 British Gas - charging us twice/accounts confusion!
We moved into this house on the 5th of May. Our gas and electricity are supplied by British Gas. We got bills addressed to "The Occupier" up until January 2007 this year, and so just paid them all on time and in full.
In December 2006 we got a threatening red notice for a gas bill for about £5. This was for gas that was used before the 5th of May. I rang them, to tell them that we weren't in the property then, and they said that was fine, and that they would just set up an account in my name for this address.
In the middle of January I got two bits of mail adddressed to me, one for gas, one for electricity, both saying "welcome to your new home" which I suppose was to be expected seen as they had just set up new accounts for me. A few days later I got both gas and electricity bills addressed to "the occupier" for £80 and £250ish respectively. We paid this immediately
Then at the end of January I got two items of mail from them. One addressed to 'The Occupier' saying "your account has been closed and is £90 in credit! Call us now!' and one addressed to me, a bill for £80. This was a bit odd, seen as the last gas bill for this house had been paid a few weeks before, but ok. So I called them and said, we paid a few weeks ago as the occupier! They said that was fine, and that we could either choose to "merge" the two accounts (occupier and the one in my name) or get a refund cheque sent out to us and then repay the bills. As the call centre representative said both options take 14 days, I asked him to merge the two accounts, as I thought that would be quicker and more convenient then waiting for cheques, then waiting for cheques to clear etc etc.
I also sent an email to their homemovers department on that day (because the 0845 phone number kept cutting out and was very busy at the time, I was having problems getting through) and they also said, that's fine, we won't be pursuing the money off you/pursuing disconnection action against us as they know we have paid the bills for this address.
I called them again about a week later to check it was going through, and the woman on the phone said that there was nothing about it on the account, so she said she would write a note asking to refund the occupier account to my account. So, the first guy on the phone didn't do what he said he would do, and the email guy didn't know what was going on either.
Then on the 28th of February, three bits of mail off British Gas. One: a disconnection notice for the un paid £80 gas bill. Two, addressed to "the occupier": Hey 'Your (electricity) account has been closed and is £372 in credit! Call us now!". Three: Electricity Bill addressed to me: You owe us £370". As I said, we last paid a very large electricity bill at the end of January (the 21st to be exact) for £250. So I called the billing department again today, a bit annoyed that the same thing has happened again. They put me straight through to the debt collection department because of the phone I was calling from. The lady said she would give me the direct number for the billing department. Ok. I called it...again, straight through to debt collection. I hung up and put 141 before my number, and FINALLY got through to the billing department.
The guy on the phone didn't know what to do so phoned through to the homemovers department to ask and then told me that they couldn't just "merge" accounts, like 3 people have told me they could, and that they'll have to send refund cheques out to me (which can take up to 14 days for them to send to me and then 5 working days to clear!) and then I'll have to repay the bills myself!
He also said he would write a note on the account, explaining the situation so that I wouldn't get anymore threatening letters/bills etc.
Today I got a notice of legal action for the original £90 gas bill. Despite being told now by 4 different representative on 4 separate occasions that the bill will be sorted. I'm anticipating the same thing happening for the very large elctricity bill.
As a result of this, I have had to borrow money off my parents to pay it today, and then I will pay them back when/if British gas send me the cheques. I have completely lost faith in their call centre representatives: they have told me so many times that everything is OK when clearly, it is not.
I am waiting on these two cheques to arrive, but am anticipating red /disconnection/legal notices in the mean time. I do not have any faith in calling up the call centre and complaining about this matter.
What is the best thing for me to do now? Just sit tight and wait for the cheques to arrive? File a complaint with energy watch? Write to British Gas? I understand the basic gist of what happened, they're trying to charge us 9 months worth of gas and electricity all in one go, but it simply makes no sense when all the bills for this address have been paid, by cheques in my name and standing orders from my bank account etc. My parents were kindly able to help out with the £80 gas bill, just to get British Gas off our backs for now, but I don't think they will be able to help us with the (nearly £400) electricity bill.
So basically, I just want some advice etc. I'm now also dreading my next phone bill, considering the number of times/length of times I have had to call the 0845 number. Is there any chance of compensation from British Gas? Any reassuring words? And how long will the refund cheques really take to arrive? | 
