British Gas Complaint

kymjane86

Hi I was hoping to get some advice as I am now left with only one choice..to contact the energy ombudsman. I am wondering how to approach deal with this and if anyone has any experience of this and what to expect.
To cut a long story short I cancelled my switch over for duel fuel within four days of agreeing the switch on the phone.
British Gas acknowledged this cancellation and cancelled the Gas but not the Electricity. They have caused me nothing but problems for six months and actually held and profited from an illegal account for a whole month.
They have said they cannot compensate for stress and such because it cannot be quantified.
Where do I stand?!
Many Thanks.
Kym.

Joyful

How have they held and profited? Before you can go to the Ombudsman you either have to have an official complaint open for 8 weeks or a Deadlock letter.

Have they now sent the Electric back to your previous supplier as an Erroneous transfer and did you keep the money for your bills aside? If so you have not lost out as you will continue as you were before with your original supplier on the same tariff.

I am confused why you mention 6 months then say they had an account for only one month?

macman

What is the difference between what you have paid and what you would have paid? That is all you are likely to recover, plus maybe a small discretionary payment for inconvenience (say £10-£20?). But have they actually accepted liability?
Compo for stress?-I don't think do.

kymjane86

they did attempt the erronous transfer but this was done after me pestering them NOT when they said they had done it, they also sounded like they would only do this and close complaint nothing else.I however chose a completely new supplier from my initial one so obviously the transfer was made to the new ones not back to my old one.
British Gas held an account for electricity for a whole month when they shouldnt have done they have taken my payments to another supplier(via pre-payment key) and held an account i had decided not to open. they will have profitted from this and I am advised that it was an illegal account. The problems, confusion, stress etc even answers I'm only just recieving have been on-going for six months now.

Joyful

By you accepting the sale and it not going back to the original supplier as an ET they are not obliged to give you anything. Whoever supplied you gets the payments. It does not matter whose key you used so BG will only have received the payments for the time they supplied you.Legally you were supplied by BG as it did not go back as an ET so they correctly received the payments and according to industry rules opened an account for you. They will then close it to a reading from your new supplier.

When you say they attempted an ET, what happened with it?

kymjane86

No They confirmed in writing they 'were sorry I had decided not to join them' then they didnt cancel the electric. I then moved to E-on whilst they were attempting to send me back to EDF. Only recently have I found out that they took payments for a month.Anyway it has now been passed to the Ombudsman with each detailed e-mail and any correspondence.

Joyful

I think you have contributed to the muddle by not letting them send you back as an ET before changing to another supplier. If they had done this you would not have been billed at all by BT. Surely you are not expecting not to pay for your usage?