British Gas complaint

kitty1941

Does anyone know the contact details for Matt Idle (man in charge of complaints at British Gas). Have already written to the PO Box address in Rotherham, but would love to get a letter onto his desk.
A bit of background - my elderly father (83) is being chased to pay a bill from them. He has never been with British Gas and has lived in his property since it was built over 20 years ago. But writing to the complaints department gets both myself and my brother no-where.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Any extra background to this ? what supplier is he with now. Is he in a flat where a crossed meter has been assigned to your Dad. does your Dads meter serial number match the one BG are billing him for ?

kitty1941

He is with EON and has been with them since he bought the house. It is a house and he bought as a new build over 20 years ago. The serial number on his meter bears no resemblance to the BG one.

dogshome

Looks like your Dad has been the victim of an "Erroneous Transfer" - Some other customer has switched supplier and somewhere in the process there has been an error in the data and your Dad's address has got involved - (Incorrectly recorded Post Code?)

Get onto Eon to check that they still see themselves as the supplier, if they say they are not and the account has been transferred away from them, WRITE a letter of Complaint to both Eon & BG

The rule with ET's is that the customer should suffer no financial loss - Note the word "Financial" - Only money is covered, there is nothing about compensation to the customer for hassle in trying to sort it out

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi kitty1941

Some great advice from dogshome. Thanks for that. Certainly sounds like your Dad's account has been taken by mistake (Erroneous Transfer).

By all means contact us as well but I'd start with the supplier who has taken the account. I say this because, where we contact them first about an Erroneous Transfer, there's a tendency to dispute what we're saying and claim a valid contract. Not saying this will happen here but contacting them first may save a bit of time.

If this is an Erroneous Transfer and British Gas have taken over the wrong address, we'll have sent your Dad a final bill. We'll also have written to him with an offer to keep the account. May help move things along if you've these documents to hand. We've a team who deal with Erroneous Transfers. If you wish, phone the number on your Dad's bills and ask to be transferred to this team. They're open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 6pm Saturdays.

Once it's been established the wrong address has been taken, the account will be sent back to us in the way dogshome describes. Usually this can take up to 6 weeks from the time the request is raised.

Hope this helps kitty. Let me know if you need any more details as happy to help.

Malc

modsandmockers

Are the letters/bills from BG sent to your Dad by name, or just by address? Is your Dad still receiving bills and making payments to E-on? If E-on had sent a final bill to your Dad, and also a request not to switch away, then would you not have mentioned this in your original post? Is it not significant that the meter number on the bill is different from the meter number at the address? How helpful was the post from the E-on representative?

kitty1941

Letters only sent to my dad by address with 'The Occupier' as the name. He has not received a final bill from
E-on and is still making payments to them. The period covered in the bill from BG is included in a bill from E-on!!!!

DandelionPatrol

kitty1941 wrote: »

Letters only sent to my dad by address with 'The Occupier' as the name. He has not received a final bill from
E-on and is still making payments to them. The period covered in the bill from BG is included in a bill from E-on!!!!

The meter numbers do not match, this looks like something other than erroneous transfer! Do the meter readings even correspond to any degree?

kitty1941

No, not at all

modsandmockers

Kitty - this is obviously yet another example of energy supplier nonsense/incompetence. Only an energy supplier would send a detailed bill to an unnamed person using an unrecognised meter number at an incorrect address and expect to be taken seriously! And the only real problem is the stress and anxiety which it is creating for your family.

There is no chance that BG will ever be able to press their claim and, if it was me, I would simply write on the envelopes - “Junk Mail - please return to sender” - and put them back in the post but, obviously, you have to try to stop the unwarranted intrusion into your Dad’s life.

Have you considered contacting the local press? If you can find a cub reporter who is anxious to make a mark then, even if the story never gets printed, the reporter will have much more time to waste on trying to get some sense out of British Gas. I have yet to be convinced that writing a letter of complaint to an individual (is his name really Matt Idle?) is likely to have any more effect than writing the same letter to the company’s complaints department in general.

kitty1941

My brother has given them one more chance to sort it out. Our next step will probably be to contact the press. Will let you know how we get on.
Thanks for all your comments and suggestions.