Unauthorised attempt to collect money via DD

carolinen07

Hey everyone.

Hopefully this is in the correct place? If not, I apologise..

Was hoping someone could help me with a quick query.

British Gas have tried to take out money for my gas bill - yet I do not have a record of me Setting up a DD payment with them .

I have emailed them (to ensure it's noted in writing) to ask if I have ever set this up, and if so, could they send me a copy.

They emailed and confirmed that NO DD was set up in place (and promptly sent me a DD Form).

I then asked why they have taken out xx money on xx date with no DD... They confirmed AGAIN that no DD has been set up and did not respond to my question ... Needless to say, I am in the process of composing an email back to them ...

However, before I did so (and to possibly make matters complicated) I have found a confirmation letter that states 'Thank you for confirming you wish to pay by Direct Debit .. We have now set this up' dated only a few months ago.

Where would I stand on this? I'm thinking as they have confirmed twice no DD has been set up, then I can just 'forget' I have this letter? [Also perhaps worth pointing out the name has been spelt incorrectly; and the account in which it is supposedly linked to, they have noted as the account being in two names, when in fact it is not...]

This has cost me in DD Rejection charges with the bank as well as British Gas themselves. Am I right to attempt to claim back these charges, or 'have it out' with British Gas regarding this? The only thing that is currently stopping me doing so and going hell for leather is the finding (deep in the files) of this letter.

Any thoughts, help or advice on this would be greatly appreciated

Thank you,
Caroline

InsideInsurance

Seems you did set it up and forgot about it. Surely if this was not the case you would have immediately called them when you received the now found DD letter

It could well be that you have spoken to only the first tier of customer services who look at their system, see there is no DD set up at the moment so reply saying their is no DD - it could be the DD was cancelled by their system due to the non-payment and they are simply not looking deep enough into the system.

I guess there is a question of your own morality in it, do you want to argue for something you aren't entitled to in the hope that their record keeping isnt great or do you simply accept that you messed up and pay the fees you agreed to pay for failing to pay on time when you signed up with them?

pqrdef

Check the British Gas account numbers. Is the DD that you have confirmation of attached to your normal gas account, or another one that you didn't know you'd got, or somebody else's?

Could be somebody else has given your details by mistake or some dodgy telephone sales person has sold you something you didn't know you were buying.

PS it's not for boiler insurance or something like that?

smorg1

Hi, sorry to hi-jack this thread but i'm new to the site and cant figure out how to post my own question. Its along the same lines anyway, virgin media have taken a direct debit out of my account that i did not authorise, they didn't even send me a bill! when i spoke to them, and explained, the answer was that i had set up the direct debit and asked for e-billing (which i know i did not). They only had my details because i had to give them when i started the account which was a year ago, i have never set up a direct debit with them. I have also spoken to my bank to get the DD money back, this will take a day apparently, the problem is, is that when they took the money out, my account went over drawn and other DD which were set up in that account will now get reversed to which i will be charged(£25 for each one!). I was wondering whether i could claim these charges back from either my bank (HSBC) or virgin media as it was their fault that my account is overdrawn and other DD being reversed. I really don't have the funds to pay these unnecessary charges.
Any help would be much appreciated
thank you!

ihateyes

ok so whats on the bank statement:

British gas trading ( energy )
british gas services ( homecare ).

it will also have a reference number which will be your account number.

how do you normally pay your bill??
and if you hadnt thought you set up a ddeb, i assume your payments are up to date, ie youve made it, or have something in place to pay it??

sometimes people do make mistakes.... customers and agents alike.

Lokolo

smorg1 wrote: »

Hi, sorry to hi-jack this thread but i'm new to the site and cant figure out how to post my own question. Its along the same lines anyway, virgin media have taken a direct debit out of my account that i did not authorise, they didn't even send me a bill! when i spoke to them, and explained, the answer was that i had set up the direct debit and asked for e-billing (which i know i did not). They only had my details because i had to give them when i started the account which was a year ago, i have never set up a direct debit with them. I have also spoken to my bank to get the DD money back, this will take a day apparently, the problem is, is that when they took the money out, my account went over drawn and other DD which were set up in that account will now get reversed to which i will be charged(£25 for each one!). I was wondering whether i could claim these charges back from either my bank (HSBC) or virgin media as it was their fault that my account is overdrawn and other DD being reversed. I really don't have the funds to pay these unnecessary charges.
Any help would be much appreciated
thank you!

The e-billing is setup when you join Virgin Media and when I did it, it does say in the Welcome Pack.

The only way they can set up a DD is when you fill in the DD slip at the bottom of the letter included in your Welcome Pack, so you must have done this for them to do the DD....

carolinen07

ihateyes wrote: »

ok so whats on the bank statement:

British gas trading ( energy )
british gas services ( homecare ).

it will also have a reference number which will be your account number.

how do you normally pay your bill??
and if you hadnt thought you set up a ddeb, i assume your payments are up to date, ie youve made it, or have something in place to pay it??

sometimes people do make mistakes.... customers and agents alike.

It's a British Gas Business account. I normally pay the bill via telephone banking with a debit card, or online. I've double checked all my records and I have defintely not set up a DD - I have never filled in a DD Mandate! Unless when I paid over the phone/internet with my card they presumed I wanted to set up a DD ... They cannot show me proof of the DD Mandate i had supposedly signed .. Which also makes me more certain I did not sign it.

I have a couple of business bank accounts to pay bills, hence why I never wanted to set up a DD in the first place... Taking this large lump sum out of this specific account has bounced back as there was not enough money in that account. Bill isn't bang up to date; then again it's not as if theres thousands of pounds I still need to pay..!

smorg1

I have always had paper bills and paid via a pay point, i recently changed address and took my virgin account with me. I remember the call to virgin, she asked if i wanted the paperless billing i said no and the same no to the direct debit as i live with a friend and it would just be easier to pay via paypoint which requires a paper bill. i have never paid via direct debit to them so can only assume that they had my account details on record from when i opened the account.

InsideInsurance

They cannot set up a DD from a debit card payment.

BG will in most cases use paperless DD's and so can set it up by telephone rather than needing to use a paper form

cottager

smorg1 wrote: »

Hi, sorry to hi-jack this thread but i'm new to the site and cant figure out how to post my own question.

From the list of threads for whichever board it is (in this case http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20) it's that nice blue button on the LHS above and below the list saying 'New Thread'; or from the green band just below the top button you can choose it from the dropdown menu for 'Forum Tools'.

jalexa

InsideInsurance wrote: »

They cannot set up a DD from a debit card payment.

I think that is true, but..... they could blag it as a Continuous Payment Authority...