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

Cardew

doctor_benway wrote: »

what is interesting is the amounts for which British Gas go to the ends of the earth to pursue people for

tens of letters and phonecalls to a customer, over months and months, all for a few pounds?

in business, pragmatism is key. you dont spend 500 pounds to recover a 5 pound debt, nevermind an illegitimate debt

taken to the extreme, as in the harrassment case, it will cost BG tens of thousands now, for something which could have been resolved early on by any competent manager, with a phonecall and a 50 pound gift voucher.

all in all BG are just a dreadfully run company.

As came out in the court case, it is the total reliance on 'The Computer' that creates much of the problem.

They just don't seem to have a mechanism to remove or suspend an account with a problem and deal with it manually.

pineapple

A friend of mine bought a burnt out wreck of a house without a roof and is now in his second year of rebuilding it while camping out in the garden shed. The electricity suppliers would not accept that he didn't even have an electricity supply and kept threatening him with bailiffs. This despite numerous letters and phone calls from him. So well done to her.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

As came out in the court case, it is the total reliance on 'The Computer' that creates much of the problem.

They just don't seem to have a mechanism to remove or suspend an account with a problem and deal with it manually.

Well, it did cost HALF A BILLION POUNDS so one would assume they would want to be able to rely on it totally. :rotfl:

2009bia

About 7 years ago I had a similar experience with persistent threatening letters from British Gas and their debt collection agents. Despite numerous letters & reassurances that they would stop they did not. i threatened to take them to court for harrassment and this finally worked. I ceased my custom with them and even if they had the cheapest gas in the world I would not return to them. It is important to stand up to the big bullies but I feel sorry for people who are not as strong as others and will feel worried and afraid.

twizzel

2009bia wrote: »

even if they had the cheapest gas in the world I would not return to them.

Same here.

buffy500

aMIGA_dUDE wrote: »

Also under PACE you can be arrested if do not tell the police your real name if requested. So no you dont have give you name but they can arrested you, same difference really.

I think you'll find its only a case if you are actually suspected involvement in an offence.
It is not a blanket "have to cough to the fuzz" situation.

cdd

SIMILAR STORY RIGHT HERE!

Last year we (family) won 2 different claims for illegal PPI charges over a loan with Lloyds and my main credit card with Abbey (we got back a total £10000)

Now, British Gas has been harassing me by calling me on my phones (mobile and home) for a supposedly 'overdue bill of £ 1300'.

The funny thing is that we switched over to London Energy with the help of EnergyWatch nearly a year before we moved away from that place , because we disvovered that BG was not our original supplier and was even charging us well over the original supplier rate. We don't even live there since the last quarter of 2004 and they are asking us to cancel a bill from 2006 on! (that is what they have told us on the phone).

However today and for the first time they have sent us a threatening letter asking us to pay the overdue bill inmediatly. HOW DID THEY FIND OUT MY NEW ADDRESS? is that illegal too?

British Gas doesn't seem to have any record of these facts and are threatening us to 'proceed legally' ... but the truth is that WE are the ones who are going to proceed legally if they do not stop their harassment (as we told them in letter today) and will seek compensation if they do not apologize in writing.

This country is going mad :mad:. With all these utilities companies, banks, councils, politicians robbing us like if we were their 'money pigs'.:lipsrseal

We'll keep in touch with you and if you have any advice on how to proceed or a related story, you are welcome to tell us so.
MARTIN, if you get to read this, please comment to us as soon as you can ! You've been a gift for us for keeping up this site.

CDD

cdd

SIMILAR STORY RIGHT HERE!

Last year we (family) won 2 different claims for illegal PPI charges over a loan with Lloyds and my main credit card with Abbey (we got back a total £10000) .

Now, for a year British Gas has been harassing me by calling me on my phones (mobile and home) for a supposedly 'overdue bill of £1300'.

The truth & funny thing is that we switched over to London Energy with the help of EnergyWatch nearly a year before we moved away from that place/address , after we disvovered that BG was not our original supplier and was even charging us well over the original supplier rate. We don't even live there since the last quarter of 2004 and they are asking us to cancel a bill from 2006 on! (that is what they have told us on the phone).

However today 13.05 and for the first time they have sent us a threatening letter asking us to pay the overdue bill inmediatly.
BTW, HOW DID THEY FIND OUT MY NEW ADDRESS? is that illegal too?

British Gas doesn't seem to have kept any records of these facts and are threatening us to 'proceed legally' ... but the truth is that WE are the ones who are going to proceed legally if they do not stop their harassment (as we told them in our reply letter today) and will seek compensation if they do not apologize in writing and setting their record straight about me (we are not too sure about how to proceed, but we are learning from this site, as we did for other different cases and won them).

This country is going mad :mad:. With all these utilities companies, banks, councils, politicians robbing us like if we were their 'money pigs'. :lipsrseal.
Don't wonder why the BBC program WATCHDOG once reported that BG is the british company with the worst customer services
for over 30 years with millions of complaints against it over those years !

We'll keep in touch with you all and if any of you have any advice on how to proceed or a related story to learn form, you are welcome to tell us so.

MARTIN, if you get to read this, please comment to us as soon as you can ! You've been a gift for us for keeping up this site.

CDD

cookiemoop

I completely share people's opinions of British Gas. For 18 months they sent me letters regarding an unpaid bill that related to the previous owner of my flat. Every time I phoned British Gas up and told them she didn't live at my address any more they said the letter had been sent out in error and to ignore it. I must have returned about 20 such letters to British Gas. Last month I had a letter addressed to 'The user of the gas supply at...my property' (before that they had always been addressed to the previous occupier) saying that British Gas had obtained a warrant to enter my property and disconnect the gas supply. I called them, completely distraught, and they said they thought it was a mistake and that they would look into it. The following week I got home from work and they'd broken in and installed a prepayment meter, locking my cat in a cupboard, leaving lights on and the toilet seat up (they had to walk right the way through my flat to get to my bathroom) in the process. After screaming at them down the phone for half an hour I got a call from the regional manager apologising. The next day 3 or 4 more different managers called me to apologise. After 18 months of this and having my home broken into,them saying 'I'm sorry' clearly isn't good enough.

I'm in the fortunate position in that I work for a law firm so I fully intend to take them to court over this. Reading everyone elses horror stories about this dreadful company just motivates me all the more!

cdd

cookiemoop,
your story is just horrible, and yes, take them to court.
how do they brake into your house!
as far as i know you could have called the police to report it in 1st instance. did you take any pics of it?

anyway, i wish you good luck and never surrender to these vile companies.