British Gas URGENT TELEMESSAGE

sweetnest

Hi all

This is not my first time of complaining about british gas and no doubt it wont be the last

i will try and keep this short and to the point.

A few months ago i changed banks so had to set up new direct debits, the gas went through fine, but the electric took an extra month.

Anyway, their, computer thought i wasnt on a payment scheme anymore and i had a bill for over £95.

I phoned and was assured that these letters are generated at certain time by their computer but to ignore it as i was clearly on a payment scheme and payments were being made.

I then received a few more reminders, each time i e-mailed and each time they told me to ignore it.

Today i received an urgent telemessage (not dated) saying

1,you have not paid your electric bill, unless you pay immediately

2,we may get a warrant to enter your home and replace your meter with a prepayment mater

3,the POLICE may be present when we call

4,we may take legal action to recover the debt



This is making me ill with worry,

just logged on house.co.uk and i actually owe £45 due to my direct debit payments.

What do i do? i have previously phoned, e-mailed, written (recorded delivery) but i am getting ignored

Any help or high up e-mail addresses?

Thank you

espresso

sweetnest wrote: »

What do i do? i have previously phoned, e-mailed, written (recorded delivery) but i am getting ignored

You have obviously tried to resolve this problem, so leave it to them now. BG are well known for their appalling customer service and if you only actually owe £45, they are not going to force an entry. Could you not simply ask them to increase your DD amount i.e. review your account.

sweetnest

thanks, but thats not really the issue, i was on a payment plan that was working out ok, but they got "confused" when i changed bank details, this is where it all stems from

BBB

Those letters are going to be stopped as, like you say they do terrify customers, unfortunatly the small minority that don't want to pay their bills forced us to send letters like that, as previous reminders were too soft.

david29dpo

i have had the same letters, dont worry.

sweetnest

Just an update

phoned again and spoke to a lovely lady in the southampton office, she swears she has sorted it (i really hope so, but i wont hold my breath)

When i changed my bank details, who ever set it up again at british gas, didnt put my balance owing onto the price plan, hense the computer was showing i owed it, she has now put this amount onto my plan she she says i will not be getting any more letters....i really hope not

anniecave

sweetnest wrote: »

When i changed my bank details, who ever set it up again at british gas, didnt put my balance owing onto the price plan, hense the computer was showing i owed it, she has now put this amount onto my plan she she says i will not be getting any more letters....i really hope not

and I could definately believe that that is the way a computer would be programmed to operate! So hopefully it is all fixed now...

endsmeet

Telefrightners are still about in 2008 (Jan 17) - I've just had one from NPower who sent me a bill for £37 dated 14 Dec which arrived after Christmas. When I phoned and asked if NPower put the frightners on so soon after sending out a bill I was told that it was normal practice.
When I asked what she wanted me to do I was told 'pay it as soon as you can'.
'No Court action, then?' I asked.
No' was the reply.


I think they just wanrt to be friends and have someone ring them up for a chat.

Terrylw1

sweetnest wrote: »

Just an update

phoned again and spoke to a lovely lady in the southampton office, she swears she has sorted it (i really hope so, but i wont hold my breath)

When i changed my bank details, who ever set it up again at british gas, didnt put my balance owing onto the price plan, hense the computer was showing i owed it, she has now put this amount onto my plan she she says i will not be getting any more letters....i really hope not

Sounds about right, a very basic mistake so you were not paying enough. They should have just upped your DD to cover it and sent you a letter as they constantly do at all the utilities.

Those letters are garbage. They go for warrants when there is nothing else that can be done as they have to be careful how many they are raising for a start. It's just a way to shock some into immediately calling as opposed to putting it off for another day.

paisley_lass

thanks, but thats not really the issue, i was on a payment plan that was working out ok, but they got "confused" when i changed bank details, this is where it all stems from

doesnt take much to confuse them lol