British Gas Hell! PLEASE HELP

tankgirl2000_2

Hi guys,
I'm in British Gas hell! I moved into my house a year ago and immediately requested a prepayment meter to be installed by BG, a decision I have lived to regret a thousand times!

It took months and several missed appointments for which I was finally landed with a meter with an 80 pounds debt on (although I did get the same amount in compensation for the missed appointments) Periodically since it's installation they have sent me new gas cards saying that someone would be out to reset my meter. When I phoned to ask why they said they didn't know and cancelled the appointment. Over this time I cleared my debt.

Then last week my gas card stopped working, and none of the others they had sent worked either so I called them out and a nice man came and put 10 pounds emergency credit on. On Wednesday I put 10 pounds on the card to clear the bit of credit I used and tide me over til pay day. When I put it in the meter it immediately took 5 pounds for Debt! and left me still in emergency credit. When I investigated i found there was 110 pounds debt on the meter that cannot be mine!

I have made hours of phone calls, been told at least four differents ways they intend to rectify the problem. They also said it would take 90 days for them to repay anything that is taken for this false debt. They sent me a card that was supposed to reset the meter but it didn't. They have made and missed 2 engineer appointments, even the Energy Watch advisor found the situation to be a nightmare and cannot beleive how badly treated I have been.

Today, because I only have 1 pound of emergency credit left, I put another 10 pounds on my card even though I am bound to lose some of it to the false debt and the meter refused to accept the card. I again phoned them to say I would be without gas overnight and they told me that they could not send an engineer out until the meter was at 0.00. I told them I have got my family coming over for lunch tomorrow and if I run out of gas half way through cooking the day will be spoiled. I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager but was told that they wouldn't speak to me but that they could get him to ring me in 4 days! Fat lot of use that will be. What am I supposed to do? how can I assert my rights to reasonable service as a customer. I feel powerless and screwed by them. I am frustrated by their lack of customer care, and whilst I am DESPERATE to change supplier I can't whilst my meter shows a debt!!! Why do they not send an engineer immediately to rectify things???

Sorry to rant on and on, there is reams more to this story but have kept it to the basic minimum. PLEASE let me know what I should do, I feel like I should be able to sue them or something but in the short term I just want them to sort it out!!!

Thanks to all in advance, hope your holiday weekend is running more smoothly than mine!

MrCrusher

Hi.

The gas cards sent to you wouldn't work until the meter had been reset. This should have been explained to you, although in the majority of cases, the call centre staff don't explain it. I come across this prob at least 3-4 times a day during the course of my job.

British Gas use third party companies such as Meter+ or United Utilities to carry out meter resets, etc. BG must book the job with one of these companies to give permission for one of their engineers to go to a BG customers address and carry out the work. The outcome/results of this work is usually logged on the engineers computer which is then sent back to BG so they can pay the company in question for the work done. Also, BG usually use different companies to reset/wind-on meters and to install meters.

Most of the time, I would say that the BG call centre staff are the root cause of these problems, lack of training and a definite lack of responsibility. After all, it's not them who are going to go without gas or pay off a debt on the meter added in error. BG can't or won't, (so it would seem) even trace your previous call to find the agent who has not done his/her job properly so that agent is not dealt with either by being retrained or disciplined. You wouldn't believe how many times I call at peoples houses to reset or wind-on meters where the occupant has had to call BG 2 or 3 times to get somebody out because BG haven't booked the job and have not sent anybody out, have no record of that first call, so haven't booked the job, etc. I've come across people who have had no gas for 3-4 weeks in similar circumstances to yourself. People have been so irate, I've had to defend myself on more than one occasion and verbal abuse is a daily occurrence. I'm not surprised given the problems most customers have.

Did you check Screen 27 on your meter? This is the screen which tells you the amount of debt on the meter. If the meter has been reset , this screen should show £0. Also, check the screens which tell you the % reclaim rate (usually set at 70% of all top ups per week) and max reclaim per week. You may need this info because BG (or any other company) must tell you what percentage of each top up they intend to take up to a maximum amount per week. I realise you've already cleared your debt yet it'll help you work out how much they owe you when this is sorted out.

Also check to see if the new debt is in your name, when it was accrued, etc. It may be BG trying to claim the previous owner/occupier debt (if any) from you. This is NOT unheard of. You'll need to get this info from BG.

If you've kept your receipts, keep them safe, they will be good evidence to support your case. Keep all future receipts.

You've already spoken to Energywatch, you need to contact them again to get them to sort this for you. If they can't or won't - OFGEM may be able to help.

No wonder BG do SO poorly in customer satisfaction surveys.

tankgirl2000_2

Thankyou MrCrusher. Screen 27 says 110.06! Eek, BG say they have no idea where this figure came from, the most I ever owed was 80 which has been repayed in full. In fact my account shows a credit of over 50 pounds! the reclaim is 70% to a max of 5.00 pounds per week. My advisor from Energy watch is now on a weeks leave so will pursue with him when he gets back... But my immediate prob is that I will have no gas tomorrow and have 2 small children. Whilst they assure me that someone will be out to reset the meter within 4 hours, the last time this happened he came and my meter then showed the debt!

I am so frustrated that at the moment I cannot even vote with my feet. Surely, by having that debt on my meter they are preventing me from taking my right to switch supplier!

No matter how cheap they get, the incredibly poor customer service, the inefficiency of their system, their reluctance to take responsibility, the utter lack of a cohesive approach all lead to them being THE WORST POSSIBLE CHOICE. In any other business they would be out of business by now with the shoddy work they do. One thing is for sure, I am going to take EVERY available oppertunity I get to let people know EXACTLY how poor they are. If more of us do it then maybe it will have some impact. But then again maybe not! In the world of BG the consumer is not king, it is a tramp in the street to be kicked and spat at!:mad:

MrCrusher

Hi again.

I don't know if this will help but I would be looking at the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 and mentioning it to BG. Sounds very official and may just prompt some action.

When you spoke to BG last, did you mention the ages of your kids? I've been told by customers in your situation that they prioritise customers with kids under 4yrs or have a chronic illness.

When you received your gas cards, did they arrive addressed to you? The reason I ask is that sometimes BG apparently don't know who is living in the house and will send the new card out to "The Occupier" or in the previous tenant/owners name, EVEN if you have told them your name and any change of circumstance. The engineer who arrives to reset the meter should update the info on the computer with the new name,etc. The card with the wrong name should not be registered on the meter otherwise the meter will need resetting again when the card is issued in the correct name, I always use a blank card and tell the customer to keep their receipts in case of any problems arising. When the meter is reset, the meter is "wiped clean" except for the tariff costs which are programmed into the meter by the engineers service card. This also wipes of any remaining credit that may be on the meter. Only when a new gas card is inserted into a meter is the amended tariff and "debt" info added- if for e.g, an NPower or SSE card is inserted, then their tariff overrides the default BG tariff.

E.g- When the new owner/occupier has the meter reset and uses the wrongly named card, the credit is not attributed to the new owner/occupiers account. If for e.g, the card arrives for Smith but your name is Jones, it is the Smith account that is credited even though Jones is paying for and using the gas. Sometime later, BG look at the Jones account for address X and realise no payments have been credited to the Jones account and then produce a bill for Jones. A new card is issued and a meter reset request is issued to one of the 3rd party companies to reset the meter and register the new card. The cost of the gas used (but paid for) by Jones is added to the card electronically and this adds the debt to the gas meter. In my experience, the customer doesn't realise until they get stung by huge gas costs. BG should be able to track any mis-directed payments although receipts for gas bought are concrete evidence and really can't be argued with. The account can then be rectified although it will be the customer who has to do the chasing up.

Hope this helps.