could consider that in future.

[IIIUMINATI]

Hi
Any children under the age of 16 or any one with a disability in the house.

[noggsy]

For BG to say they are going to disconnect on the 21st they will need to apply for a Warrant of Entry. Is your meter outside ?

[joe45]

Illuminati... Yes we have 2 children under 7
Noggsy...No the metre is in the house
Hope these replys help you both.

[noggsy]

Right, so for BG to "access" the meter they must apply for a Warrant of Entry, which you must be notified by in writing, normally giving you 28 days notice, but a minimum of 7, have you received this yet?

[IIIUMINATI]

British Gas Energy Trust
PO Box 42
Peterborough
PE3 8XH 01733 421021
01733 421021
Grants are available to help individuals and families in need meet arrears of energy charges and other household bills and costs.
The Trust will also fund voluntary sector organisations to provide money advice services and money management education projects.
Might be worth a call
or
"...I am the newly appointed Managing Director of British Gas and I can assure you that Customer Service is my number one priority.''
In the six weeks that I have been on board, I have had numerous letters and emails from customers and I can also assure you that each one is followed up; it is, after all, how I found out what's not working in my Company.
With the exception of a tiny majority of people misguidedly claiming thousands in compensation withough basis, I can genuinely tell you that everyone's issue has been addressed and resolved.
I would be very happy therefore for you to suggest that they write to me if they feel their concern has not been addressed adequately by British Gas
Phil Bentley
Managing Director
British Gas
Millstream
Maidenhead Road
Windsor
Berkshire SL4 5GD
Telephone: 01753 494343
Facsimile: 01753 494341

[joe45]

Noggsy... No warrant of entry yet, but another letter today titled "urgent notice" threatening warrants, legal action etc and another £14 pound charge for the privelage of receiving the letter!
I am going to write as suggested by Illuminati to the new BG managing director and suggest a refund of the £28 in charges that have been issued so far to for letters and ask for a review of their "bully boy" collections methods at least until the date of a promiced payment has passed.

[joe45]

Originally Posted by IIIUMINATI

British Gas Energy Trust
PO Box 42
Peterborough
PE3 8XH 01733 421021
01733 421021
Grants are available to help individuals and families in need meet arrears of energy charges and other household bills and costs.
The Trust will also fund voluntary sector organisations to provide money advice services and money management education projects.
Might be worth a call
or
"...I am the newly appointed Managing Director of British Gas and I can assure you that Customer Service is my number one priority.''
In the six weeks that I have been on board, I have had numerous letters and emails from customers and I can also assure you that each one is followed up; it is, after all, how I found out what's not working in my Company.
With the exception of a tiny majority of people misguidedly claiming thousands in compensation withough basis, I can genuinely tell you that everyone's issue has been addressed and resolved.
I would be very happy therefore for you to suggest that they write to me if they feel their concern has not been addressed adequately by British Gas
Phil Bentley
Managing Director
British Gas
Millstream
Maidenhead Road
Windsor
Berkshire SL4 5GD
Telephone: 01753 494343
Facsimile: 01753 494341

Illuminati... I would be grateful if you could tell me the source and date of issue of the above letter so it can be quoted in my forthcoming letter to Mr Bentley.

[Dipply75]

Hi Joe45

I have been in the same argument with them. You agree something on the phone, then they say you didn't. They tried to force a pre-payment meter on me at the time.

When fighting with them I discovered that they record EVERY phone call. I had to fight tooth and nail but I eventually made a manager go and listen to the phone call (I luckily had date and time) and he came back grovelling, cancelling action etc.

Can you tell me what dept you are dealing with just now? I have a number that may help you get this done. I would also speak to the Energy Ombudsman, who were actually very helpful in my case, give them a phone and see if they can help - check with them that if they are investigating will your account be on hold/in dipsute while they do?

Been there, they are muppets, good luck

[joe45]

Dipply45.., Presume it is still the collections dept (tel; 08459555415) have already S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)'d them and now in the middle of a nice letter to their MD though of course any other numbers, or contacts are much appreciated, I am determined not to let this drop.

[Dipply75]

Collections are muppets, as you already know! they will tell you rubbish and seem to be hired for their ignorant attitudes.

Best advice I can give is to call Energywatch and log your complaint - only to get a ref number off them. Once you have this reference, call the number I will dig out (got it somewhere) and they should give you one person to deal with, who can do things. Get them to listen to that call, I know they can.

I hope you get somewhere, will post the number asap

Found it, phone no is - 0800 316 1209. ps, if your nominated advisor then gives you an 0845 no with their extension, dont use it! you'll wait forever and go through idiots again, keep using the 0800 one.

Energywatch - 08459 060708

[PGH7447]

I phoned the collections dept (tel; 08459555415) last night and only got a bloody computer, so after pressing numerous buttons finally gave up, pathetic, all I could do was press that the bill would be paid in the near future, they have also added the letter charge, however I have an email

We expect our customers to pay within 28 days after their bill is produced. If we don’t receive these payments, our system will send out an automated standard reminders notice to remind our customers to pay the outstanding balance. If no payment is received in full after 49 days from the date the bill is issued. We will continue to send reminder notices until the outstanding balance has been paid in full or an alternative arrangement is agreed. As this is the reason you have received a letter about an outstanding amount. The reminder is automatically produced when a bill is overdue for payment and is a standard letter.

this states these letters are computer generated so I will be putting in a claim for the charges applied

[IIIUMINATI]

From The Sunday Times

May 11, 2008


British Gas sues Accenture over billing ‘shambles’



Dominic O’Connell and Iain Dey


div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;}CENTRICA is suing the global consultancy group Accenture for £182m over an IT system it claims reduced British Gas’s customer-billing process to a shambles.
The IT system, dubbed “Project Jupiter”, was the cause of the appalling customer service that lost British Gas hundreds of thousands of customers, a High Court writ from Centrica says. Centrica is the parent company of British Gas, which is the biggest supplier of gas and electricity to homes in the UK, with 12.5m customers.
At the height of the problems, British Gas employed 2,500 extra staff in an attempt to resolve the mess.
Centrica is expected to confirm it has begun the court action this week, when it holds its annual meeting and issues a trading update.
During 2006 and 2007 British Gas was lambasted by consumer watchdogs and the media over deteriorating standards of customer service at a time when it was increasing the price of gas and electricity.
The Sunday Times Money section led the campaign in highlighting its shortcomings, with hundreds of readers writing in to complain about incorrect bills. It is estimated that British Gas lost 1m customers in 2006 alone.
The writ says the problems could be traced back to 2002, when Centrica engaged Accenture to provide a new IT system. Project Jupiter was to bring together British Gas’s electricity and gas-billing schemes into one system capable of handling 250,000 meter readings and 200,000 bills a day. The price was £317m, with Accenture being paid from the £397m in savings that British Gas expected from the new system over a decade.
Various glitches arose, but the two sides agreed a revised contract in March 2006 under which Accenture provided guarantees that a software upgrade would work.
According to Centrica, it did not.
Even though only a third of customer accounts were at first transferred to the system, problems began to surface.
Inboxes, electronic queues where work was allocated to staff, filled up to the extent that employees were taking an hour to log on to their computers.
There were a host of related errors, the writ claims. The system generated a high volume of “exceptions” – issues with accounts that required manual intervention – and staff found it difficult to trace the root problem, leading to exceptions starting to “breed”. Staff inboxes became overloaded, with the system loading up to 200,000 items.
As well as shortcomings with the software, Centrica claims that Accenture provided inadequate computer hardware, did not integrate the system properly and failed to design it to provide adequate management information.
“The rapid rate at which exceptions were raised meant that it was impossible to recruit and train enough additional staff to deal with the ever-burgeoning problem,” the group claims. “These problems inevitably caused Centrica’s level of customer service and satisfaction to reduce dramatically with damaging effects . . . and Centrica lost a substantial number of customer accounts . . . It has caused significant damage to the British Gas name,” the writ says.
In February 2007, Centrica formally notified Accenture that it was in breach of contract. The gas company alleges it took the consultant three months to deploy a small group to look at the problem.
“Ultimately, the Accenture UK team provided no material information or assistance whatever to Centrica.”
A British Gas spokesman said: “British Gas has been left with no option but to pursue legal redress against Accenture to compensate for its losses.”
An Accenture spokesman said that Centrica “conducted extensive testing” on the system before it was handed over. He added: “We are confident, based on the facts of the situation, that this claim is baseless and without merit. Accenture will vigorously defend the High Court proceedings.
“Accenture delivered the system at the end of 2005. The system we delivered met all of our commitments and the specifications that Centrica set; it was delivered on the agreed timeline and budget.”