BG & Over-high payment plan

[adridude]

Hi,

 

Over some time I've crept into debt with british gas despite making what payments I can but they've now passed my account to their in-house DCA (some over-seas call centre) which is expecting me to switch to a pre-payment meter and pay £25/week on top of what I'm using.

 

I've explained that I am totally unable to make this payment, re-explained to them that all I can settle for is £5 a week on top of my usage until my situation is better and they refused.

 

They then told me to contact "StepChange" to see how I can get out of debt. Knowing that I don't need to deal with StepChange as this is pretty much my only debt left, they told me that if need be that they will gain access to my property and enforce the installation of the meter at this rate.

 

What can I do about this, as I can only pay so much every week and despite them even slapping an unrealistic amount on, if I don't have the money, I won't be able to pay it off at this rate.

 

In regards to the debt, in August, 2 years ago I already used British Gas Energy trust to help with some debt I had back then. If anything, I've got to wait until August again before I re-apply for help through them. SO that's a no-go.

 

Any advice would be helpful!

 

Cheers,

 

A

[adridude]

Right, I think this has been resolved. I managed to get hold of a complaint manager, explained the situation and they gladly sorted it out at an amount I can pay each week.

 

This is a prime example of why dealing with "first world call centres" gets you results compared to "third world call centres".

 

Nether was it stressful talking to them, nor was it impossible to negotiate.

[adridude]

Hi,

 

My british gas bill has over time crept bit for bit into the minus and since they've joined the "over-seas call-center" frenzy, I'm getting 3 calls a day daily form "apparent" BG debt collectors.

 

At the moment, my income is is a bit of a mess due to some changes in my personal life so I've demonstrated to them that the MAX I can afford is no more than £15 a week.

 

They've refused totally to even accept my income/expend statement, told me that whether I like it or not they're applying for a warrant to come in and put in a prepayment meter.

 

1) Can they do this?

2) Aren't there laws about just breaking into disabled peoples houses?

3) They won't even let me leave to an energy company AIMED at low income people, so I'm stuck paying their premium rates... Is there no way I can get them to force-change their rates to this other tariff I could have moved to?

 

I've already sent them a letter, registered too as well as sending it via email and having it confirmed over the phone by a complaints manager that "implied right of access" has been revoked and that it will not be tolerated if they set foot on pvt land.

 

Other that carrying on the payments I can actually afford and sitting here "prarie dogging" every person that comes past the front gate, I have no idea what to do about this.

 

 

Any advice?

 

Cheers,

 

A

[dx100uk]

how much do you owe?

 

if its

 

cant you get on the social tariff?

 

dx

[dx100uk]

yes they can force entry they want to fit a pre pay meter

 

have they read the meter in the last 24mts?

 

if pre pay is no good because you cant get out to feed the key

or

get to the meter to put it in

 

you need to tell them.

 

 

give us the full story of the debt please

 

dx

[adridude]

Its above £500 at the moment, and I've tried in all which ways to reason with them.

 

Furthermore, the only shops which have the gas / electricity meters are too hell and gone. Having various panic disorders and literally living in a very tight comfort-zone of about 1 mile, I never venture outside that zone... Getting electricity would be like telling an agoraphobic to play football.

 

Furthermore, I'm being treated for some pretty horrific memory loss issues. This is why I like to log and list everything I do, in my house, around my house etc.... As it is, it's hard enough to manage this so yet another thing to manage in a complicated and long-winded way will just be horrible.

 

I've explained this to them, but now they expect me to hook up something to my computer.. Which is all sexy and stuff, but it's "not mac compatible" and they "require me to install windows on my mac"....

 

In regards to the debt, it initially started as their fault.

 

I was quoted some initial prices, as I log the times/dates, names and contents of ALL calls, I have this and the entire history logged.

 

come the time of my 3 monthly bills 75% more than I expected was whacked onto the bill. I had been paying what my energy monitors had told me anyway.

 

As time went on (over a year), more and more people ignored the fact that I was quoted certain prices on a certain date and time by a certain person.... At the most, they've given me £25 apology and they're sticking to that. So the various people mucked around with my tariffs, the bills literally doubled.. again despite my usage being 70% of the year before.

 

In the end, I've just started ignoring the calls and paying what I can and that seems to be the only way to deal with it. even custom complaints can't "locate the call" any more whereas I never SAR'd my telephone provider for some old itemised bills and double-confirmed the dates and times I made the call to my logs.

 

Now it's a case of my word against the phone-call they obviously don't have or deleted.

 

AT the most, I owe about 1/2 that about, if not less. I've lost track what tariff I'm on, I've lost track of who I'm dealing with as every time someones taken it over voila... its another name on the list of things never resolved.

 

Just to add, I've been with them for 5 years now and my bill was totally fine and up to date until all of this happened. Weirdly enough this is ONLY got really aggressive on their end when i started to pursue the call where I was told the original tariff prices.. (even had a reference number for the call as thats what I do when i get quotes)

 

 

*edit* ps, thanks for the merge! I totally forgot about this old thread I had! I've really gotta start using subscription lists more often

[adridude]

Here's an excerpt fro my log when I first noticed it and when it started escalating:

 

21 Jun 2013 13:35 Bill British Gas I noticed that my unit rates are: T1: 22.09 and T2: 13.492 where as I was initially quoted: Standing: 18.69/day T1: 15.57 T2: 7.07. The reference number I had jotted down from the call was 400-xxxx-xxx

[Ros1609]

If they do force you to install a pre payment meter then British Gas do something called 'Home Energy Top Up. Basically as long as you have a computer/laptop with Windows 7 as the operating system then you can get a pack from them which allows you to top up from home. I've used it for years