British Gas - not impressed (British Gas)

Member Name: kappari

Product:	British Gas
Date:	09/05/09 (248 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Make many mistakes with bills etc

I am not very happy with British Gas and doubt I will ever become a customer of theirs again!

One day the postman delivered a letter which was opened by my husband. The letter was from a debt collection agency and it was demanding a payment of £400+ pounds - or else! My husband went bonkers with me. "What bills have you not been paying" he roared....

I was at a loss as to what to say. being in charge of the purse strings, I have always paid my bills on time and as far as I was concerned did not owe anybody anything.

I rang the company that had sent me the letter. Apparently they had been sold 'the debt' by British Gas.....

I was gobsmacked! I had not been a customer of British Gas for about 5 years. Before i moved to my present home, I was. When I moved from my previous home I had my meters read and duly settled my outstanding bills. Indeed, I used British Gas for dual fuel when I moved to my new home...

What on earth was going on then? Why had I been landed with this letter from the debt collector? I contacted British Gas and asked why they had sold on the debt with my name on when I owed them nothing and had settled all my bills with them. I was told that the people who had subsequently lived in our old house had moved in, used the gas and electricity and then moved out without paying a bill! The only names they had on that particular address were mine and my husbands.

Eventually we did get it sorted and I didn't have to pay the bill, but I was very angry and the whole affair caused a lot of angst.

I am also very unhappy about the way they treated my father. My dad has always been 'loyal' to British Gas. He has always paid over and above the amount he uses into his account via the Post Office service. However, one day he recieved a demand from British Gas saying that he owed them money. Despite the fact that he had proof from the Post Office that he had paid in the money, they would not believe him, even when I showed them the receipts from the Post Office. They threatened to cut off his gas even though he is a pensioner.

Eventually dad paid up extra to British Gas just to keep them quiet. He lost quite a bit of money. The way they treated my dad was deplorable...

Summary: Inaccurate billing