Business Account then Domestic Account

johnjames1

Even though the premises is a 3 bed terraced house, the supplie has had it down as a business account. Since a complaint went in they are now statting it is a domsectic account.
As they sent out a VAT declaration form the HMRC have stated it is a business account as they would not need too.
Now the EO and Consumer Focues and the OFT are involved they are stating it is a domestic account.

Rule of contract they cannot suddenly decide that it is a business account then a domestic one as a business does not have statutory rights as a domestic customer does. Breach of statutory rights is a criminal offence.

We have phone calls and also evidence BUT they changed account numbers without any notification backbilled the new account (which makes it look as if it is in debt) and credited the amount to the OLD account which was up to date.

So there is £600.00 od gone missing for Gas and Electric under the old account and now under the new account they have invoked debt collectors for the amount they state is owed on the "new" account.

As the old account was paid up fraud comes to mind?

Any suggestions?

KimYeovil

Do you want to pay for what you have used? Or are you just looking for a technicality to avoid paying your debt?

johnjames1

There is no debt all paid up until we complained of lack of statutory rights but they then credited the OLD account which was paid up fully and we were going to change then they change the account to another one with a £600.00 debit so it looks like the account is in DEBT BUT where is the £600.00 gone as the account (OLD) was paid up?

There is no trying to get out of anything apart from change suppliers regards J

kippen_noedel

Don;t take it too personally KY is like that with almost everyone, sometimes even reads things that aren't there.

Your situation is one where I would make the most serious complaint possible, ask for compensation for the waste of your time, then move to another company.

anniecave

if they have genuinely credited the old account and billed a new account, then there will be a credit balance on the old account. So tell them they need to transfer the credit off the old account to the new account.

If they haven't got around to crediting the old account, then they need to do this if the new account has been backbilled. Then they need to move the credit balance.

If the new and old account numbers look completely different (eg a different number of digits, or a different type of numbering sequence) then it may be different departments so people who work on one set of accounts may not have visility of the other accounts. That just means you may have to tell them if anything doesn't look right and they have to ask the other department if necessary!

Have they billed the new account correctly? at domestic rates? at 5% VAT? with the correct readings? check this out too.

Complain to their internal complaints team if necessary. If you don't get it resolved that way, complain to the ombudsman.

OldGreyFox

Is this part of this dispute you posted about.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2097043&highlight=

johnjames1

What they did was the account was up to date. We kicked up like hell because they had it as a business account. (No statutory rights.)
They refused to change it and stated it was a domestic account. From HMRC called them and they said no they would not have to send out VAT form if domestic.
In the end we told them we were folding the business. (not bust or anything just changing the name.)
They sent under a different account welcome to your new home and on this account back billed until April 2009. Credited the old account with £600 odd which has disappeared and now they say the new account is in arrears by this amount.
As the old account was paid up WHERE the !!!! has this money gone no replies and accused of harrasment!