Advice needed please

trafalgar_2

A friend has a problem could anyone please help me to solve it.

she had her gas from BG by payment meter/card,she then change supplier to powergen...............they did not send a meter payment card and as this was the only way to get gas ,she carried on using the BG card in her meter.

changed back to BG after several letters /calls to try to get a meter card from powergen


now she owes Powergen £42.20 .....BG have said they have the mioney and all powergen have to do is request it (for the gas that was used when she was with powergen).....................she contacted powergen by letter and phone to tell them this....................nothing happened


she has now had a demand from a debt collection agency ..........it seems powergen have passed on this debt


can anyone advice how she proceeds now.......................please

she is a single mum on benefits and can't find the money to cover the bill and BG will only pay it to powergen ............she cannot claim back the credit from BG till her yearly bill is issued,in 6 months

trafalgar_2

come on MSEers I know someone out there can offer some advice................if nothing else on how to keep the debt collector away till she can sort it out.................

Fran

Traf,

British Gas owe her the money so they should pay up! (I think so anyway.) If they owe it to her now from a period that she wasn't being supplied by them I would have thought she can get it back. I would suggest she rings her local Trading Standards about this and the best way to proceed.

Re the Debt Collection Agency - has she spoken to them and explained the situation? If not she must get in contact before she ends up with even more expenses.

I can't see how it is right that BG are waiting for Powergen as it's her money that has been overpaid.

She should go to the Citizens Advice Bureau, they are good at negotiating things like this and will help her sort it out.

trafalgar_2

thanks Fran,she's getting onto the debt collection place first thing and I'll drag her to the CAB office:D

BG seem to be saying because she is on a card/prepayment meter ,they cannot give her the money (even though they admit they have the money for the gas used that period)....because until the end of the year ,when her bill comes,they can't give refunds

what they will do is pay Powergen ,if they submit a request for the period of time she was with them.:rolleyes: .................

thanks I'll report back how she gets on

System

Cant offer any advice i am afraid, but i think this sort of thing is becoming particularly common as i was charged for two lots of electricity from two different suppliers for the same period of time and the only way i can get my money back is to leave that supplier as they want to credit my account with it. I told em i want the cash back - after all £500 is a lot of money to sit there rotting in their bank account.

Grimbo_2

Hi trafalgar, I work for BG so should be able to shed some light onto this for you.

As you stated due to powergens error in not sending you out a new card there was not other alternative but to use the BG one, better than having no gas. Now because the supply of gas had changed billing to powergen and the BG card was still being used its not as simple as requesting a refund im afraid.

What you will find is you have now built up a credit with BG and a debit with powergen. This process is referred to as misdirected payments. Now two options available to you, firstly with powergen request them to initiate a request with BG for misdirected payments.... if powergen are not willing to do that then as a last resort you have the right to contact BG directly and request the credit balance on the account be refunded by cheque as powergen will not initiate a misdirected payments procedure. If a cheque is sent then you have the cash to pay it, if not the misdirected payent will send the money over for you.

Either way those are the only two options you have, as for powergen sending in the debt collectors thats a bit heavy handed, surely as this whole saga is their mistake in not providing you with a new prepayment card they should be a little bit more helpful and as a goodwill gesture provide you with somekind of compensation.

Hope thats helped.

=BOB=

trafalgar_2

thank you very much ,you have put it very clearly .......BG have been contacted and (even after saying she is now faced with this bill from the debt agency)they still say they cannot give her any credit until year end..................this to me seems crazy as they know she isn't going to be in debit as she can only use gas with the card and therefore has to pay up front ..................
but now knowing how it should work I will get her to ring them again tomorrow .............not much point in contacting powergen as they have now sent the debt to someone else .

however there will be lots of complaints made after this is dealt with .............the handling of it has been terrible and it should never of got to this

thanks for your input:D

Grimbo_2

aha well a point of interest to you, I take it since switching back to BG she got a 2nd new card and stopped using the 1st card that she made the misdirected payments on ? if this is the case they will not be showing a credit for you because when you joined back a brand new account will have been opened that links to the new 2nd card and the person you are speaking to will always look at the active account and not any dead ones. What you need to do is find your customer reference or account number for the dead account that the money was sent to with your first card, it will be difficult I know as prepayment customers dont get as much correspondence as people on a bill meter. the number you are looking for will begin with 100 and be 13 digits long. You will have one for your new account that is up and running now and one for your old dead account, the reason why the money cant be found by the person on the phone is because their looking at the active not dead account. so find your dead account reference number call up and request the credit balance be refunded. this wont be a problem as a finalised account is not subject to the end of year rule on an active prepayment account.

Good luck!

=BOB=

Fran

Grimbo wrote:

Hi trafalgar, I work for BG so should be able to shed some light onto this for you....

Now because the supply of gas had changed billing to powergen and the BG card was still being used its not as simple as requesting a refund im afraid.....

What you will find is you have now built up a credit with BG and a debit with powergen. This process is referred to as misdirected payments. Now two options available to you, firstly with powergen request them to initiate a request with BG for misdirected payments.... if powergen are not willing to do that then as a last resort you have the right to contact BG directly and request the credit balance on the account be refunded by cheque as powergen will not initiate a misdirected payments procedure....

That might be the way that BG deal with this, but surely the person with credit has the right to ask for an overpayment be paid back? BG have had money for a service that they were not supplying. BG distinguish between the old account and the new one and there is money owing on the old one which is a seperate account. Surely legally BG should be reimbursing this money straight away, not as "a last resort"? This account is nothing to do with Powergen.

Fran

trafalgar wrote:

thank you very much ,you have put it very clearly .......BG have been contacted and (even after saying she is now faced with this bill from the debt agency)they still say they cannot give her any credit until year end..................this to me seems crazy as they know she isn't going to be in debit as she can only use gas with the card and therefore has to pay up front ..................
but now knowing how it should work I will get her to ring them again tomorrow .............not much point in contacting powergen as they have now sent the debt to someone else .

Traf there is a point in her contacting Powergen because they can call off the Debt collector. Did she go to CAB because they can negotiate if BG are refusing to give her back the money she is owed?

This messing about is so unneccessary and why these companies get a bad name (though of course meanwhile they have your money in their accounts).

trafalgar_2

Grimbo wrote:

You will have one for your new account that is up and running now and one for your old dead account, the reason why the money cant be found by the person on the phone is because their looking at the active not dead account. so find your dead account reference number call up and request the credit balance be refunded. this wont be a problem as a finalised account is not subject to the end of year rule on an active prepayment account.

Good luck!

=BOB=

thank you ,I've just spoken with her and she is going to ring them now with the old number..............that is what appears to of happened ,though the person she spoke to last time looked at the new account and just said 'tell powergen to request it',it obviously wasn't in that account so didn't show as a credit which is why they said she had to wait till the end....................much clearer now thanks ,will let you know how she gets on