Need help complaing to British Gas

weebubbles

Hi, I need help to complain to British Gas but do not know where to start.

I moved to them from Scottish Power in July 2008 and have had nothing but trouble with them for my electricity ever since.

The meter I had had 3 readings, these being a day time, a night time and a reading that never moved. They were told this repeatedly but continued to estimate this 3rd reading. Every time my meter reading was taken by them the day and night would be actual readings and the 3rd reading estimated.
When I would contact them they were not consistent in what they were telling me. From all the phone calls I have made I have been told:
1. I had 2 separate meters in my house
2. I had 1 meter and 1 rate
3. I had 1 meter and 2 rates
4. I had 1 meter and 3 rates and all moved
Not once did they manage to get it correct.

Also they kept getting my name worong and saying my first name was Tail when it is Gail. After numerous phonecalls they managed to get this changed. My name on my gas bill had always been correct.

They then finally came and looked at my meter and decided to change it to a 2 rate meter (economy 7 I believe). This was carried out by on stream on the 8th December 2008. After this was carried out I repeatedly received letters from on stream stating that my meter needed changed and that if I did not give them access to my house they would obtain a warrant and force entry. I was 3 months pregnant by this time and continually having to go to the hospital for scans and these letters were not helping.
Also all these letters had my first name as Tail.
I phoned on stream repeatedly stating that they had changed my meter and they said that in order to update their system British Gas would have to inform them my meter had been changed, even though on stream were the one's who installed it! I phoned british gas and they kept saying that they have sorted the problem and I wont receive any more letters I still got the letters. Finally after numerous phone calls complaining these letters stopped and I thought that would be the end of their mistakes but unfortunately not.

Every bill that I received all said that it was my first electricity bill. I have received 8 bills so far and according to them all of these were my first bill.

In June 2009 they took my meter reads and got the the wrong way round.
Rate 1 should be my day time and rate 2 my night time but they took rate 1 as night time and rate 2 as day time. I phoned them and told them my bill was wrong and their customer service advisor assured me my bill was correct. By this time I was 8 months pregnant and in and out of hospital and didnt have the energy to argue so paid the bill. At the start of october I got another bill still with the readings the worng way round. I phoned up and compained. This time they admitted it was wrong and the guy said and I qoute I get a lot of these so I am an expert at sorting these out. I will have a look and phone you back before they end of the day, which he didnt.
1 week later I got the same bill so wrang them again. I was told that my bill was cancelled down and when this happens another bill is automatically posted to me. There is a department dealing with my bill and they have 10 working days to get back to me which means they should phone me by tomorrow at the latest.

I also tried to register my electricity account on line with them as I managed to do so with my gas account. Every time I tried it would not let me and gave me a number to phone. At one point I was told it was a temporary issue with all acounts starting 85 and that it would be resolved and that even the managing director was having these problems with his electricity account! I was then told that it was a problem just with my account and the technical team were looking into it and that the problem would be solved with 1 month. This was 6 months ago and I have given up complaing. I just fell that if I could have managed my account online and enetered meter readings none of these problems would have happened.
With christmas coming up I just want to know how much I owe them. Also with my baby I really sont have the time to keep phoning and complaing nor have the energy to.

I need to write a letter of complaint to them demanding they sort this out and then I can put this behind me but don't know how to start this letter. Can anyone please help me?

Thanks

kippen_noedel

You have a few choices in how to proceed outlined on this page
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/complaint

given the number of times this has failed to be acted on when you have phoned them, I would not call the free number, so 2 choices, either pay to send it recorded delivery or email them.

give as much information as you can & if you kept a record included dates and names of people you've spoken to

unfortunately with the change in the process last year you must give the supplier an opportunity to resolve the issue before you go to the ombudsman BG have eight weeks to get it sorted before you can go to them. If it isn't resolved within 4 weeks I would go to Stage 2