British Gas guilty of harassment by Court of Appeal for threatening letters

harbottle_2

I too hate British Farce with a passion.

Twice we have had issues with these fools.

The last time they created a gas account in my wifes married name at an address we had moved from 6 months earlier. At the time the account was created she was still under her maiden name and when we left the property the gas was supplied by SWALEC. We don't have gas in our new house as it has an oil boiler.

Continuous letters from these thugs threatening all sorts followed. They wanted, off us, copies of our marriage certificate and copies from our solicitor showing when the house was sold, and even then it didn't stop as they said they had not received it. So then all this had to be resent, that never worked so they wanted it faxing.

They would never admit it was their fault and the onus was on us to prove we didn't have this debt.

We were getting letters from bayliffs and god knows who else. They really are a bunch of ignorant, incompetent turds.

I eventually wrote to the head of department who was writing to us requesting a £50.00 inconvenience payment to cover all the 0845 phones calls, photocopying, faxing and time for something that was nothing to do with us. Guess what, the pr*ck never even replied.

This shower of sh*t will never get another penny off me and the sooner they are re-nationised the better.

Another company who desserve a good kicking is a company called Pheonix Assurance in Old Hall Street, Liverpool. They are another bunch of incompetents

petercurtis

Trying to correct problems by talking to the utility companies is a sure way to invite distress. The bottom line is a court action to resolve the company and customer's differences. Courts generally will not accept content of telephone conversations as evidence. Its your unsupported word against theirs - and the companies' customer service know this. It is why the companies make such great play of inviting customers to speak to their customer service personnel about problems.

Put your complaint in writing from the very start. Bear in mind all the wasted money on futile telephone calls. They may phone you to get you to discuss the problem - refuse to talk to them. Tell them that a response to your complaint has to be in writing. This concentrates their minds - they know that their response could be presented as evidence in a court.

Address your letters to a named individual such as the customer services manager who wrote to you recently telling you of their latest wheeze for getting money out of you. Better still write to the CEO of the company if you can find his name and address - not difficult if you have access to the internet and can locate the website of the company.

Final tips: 1. If you do write send your letter recorded delivery. Its an additional expense but the company cannot claim that your letter was not received. 2. The final shot in your locker - you are not only paying for the fuels used by your household but also for the billing service of the company. Any failure renders the company's billing service as unfit for purpose under the Sale of Goods and Services Act. Claim compensation of £25 for your inconvenience and expense.

I have fought and won disputes with four of the six members of the energy retailers cartel. Total compensation to date is £75. As the 'Dads Army' corporal has it, "They don't like it up'em".

bristol_pilot

I had similar problems with BG - repeated threats of court action for a final bill already paid and a receipt to prove it. I found out the name of the manager responsible for customer complaints and wrote saying I would bring an action for harassment against BG and individual employees. The problems stopped immediately. If I can possibly help it I'll never buy from this bunch of muppets again, but the 'deemed contract' with an existing supplier that you have when you move into a new property may make that impossible, regrettably.

student100

As far as I can tell from reading the case, the court actually hasn't yet heard the case of whether British Gas is guilty of harrassment. The appeal Court ruling seems to be that Ms Ferguson has the right to take the case to trial (whereas BG was trying to get the case struck out of court). I can't find anything to say anywhere that the harrassment case has gone to trial - so you can't say British Gas are "guilty of harassment".

Shell59

I have had the same problem actually with Sainsbury Energy (EDF). I switched companies last year and was aware that I owed them some money as I had been paying by direct debit for dual fuel. They sent me a letter stating what I owed and I promptly sent a cheque for the amount they requested. They then sent another bill with further amounts for both gas and electric. I was annoyed but accepted it and as I couldnt afford at the time to pay the whole amount, I set up a payment plan. After receiving confirmation of this in black and white through the post, I then started to receive chasing letters for the debt. These turned into threatening letters, advising that they would take legal action, bailiffs would visit, etc etc. Despite numerous emailing and speaking to many people on the phone, they still kept coming. I wrote a letter of complaint and the excuses I got was that someone "hadn't updated the system". I received a £20 credit against my bill, no phone call or email of apology, the £20 just appeared, I wasnt aware of it at first as no one had told me. I did also mention that I believe the amounts included their increase which should not have applied as I had already switched companies but this fell on deaf ears.

Does anyone think I have a case as the £20 "goodwill gesture" is surely admission of guilt? Or because I have accepted it would this then deem the situation closed, because I did suffer a lot of upset over this and they know that. The payment arrangement ends in April and I have kept to it, despite them "losing" one of the cheques which I had sent in the same envelope with another one that they cashed!

The icing on the cake was the other day when someone rang me telling me that I hadnt kept up with my payments and there was no payment plan. I think I was on the phone for about an hour stating that I was looking at the payment plan letter as we spoke and that they actually lost my cheque, to which the woman may as well have called me a liar! (Fuming!!!!!!)

Jasonicus

Have had very similar problems with British Gas, I've had 13 letters and numerous phonecalls over the course of 15 months from themselves and 4 different Debt Recovery Agencies on their behalf to get me to pay a final bill payment of £29, despite sending copies of bank statement and a letter from the bank confirming it was paid straight away... but unfortunately this still rumbles on and they still ain't got the message yet, competence certainly isn't this companies' strong point, everyone should steer well clear of them...

digp

student100 wrote: »

As far as I can tell from reading the case, the court actually hasn't yet heard the case of whether British Gas is guilty of harrassment. The appeal Court ruling seems to be that Ms Ferguson has the right to take the case to trial (whereas BG was trying to get the case struck out of court). I can't find anything to say anywhere that the harrassment case has gone to trial - so you can't say British Gas are "guilty of harassment".

They have harassed her. That much is plain and simple.

rosemarym_2

aMIGA_dUDE wrote: »

2) Pass on information about others, unless you have been authorised by other party it is breach of Data Protection Act. The only way to deal with this is to tell them it not you and has nothing to do with you. You do not have to prove who you are to anyone unless it requested by police officer.

This isn't correct - the Act does not apply to private individuals going about their private business. It it did, gossiping would be illegal! Which it isn't. :j

Nor do you have to prove who you are to a police officer - not yet, anyway! See this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/3543266/Police-and-immigration-given-powers-to-demand-to-see-identification.html

rosemarym_2

petercurtis wrote: »

Trying to correct problems by talking to the utility companies is a sure way to invite distress. The bottom line is a court action to resolve the company and customer's differences. Courts generally will not accept content of telephone conversations as evidence. Its your unsupported word against theirs - and the companies' customer service know this. It is why the companies make such great play of inviting customers to speak to their customer service personnel about problems.

Put your complaint in writing from the very start. Bear in mind all the wasted money on futile telephone calls. They may phone you to get you to discuss the problem - refuse to talk to them. Tell them that a response to your complaint has to be in writing. This concentrates their minds - they know that their response could be presented as evidence in a court.

Address your letters to a named individual such as the customer services manager who wrote to you recently telling you of their latest wheeze for getting money out of you. Better still write to the CEO of the company if you can find his name and address - not difficult if you have access to the internet and can locate the website of the company.

Final tips: 1. If you do write send your letter recorded delivery. Its an additional expense but the company cannot claim that your letter was not received. 2. The final shot in your locker - you are not only paying for the fuels used by your household but also for the billing service of the company. Any failure renders the company's billing service as unfit for purpose under the Sale of Goods and Services Act. Claim compensation of £25 for your inconvenience and expense.

I have fought and won disputes with four of the six members of the energy retailers cartel. Total compensation to date is £75. As the 'Dads Army' corporal has it, "They don't like it up'em".

Sounds like excellent advice, Peter. I especially like the billing service point. Would you have any sample letters to share (anonymised, obviously)

gotgamegurl

This isn't about an energy company, but ICS are doing the same thing.

ICS made up a debt & pretended that I'd enrolled onto a course with them. Then started sending me notices to pay £621.99, which is the entire cost of one of their courses, including the deposit & postage, which you have to pay for on enrolment? They also repeatedly sent me enrolment forms to sign & get my parent to sign for a credit agreement, as I was under 18 at the time.

When I phoned them about this, they told me I'd enrolled "out of common sense", because I'd requested an invoice of the course details & cost, explaining that this was needed in order to obtain funding. But even that invoice took about 6 months to get to me, with constant reminders. By this time, I had lost the funding & started a full-time college course at the level above!

I then received letters after letters from debt collection agencies & they managed to get my mobile phone number some how. I had them ringing me constantly whilst I was at college. I explained in every phone call, to every person, that I didn't owe ICS a penny, as I hadn't enrolled & they repeated they'd check with them.

Why do companies not have to prove to debt collection agencies that the money is owed? The debt collection agencies are quite happy to buy the debt from them, no questions asked.

I was threatened with court & baliffs on several ocassions. I sought legal advice & they told me that ICS & the debt collection agencies were harrassing me. They attempted to contact the debt collection agencies & ICS on my behalf, but they refused to talk to them without my permission. I sent them written permission & requested (again) that they no longer contact me, but go through my solicitor. We then heard no response from them.

When my solicitor advised me that they'd probably given up by now, another letter demanding payment. I eventually had to change my mobile number & address to avoid them, but they have found my new address. This has been going on for other a year now & to this day, all I can do is wait for them to take me to court & prove that I have enrolled & owe the debt.

This has caused me a lot of anxiety & distress, I still feel on edge that one day the baliffs will turn up & take my belongings. I don't have a lot of money & worked hard for what I have. That's why I needed funding to do a course with them in the 1st place.

What sort of a company does this? Is that how they became 'The World's Number One in Home Learning', by robbing helpless people?:money: