Taking BG to the small claims court

[TractorGirl]

Hi all

 

I wonder if anyone can help. I am in the process of taking BG to the small claims court via MCOL to claim compensation for the time that it has taken us to get BG to sort out our complaint and so far it has currently taken them 14 months + and it is still outstanding.. To cut a long story short here is a brief paragraph re their incompetence.

 

"We bought a repossession in January 2007, the gas at the time was supplied by BG, because they took way too long in setting up an account in our name (not to mention we were kept on hold for an average of 45 minutes at time) we transferred everything over to EON (Powergen at the time).

 

We knew that we would have to pay BG some level of money as it took approximately 6-8 weeks for the switch to complete, but when the bills (minimum of 7 in as many days) started to arrive for £500 + we had had enough. We wrote to their complaints dept in May – sent recorded deliver and we received a generated reply that our complaint will be dealt within 21 days. 6 months later the bills kept coming – addressed to us and also to the occupier.

 

By now we were fuming, so we wrote to Sam Laidlaw the CEO of BG and advised that we wanted this dealt with within 14 days and that we wanted refunded for the telephone calls we had made plus £20 refunded – which by their own "standards" if complaints are not dealt with within 10 days of receipt this is what they credit to the corresponding account.

 

We received a response in November 07 confirming that the revised correct bill for 7 weeks (ish) gas was £47 less telephone credits and less £20, the CEO also agreed to wipe the bill and close the account and also promised never to contact us again.

GREAT we thought ….……No 3 weeks later we received letters from both Wescot DCA and BG solicitors demanding payment for both £47 and £502. Wescot actually laughed and apologised once we faxed over the CEO response over to them. 4 phone calls later to the BG complaints dept and they actually managed to press a button and close the account for both US and the occupier. 3 months later and they have started again BUT now the issuing of the occupier bills has a BRAND NEW account number requesting £500 +"

 

We have contacted EnergyWatch by Phone and email and we received a letter yesterday – but I want this matter closed once and for all.

 

All I want is to claim for is the time it has taken from our daily duties to communicate to BG, we have 3.45 hours of BT phone calls + 4 hours for the letters we have sent (1 hour for each letter). I calculate that as 8 hours of my annual salary which is just under £26 per hour. Also to us, this is clear harassment.

 

Can anyone advise on what to submit to MCOL ? Does anyone know of a Utility template available ?

 

Advice needed ? What about the press ?

 

Cheers TG xxx

[scousegeezer]

TractorGirl,

Have a read of Notaveryhappybuuny and my threads - see if this might help.

Cheers - Scousegeezer

[Conniff]

Advice needed ? What about the press ?

 

Oh, always the press, they might just have column room for it.

[TractorGirl]

does anyone know what i can put in the claim particulars ?

[scousegeezer]

Tractor Girl,

You basically need to give the brief details as in the start of this thread, but make it briefer. Then after the brief details you need to state what you are accusing BG of. Harassment, persecution and under data protection- they have supplied your details illegally to a third party. You will finally have to accuse them of doing all this by negligence. Not recording events and not acting upon them if they were recorded. With your application I would recommend putting copies of all relevant documents ( letters etc.) You will need three copies of the file, one to stay with the court , one that goes to BG and finally one will be sent to you. They will send these files out to BG and yourself once the action has been registered. There will be a date on the file to state when the file was sent to BG. Allow 2 days for delivery - under the Interpretation Act - and then 28 days after that date BG should have replied to your accusation. If they dont you can ask for judgement to be entered against the no reply. If I were you I would ask for more than the value of your time and phone calls. I would ask for compensation for the stress etc that all this has caused you. However, thats a point for you to decide upon.

 

Cheers - Scousegeezer.

[TractorGirl]

Defo want to claim for the work i have had to do i.e 8 hours ish of phone calls and letters based on my own annual salary.

Can i claim for them breaking the DPA ?

 

Cheers TG

[scousegeezer]

If they passed on your details to Wescott after the letter from BG chairman, then yes you can. The letter from the chairman accepts that the debt is not yours and later on they have passed the details - therefore they have passed the info to Wescott illegally. They have breached data protection. Under data protection the people that receive the information must have a legal reason to receive/request it. Wescott havent - not your debt, BG the data controller has now lawful reason to pass it to them. Under data proection informatin MUST be relevant, accurate and timely ( up to date). Therefore BG have breached all requirements of Data Protection.

[TractorGirl]

they have now sent a letter saying that someone will be round within 5 days to disconnect the gas, even though I have been paying EON since March 2007

 

Are they really a bunch of simpletons ?

 

TG

[Conniff]

Ask them right out. Send them a copy of the letter and ask them if they are 'thick' or 'just stupid'.

[alientoo]

Tractorgirl, did you go to court and what was the outcome? I would love to know.

I'm having severe difficulties with this moronic institution right now and have been considering taking similar action.

To cut a long story short they claim I used £901.56 electricity in the space of 2 weeks. Even if I left every light on, ran the 2 A+ rated fridges on full, tumble dried every load of washing, plugged in every chargeable device I own etc I would never burn that much power in such a short time. Each time I call BG I get a different explanation as to why the bill is so high.