British gas broke into my home!!

callmeted

Having just got off the telephone with one of their customer service advisors, in trying to address a problem that BG created, I feel that I have no other avenue other than to sign up to MSE and post this.

I live in the middle floor flat of an old house which has been converted into three flats - ground, middle and top. The ground floor flat is referred to as 217, the middle as 217a (my flat) and the top as 217b. I returned home from work yesterday evening to find that British Gas had forcibly entered my home (Flat 217a) to replace my elecricity meter due to arrears in payments.

Unfortunately for me, the flat British Gas intended to do this to was Flat 217b - they are chasing an account in arrears to someone who has since moved out of the flat upstairs. In other words, their representatives illegally and forcibly entered my house through no error of my own. My British Gas account is not in arrears and I pay my bills dutifully. Yet, they have mistakenly taken away my meter and replaced it with a Pay As You Go meter, at huge inconvenience and distress to me and my partner.

To add to this situation, I telephoned their Pay As You Go team as soon as I came home and discovered this calamitous error, only to be treated with ill manners and disdain.

I am disgusted at what I have experienced tonight, and don't know what to do. I work in a very busy job and do not have the time to spend on hold for hours to their inept customer services team. They said they would call first thing today and assured me it would be fixed, but they haven't, and I am still on hold to them.

I feel violated... they broke into my home. Should I go to the police? What can I do?

JimmyTheWig

It is their responsibility to put everything back as it was before they got there.
I would also be expecting a shed-load of goodwill from them for this!

OhReally_2

callmeted wrote: »

Having just got off the telephone with one of their customer service advisors, in trying to address a problem that BG created, I feel that I have no other avenue other than to sign up to MSE and post this.

I live in the middle floor flat of an old house which has been converted into three flats - ground, middle and top. The ground floor flat is referred to as 217, the middle as 217a (my flat) and the top as 217b. I returned home from work yesterday evening to find that British Gas had forcibly entered my home (Flat 217a) to replace my elecricity meter due to arrears in payments.

Unfortunately for me, the flat British Gas intended to do this to was Flat 217b - they are chasing an account in arrears to someone who has since moved out of the flat upstairs. In other words, their representatives illegally and forcibly entered my house through no error of my own. My British Gas account is not in arrears and I pay my bills dutifully. Yet, they have mistakenly taken away my meter and replaced it with a Pay As You Go meter, at huge inconvenience and distress to me and my partner.

To add to this situation, I telephoned their Pay As You Go team as soon as I came home and discovered this calamitous error, only to be treated with ill manners and disdain.

I am disgusted at what I have experienced tonight, and don't know what to do. I work in a very busy job and do not have the time to spend on hold for hours to their inept customer services team. They said they would call first thing today and assured me it would be fixed, but they haven't, and I am still on hold to them.

I feel violated... they broke into my home. Should I go to the police? What can I do?

"I am disgusted at what I have experienced tonight"
I don't know where you are located, but here in the UK it's just gone mid-day! :cool:

"Having just got off the telephone with one of their customer service advisors..."
"They said they would call first thing today and assured me it would be fixed, but they haven't, and I am still on hold to them."
:huh:
Further clarification needed please.

jalexa

callmeted wrote: »

... they broke into my home. Should I go to the police? What can I do?

Its probably not a police matter, I expect they had a Warrant. Whether the warrant was correctly executed or not may be an issue.

I would "set a trap" by raising a factual complaint strictly in accordance with the BG complaints procedure, in writing or by email explaining the issue clearly and how you expect it to be resolved. Then wait. If you remain dissatisfied after 8 weeks you are entitled to refer the matter to the Energy Ombudsman, if you remain dissatisfied after that you still have recourse to legal action.

Meanwhile you still have gas, albeit more expensive gas. Clearly at the conclusion that will require to be compensated for.

Was a copy of the Warrant left? Is the mistake obvious? Is your meter inside your individual lockfast apartment? How is your door numbered?

callmeted

OhReally wrote: »

"I am disgusted at what I have experienced tonight"
I don't know where you are located, but here in the UK it's just gone mid-day! :cool:

"Having just got off the telephone with one of their customer service advisors..."
"They said they would call first thing today and assured me it would be fixed, but they haven't, and I am still on hold to them."
:huh:
Further clarification needed please.

Sorry, I copied a part of the complaint I sent to BG last night, hence the "tonight" part.

So I spoke to a customer service advisor last night, who assured me they would give me a callback between 8am-9am this morning about this issue, and was told that they would arrange for the PAYG meter to be replaced with a normal meter today. They didn't call, so I'm I called them back at 10.15 but was put on hold for an hour and a half, and had to hang up.

Hope that makes sense - I'm so upset, I fear I'm rambling...

skivenov

I'd be talking to the police. At the end of the day it's criminal damage whether a single person has done it or a big company.

Don't forget to keep your landlord in the loop if the flat's rented.

Antispam

Make sure you log any calls you made, time and who you spoke to etc just in case. As they are clearly in the wrong they should by right compensate you for any out of pocket expenses including replacing that meter and a apology.

Cardew

They should have checked that your meter serial number was the same as the offending account - cowboys.

I would contact the police, they won't attend(often for a real burglary!!) but should give you an incident number which you can use in the complaint.

Also contact the local paper/radio station and get them to publicise.

callmeted

jalexa wrote: »

Was a copy of the Warrant left? Is the mistake obvious? Is your meter inside your individual lockfast apartment? How is your door numbered?

In answer to this:
No warrant left
The doors, once inside the flat are not marked 217, 217a and 217b, or indeed at all.

I would have thought common-sense would dictate that if there is any unsurity, then they can't just guess... but there you go

jalexa

callmeted wrote: »

No warrant left

Unless they had a warrant the forced entry was unlawful (AFAIAA).

You need to establish the answer to that.

Regarding the execution in the face of unmarked doors, that is crass stupidity and incompetence.

undaunted

OhReally wrote: »

"I am disgusted at what I have experienced tonight"
I don't know where you are located, but here in the UK it's just gone mid-day! :cool:

"Having just got off the telephone with one of their customer service advisors..."
"They said they would call first thing today and assured me it would be fixed, but they haven't, and I am still on hold to them."
:huh:
Further clarification needed please.

You've been so helpful my original thought was that I'm sure the poster wouldl be falling over themselves to post clarification and receive further help from you. To my surprise they have done so perhaps now you could actually help them?

Initially I'd also have taken the same basic view that Jalexa and to an extent Jimmy The Wig did - ie not really a police matter if a mistake had been made on the address but certainly worthy of a written complaint to British Gas (I wouldn't waste your time talking to call centre staff personally - even if you weren't left on hold!) & an expectation matters would be put back as they were, probably also plus a little recompense / "good will" for the inconvenience & distress

However , Cardews suggestions also seem to have some merit to me (particularly embarrassing them in the press) for their crass behaviour / incompetent handling.