Another British Gas Nightmare

gribbo2001

Hi guys,

Due to various problems with British Gas last year we left them and joined Souther Electric.

We since received a whopping bill and disputed the initial reading given by BG to SE.

We have since had two emails from BG saying our bill is ready. When we first called up we were told that it was a clerical error (they previously had the wrong meter number at our property) and there was no outstanding balance.

Had another email today so called again and was told this time that we owed £40 as the meter reading we payed when we moved the account was 52 units short.

Very confused by this and it's becoming a bit of nightmare - trying to pay off an outstanding £250 to SE as they claim we've underused and also now this additional £40 from BG is hellish.

Anyone had similar problems?

Also does £70 a month seem excessive for gas in a 1 bed top floor flat? Our boiler is old and crap (we rent so can't replace it) so do you reckon the landlord should offer some sort of deduction? He is talking about putting a new boiler in this summer as he knows how crap it is!

Thanks in advance,
Dan

Gerrard_8_lfc

As your landlord has a up to date gas safety certificate he does not need to upgrade the boiler im afraid. I would just haggle with them if they are people who will listen to you.

debt_help_4

hi dan, I dont really know much about energy suppliers but I know that both BG and Southern Electric are an absolute ripoff. My parents were with both companies and they wrote a letter to my dad saying we owed them money even though we were on a prepayment meter and no bills were outstanding!!!. Were currently with the utillity warehouse and they are brillant. I currently pay near enough £70-80 quid a month for both gas and electricity which is very cheap considering I live in a 4 bed house lol. I hope this helps x

littletommytucker

the initial reading given by BG to SE.

Wrong way round. SE give the reading to BG.

gribbo2001

Gerrard_8_lfc wrote: »

As your landlord has a up to date gas safety certificate he does not need to upgrade the boiler im afraid. I would just haggle with them if they are people who will listen to you.

Boiler cocked to be fair tho - it doesnt listen to the thermostat and the diverter valve has had it as whenever the hot water is on the heating comes on (full blast as it doesnt listen to the thermostat). Hopefully he's gunna replace it as he's asked me to arrange some quotes.

duggie1982

gribbo2001 wrote: »

Boiler cocked to be fair tho - it doesnt listen to the thermostat and the diverter valve has had it as whenever the hot water is on the heating comes on (full blast as it doesnt listen to the thermostat). Hopefully he's gunna replace it as he's asked me to arrange some quotes.

Check to make sure your landlord has an upto date landlord safety certificate (CP12) if the boiler is faulty then they need to fix it as you are using more gas than needed.

Jasonicus

British Gas are pretty useless all round, I feel like sharing something I just mailed them that kinda shows up some of the problems I've had with them....

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter of June 26th 2009 acknowledging that you have now found the missing payment of £29.59 which as you state I "made recently for gas on 26th of November 2007." It is reassuring to know that your department has at least the spark of competence to locate money payed to you after a mere 579 days. I can only hope that precious spark is kept well away from any actual gas for fear of an explosion that could take out most of southern England.

Whilst it has taken just 1 final bill, 1 overdue reminder and a threat of court action from British Gas, 5 letters threatening legal action by 4 different debt recovery agencies sub-contracted to do the dirty work for your company, 4 letters from one of those agencies chasing the same further information to investigate the matter, numerous fruitless letters, e-mails and phonecalls from myself trying to sort this out and another letter from yourselves back in February acknowledging that you "are doing everything we can to resolve the situation", it's nice to know that you are finally "sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you and we'll try to make sure this doesn't happen again."

I can only hope this means that you've finally implemented accountancy systems that can actually keep track all payments and not require you to needlessly harrass customers over and over again for small sums of money which you'd recieved from them on time in the first place.

I note with curiousity the question you then follow on your apology with - "have you ever considered going paperless? You'll find managing your bills online far more convenient."

Actually, what I've found far more convenient since October 31st 2007 is going "British Gas-less" for my household utility needs, it's so far proven considerably more reliable, less time wasting, more convenient and better value for money.

Whilst I appreciate your final comment saying "thanks for being with British Gas, we're delighted to have you as our customer". I would like to point out that I've not had any of your gas circulating around my home for around 604 days now, and it's pretty unlikely to do so again in any great hurry.

Yours Sincerely

Vestra

Jasonicus wrote: »

British Gas are pretty useless all round, I feel like sharing something I just mailed them that kinda shows up some of the problems I've had with them....

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter of June 26th 2009 acknowledging that you have now found the missing payment of £29.59 which as you state I "made recently for gas on 26th of November 2007." It is reassuring to know that your department has at least the spark of competence to locate money payed to you after a mere 579 days. I can only hope that precious spark is kept well away from any actual gas for fear of an explosion that could take out most of southern England.

Whilst it has taken just 1 final bill, 1 overdue reminder and a threat of court action from British Gas, 5 letters threatening legal action by 4 different debt recovery agencies sub-contracted to do the dirty work for your company, 4 letters from one of those agencies chasing the same further information to investigate the matter, numerous fruitless letters, e-mails and phonecalls from myself trying to sort this out and another letter from yourselves back in February acknowledging that you "are doing everything we can to resolve the situation", it's nice to know that you are finally "sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you and we'll try to make sure this doesn't happen again."

I can only hope this means that you've finally implemented accountancy systems that can actually keep track all payments and not require you to needlessly harrass customers over and over again for small sums of money which you'd recieved from them on time in the first place.

I note with curiousity the question you then follow on your apology with - "have you ever considered going paperless? You'll find managing your bills online far more convenient."

Actually, what I've found far more convenient since October 31st 2007 is going "British Gas-less" for my household utility needs, it's so far proven considerably more reliable, less time wasting, more convenient and better value for money.

Whilst I appreciate your final comment saying "thanks for being with British Gas, we're delighted to have you as our customer". I would like to point out that I've not had any of your gas circulating around my home for around 604 days now, and it's pretty unlikely to do so again in any great hurry.

Yours Sincerely

You do know when you change supplier it's still the same gas?

laney85

Jasonicus wrote: »

British Gas are pretty useless all round, I feel like sharing something I just mailed them that kinda shows up some of the problems I've had with them....

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter of June 26th 2009 acknowledging that you have now found the missing payment of £29.59 which as you state I "made recently for gas on 26th of November 2007." It is reassuring to know that your department has at least the spark of competence to locate money payed to you after a mere 579 days. I can only hope that precious spark is kept well away from any actual gas for fear of an explosion that could take out most of southern England.

Whilst it has taken just 1 final bill, 1 overdue reminder and a threat of court action from British Gas, 5 letters threatening legal action by 4 different debt recovery agencies sub-contracted to do the dirty work for your company, 4 letters from one of those agencies chasing the same further information to investigate the matter, numerous fruitless letters, e-mails and phonecalls from myself trying to sort this out and another letter from yourselves back in February acknowledging that you "are doing everything we can to resolve the situation", it's nice to know that you are finally "sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you and we'll try to make sure this doesn't happen again."

I can only hope this means that you've finally implemented accountancy systems that can actually keep track all payments and not require you to needlessly harrass customers over and over again for small sums of money which you'd recieved from them on time in the first place.

I note with curiousity the question you then follow on your apology with - "have you ever considered going paperless? You'll find managing your bills online far more convenient."

Actually, what I've found far more convenient since October 31st 2007 is going "British Gas-less" for my household utility needs, it's so far proven considerably more reliable, less time wasting, more convenient and better value for money.

Whilst I appreciate your final comment saying "thanks for being with British Gas, we're delighted to have you as our customer". I would like to point out that I've not had any of your gas circulating around my home for around 604 days now, and it's pretty unlikely to do so again in any great hurry.

Yours Sincerely

:rotfl::T:rotfl::T:rotfl::T