Hello, I have contacted the Ombudsmun who seemed vaguely interested until I mentioned Autism. The impression I was given was that it would need to be an extreme case for them to take the matter further. If repeatedly threatening someone with disconnection and hounding them to the point of suicide and them being sectioned isn't extreme then I don't know what is. Last week and this I have contact the Citizens advice bureau who directed me to the Ombudsmun who directed me back to the CAB who then directed me to Community legal advice, who then directed me to both the CAB and the Ombudsmun. During this I've contacted pro bono lawyers, Local MP's... I've even contacted the National Autistic Society their response made me think they were taking the pi$$. Anyway... Thanks for your suggestion. MDJ If there are any moderators reading this thread please remove it. I don't think this site is the right place to be posting questions of this nature.

Hello CitizenB, Yes. British Gas were made aware that he of his condition in January 2011. A mental healthl worker contacted BG on his behalf when he received a second Notice of disconnection letter and explained.

Hello all, I hope I've posted this in the right place. I need some advice/general pointers on an issue a friend is having. He's Autistic (Aspergers syndrome) and has been a BG customer since May 2010. So it's a rather long story but I shall try to give the key points as best I can, if more info is required then I'll be happy to fill in the blanks best I can. He switched over to BG on to a 'web saver' price plan on moving into the property. Web saver offered online billing, energy monitor, was slightly cheaper deal than his current supplier. All seamed well he received the usual welcome letters and confirmation of switch over. However two weeks later he received a phone call from BG stating that they could not be placed of this 'web saver' tariff dual to the type of electric meter - it's a dual read Day/night meter. So was being placed on their standard tariff. Energy monitor was never received and his online account was deactivated. (Now I fail to understand why this wasn't noticed at sign up and I think it a bit dodgy that they waited until after the switch to tell me, but there we are.) In September 2010 he received 'notice of disconnection' letters and demands on payment for electricity used. However he hadn't received any bills for electricity use. He paid and told BG that he hadn't had a bill they claim they had sent one. He thought it might have been his mistake. January 2011 another notice of disconnection followed by multiple calls, actually and excessive amount of calls, from the BG collections debt. Again he had not received a bill. Outstanding balance was paid and and a complaint was made to BG by his mental health worker who explained that he has Aspergers and letters of disconnection and the like can and is causing worry. Yet again no bills and the threats of action moved on to visits from debt collectors, Richburns visited 4 times, B.C.W visited 3 times and Power2contact sent 3 letters and may have visited once. This was all in the space of a month. This course of action has continued. Attempts to switch have failed due to blocks being placed on his account. This repeated, No bills but Notices of disconnection, applications for warrants of entry, calls from BG collections. Complaints were ignored. This all came to a head in January this year when during a compliant to BG they admitted the reason that no bills had been sent is was due to his account being set to paperless billing. This is an after affect of the cancelled web saver plan. He was assured that this was now corrected and he would be placed on a cheaper tariff and would be set to paper billing. September 29 (2013) he received yet another notice of disconnection. His mental health workers stepped in and spoke with BG on his behalf. To find he was still on paperless billing and still on the standard tariff. All the stress of calls from BG collections debt, threats of legal action, debt collectors letters and visits has taken toll and he is currently rather unwell. And is currently being seen by a mental health crisis team. BG have contributed significantly to this due to the course of action BG have taken and their failings in customer services. My question is.. where to go from here ? 3 years of complaints to BG have gotten nowhere. I'm a bit lost as to where to go next in terms of making a complaint or taking legal action (if there are grounds). Thanks in advance.

I could do I suppose. I'm just worried that ignoring them doesn't mean they'll go away.

Having a similar issue with Muck Hall.. Recieved an email from them for a Gavin Jones. Did a silly thing and e-mailed back saying that I was not him (same surname but not first name) and please remove my e-mail from your mailing list etc. Muck Hall mailed me back saying thank you blah blah then they said they needed my home address so they could write and confirm this... I know a right load crap. So I called consumer direct they said it sounds like a phishing [problem], if I had debt then they would have my details. So they gave me telephone number for the police internet thing (was 6 months ago so I forget) and they asked me to forward these e-mails and they would deal with it. Heard nawt.. until this afternoon. I received 2 e-mails from Muck Hall sent 1 min apart saying: Mr Jones, Please find attached my Final Response to your complaint received at our offices. The document is password protected and the password will be sent to you in a separate email. Yours sincerely Elizabeth Roberts Call Quality Direct Dial: 01563 556 405 Fax: 0845 280 5998 Email: eroberts at muck hall second email was the password. I haven't actually raised a complaint with them. I've passed a dodgy e-mail on to the fuzz. Does anyone know of a way to stop these muppets from doing this either via legal means or magic spell or something ? I've made clear I'm not the person they are looking for. This is a personal e-mail I use for a lot of things so creating a new e-mail would be a bit of a pain. Besides they shouldn't be doing this.. Any help would be very much appreciated

Thank you Followed your suggestion. Called the number, asked for complaints and a 'dead lock letter' for the FOS. Swinton wrote off the charges, admin fees and cancellation charges. And the policy is no more. Seemed the mention of the Obudsmun was taken seriously by Head office. Local branch were not as receptive. Thanks again, Gaz

Hello all, Having a spot of bother with the Swinton. Not really sure how to go about sorting it. It's a long story so I apologise in advance. I took a policy out with swinton on the 9th of January 2013 for car insurance online. Two days later I received a courtesy call for a Swinton rep who explained that I would receive some documents to sign and would need to return them in 7 days failure to do so would incurre a £24 charge (Nice welcome). He mentioned my no claims and that I would need to send to a copy a.s.a.p. I explained that I had not received it from previous insurers. He then told me I had 14 days but also said 'Don't worry, if you have any problems we can contact them on your behalf'. I contacted previous insurance and they said they would send one out. A few days later no sign of my Proof of no claims and we were hit with snow. I called Swinton to explain and suggested with time being short and weather being bad that it would be easier if they contacted my previous insurer and requested proof be faxed. I was told that Swinton does not contact previous insurers and that it was down to me and if I did get the PNC they said I would be charged an Admin fee and I would have to pay a higher premium. Slightly annoyed now as this was not what was said during a courtesy call, I said that I would have to cancel that snow isn't my fault. So seeing a I had 3 days of the 14 day cooling off (or so I thought) I wanted to cancel now. I was told I could cancel but I would have to pay for time on cover (fair enough) £50 cancellation (annoying be fair enough) and additional £74 for Admin fees. Not happy - told the guy I would call back. Called the Ombudsmon they said the £74 sounded suspect. Called Swinton again talk to someone different who said not to worry I actually had until the 9th of Feb. Ok I thought.. Couple of days later I received a Cancellation notice from Swinton as I had not provided PNC within the 14 days. Quite annoyed I wrote a letter of complaint. As it was a weekend I would be able to post it recorded until the Monday, during this, Swinton took first payment of the supposedly cancelled policy so I had the bank reverse it. The Monday morning I received PNC so I sent a copy of it with a letter (recorded) to Swinton complaining and giving 7 working days to reply. I had no reply. I called was told that it was an admin error and the policy was still in place. Due personal matters I reset the direct debit and carried on with the policy. Originally I set the D/D up for the 29th of each month due to Feb only having 28 days this year Feb payment would go out on the 2nd of march and then marches payment would go on the 29th and the 29th there after. Feb's payment went out on the 2nd. March 29th payment didn't. I called Swinton.. again... And was told that according to their system D/D payments where set for the 2nd of each month. fine I thought until last months payment went out on the 2nd and the 29th. Really annoyed at the miss information I reversed the 29th thinking Swinton had made a mistake and left the D/D setup so payments could be take on the second as agreed. This morning I received a letter from Swinton telling me that my insurance has been cancelled and I now have seven days to pay £244. If I do not then they would charge the card used to make the deposit. If that fails they will pass on the debt to a collections agency. I don't know what to do. Phone calls get me nowhere. Writing to them gets no replies (even sent recorded and threats of ombudsmun). The ombudsmun can't step in without a dead lock letter and I would need to follow Swinton complaints. Which means writing to local branch (who don't reply) and then to head office and going by the calls I have made will more than likely divert matters back to local branch. I'm happy to write to these idiots but time is very short. I can't really take the hit of paying £244 to Swinton and then X amount on another policy. Any suggestion would gratefully received. Thank you all. Gaz Again sorry about the novel.