£300 debt added to our meter but no invoice?

Rail_Staff

My wife and I are having all sorts of problems with British Gas as they have added over £300 of debt to our pre-payment meter and nobody seems able to tell us how the debt has accrued. We had quarterly bills until January of this year and our final bill had 'Actual' meter readings rather than 'estimated' readings and the final bill of £143 was put on our meter and paid off at the rate of £7 a week.

In late April 2009 £377 was added to the debt without any invoice or explanation why this had been done or even a phone call/letter to tell us what had happened and since then we have been paying this debt (under protest) at £7 a week. We have no choice but to pay it otherwise we have no gas whatsoever.

We have been calling British Gas at regular intervals and they have come up with a variety of reasons why the debt accrued, they say 'we'll call you back' and never do and they also offered to reduce the debt payments to £1 a week until the issue was resolved.....which has not happened either.

My main questions are whether we are liable for a debt we have not been invoiced for? I only noticed this extra debt because I make a point of checking the debt on a regular basis, some people simply wouldn't notice and would end up paying it in ignorance. Secondly, can British Gas retrospectively amend a bill which says 'actual' readings as opposed to 'estimated' readings? Finally, what is my best course of action now, my wife has just spent 40 minutes on the phone with BG and we are still going round in circles......and still being charged £7 a week.

Any advice would be appreciated!

C_Mababejive

You must write to BG heafing your letter with the word COMPLAINT. If you dont,then it isnt officially a complaint.

Set out your issue clearly and concisely without rambling.

Await response..
If not happy, contact consumerdirect..the new toothless consumer organisation.

Dont contact the overpaid quango known as OFGEM as they dont deal direct with cusmters so they wont want to know.

Joyful

If you have had conflicting answers I would put this in writing. A specialist team will then have the time to check over the account and give you an answer. It should be easy to find the information. Did you get the meter fitted under warrant? Does your final bill meter reading tally with the card the engineer left when he fitted the PP meter?

Cardew

Write, write, write - don't phone!