Utilities forcing people to open new accounts for silly reasons

Malory

First of all, I wasn't sure which forum to post this in, so please feel free to move the thread if it's in the wrong place.

Five years ago, I moved to the UK (from the US) to marry a British man. I wanted to get some utility bills in my name so that I could have proof that I was living with him in the UK, so that I could continue to live here legally and eventually gain citizenship.

I called BT and asked if they could change the name on the account from his name to mine. They said that they would have to close our BT account, disconnect our line (we have a landline and broadband with BT) and then start a new account. We didn't want to deal with having our service disconnected (at the time my husband was running a business from home) so we just forgot about it and left the BT account in his name. I was able to put the electricity account (NPower) and the water account in my name.

Flash forward 5 years later. (I'm now a dual US/UK citizen.) I decided that I'd like to change our electrical supplier from NPower to Brititish Gas, so we would be getting both our gas and electricity from British Gas, because I thought it would save us money. However, I wanted to make sure that I had my name on at least 2 utility bills so I have proof of address if I ever need it (pondering opening a new bank account at the moment.) So, before I switched my electricity service over to them, I called British Gas and asked if we could have both my name and my husband's name on the bill. They told me the same thing that BT told me 5 years ago - that we would have to cancel our British Gas service and open a new account.

We have a tariff from British Gas that is protected until 2013, so if we were to close our old account and open a new one we would automatically have to pay higher rates.

I complained about this on another forum, thinking that it was just some kind of bureaucratic stupidity, and someone who used to work for the phone company said that employees are told to tell customers that they have to open a new account every time they make a change - if they want to change the name on the account, if they move, etc. This is done to get the customers off old rates and get them to pay new higher rates.

Has anyone ever heard of this before? This is outrageous. All I am asking is for someone to type in a different name in a form on a computer. Why should I have to open a new account?

pcombo

Dont stay in uk then if you dont like our countries rules.

looby75

pcombo wrote: »

Dont stay in uk then if you dont like our countries rules.

since when have utilities companies run the country and made our rules???

OP I have heard the same thing as you, that a lot of companies do make you close accounts when making changes so that they can get you on to a higher/less favourable tariff. The easiest way to deal with it IMO is change to another company completely when you want to make a change that way you will always get the new customer deals

pcombo

If the OP dont like the way companies make there rules here, Simply move back to country of origin.

looby75

pcombo wrote: »

If the OP dont like the way companies make there rules here, Simply move back to country of origin.

what a stupid thing to say, especially seeing as a lot of companies that trade in the uk aren't even British companies anyway lol

shellsuit

pcombo wrote: »

If the OP dont like the way companies make there rules here, Simply move back to country of origin.

What a stupid thing to say.

I don't like those rulings either, so where exactly should I go because this country is my place of origin?

unholyangel

pcombo wrote: »

If the OP dont like the way companies make there rules here, Simply move back to country of origin.

Pretty sure the majority of people who have ever posted in regards to a dispute with a company dont like at least one companies rules.............seeing as i dont like the way companies make their rules that seem purely intent on screwing the customer over and increasing the company profit margin...............you going to tell me to move back to my country of origin even though i'm already there?

It is a consumer website...........ie dedicated to helping the consumer, not for sticking up for the companies that continue to rip us off.