Urgent help neede with British Gas/Ombudsman disaster

Richie-from-the-Boro

Steggers wrote: »

Hi House Martin, thanks again. This whole mess has never been about not wanting to pay it's always been about ascertaining why we've been paying so much over the years, so it's causing me (because I am a wuss) a huge amount of anxiety. I will get on to BG in the morning and see what can be done. Greatly appreciate your advice.

If you had a mortgage or a loan for £30k charging 10% APR over 25 years

and you had a year or so where your earnings were high rather than blow it on frivolous spends or just put it in the bank @ 2% interest you could pay off extra on the capital side of the loan and reduce the loan from 25 years to 15 years saving 10 years @ 10%.

Explain to BG, that you want to escalate it to a DM, tell that DM that you do want it paid off and do not want your credit meter removed. Undertake to open an e-account DD line for [£2000÷24=£83.33] £83.33pm additional to your use. That way you commit to clearing up the mess yourself in 104 weeks. They are guaranteed to get what they want much quicker, and you get what you want. 24 months ≈ total debt paid and continual usage paid.

Steggers

Richie, excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by 'escalate it to a DM'.

cing0

On a practical note Steggers, if you want to avoid pre-payment meters forcing you into higher rates, I would 'move house' and have a nice friend 'move in' and switch to another supplier that is not British gas in their name. The new occupier has no responsibility for historical debt. You can then 'move back in' by changing the names on the account.
Otherwise, should you refuse prepayment meters, BG will apply for a warrant to fit them (which is an abuse of processes because they should use civil litigation to claim the money back).

Richie-from-the-Boro

Steggers wrote: »

Richie, excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by 'escalate it to a DM'.

You could go back to the ombudsman with the offer but that takes time. DM simply means decision maker. That more poweful person in a call center of hundreds of poor wage slave call-jockeys who is senior enough to make an on the spot decision on your 'thought through' offer and avoid the idiot who came to your door. Best of luck.

System

Cingo, that is a very common way of the energy thieves and big debtors getting away with it , and passing on the debt to us who pay their own way.Its illegal and not a practical way of avoiding the debt.The debt stays with you wherever you go and whatever false account you start up.BG have got me and many others going round interrogating some occupiers if they suspect this practice.Please don t give advice like this if you don t mind. I m sure Steggers wants to clear his debt the usual way. If he takes Richie and my advice and go above the BG debt collectors lousy set-up and contact a BG manager I m sure he will get a better result. I would suspect that any debt manager would find say, £20 a week direct debit a far better option than the expense of installing a prepayment meter.

System

Having looked again at this thread in its entirety, the unanswered question is 'how did a debt of £2000 accrue"? (presumably, this debt would have been much higher had BG not written off some of the money due). The OP seems to imply that it is because BG put them on the wrong tariff, and they weren't informed. I find this impossible to accept: the tariff detail is on every bill/statement as it is a SLC for all suppliers.

I am sure that there must be many cases where a customer offers to pay off the debt at £X per month for the supplier to find out a couple of months later that the repayments are not being honoured. This may not be the case here, but I cannot believe that BG will have not explored all re-payment options before insisting on a repayment meter. Has the OP offered to make any form of partial repayment to show good faith?

In this meandering thread, the OP has tried to blame BG; its sales agent and The EO for the high bills and debt that has accrued: are they really to blame?

Steggers

Hengus, for 7 years we have paid thousands of pounds for our electricity,we live in a small 3 bedroom terrace house and for years we queried the bills and got no answers. When it got to the point where our emails were going unanswered we went to the ombudsman and I resent the implication we basically are trying to dodge paying the bills. Yes, when the debt collection agent called the only option we were given was repayment meters. You have no idea how much anxiety this is causing me, I pay all my bills and am generally ridiculously compliant, until this one occasion which has descended into a spectacular !!!! up. I have rambled in the thread because I am at the end of my tether.

System

Steggers wrote: »

Hengus, for 7 years we have paid thousands of pounds for our electricity,we live in a small 3 bedroom terrace house and for years we queried the bills and got no answers. When it got to the point where our emails were going unanswered we went to the ombudsman and I resent the implication we basically are trying to dodge paying the bills. Yes, when the debt collection agent called the only option we were given was repayment meters. You have no idea how much anxiety this is causing me, I pay all my bills and am generally ridiculously compliant, until this one occasion which has descended into a spectacular !!!! up. I have rambled in the thread because I am at the end of my tether.

The fact that you live in a small 3 bedroom house is irrelevant. House builds differ in terms of construction and insulation. Usage is very much down to the customer. You seem to want to blame anybody and everybody for the situation that you are in - which is only adding to your stress. By going to The EO you have closed the complaint against BG.

Debt can only build up for two reaons. One, there have been a series of payment defaults or, two, DD payments have been based on estimated meter readings which the consumer has not bothered to correct. If the latter is the case, then the supplier will normally agree to a repayment plan. Fitting prepayment meters is a last resort when all other repayment options have been exhausted.

I know that you are hoping that someone on this forum will provide you with a Silver bullet that you can fire at BG to get a write off of the debt. This is just not going to happen. The ongoing stress is therefore of your own making. If you can, call BG and offer to make an immediate part repayment of the debt to see if they will leave you on a credit meter for the time being. Ask them to switch you to their lowest fixed tariff so that you can get future energy costs down. Look around your home to see what is consuming so much electricity. The solution is in your hands, not in the hands of well meaning posters.

Steggers

I am not looking for a silver bullet or to have the debt written off, we will pay what we owe as we always have, as I have mentioned before we have paid thousands of pounds to BG over the years. There have been no payment defaults but the bills were put on hold when we started our complaint hence the amount that has built up.

System

Steggers wrote: »

I am not looking for a silver bullet or to have the debt written off, we will pay what we owe as we always have, as I have mentioned before we have paid thousands of pounds to BG over the years. There have been no payment defaults but the bills were put on hold when we started our complaint hence the amount that has built up.

Fair enough - but, presumably, you have been putting the money to one side pending a resolution?