help british gas driving me crazy

fishingcinema

long one so thanks to anyone who takes the time to read

moved in to flat 12th sep 05

phoned southern elec same day to arrange electric meter to be fitted

got asked wether or not they wanted me to have them as gas supplier too i asked there gas prices and got told i dont know so i said no thank you but you are more than welcome to send me a gas price list for me to look at and if i decide to go with you i will call you back to arrange a pre pay meter to be fitted

(i use pre pay meters because i am a single parent and like to know where i stand and have no nasty supprise bills through)

october:receive a gas bill from southern electric:eek:

phone them up to see why they took over my gas without a verbal or signed contract was told this never should have happened very sorry will resolve matter as soon as possible

same day tried phoneing british gas kept getting you are in a que your call will be answerd as soon as possible

so i sent them a emai; explaining what southern elec had done and asked them to come and fit me a pre pay meter as soon as possible and left my contact number

get an email back saying nothing can be done untill southern electric sent me back over to british gas

numeras phone calls to southern electric and involving energy watch in jan 06 southern elec send me back over to british gas

jan 06 get a bill through from bg for £100+ phone them up after 20 mins on hold get through i explain the whole story and say i can not afford this can they send me a card so i can pay off certian ammount each month £4 pw was arranged and at the same time i arranged a pre pay meter to be fitted

card comes through the door for pre pay meter and a seperate letter saying sorry but you can not join i think it is the easy pay entry sceme untill you pay the debt off,so i phone them up and get told basically you are lying we would never have agreed to this or you would never pay the debt off i replyed yes i would have because i was going on to a prepay meter too and also gave her the ladys name of who i spoke to and arranged the payment with she said she is not in today offered no help what so ever so i ended the call then phoned back and asked for the lady who i had arranged the £4 pw with and got told she is away from her desk right now (funny 2 mins ago she was not at work today)

ill try to cut the story short now

7-10 failed pre pay meter fittings where no one has showed despite me waiting in all day

20+ letters to bg including sam laidlaw Chief Executive Centrica plc and something to do with bg

15+ emails including one to sam laidlaw and phil bentley Managing Director, British Gas

in excess of 50+ phone calls from a mobile phone

tons of rude call center staff

a bill for £600+

so the other night i decide to send a email to sam laid law and phil bently


Dear sir

i am writing this e-mail without Predijous but i am at my wits end with
british gas i contated you earlier this year in
regarding all the problems i have had wich i will go into breif detail
about.

i moved into my current property
on 12th september 2005 i phoned
southern electric to arrange a pre pay meter as i am a single mother on
state benefit and this stops large bills as
i know where i stand on pre pay they offered to take over my gas also to
wich i declined in october/november 2005 i
received a bill from southern electric for my gas i contacted them straight
away to inform them i had made no contract with
them to take over my gas and they appologised and said that this would be
rectified as soon as possible straight after the
phone call i phoned british gas and told them about this and asked them to
come and fit me a pre pay meter to wich the reply
i got was sorry but you have to wait untill southern electric send you back
over to us before we can fit you a pre pay meter
after several letters and phone calls to southern electric and involving
energywatch in january 2006 i finally got returned
to british gas i got told by southern electric that i would be billed
through british gas for the gas used with southern
electric i received a bill from british gas in january 2006 for over £100 i
phoned british gas and said that i could not
afford to pay this in one lump sum but if they would send me a payment card
i would pay a certian amount monthly the lady
agreed on the phone for me to pay back £8 a month and also arranged a date
for me to have a pre pay meter fitted i ended the
call by taking her name about a week later i received a card for when my
pre pay meter was going to be fitted then i
received a letter saying i could not join the cash scheme untill i had paid
the outstanding debt so i got on the phone
again explained the situiation to the lady who basicaly called me a liar
and said that the lady would not have agreed for me
to pay £8 a month even though i had given her the lady who agreed this
name she replyed she is not in today and she would
not have agreed this with you so i politely ended the call as the lady
offered me no help what so ever i then phoned back
and asked to be put through to the lady who had agreed foe me to pay £8 a
month i was told that she was away from her desk
right now i asked is she in today the reply was yes so someone was lying to
me about her being in again i ended the phone
call the pre arranged pre pay meter fitting came around i waited in all day
and no one showed up to change the meter so i
called british gas again explained the situiation got an appology and given
another date a month down the line again waited
in all day no show this happened several times.each time i was having to
use my mobile phone to call british gas to be put
on hold to get another date each time i phoned british gas i spent £5 in
top up vouchers as i do not have a landline in the
meantime my bill was increasing as each time british gas failed to come out
and fit the pre pay meter the next avalible
date was a month away in my opinion it seemed to me that british gas wanted
me to get into further debt i then received a
call from a gentleman who arranged for a pre pay meter to be fitted and for
the outstanding bill to be a=taken off my card
at £3 per week but again the pre pay meter fiting date came and passed
without someone actualy coming to fit the meter.then
i start to receive threatening letters from british gas saying that my gas
would be cut off and balifs would come to my home
also that the police would come out with british gas and fit a pre pay
meter and charge me £500 for doing this wich is what
i had been trying to do since oct 2005 at the time of receiving these
letters it was winter and very cold also my daughter
was only six months old and i was pregnant so i was extreemly worried i
wrote another 3 page letter explaining all this and
sent it to british gas again with no reply after another several long phone
calls and letters to british gas i still had got
nowhere in the meanwhile i had still be receiving more threatining letters
from british gas by this time i was heavily
pregnant and this begain to seriously affect my health and was worried at
the effect that this was having on my unborn child
and my youngest child in result of all of the stress my child was born
early and i beleive that all of the stress had some
part to play in this thankfuly i had a healthy baby i explained all of
this in several letters but british gas did not even
have the decency to respond to these letters it was then that i contacted
yourself i wrote you a letter to wich i got a
reply that you had contacted a memer of british gas and asked them to make
contact with me to resolve the matter i did
receive a phone call from a very rude gentleman that i explianed all of the
above to and he offered no resolution what so
ever when i asked him if i was speaking to a manager her responded i have
been asked to deal with this i repeated are you
a manager to wich his reply was no i said several times to the gentelman
that i was prepared to pay the bill but wanted to
pay on a payment card wich was agreed by the woman in an earlier
conversation by phone as i had researched having the bill
added to my meter only to find that hundreds of people had done this only
to be overcharged thousands of pounds and never
received a penny back to wich his reply was no this can not be done. i
repeated this offer one final time and said how had
was it to set me up an account with the outstanding balance for me to pay
weekly at a post office he said because i would
never pay the bill off as it would increase each mont i replyed it would
not as i was due to have a pre pay meter fitted he
still said no this can not be done so i kindly and calmly said ok i do not
think that we are going to resolve this matter
so i am going to end the call thank you very much for your time goodnight.i
also phoned again after this to try and resolve
the matter once again i got put on hold when i got through i spoke to a
lady and explained that my credit was about to
run out would she kindly take my number and phone me back she put me on
hold and my credit ran out i have not tried to
contavt british gas since but am still receiving bills my bill last time i
receive one stands in excess of £600
from day one i have only wanted a pre pay meter fitted souther electric
sarted my debt and despite every effort possible
made by me british gas have failed me greatly by allowing me a single
mother of two young children on state benefit get
into £600+ debt this september 2007 i have been trying to sort this out for
two years and as i stated at the begining of
this e-mail i am at my wits end i have spent in excess of £100 in mobile
top up vouchers,atleast 50+ hours writing letters,
e-mails and phone calls,stamps,envelopes and if this can not be resolved i
have no other option that to file a court
procedings claim against british gas and i wil be claiming £60 for every
hour spent trying to resolve this for costs of
letters written,phone calls made,e-mails sent,stamps,envelopes for damages
and stress caused to me and by family from the
sheer negligence from british gas even if this is resolved without court
procedings i expect to be compensated in some way
for all of the above and for waiting in 10+ times for a pre pay meter to be
fitted only for no one to turn up and not have
the decency to phone me when they had a contact number for me i am hoping
that you will respond to this e-mail personaly
and that you will take this matter seriously

regards


i have no problem paying the money i owe after all i have used the gas my problem is i will not have the debt put on to my pre pay meter as know people who have been paying long after there debt is paid off and do they ever get reimbursed no my mother has being paying a previous tennants debt for 9 years i think she has given up trying to get the money back shes a lot softer than me

all i am asking is open up a seperate account with a balance of £600+ send me a card so i can take it in to the shop or post office and pay an arranged sum off each week oh and to fit me a pre pay meter to avoid debt :rotfl:

i am now seriously considering taking them to the government small claims court do i stand a chance

not to get the debt wipped but the stress money in phone calls letters ect

PLEASE HELP

and thank you if you read my life story

Cardew

I would suggest you edit your post to remove your detailed address from the letter you cut and pasted.

tubster

Fishingcinema
You could get some advice from citizens advice bureaux; my guess is that they would say complain to OFWAT or whatever the regulator is called these days. Another strategy would be to contact one of the newspaper columns that deal with financial consumer complaints eg saturday independent or guardian, finance pages. Another thought is to join WHICH? (you might be able to do this for free for 30 day trial on their website) then you would have free access to their dial a lawyer helpline/consumer advisors, and they may well take it up on your behalf or advise.
Hope this helps
Tubster