British Gas set me up as Business Customer

guitarist

In May 2018 I moved into a new build apartment. I went to register with British Gas but was emailed saying there was an error with the creation of my account and they were looking into it.

A couple of weeks went by, then I received a couple of letters from British Gas Business regarding VAT certificates. Straight away I emailed them with the provided account numbers, informing them that I am a domestic customer so not sure why I was receiving this information. I was given a standard reply of "we're looking into this, and sending your details to the domestic team".

The next communication I received was a bill, incorrectly addressed to a block of apartments across the road, from British Gas Business. Again, I sent a copy of this to British Gas informing them of the incorrect address and that I am not a Business customer. I was told I wouldn't receive any more letters like this.

After long periods of not hearing back, I then receive a demand letter (again incorrectly addressed, naming me a landlord) threatening a £45 charge for late payment.

At this point I had had enough, and switched provider (they were unable to switch one of the utilities right away as the meters wasn't listed correctly as domestic, but British Gas solved this fairly quickly).

I am now receiving calls from British Gas's debt collector agency a couple of times a day. Somebody at British Gas finally sent an acceptable email yesterday saying they have raised a complaint on my behalf and that I have switched supplier successfully, but one part of the email still concerns me:

"Unfortunately we won't be able to re-bill your account on residential rates as such a provision only exists when a domestic contract is agreed with British Gas residential."

Problem is, I didn't agree any contract, and my attempt to set up a domestic account was thwarted from the outset. I believe it was a mistake on the part of British Gas to set me up as a business customer despite my numerous attempts to correct this, so I would be interested to know where I stand in terms of being billed correctly from the time I moved in, to September, when I switched.

I'm in no way against paying for the energy I have used, but I think it's important that I am billed as a resident, and not as a business landlord of an apartment block across the road! I don't know what the difference between domestic and business rates are, but I imagine there is a difference?

Is it worth pursuing this further with the Energy Ombudsman? It's all well and good doing the work for the customer to get them set up, but they should never have put me down as a business customer, and they should have corrected it as soon as I informed them?