I moved into new rented house, I called & gave the start meter readings, my name & emai & phone number to SP, I requested a contract & standing order mandate to be sent in the post for me to sign & return & asked for the cheapest online tariffs. 3 years & 5 months later I still have not received anything in my name from SP, what I have received are many letters (possibly bills?) addressed to someone else, all of which I returned to SP "not known at this address. I have called them 4 times speaking to different operators all promising to help & put me through to the right department but nothing happened & I was left on hold or cut off. I complained in writing to SP only to receive a computer generated standard letter from their fictitious Lynda Clayton giving me a complaint number & promising they would investigate. Nothing was done. I broke the law & opened one of the mystery letters & managed to pay one of the accounts in full. I came home one day to find that SP has visited the house, they had tried but failed to break in, & changed both gas & electricity credit meters for pre payment versions. I complained in writing again to SP. Same computer letter & empty promises. For the last 17 months I have been paying for my energy upfront using a card & key. Each week when I load £10 onto the gas meter it deducts £6 average for an unproven alleged & estimated debt. SP then tried to transfer the alleged gas debt over to the electricity account & tried to deduct monies from that meter as well. I have received a letter & an email from SP only after the intervention of the Observer newspaper (Funny that !) again promising to investigate - but still nothing. I have complained to the energy ombudsman but thus far not much action from them either. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I should proceed ? Informally I have been advised to hire a solicitor & sue them. I am told that they are likely to be guilty of, breach of contract, mis selling, false accounting, maladministration, fraud, deception, criminal damage, trespass, theft, abuse of power, slander, I am sure there will be more . . Regards.

Strange, how my thread on the PLUSNET community web site forums setting out all of these details has mysteriously vanished !

An update on this PLUSNET saga, the court document gave them 21 days to pay, on or before the 25th of July, yesterday I received a cheque from them " RESULT " except for the fact that the name on the cheque isn't correct, & the amount in figures is different from the amount in letters, so my bank wouldn't accept it. So is this sheer ineptitude & incompetence on their part - or a cynical & deliberate ploy to avoid paying ?

A bit on the legalities, you can file & pay for your claim online, cheaper than doing through your local Court, I needed to have all my paperwork ready & correct for the hearing which is not scary at all, its not in a court its held in a small office where you sit opposite the Judge, in my case I needed to prove that I had written to PLUSNET to complain (copy of letter & proof of postage) proof that 2 appointments were booked (copies of the 2 emails) proof of the original payment (copy of bank statement) so that the Judge could work out the interest owing (a whopping £4) unfortunately the Judge would not entertain any claim for what was obviously a breach of contract perhaps someone here can advise me on this area please. I am trying to get this matter as public as I can, by putting the details here & on Money supermarket, I have written emails to 3 Sheffield newspapers, the Guardian/Independent & Observer & will contact the Mail on Sunday today, personally I think they will pay up but if they don't I know what to do. Eriko.

the process I took before going to court was to write to them quite specifically setting out my complaint & my demands & giving them 14 days to respond, pay up or be taken to the SCC , their miserly offer of £25 in response was totally unacceptable so I proceeded to sue them using the online SCC process, the lengthy delay was caused by the legal system, them failing to mediate, & them failing to file their response on time - which was noted by the justice & contributed to his decision in my favour.

getting to court was the delay, which they rely upon hoping you will give up in the process, they have until the 25th of this month to pay which is only correct, I will keep the site informed of progress (if any)

I SUCESSFULLY SUED PLUSNET/BT IN MY LOCAL COUNTY COURT ! In February 2014 I contacted PLUSNET to install a phone line & supply a modem & broadband at the new house I was moving to. I paid them £72.98, I received confirmation of my order (a contract ?)in the post the following day & 2 appointments were booked for a month later for the work to be done. I moved to my new house & waited, I took 11 hours off work unpaid to be at home for the BT Openreach engineers, but no one turned up, I tried to contact PLUSNET on my mobile several times only to be told I was in a queue & had to wait over 40 minutes, I also tried to contact them by using the local call box - again I was in a queue & would have to wait over 50 minutes. I wrote to PLUSNET to complain & demanded my £72.98 back plus my lost salary circa £400 including compensation for breach of contract & explicitly gave them 14 days to comply or I would take them to the small claims court, their response was to offer me a miserly £25 for my inconvenience & my money back if I formally asked for it, "HOW OUTRAGOUS!" So of course I made a claim through MYCOL the online small claims service, I offered mediation & waited for their response, NOTHING for approximately 12 months ! so a hearing date was set & surprise surprise I start to get phone calls & an offer in writing of £150 to settle this time from BT LEGAL. I now know that PLUSNET in their incompetence failed to book the 2 appointments with their parent company BT OPENREACH thus wasting my time & causing my financial loss. The case was heard on 03/07/2015, PLUSNET/BT didn't even bother to attend simply sending a letter, I had a very thorough, & severe but legally professional examination of my claim & my evidence by the justice I'm not going to mention his name) my award was just shy of £300 & they have until the 25th of July to pay. I shall keep you informed. I would urge anyone who has issues with utility companies be it water/gas/electricityor telecoms to do as I did & use the small claims court – that is what it is there for ! At the time of writing this BT have 5 CCJ’s against them dating back to 2011 (& now 6 with mine) this company & its subsidiaries simply don’t care if they break civil law – it’s time we ALL complain & use the courts to get justice. Eriko.