It's worrying that everyone thinks that because they shouldnt do something, they wouldnt. All he needs to do is be able to get in and then make out that a door or window was left open etc. The guy was BG as the guy who tried to break in was the same guy that came back to disconnect us. Ultimately I ended up paying some of the bill (and received a receipt). Hopefully this will make people very careful of their own properties because this guy WAS definitely BG, they have confirmed that he made a 'call' on that date - and I have confirmed with the courts and BG that there was no warrant at the time. So the guy who tried to break in WAS BG, and did NOT have a warrant. As I said, the matter involved the police so I will be informing of Energywatch of this illegal behaviour.

Hi, No we have never had a payment plan before, and they have never really tried to agree one with us - they gave us one offer which was ridiculously high, and we went back to try and compromise and they would not budge at all. Unfortunately I am not on benefits. My partner doesnt work, but apparently the amount I earn, and because I work full time. means I cannot claim anything. (Ridiculous as my expenditure (which is all necessities - bills, rent etc) is more than my earnings - unfortunately that isnt what they look at.) The offer we made was to set a DD for what we could afford which would be x amount old and new as well. I just cannot believe how badly BG treat customers. People on here have said that they only go to warrants in extreme cases if they cant make contact or you are uncooperative etc - I am proof that isnt the case, unfortunately.

You obviously havent had some of my bad experiences with them and many other Companies then. They have been an absolute nightmare. I have found since I have been in financial difficulty less than half of the Companies involved have done things by the book. I can guarantee it is. My neighbour confronted him and he was wearing a British Gas top - as I said it has been recorded with the police so can be proven, and my neighbour confirmed it was the same man who came to disconnect us yesterday, so definitely him 100%. Obviously this isnt something they should be doing from your response (as suspected!), but I can assure you it was an employee of British Gas! As for they need to document and show they have done this that and the other, in my case I can prove they haven't. Whether anyone cares I dont know, but we have been communicating with them constantly, but they have ignored us because we couldnt meet their extortionate demands. We had a similar problem a year or two ago with the gas - a meter put in to reclaim debt, but the amount which is meant to be AGREED (as per BG and official guidelines) was not, it was set without consulting us at the rate the guy wanted. Even the guy who came round to disconnect our elec us said that the amount set on our meter to reclaim the debt was extortionate - £25 a week. I have countless examples of BG employees saying contradictory things and not doing things by the book. This is in a long line, but most certainly was BG.

Hi Just wanted to check with people here that British Gas are obliged to apply for a warrant before they start trying to knock your door down? Sounds silly but I have just found out from my neighbour that on a certain date they attempted firstly to knock down the communal front door! and then attempted to knock down our side door which leads directly into our flat. Luckily the neighbour confronted him and called the police so this has been logged. The guy wouldnt produce any identification and didnt have a warrant. He ended up giving up and going away, but I am so grateful to my neighbour for this. I am sure this will give me something good to take up with energywatch. Not sure if they will even be interested, but I am absolutely gobsmacked at this. Now I am pretty sure this must be illegal - especially as he backed off when confronted - but just checking first to be 100% sure, and let others know about this!

I have British Gas coming round tomorrow to disconnect our electric (they have already disconnected our gas a year or so ago, and they were absolutely disgusting with te way they treated us and it seems to be going the same way again.) We called them up today offering approx a third of the debt up front and the rest as a DD over x number of months, and instead they are saying they want to disconnect and fit a prepay meter. The first person we spoke to said they would only take £4 a week (which would mean it would take them longer to get the money back than the offer we gave where they also get a third up front!!) and then a second person said no that isnt the amount, they cant tell me it at this stage and it would be whatever they say (this falls in line with the gas where they set it at £25 a week! without discussing it with us - which I am led to believe is mandatory - we have to AGREE to it. Because of this we have barely used any gas since the meter was installed as we top up £5 as and when we can, but it barely lasts us more than a few hours so isnt worth it.). We asked for the guy to put it in writing that they will not accept the offer we made (so we can go to the ombudsman with this to show we were making a very reasonable offer in our circumstances and that our offer would benefit everyone as they would get their money back quicker, and we wouldnt have the added fee of disconnecting us etc! To me this shows they dont care and actually are more bothered about disconnecting us than actually the recovery of the money!! Also we wanted to prove that they are not taking into account consumer circumstances etc etc as they supposedly are meant to.) The guy basically refused to do this, so dont know what to do now, as cant prove we even made this as it was over the phone (that is why we always try to do everything in writing, but they deny ever having anything from us). I was wondering if it is possible to ask for a copy of the coversation 9if they recorded it/will admit to recording it? We told him that we would go to the ombudsman as we feel they have been totally unfair and not listened to us or tried to help at all, and he basically sounded smug and said they had done everything perfectly fine and we would be wasting our time. Not sure if he was just trying to put us off or if lots of people fail with this route. I am at a dead end. I have resigned myself to the prepayment meter but I just dont want them to get away with treating us like this...god knows how many people are ignored when trying to sort something out and then accused of ignoring the problem until the last minute...and they are meant to try and be understanding - as per THEIR code of conduct, but they are no such thing. I just feel sick, more because of the treatment than anything else. To turn down an offer where they get the money back quicker than the disconnection route they are going down - that says it all to me. If anyone has any advice please help. I just want to build a case against them now. It's too late for anything else. I have been told the person coming to disconnect us tomorrow can speak to us about the account - but they said that last time and the gas one refused to, saying he wasnt the person to, even though we were told he was.... So it will no doubt be the same tomorrow. The guy we spoke to earlier wouldnt give us the name of the person either. It's like they are deliberately being difficult. Besides which if they would take nothing less than full payment today, I dont see why someone will offer to take less tomorrow when we have made them a very reasonable offer in comparison to the route they are taking. sorry this is so long, it is so complicated. x

I just wondered if anyone knows if it is unlawful or goes against any codes of practice etc (anything I could use against British Gas basically) to disconnect a customer when there is a payment plan in place? Also need to check, does an e-mail from one of their employees count? When my partner and I were going through difficulty we advised British gas we were struggling and we had an e-mail reply to say we could pay x amount as and when we were able. We did this. We then received further threats and tried to contact them regarding this but they advised the e-mail doesnt count for anything! Finally after being at a dead end with them ignoring or refusing to acknowledge that e-mail as an agreement/arrangement, they disconnected us. We had actually tried to speak to the guy in the lead up to the disconnecting and offered to pay but he refused to talk to us and would not discuss us paying it, even on the day we tried again!! They installed a pre-payment meter without us agreeing...not sure if that matters, probably not. They then set the meter up to collect an amount of £25 a week!! Far from what we could afford and I was under the impression according to things I have read that the amount should be agreed. I am sure even the booklet he gave us said "agreed amount"As a result we have not been able to use hardly any gas for the last few months as a top up of £5 lasts us not even a day due to the percentage they take from it (I understand they cannot legally take the whole amount, hence why they leave us a small amount of it eg 60p or something like that). I need to know what to do. I dont know if I should just complain to Energywatch or take them to court or even if I have a leg to stand on? Can anyone help. I am so annoyed. I have a number of debts and they all abuse the law or find loopholes in it to ruin everything. I am utterly miserable and having to wash in cold water every day and having no heating is really depressing and making me ill. Any help much appreciated. Yours in despair Stuckinahole

Thanks for the post I shall have a look into this later. Was thinking of phoning them but it seems like most people who call them get spoken to (or should that be shouted at) very aggressively.

I also have a problem with Bryan Carter, they put a claim in against me and I had to return the forms to them rather than the courts. Conveniently they claimed never to have received them (Shame i couldnt afford to do a recorded delivery). So unbeknown to me I now have a default CCJ as the courts say I didnt send the forms back even though I did, and that they have looked into the matter and Bryan Carter have followed procedures etc - I was annoyed because I asked for a few days to seek legal action which they did not give me. They ignored all my letters and now I have a ccj because they have binned my forms. I just dont know what to do now They have just sent me a letter to say they are applying for a warrant of execution to send bailiffs around. I just dont think its fair there is no protection for me when I had to send them the forms (how ridiculous) and that even though I asked for time to seek legal advice they ignored it, and ignore all letters etc. How can they be allowed to do this?? Its so unfair.