British Gas are the Mafia?

[Bird Brain]

The strange thing is with other peoples problems with this company I had my problems more than once because I became mysteriously connected to them again even though I hadn't asked to be connected.This happened when a new neighbour moved in upstairs.

Had trouble more than once including my current energy supply sending me letters saying sorry I am leaving when I hadn't even done anything.

Anybody else had any of these sort of problems?

 

[Gerry Attrick]

Yep. years ago I received a bill for gas. The problem was I had no gas installed. I contacted them many times to tell them this and each time they apologised and promised to put things right. They subsequently threatened to break in to take a meter reading, so I said please go ahead, and I'll see you in court.

Never heard another word. Funny that!

 

[Bird Brain]

I wouldn't mock them about the breaking in thingy as allegedly this happened to people on Watchdog and apparently one wasn't even connected to British Gas.Think im glad I stayed with my present supplier.

 

[Night Train]

Many years ago when I first moved into my house there were four electricity meters, one for each flat that used to be in the house.
I asked Powergen to remove them all and just connect one meter as the house was now a single dwelling.
This they did and had a meter man visit to remove all the meters and then another to fit the new meter. The old meters were left on the door step for a third to collect.

The meters were never collected but after the first quarter I received bills for the new meter and all four old ones.
Despite many calls I continued to get demands for the four meters. Eventually I was threatened with legal action and disconnection so I called their bluff.
A meter man came round to disconnect, complete with police officer, and so I invited them all in showed them a box of disconnected meters and the corresponding paper work. That seemed to work and the meter man apologised and said he would sort it when he got back
They went away but didn't take the meters.

No more letters until the next quarter and I got new bills for the four meters!

I changed suppliers and invited Powergen to come and read the four meters, along with the one I was using, and to bill me for the outstanding amount on each meter. They did and I got a bill for the electricity I used and four with zero balance on. they actually read the meters even though they were not connected to anything!

I think the assumption was that the new supplier would then take over the billing for four meters that were now in a cardboard box by my front door! I offered but they weren't interested. Wonder why?

 

[newb]

I had to call british gas every month for a year begging them to send me a bill, they did after a year for over 1300 quid. Im still paying it now, \i thought if they messed me about ill mess them about.

I pay 5 quid a month

 

[Gerry Attrick]

I wouldn't mock them about the breaking in thingy as allegedly this happened to people on Watchdog and apparently one wasn't even connected to British Gas.Think im glad I stayed with my present supplier.

Mock? Moi?

No I'd merely have gloated as they were demolished in court

 

[rusky]

I had an interesting one with BG when I moved into my current house.

Contacted them with opening readings for the gas & elec.

After 3 months heard nothing, another 3 months nothing, 3 months go by & get a bill for £800. Paid it as it was correct thought nothing of it.

A month goes by & I recieve a reminder. Call & explain that I had paid & assume it's sorted.

A month later & get threatening letter. Call & they agree that they're in the wrong.

Another month goes by & get a letter from a debt collection agency. Call BG & they tell me that the account I had paid was an occupier's account & the money I owe was for my account - the money owed on the occupier's account had been transferred to my account meaning that my account was £800 in debit & the occupier's £800 in credit. The guy at BG saw this & transferred the money between the accounts so everything was sorted.

 

[rusky]

BUT...

See, I bet you thought that was the end

I get a bill saying I had paid the £800. Then a month later I get a disconnection notice - for Dec 24th! detailing forced entry etc!

Call them again, explain the above post, well the details rather than suggesting they time travel forwards 3 years & read a CC thread

Turns out the helpful guy who transferred the ££ from one account to the other wasn't authorised to do so

At least the person I was speaking to cound see what went on & could authorise the transfer.

Took ages to sort that out, at least the call centre was in the UK

 

[rusky]

On the plus side, in the old house the water & heating was all electric so I only had a gas cooker that didn't get used much.

I only used about £1.50 of gas a quater & paid via online banking.

Each time we paid BG gave us a £5 prompt payment reduction so after the first bill I was in credit by £3.50 meaning that when the next bill came in it was paid out of the existing credit & because of that we got a £5 prompt payment reduction so then we were £7 in credit.

You can see where this is going neadless to say, after 7 years there we had used £42 of gas & they owed us about £100

 

[Bird Brain]

Mock? Moi?

No I'd merely have gloated as they were demolished in court

I was trying to rack my brains about the lawyer sketch on Frasier when he threatens to take a big company to court.

He says "I have a very aggressive lawyer"

To which the reply was "Just one?"

 

[Kestevan]

I had a similar run in with Britsh gas years ago at an old house I lived in.
The house had no gas connection, and never had one, there were no pipes/meter etc.

3 months after moving in we got a bill from BG for over 100 quid. I rang them, explained that we didn't have gas and they seemed to accept this..... until 3months later when another bill arrived. This was repeated every quarter for 2 years - after the first 2 or 3 letters I started ignoring them.

Then they started to get threatening, red letters threatening me with court action and bailiffs if I didn't pay up.
To cut a long story short, it ended up with a BG engineer and a copper turning up at the house to force entry and disconnect me.

The young copper was absolutely pi$$ing himself as the engineer fruitlessly searched through the house/cellar etc for a gas meter that didn't exist.

I occasionally get accosted by BG sales-monkeys asking me to switch suppliers... I'd rather eat my own elbows than have anything to do with that shower of tossers.

 

[accountantpete]

npower are sending out refunds for the 2008 overcharging - it seems that even their own in-house accountants couldn't quite get to grips with the uber complex mathematics involved.

(£30 ish if anyone was affected)

 

[dellzeqq]

the odd thing is that I cannot remember why we fell out with BG - it may be that we tried to switch suppliers and they refused to make it happen. Whatever - it was about 14 years ago. And that's the point - if you lose a customer, they never, ever go back.

 

[Bird Brain]

Seems like it is just badly run and it wouldn't be the first company to suffer that.My present energy supplier seems fine to me...So good in fact I can't even remember what they are called,which is the way it should be.

Actually I did mysteriously change over to them though,I'm sure I was with British Gas at one time before I was poached.(without me knowing)

 

[Black knight]

I'm with British gas for both Electricity and gas.

I can't fault them, great service, bills always issued on time, text and an email to confirm them.

Easy to contact with quick replies. One time I tried to do a live chat thing online and it didn't work, within a a minute the operator had contacted me on my mobile to apologise and take the details.

Can't fault them.