@britishgashelp Advice for when British Gas phone me back

[bloodline67]

Hi All, I'm hoping somebody might be able to give me some advice to help me when BG phone me back.

 

Here is the problem. Sorry if this a bit long winded.

 

 

We moved into our current address in April this year and I sent BG a final meter reading from our old address which left us in credit.

 

So far so good,

 

BG already supplied electricity to our new address so decided to stay with BG.

 

A few months later we get a bill from BG for our old address,

I phoned them and told them we didn't live there anymore and when we did leave we were in credit,

the person on the other end said they would sort it out.

 

A few weeks later I get a call from debit collection part of BG asking for money for a bill at our old address,

once more I explained it all to them again and was told it would be sorted.

 

A few more weeks pass by when we get a final demand bill for BG for,

you've guessed it, our old address.

 

As you can imagine I was now getting very peeved and this time wrote them an email from their website complaining about this.

 

I received a reply apologizing for the mistake, apparently the final reading hadn't been entered in

but it had now been all sorted and the account would be credited back.

 

I checked our old account and true to their word there was now £90 credit sitting in our old account,

I then transferred this to our current account and thought that would be then end of it.

 

This month I received a letter from BG asking for £67 for our old property,

once more I phoned and have been now told something completely different.

 

Last year we accidently swapped providers (we thought we were just inquiring about the other provider and by the time we released it was to late)

but as soon as possible swapped back to BG,

apparently this £67 is from our previous bill before we switched providers.

 

I've asked BG that IF I do owe this amount why was it not added to the account when we switched back to them,

also why has it taken this long for them to realise their mistake and also one again

If I owe this amout why didn't they take it from the credit that was added to the account.

 

The person I was speaking to has said they are going to pass it on to their manager so that they can maybe explain it a bit clearer to me.

 

Can anybody pre-arm me with what I should say or ask in case when they phone back they still insist that I owe them this money.

 

Once again sorry for the long winded explanation but I wanted to try and give you as much info as I could.

[dx100uk]

if they have not billed you for this money

in the last 12mts

 

they are stuffed.

[bloodline67]

Ok a manager from BG has now phoned me back with a slightly different story.

 

Apparently this outstanding amount is now from the Nov - April bill and not from the change over in August as I was first told.

 

As I mentioned in my previous post there was a delay in putting in the information onto the old account which resulted in an incorrect bill but was eventually resolved so we had £90 credit.

 

It seems that BG neglected to remove the final amount that was used from the Nov - April period

so rather than being £90 in credit it should have been £23 in credit.

They have admitted it was their error and as a gesture of goodwill are willing to deduct £20 of the outstanding amount leaving an outstanding bill of £47 which they say i need to pay.

 

My argument is that as far as I was concerned I had been in credit through out that period and had done everything correctly when I moved house,

it was then down to me to keep phoning and emailing BG to try and sort out the problem.

 

I even have an email from them apologising for the error and saying that the account would be back dated and closed down from the 15/04/2012.

 

My question is can they still demand this outstanding amount from me?

[dx100uk]

then send them that email.

 

if they have not billed you for it

they can't just demand it back.

 

dx

[bloodline67]

First of all thank you dx100uk for replying to my posts.

 

I have now had a letter and copies of my bill from BG showing where this money owed comes from and its made things a bit clearer now.

 

Apparently when they credited my account the bill they used was from Sept 2011 to Nov 2011, they had not included Dec 2011 to Apr 2012 and his is where the outstanding amount comes from.

 

The letter states that "As you will see on the bill dated October 2012 this is a replacement bill for the bills you received online dated February and April 2012".

"On this bill it shows that a credit of £xx.xx was transferred to your new account. This should not have been actioned as the final bill hadn't been generated on the old address".

 

Can they still demand the amount owed?

 

I assumed from the email I received from them that once this amount had been credited to my account that the account would then be closed.

 

This is now becoming farcical,

 

I have done everything right my end but BG are the ones who have repeatedly made the mistakes and have even admitted so,

but its me who now has a bill I didn't think I had that has to pay.

 

I realise that it may not be a large amount and some people might say just pay it,

but money is tight enough already and I don't have this amount of spare cash.

 

Also I forgot to mention in my previous post that BG still owe me money from when they changed over my key meter.

 

Could somebody please advice me on how I should proceed.

[dx100uk]

then you need to resolve one against the other.

 

it appears you p'haps do owe this money

 

but if you can offset it against this 'key meter issue'

 

it could be quits.

 

dx

[bloodline67]

Thanks dx for the advice.

 

I'm going to email their complaints department first as I think the whole thing is diabolical, how difficult can it to produce a final bill when they have been supplied the correct details. Will let you know how I get on.

[bloodline67]

And so the saga continues!

 

I thought I'd finally sorted this out, had a BG complaints person phone me back to apologise for the way things had been handled and offered another £20 off the bill in regards to the credit left on our old pay meter, this then brought the bill down to £27 which I asked if I could pay after Xmas, was told that a 30 day hold and been placed on the bill and if I was happy with the outcome which I said yes. So all sorted...... NO

 

A few days after the phone call I receive a letter from Moorcroft Debt Recovery for an outstanding balance of £47 plus a £5 charge. This now becoming more than a joke and is causing me a lot of stress, I think another complaint is due

[dx100uk]

i wouldn't worry

 

its just a computer generated threat-o-gram

 

they've got no powers to do anything to you

 

they dont own the debt.

 

dx

[stu007]

Hi

 

As dx100uk says dont worry about moorcroft and their threatogram as that is all it is.

 

I would make a Formal Complaint to BG about there complete "Maladministration and continuing Errors on your Account".

Edited December 10, 2012 by stu007

[bloodline67]

Thank you all for you advice.

 

BG phoned me back today to apologise, the letter was sent out just after I had spoken to them. They said they will inform moorcroft and that no more letters will come out to me and I can pay the outstanding balance back at the beginning of Jan. I told them I wasn't happy with the way that everything had been handled and that it was terrible customer service and all I received was a pause and then another apology.