British Gas send the debt collectors!

Cardew

marcdbl wrote: »

More interesting posts, thanks again!

Could anyone clarify a couple of things for me?
- How much (roughly) would a DCA have paid for this debt?
- At this stage, is it likely that there has been any negative effect to my credit record? (I am expecting to buy a house very soon, so cannot afford to have my record marked over 200 quid)

The amount DCA's pay for 'bad debts' is a closly guarded secret I believe. It may well be that the DCA get a percentage of the monies collected, and also that the DCA is owned by the Utility company - or they have a financial interest.

I am pretty certain that you will have a 'black mark' on your credit record. You have the right to find out if this is so, and I suggest you do.

Cardew

marcdbl wrote: »

Ok, here is a more thorough description of events, in time-order:
- British Gas increased the cost of the tariff I was on, but had not informed me yet (as I understand it, this is standard practice - they have 60 days to do so).
- Long before the 60 days was up, I called them and told them I would be switching supplier, and therefore expected to be billed at my old rate as this is my right. We argued, but they agreed, and I was told a note had been added to my account.
- I switched successfully to Scottish Power.
- British Gas sent me a final bill at the higher rate. I called and disputed, they acknowledged there was a note on my account, they agreed to rebill me.
- I moved house.
- British Gas billed me again at the higher rate (I received the bill by forwarded mail). I called and disputed, they acknowledged there was a note on my account, they agreed to rebill me again. I think I might have informed BG of my change-of-address but couldn't say for sure.
-Nothing more for nearly eight months.
-DCA contacts me.
-I call DCA, explain that I don't want to pay as the amount is wrong. They offer to let me pay £200, offer is valid for 7 days.

I am a little confused about this remark "Long before the 60 days was up, I called them and told them I would be switching supplier, and therefore expected to be billed at my old rate as this is my right."

They have 65(not 60) working days to notify you of the increase. HOWEVER you don't have 60 days in which to decide if you are going to switch.

From the date of notification of a price increase you only have 10 days to notify them of your intent to leave.

If you didn't act within the correct timescales, the call centre operator will just get you re-billed and, as it is all done by a computer, it will churn out the same bill - which appears to have happened.

I think I might have informed BG of my change-of-address but couldn't say for sure.

Unless you are sure, you better get this sorted.

marcdbl

Cardew wrote: »

I am a little confused about this remark "Long before the 60 days was up, I called them and told them I would be switching supplier, and therefore expected to be billed at my old rate as this is my right."

They have 65(not 60) working days to notify you of the increase. HOWEVER you don't have 60 days in which to decide if you are going to switch.

From the date of notification of a price increase you only have 10 days to notify them of your intent to leave.

A little more clarification: I found out that the tariff had increased from this very forum within a matter of days, so I did not wait to receive notification from BG before calling them.
So basically, within a week(ish) of British Gas increasing the tariff I was on the phone to them, at this stage they had not specifically informed me of the increase.

DirectDebacle

marcdbl wrote: »

A little more clarification: I found out that the tariff had increased from this very forum within a matter of days, so I did not wait to receive notification from BG before calling them.
So basically, within a week(ish) of British Gas increasing the tariff I was on the phone to them, at this stage they had not specifically informed me of the increase.

In that case I would suggest that you were correct with your first thought on what to do.

This seems a no-brainer to me, there's no way the correct bill will ever be as low as £200, so I should just pay......

In the round it seems like 6 of 1 and 1/2 a dozen of the other and a 39% discount is not bad result for you.

Cardew

If nothing else comes from this thread, the lesson is to write, and not phone, when there is any possibility of complications.

olly300

Cardew wrote: »

If nothing else comes from this thread, the lesson is to write, and not phone, when there is any possibility of complications.

And make sure at least one of your letters is sent by recorded delivery.

No judge or regulator in the land will believe an organisation didn't get a letter sent by recorded or special delivery if you produce the receipt. They are well versed on the tactics companies use not to answer or deal with consumers mail.

Fire_Fox

Never deal with debt collectors by telephone, and never pay anything unless you have it in writing that it is full and final settlement. Also check your credit reports as you may find you have a black mark you wish to dispute.

Chrysalis

when I moved a few years back powergen sent my final bill to my old address which I of course never received. My landlord gave the debt collector company my new address. (same landlord as old address so he knew was me).

I tried to initially deal with the debt company but they were hard to get hold of and other issues which made me wary, so I rang powergen directly and asked them to send me the overdue bill. When it arrived I paid it. It took nearly 4 months after that for the debt company to stop sending me letters, I never got a black mark on my credit record tho.

marcdbl

It's been a while coming, but for the record here is how this whole thing panned out:

• Eager to avoid further aggravation I paid the debt-collection agency £200, thinking that this would be the end of the matter. Indeed, for the next two weeks this appeared to be the case.
• But then I received a letter from my Credit Card Company telling me that my credit limit had been reviewed and subsequently reduced from £4500 to £500! I pay off my balance without fail every month, so this came as something of a surprise.
• This lead me to get hold of my Credit Report. Where I found a DEFAULT from guess who...... British Gas. This completely freaked me out as I want to get a mortgage very soon.
• I gathered together all the bills, and correspondence I had from British Gas since this whole saga began over a year ago. I wrote a letter explaining (and showing evidence) that this whole matter was entirely down to their incompetence (if anyone wants to see this as an example or whatever, PM me ).
• After a week without response, I called British Gas Complaints and got them to read the letter while I waited on the phone. They immediately cleared all the outstanding debt, and agreed to send me a check for about £20 as they actually thought I'd overpaid the DCA! They also agreed to clear my credit-record.
• Over the next two weeks my credit-record did not change, and I made another four angry phone-calls to BG-Complaints demanding it be dealt with. At no point did they dispute thet the record shouldn't be cleared, it just seemed to be the incompetence of the staff/system that made it so difficult.
• Finally, this week, all trace of British Gas had disappeared from my record.

Lessons I have learned:

1. NEVER speak to a Debt-Collector, deal directly with the company with whom the debt originates.
2. When starting a dispute (no matter how small) with a company, keep records of everything. Not just letters and bills, get names of people you speak to on the phone and write down the times of these calls and a brief note of what was said. This makes a huge difference when an argument starts.
3. Never ever lose contact with a company you owe money to. Just because they have stopped contacting you doesn't mean they aren't screwing you secretly in the background.
4. Use this forum, it's great.