british gas penalty charges and recorded phonecalls

[natwestbasher]

I have been having trouble regarding late payment penalty charges on my bg electric account. They have issued £10 charges for sending out each (computer generated) `telemessage`. Could this be classed as a missleading and intimidatory tactic? Also the customer service is terrible. If you mention that you are recording the call they immediately hang up. If you dont record it (or tell them that you are not as they always ask me now ), they lie through their teeth and try to use scare tactics to make you pay. Does anybody have a contact number for somebody superior at bg as when i ask to speak to a supervisor/teamleader/manager etc, i am told that they dont take calls. Am i correct in thinking that their charges are illegal in the same way bank charges are, i have only had a few (unlike the bank ones!) but bg have infuriated me so much that i intend to really dig my heels in and make them earn their money, and give back any that they aren`t entitled to!

[demon_x_slash]

Any charge that penalises you for breaking a contract is unlawful, and therefore reclaimable. Same process as the banks. There's no need to tell them that you're recording the call at all if it's for your own personal records; if you want to use the recordings in court, you will have to ask the judge for permission.

[gondukin]

Originally Posted by demon_x_slash

Any charge that penalises you for breaking a contract is unlawful, and therefore reclaimable.

I was under the impression that charges are legal if they reflect the true cost to the business. I think you'll have a little more difficulty as BG will argue terms of payment are 14 days from bill issue date, so you will have had 3 letters (red reminder, disconnection notice and telemessage), attempts to phone you and manual review of the account before it gets to this stage. Whether they would consider it worth the time and effort of going to court though for one person is a different question, so if you want to chance it, go for it.

[demon_x_slash]

Penalties are punishments, and can only be conferred by those with legal power, so Courts, Police, etc. A penalty for breach of civil contract is not enforceable. Recovering actual losses caused by the aforementioned breach of contract is allowed. If all the above procedures were actually followed, then they would be able to charge what it cost them to do so. Arbitrarily assigning a set amount (i.e., £10) is not a genuine pre-estimate of costs.
Bookworm also said something about the penalty being unenforcable in its entirety when "something or other" the other day - damned if I can find it, though

[natwestbasher]

Thanks for your replies. I think i will make british gas my next on my hitlist, after NatWest of course!

[Ricklee]

This is related to the original post so I think its OK here. Sorry this is so long, first post and not sure if this is OK, cant think of a short way to say it.

I know how you feel, the staff at BG are unbelievable, they lie, lie and do all sorts and no-one at BG seems to care, in fact I think they encourage it, calls not logged and no responsibility. Thats how they get away with it. Please see bellow my story.

I phoned BG and asked for an up to date bill on my Gas account since I had recently had a meter reading for my Electric and Gas and subsequently receivd a £360 demand for payment for the electric and endkess trouble after that since they tried to force me to pay £100 a month. Since I hadnt heard anything about the gas I wanted to know what was happening. They said that I had to wait for the quarterly bill since I was on a payment plan. I said OK then cancel the payment plan send the bill and we can organise a new payment plan once I know how much I owe.


I never received the bill then received an Enforcement notice for £500 + bill. I phoned and explained that I hadent paid since I hadnt received a bill and asked them to pause the enforcement action, they refused. I then contacted energy watch to explain that I couldnt pay a bill I hadnt received and asked them to get BG to pause enforcement until I got the bill. They seemed to agree with BG that this was not possible but said they would contact BG anyway. I then got a meaningless apology letter from BG. Then the bill came, I phoned and tried to arrange a payment plan and they said since my last payment plan had been cancelled (by them, can you believe that) they couldnt do it. I said well I cant pay it, (the reason it was so high was because of poor estimate and a disputed payment that took months to sort out because the Customer Services are a shambles). She cam back and said that I must give a new reading, I gave her this and it seems my use has doubled since the meter was read and I know owed £800. She demanded £160 a month as a take it or leave it and it was that or a prepay rip-off meter. I accepted and said it as only to stop action for now, then promptly received a late electronic demand for the payment that they charged me £10 for.

I now owe them over £1000 (gas and electric), I was paying them £100 a month (Gas and Electric) and cannot change supplier since I owe them. This company is a sham and treats us worse than the banks. I wait 20 min plus on the phone when they actualy answer, for all this and have had the staff put the phone down on me and all sorts. Energy Watch doesnt seem to stop them although they do get on top of individual cases. I feel powerless to do anything. There is more to this, lots of abuses of corporate power but this post is already far to long.

They really dont care at all. Seems they have me pretty tied up, I cannot afford the £230 a month they are forcing me to pay them, and dont see why they can dictate the time it takes to pay back since they let the debt accrue and not me.

Sorry this doesnt help the original post but it does expand on what is going on at BG.

Any ideas???