British Gas and my mother in law

[frugal-mum]

Hi my mother in law is in her late 70's and has poor health including serious heart problems.

 

British gas keep ringing her as they say she is in debt with her gas bill - she owes them about £250.

 

They are insisting that she pay £85 every two weeks and it must be on a friday or she is classes as breaking the agreement -

 

 

They even threatened to fit a card meter even though she has limited mobility and cannot get to the outside meter easily to put credit on.

 

She refused a card meter but struggles to pay the payments as demanded by them.

 

She then told me she has overpaid her electricity by OVER £300!!!

 

She has asked them to clear the gas bill from her electricity overpayment and they refused.

 

How can they say she in debt with them when they owe her money.

 

She keeps trying to phone them up but after waiting over 20 minutes she gives up.

 

I have suggested that she waits till they phone her next time and ask again that the gas balance be cleared by the electricity overpayment

but she is scared that they will fit a card meter.

 

Where does she stand and did I give her the correct advice?

[frugal-mum]

Sorry for the typo I meant serious heart problems.

[dx100uk]

written complaint to the CEO me thinks!!

 

dx

[fkofilee]

They shouldnt fit a card meter for this, She is classified as a vulnerable person.

If they do without consulting whats best for her, then they are shooting themselves in the foot and then you can go in for the kill etc,

 

She is to be in control of the payment arrangement, not be bullied by BG. Being told she has to pay on a friday... BS... She can pay what she can when.

From a systems element, yes, they need ideally a payment plan, but forcing £85 every fortnight?!?!? No No...

[BankFodder]

I think that you need to establish the fact of this. One of them is wrong. I hope that it is British Gas - but you never know ....

 

Start off by assembling all of the paperwork that you have. This includes bank statements and bills

Send British gas an SAR - she will have to sign it and get any other information they have. Then when you understand the story, come back here and we can go further.

 

In the meantime, send British Gas a letter - separately to the SAR - in a separate envelope and inform them that you dispute their bills and that according to your records, that the account is in credit. Ask them to suspend any action while they investigate - and that you also are investigating and that if you find that you do owe them money, then it will be forthcoming. However this is all subject to investigation.

Tell them that their repeated phone calls are causing stress and that all communication should be in writing from now on.

 

Do everything in writing. Build a paper trail of reasonable communication and send everything recorded

[kirkbyinfurnesslad]

One word of caution, you need to act with a certain speed though as bg can be very quick to get warrants to fit card meters even if they are in the wrong

[raydetinu]

Ask for the overpayment back or reduce the SO for the electricity and then pay the gas bill.

They do respond very well to emails if set out the problem to them.

[frugal-mum]

I have spoken to my mother in law and she is going to sort out all her bills and payment receipts. I will have a look at them and see where things are with regards to payments make and any debit or ceadit on the elec and gas accounts. She uses payment cards paid to the post office and part of the problem is she gets confused as to whether she is paying gas or electricity as the cards are almost identical.

 

 

She is up to date with the agreement she made with them but the reality is although she owes on her gas she have make a huge overpayment on her electricity so Ineed to sort it for her as soon as possible.

 

 

Will post an updateas and when I hear anything.