Help? Trying to get refund from BG

davey4444

Hi, I've had enough of banging my head against the wall when talking to British Gas and I'm hoping that people can suggest what I say to them next. Here's the short version -

- July 2006 - Moved out of our flat and called BG (who supplied our electricity and gas) for final bills.

- August - hadn't received the bills, turns out that BG had no record of us submitting the meter readings.

- August - received bills, we owed BG £68 for electricity and they owed us £254 for gas as it was the summer and we paid on DD.

- September - received red letter saying that we had to pay the electricity bill. I called BG and they said that they could take the 68 from the 254 that they owed us and we'd be sent the difference.

- September - got letter from debt recovery agency demanding payment. I spoke to BG and they said that they couldn't pay us the difference because the bills were on different systems so I paid the electricity.

- September - still no refund cheque. BG say that it's stuck in their 'suspension file' and that they've now released it and it will be with us soon.

- October - see above. This happened 3 times.

- November - was told that because the gas account had 3 names on it BG didn't know who to make the cheque out to and this is why it keeps getting suspended. This is the first time I've been told this and we had to write a letter to BG asking for the cheque to be made out into just 2 of the 3 names, all 3 account holders had to sign this.
At the end of this call the customer services person tried to persuade me to go back to BG in our new property with the incentive of 1 free month of electricity. I told him that there was no way this will happen and don't think it's appropriate to turn this into a sales call.

- December - sent letter off to BG.

- December - received a cheque for the correct amount but made out in all 3 names.

- January - call BG complaining about the cheque and was told that they will cancel it and reissue one with the correct names on it. Was told to wait 14 working days for this.

- February - 16 days later there's still no cheque.

I have recorded all of the conversations with BG and so can back up all of the issues that we've had with them. Basically now I just want to do 2 things - firstly get the money and secondly send a complain and ask for lost interest, phone calls etc...

What should I do when I ask for this cheque again? I really want to demand a CHAPs payment or something because the wait is unacceptable.

As for the complaint I really want to rant about the fact that I have either been lied to or been the victim of numerous badly-trained staff and, as above, demand that I am recompensed. Any thoughts on what I should ask for?

Thanks for sticking with this, it's been been a nightmare for me and your suggestions will mean a lot.

masonic

Sounds like you need to get in touch with Energywatch.

dc

Being in a similar situation, ( cheque for £160 "sent" 3 times since 14/11/06).
I would recommend Energywatch too. Seems BG have 10 days to sort problems after you do so.

I contacted Energywatch who put me through to someone in BG Southampton, (HQ?), who seemed to know what they were doing Maybe.?
Said the persons involved " had not followed the correct procedure", (seems like no one knows the "correct procedure") and that yet another cheque had been sent out. Seemed to get a little agitated when I explained how I contactad her. Yet despite complaining about the multiple website billing problems of which they are aware!, the inability of the system to output what CS activate, they agree and all you get is "sorry"

Awaiting the postman still.

davey4444

As an update to this, now BG are saying that they have nothing recorded saying that the cheque was wrong. They also have no note that they send me a letter in December acknowledging my letter to them stating in which names the cheque should be made out to.

I was promised that they would ask the correspondence dept for a copy of the letter and call me back the same day, obviously that hasn't happened.

Off to Energywatch....

dc

:mad: red reminder/threat for next quarters bill arrived today, which I had adjusted by making a partial payment so that it was the exact amount they still owe me.
You would think that they would have put a marker against my account re problem?? especially as they say there is no way the can return the money to it , double payment refund can only be by cheque! What a shower.

Still no cheque which will take 4 days to clear.
CS still 25 min queues, thinking of going to small claims court +expenses. And guess what Energywatch 10 days limit is a Saturday.

davey4444

I've been able to get in touch with BG very quickly recently. I've been calling 0113 381 022 (from SayNo) and then enter my current phone number which isn't linked to a BG account. Maybe they can smell a potential new customer with that number?

Miraculously I think that I managed to speak to the one competent person at BG yesterday who apologised for all of the cck ups along the way and said that she will speak to the person who failed to return my call. She also said that the correspondence dept registered my letter on the system but failed to actually update our records asking for just 2 people listed on the cheque.

It also turns out that the person who I spoke to last month was completely lying/misguided when he said that my new cheque would be sent ASAP. He didn't even cancel the original (wrong) cheque!

Fingers crossed for a proper cheque arriving in the next 2 weeks, hopefully the last time I will ever have to deal with this shambolic company.