I moved house on the 1st April 2005, and submitted a final gas reading to Powergen by post within days. I received my final bill on 15th May 2005, and paid it immediately by Internet Banking.

Over the next 2 months, I received increasingly threatening letters, informing me I had "refused" to pay my final bill, and debt-collection procedures had been instigated.

I responded in writing to each letter, sending a copy of my bank statement showing the payment. There was no point in calling - usually an extremely long wait (sometimes an hour or more) to speak to a human being, followed by having to recant the whole story..

In mid-July 2005, I finally got a written confirmation from Powergen, to the effect that my account was paid, clear, and had been closed. It literally reads "I confirm there's no outstanding balance on your account. The account has been closed".

Staggeringly, on 4th April 2006, I got a call out of the blue at work from a debt collection agency, informing me a summons was about to be issued for non-payment of the final bill..

How can companies get away with this? As it is, I've had to spend another two hours now, collating all the past correspondence with Powergen, to send to the debt collectors to get them off my back.

Totally incredible, is it not.