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    • Yes typed it, how would I input it any other way, probably timed out took over half hour. H
    • You typed it in? actually typed it all out? if so, maybe you took too long or something, like session timed out. Does the status show defence filed or no change?
    • Hi just typed all defence clicked next and it's deleted all. Any help
    • I forgot to say, there is one last possibility and that is that they will receive your letter of rejection and simply fold, accept the rejection and refund you. Don't wait too long for this. Seven days maximum – but in that seven days you could send your letter of claim anyway and when that you don't hear from them or when they start mucking around at least you are seven days closer to beginning the legal action – and they will know it (which is the important thing).
    • Okay that is excellent that you have an email between the garage and the warranty company confirming that there is a serious problem with the gearbox. That is very powerful evidence. I think the situation is this: you have sent them a letter of rejection but the reputation of big motoring world is that they won't take a lot of notice and they will try to prevaricate and maybe even blame you. Clearly you don't want the car any more and anyway it sounds as if the cost of repairs is going to be enormous. You don't know if the warranty company is going to step up to the mark but the whole thing is going to take a long time and I understand that you have lost confidence in big motoring world because of this event and also their reputation which you are now discovering on Facebook and on this forum and no doubt elsewhere. On the basis that you don't want the car any more and you want your money back, you need to hurry things along. I think the first thing is that you need to decide if you are prepared to bring a claim in the County Court. Even without the warranty money, the claim is worth more than £10,000. For actions less than £10,000, you bring a "small claim" and this means that even if you lose the case you won't be liable for the other side's costs. If you win the case then not only will you get your money plus interest but also you will recover all of the costs of the action. For actions more than £10,000, you go to something called the "fast track" and in the event that you lose the case, then you could be liable to reimburse the winner some of the costs. This means that in addition to not recovering your own money, you would lose your own court fees and also you would have to to bear the costs of the other side probably something less than £5000 – but as a rough guess. If you bring your court claim then your chances of success are almost 100%. Frankly if you brought a court claim then I can imagine that big motoring world will put their hands up and pay you out rather than face go to court and losing and getting a judgement against them. However, it you need to consider that this is a risk factor – although my view it is a negligible risk factor. If you did bring a court case, it wouldn't be instant. If they put their hands up then it would probably happen very quickly. If they didn't put their hands up then you could take anything up to a year for the matter to be resolved and during that time you would be without your car and without your money and in the middle of litigation. I'm explaining this to you say that you understand how it works. Bring a court case would be really the last resort when everything else has failed. However, I'm quite certain that you would win and it would be stupid of big motoring world to try to resist. In order to bring a court case you would have to send a letter of claim giving them 14 days to accept rejection and organise the refund otherwise you would begin the claim. Don't imagine that you could bluff this. If you did send a letter of claim then you would have to go through with it otherwise you lose all credibility and you might as well pack up and go home. So with this in mind, here are possible courses of action you could take. You can simply wait and see what their reaction to your letter of rejection will be. However they may not reply or else they may find some other reason to delay and of course during that time you will be without your car and without your money blah blah blah, not knowing if big motoring world were going eventually to start acting sensibly and respectfully towards you. The second thing you can do – and I think this has been suggested on Facebook – is that you can go along there and simply make yourself present and talk to other customers and generally speaking make a nuisance of yourself and embarrass them to the point where you would be explaining to other potential customers to be careful, to look on Facebook, and to do some careful research before they put their business to big motoring world. This has a reasonable chance of success although you would have to be careful. You should go accompanied by a friend and there should be no anger, no arguments, nothing that could be considered as being overly aggressive so that big motoring world would have no justification in kicking you out or even worse, calling the police. If you did this, then I would suggest that you record everything on the telephone carried in a pocket. A fully charged battery will probably keep a voice recorder and a telephone going for more than 20 hours or 30 hours. The other person can video any incidents so that everything is clear and you can inform big motoring world then it will be going up on the Internet. If you did this, my favourite option would be to issue the letter of claim giving them 14 days, and then going along to big motoring world with a copy of your letter of rejection and a copy of the exchange between the mechanic and the warranty company and a copy of your letter of claim – all settled together – and probably about 20 or 30 copies in all and I would start handing them out to any customers who came in. Big motoring world will soon get the picture and they will either move your the premises in which case you stand outside and carry on doing it or they will finally give in. Of course there is a chance that they won't give in and they will simply call your bluff – but in that case I think you have no choice other than to follow through with your 14 day threat in the letter of claim and to begin the legal action. At the same time you should be putting up reviews on Google and also trust pilot explaining exactly what has happened and also explaining that the mechanic has confirmed to the warranty company that there is the serious problem, that you have asserted the right to reject and that this is been ignored by big motoring world and that you have now sent a letter of claim and that you will be starting a legal action in 14 days. Once again, don't bluff about the legal action. If you threaten it – then you must mean it – and on day 15 you click of the claim. You don't need a solicitor for any of this. It's all fairly straightforward and of course we will help you all the way that it the decision is yours to make and I think you need to make it fairly quickly. I think the cost of starting an action for about £13,000 is 5% and then also if it goes to trial which I would say is almost impossible – there would be an additional fee. You would claim interest at 8%. A judge might award a lower figure but frankly if you can show that big motoring world is attempting to ride roughshod over your very clear statutory consumer rights, I can imagine that the judge will want to show displeasure by awarding the full 8% which is a pretty good rate – even though it's not compensation for the hassle and the distress you are going through. If you decide to get solicitor, then if you win the case, because it is over £10,000 you will recover some of your costs but you won't recover all of them. If the solicitor begins by having exchanges of letters then I doubt whether you will be up to recover the cost of those and you could easily find that you're chalking up 500 quid or even a thousand simply on initial exchanges of correspondence. Also you need to bear in mind that if after having exchanges with a solicitor, big motoring world cave in – then you definitely won't get those costs back because you won't have gone to court and therefore a judge will not have made the order for payment of those costs. I suggest very strongly that you avoid paying any money for a solicitor and that you do it yourself. It's not a big deal – although you will have to you react quickly to the help we offer on this forum. Also, an additional benefit is that you will learn a lot and you will gain confidence and eventually you will feel good about suing anybody else who gets in your way. Nothing not to like! If you do decide to instruct a solicitor then you must take control of the solicitor. Most of them prefer to sit in an office writing letters on the clock. If you do decide to instruct a solicitor then you must instruct the solicitor very firmly that they should send one letter of complaint giving seven days. A second letter – a letter of claim giving 14 days and that they must then begin the action. If you don't do this. If you don't take control then it will simply cost you money, you will be without your car even longer and of course without your money. The whole thing is a nightmare. I think I've laid out the options but please do ask questions. I hope you can see that this is the kind of advice that you won't be getting on Facebook. Nothing against Facebook. It's good as a meeting place and to make people realise that they aren't on their own – but after that the advice given is weak and confusing.  
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      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

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British Gas forced entry & fitted PP meter for prev tenants debt!!


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Formal complaints have been sent, they have lumped them all together. The initial complaint i made, 1 day after the installation of the PPM.

I have asked for updates and as yet nothing.

 

Il try that Citizen B , thank you

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Did you make it into the papers?

 

I have heard nothing from anyone as yet. Im trying to find a pro bono solicitor to act of my behalf.

 

I have sent a SAR to BG, so the clock is ticking. We are trying to find another property, son wont stay in the flat full stop, he has been damaged by BG`s actions and their subsequent mismanagement.

 

I have had a few chats with the chap from BG and while he is nice enough, they are still trying to turn the tables on me by a pedantic attention to grammar and exactly what was said. Their POV trying to tell me i misunderstood....

 

My reply to that was, using my old profession as a example: they said i asked for PPM to be removed, therefore it was. I did not ask for an exchange, so did not get one. If they ran into me in my line of work and asked me to remove a foreign object from their bodies, would they expect to be sutured up afterwards? Of course they would, but by their reasoning, the object would be removed and a gaping wound left open, would they be happy with that?

 

Its like saying "call me" i can call them and say nothing but im sure they would expect me to speak. You don't say Call me and make sure you talk!

 

A Judge does not say I fine you £180 but make sure you pay in pounds and pence. I sentence you to 15 years, the assumption being prison, not 15 years in the Bahamas.

 

See how silly this is!!! This is the level they have reduced it all to.

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They have no legit argument, that's why.

 

 

And each desperate attempt just gives me more ammo....i cannot wait to get this SAR back. Its the reason i have deliberately not referred to specific calls on certain days and those that are logged and some recorded, will be matched with the details in the SAR. I dont wish to give them a heads up exactly what i have, unfortunate admin errors occur that way.

 

If i cannot find a legal to help, il go the Litigant in Person route. The LBA is ready and waiting.

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Glad you've got the RSPCA involved Crotalus, and hope now the bank holiday is out of the way you're able to get the press involved.

 

Even if you aren't based in London it may well be worth contacting the radio station LBC 97.3 FM . They aren't just heard in London, but all over the UK both online and on DAB etc.

 

Try Nick Ferrari (7-10am weekdays) and Iain Dale (4-8pm weekdays) by going to the LBC website and clicking on Shows followed by Presenters and then each of their names for their contact details.

 

Both their shows get a lot of listeners and they may well be able to force BG to take part and both justify and make amends for its actions!

 

The other thought is Paul Lewis at BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme - the contact details are on the Money Box page at the BBC R4 website. He often appears on TV alerting people to items on the programme, and again would be able to get BG to take part or make a statement.

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Hi Crotalus, what I have read so far about BG is disgusting.

 

When it comes to compensation don't forget to tot up all the hours of your life that they have wasted plus your family's and put your own price on... say £100 - £200 per hour, if they should try to refuse to this pay this sum, ask them to give you back those hours... obviously they cannot, so add the sum to any other compensation claim.

 

Why do I submit this, because they (BG) cost me hours of time and after mentioning this and getting 'but we cannot give you those hours back' from them, I successfully was compensated without having to take them to court.

 

With your case though, I think they deserve far more than what they got from me, so good luck!

 

Starfury.

 

P.s as regards asking for this type of compensation I believe a precedent has now been set in a court of law recently!

Edited by Starfury
Apologies... I forgot to use spool chock
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One word. Watchdog. They would LOVE something like this on their show, especially since this isnt the only occurance of them doing this.

Any advice i give is my own and is based solely on personal experience. If in any doubt about a situation , please contact a certified legal representative or debt counsellor..

 

 

If my advice helps you, click the star icon at the bottom of my post and feel free to say thanks

:D

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Crotalus is a genus of pit viper, known as rattlesnakes. Rattlers are pretty much ambush preditors, they can lay still for hours while a mouse or pray item walks all over them, till the snake has had enough and bites them in the ass. BG is that ass.

 

I hope the rattler is going to bite a ruddy big rat! This is an incredibly horrific story. The only way to teach em is hit them in the pocket, the only thing they understand. Please don't give up.

 

At least one of the guests was me sorry. I didn't realise I wasn't logged in

Rughead121

 

Easy as 3.14159265358979323846

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Hi Crotalus,

This is one of the worst tales of bullying and despicable behaviour I have ever read. Truly appalling.

I send [[big hugs]] all round to you and your family, that's all I can do to help at this point.

Sue them until they glow ...

 

Wishing you plenty of power in your elbow. I'm sure you'll find pro bono, 'tis a piece of cake surely?

I will provide some publicity where I can. FB for sure.

 

tch tch tch [shakes head] [rolls eyes]

XX

"Do just once what others say you cannot do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again." - Arthur C. Clarke.

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." - Psalms 119:105

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I've read this entire thread tonight. I refuse to use BG myself after having horrendous experiences with them, in a similar vein to yours (they threatened to cut me off unless I paid the previous tenants bill, because I didn't think to get a meter reading from the multiple-occupancy property in which I was renting a room... I now know that wasn't my responsibility but at the time they used it as a means to get me to pay over £300 which clearly wasn't mine).

 

I just wanted to say, please keep strong, and please don't let BG get away with this. I remember feeling angry about the lady and her small dog which was subdued, causing pain and stress to animals is bad enough but to do it to another human is outrageous. I now feel something more akin to rage, I will take several deep breaths right now... *takes several deep breaths*

 

Ok I still feel really angry for you. I'm a bit of a pauper so cannot help financially but am going to share your story on my facebook page, least I can do.

 

Wishing you a speedy resolution and a big, fat compensatory payout. :)

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I've read this entire thread tonight. I refuse to use BG myself after having horrendous experiences with them, in a similar vein to yours (they threatened to cut me off unless I paid the previous tenants bill, because I didn't think to get a meter reading from the multiple-occupancy property in which I was renting a room... I now know that wasn't my responsibility but at the time they used it as a means to get me to pay over £300 which clearly wasn't mine).

 

I just wanted to say, please keep strong, and please don't let BG get away with this. I remember feeling angry about the lady and her small dog which was subdued, causing pain and stress to animals is bad enough but to do it to another human is outrageous. I now feel something more akin to rage, I will take several deep breaths right now... *takes several deep breaths*

 

Ok I still feel really angry for you. I'm a bit of a pauper so cannot help financially but am going to share your story on my facebook page, least I can do.

 

Wishing you a speedy resolution and a big, fat compensatory payout. :)

 

about time you got the money back then, get onto the energy ombudsman

 

dx

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Hi There,

I used to work for British Gas and this is a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. This will have been dealt with by the debt management team and the re-connections team. These teams may not even be in the same building or town.

 

It seems clear that the main issue has not been addressed and they have continually neglected to read the issues pertaining to the case/complaint. You will probably deal with a different person EVERY TIME you call and that is useless for consistency when dealing with complex issues. This is NOW a complex issue because BG have made it that way. It was simple when you first got the flat, but constant incompetence and incorrect actions have caused this to escalate to the point it never should have reached. In my experience new customers were never held responsible for a previous tenants debts. If there was any action, it would be with the landlord. Has the landlord acted correctly with the supplier?, as it should really have been you doing this rather than a representative. If the landlord got into an argument with the BG rep, this may be where the angst first started, as BG appear to be treating you as a "troublesome" customer.

 

Like all call centres the operatives will be timed on a call, so will want to get rid of you ASAP in order to keep their call time down, otherwise they are disciplined if they overrun.

 

The energy providers are NOT allowed to cut anyone off who have small children, nor if there are vulnerable people on site. BG should never have taken the meter.

 

I would do the following;

 

1/ Write to British Gas and request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, all the information pertaining to this issue at the flat's address. You need to request ALL written documentation and recorded phone calls. When you have it you will be able to prove that you never asked for the meter to be removed proving that BG lied in this respect.

 

2/ When you have the information you can contact a solicitor about taking legal action for illegal entry to your property and damage plus what is known as hurt feelings. They will work on a no win no fee basis, but you should have a very strong case and you only need to present enough evidence to persuade the judge that you were right on the balance of probabilities, rather than the criminal burden which is beyond reasonable doubt. This might be the best having read your thread.

 

3/ You can do this yourself through the small claims court, justice.gov.uk. This will cost you to bring a case but you will then get it back once you have won. I feel you are better with a solicitor, knowing your circumstances.

 

4/ You should also complain to OFGEM the energy regulator and provide copies of the information you get from BG.

 

5/ I would also complain to the Police for the criminal damage, as companies can be brought to court for criminal acts. If the police blag you, refer this to the solicitor and he can complain to the police regulator and the Chief constable for the area.

 

6/ After all this send all the info to your MP and tell them that you and others need the protection of the State from Corporate Bullies like this.

 

H

It may be a long haul to get a final result, but I hope everything turns out okay for you.

Edited by Trevor1961
Addition explanations on why it's now a complex issue.
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Hey Crotalus. The Sun sometimes have Jeremy Kyle as a guest columnist. I think he has an email address with them. Perhaps that would be a good one to send the story to?

Edited by The Evil Bus Driver

"Join our Campaign for Change and help drive the industry forward." ~ Rossendales

 

Yeah I'll help you drive the industry forward. Forward off Beachy Head! ~ Me

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Hi everyone, thank you for all the support. So far this is where we are at. Son still refuses to return home, this is evidence with no gas or electric consumption in the weeks since the meter was replaced.

I have spoken with the chap from Sam Laidlaws office a few times and there is an investigation going off.

A SAR has been sent. However, my landlady got a letter from LCS Utility Investigation asking for detail again that have already been provided to BG, such as current tenants name ( how strange) my landladys private home details ect..... seems to me that BG are fishing for any info that would justify or help justify their actions, which is only peeing me off even more.

 

We will see, i will update as soon as i know anything else.

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You have to wonder if BG is making a genuine attempt to resolve matters. I'm sure if it were it would act immediately to cease third party comms with your L/L, not only does it present the l/l with additional costs it has the potential to breach the dpa if she were to respond with your personal data

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Hey Crotalus. The Sun sometimes have Jeremy Kyle as a guest columnist. I think he has an email address with them. Perhaps that would be a good one to send the story to?

 

Why would the english version of Jerry Springer care?

Any advice i give is my own and is based solely on personal experience. If in any doubt about a situation , please contact a certified legal representative or debt counsellor..

 

 

If my advice helps you, click the star icon at the bottom of my post and feel free to say thanks

:D

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Because he has a guest column in The Sun and needs the print inches. Either that or as someone posted before, Richard Littlejohn would probably go for something like this. Another idea is the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 as he has some good debates.

"Join our Campaign for Change and help drive the industry forward." ~ Rossendales

 

Yeah I'll help you drive the industry forward. Forward off Beachy Head! ~ Me

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Because he has a guest column in The Sun and needs the print inches. Either that or as someone posted before, Richard Littlejohn would probably go for something like this. Another idea is the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 as he has some good debates.

 

Youd need to go somewhere like watchdog or have the Daily mail ( yeah i know), do a story on it.

Any advice i give is my own and is based solely on personal experience. If in any doubt about a situation , please contact a certified legal representative or debt counsellor..

 

 

If my advice helps you, click the star icon at the bottom of my post and feel free to say thanks

:D

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Youd need to go somewhere like watchdog or have the Daily mail ( yeah i know), do a story on it.

Yeah maybe. I'm just thinking aloud really (or is it in print?) to see how wide this can be exposed.

"Join our Campaign for Change and help drive the industry forward." ~ Rossendales

 

Yeah I'll help you drive the industry forward. Forward off Beachy Head! ~ Me

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