Very unhappy with British Gas...

BDB1

Hi,

Just a brief outline of what has happened in the last 3 months.

We moved into our new house on the 3rd May, and because it is rented our landlords requested that we stick with their supplier for the utilities (British Gas)

We rang with our meter readings, set up the direct debits etc and away we went or so we thought.

We received our direct debit letter saying that the Gas would be taken on the 3th of every month and the electricity on the 29th of every month, why different dates i dont know!

June was fine, no problems at all.

On July the 5th both payments were taken, i wasnt very happy as we do not have much money at the minute and this had put us very very close to having no money at all.

I rang British Gas who said "tough, we can take the money when we like as its a DD not a standing order, if you want it back claim it from your bank, so thats what i did, the cooperative bank were great and put the money in the bank the next day.

I rang british gas back up to ensure that this wouldnt happen again, the chap i spoke to said that he had deleted the first electricity DD and replaced it with one to come out the same date as the gas, great i thought its sorted.

On the 3rd of august £100 was taken from our account to pay the gas and electric DD's (£50 each), then on the 5th of august another £50 was taken out for electricity, it has turned out that this is the account that the idiot i spoke to had supposedly cancelled.

I rang British Gas up and spoke to a nice gentleman who apologised and said the money had been taken wrongly and would be back in the bank within 3 days, needless to say it wasnt, so i left it a couple of extra days then called again, another nice chap who informed me that no refund had been requested, but he would set up a new direct debit up and refund me and it would be there in 3 working days.

This leads me to today, still no refund in the bank so i ring British Gas again only to be told that no refund has been requested, as they didnt have a valid meter reading.

I asked the gentleman if the meter reading was required every time a refund was requested, he said yes which leads me to believe that i have been lied to all along, however equally as likely is the meter reading is required to see if i am in debit with my electricity and worm their way from the refund.

I apologise for the very long wall of text that has just assaulted you but i really am so annoyed that they can effectively steal money from my account, but will not put it back at my reuest although i have proved that they have messed up.

I have now written an email to the british gas complaints dept and will also send a copy of it to the wtachdog to see what they say about the way new customers are treated by british gas.

Do you agree/disagree that this is the best course of action given the above circumstances?