British Gas: Laugh, Cry, or Face Palm

BooJewels

I wonder if the OP is a victim of British Gas's current migration onto a new system?  I've supposedly been moved to the new system, but it's a bit of a fiasco and really doesn't seem to be very well implemented - I'm totally on top of my own billing and it has me bamboozled. 

I now seemingly have 2 account numbers and when I now log in, I see the new 'account', which has no history - no payments, no bills, no meter readings.  There is a link somewhere on the page that links to the old account and this has my history prior to the move. 

I was billed at the end of September, then it was withdrawn and a new revised bill issued to an estimated reading, when they already had a perfectly good one for the same day.  On that bill my credit appeared as an adjustment and was moved over to the new account.  It was all very confusing and there have been other threads in here with similar confuddlement.  I wonder if this possibly explains the OP's predicament?  Although that really shouldn't give rise to debt collection threats etc.

Cariboudle

Update:  I got through to their facebook messenger and three different people helped me during one chat conversation and finally I was assured that there would be no further debt collection letters.

But this is what the previous helpline people said so we shall see.

BooJewels said:

I wonder if the OP is a victim of British Gas's current migration onto a new system?  

Honestly @BooJewels who knows what's happening there at this point.  If it is because of a new system I have not been advised of this during my other conversations.  Occasionally I've been told it was a 'glitch' and was fixed but it kept happening.

alicef

Cariboudle said:

Update:  I got through to their facebook messenger and three different people helped me during one chat conversation and finally I was assured that there would be no further debt collection letters.

But this is what the previous helpline people said so we shall see.

BooJewels said:

 Quote

I wonder if the OP is a victim of British Gas's current migration onto a new system?  

Honestly @BooJewels who knows what's happening there at this point.  If it is because of a new system I have not been advised of this during my other conversations.  Occasionally I've been told it was a 'glitch' and was fixed but it kept happening.

Hi.

I've given up with BGas making promises and not delivering - my new mantra is - contact BGas with a comms entitled 'COMPLAINT'. 

I have resurrected my old Resolver account - submitted a case and its been acknowledged by BGas less than 24 hours later, (let's hope it's resolved in such a timely manner!).

dander

I feel your pain and it's quite shocking to see British Gas still up to this kind of crap. I got stung by them back in 2006 when I moved into a new place and pretty immediately tried to change suppliers. I didn't have a DD set up so I just needed a bill from them to clear my final balance - couldn't get a bill, then would get multiple bills for the same period but with different amounts - where the £ value didn't match the usage listed. Back then they were claiming there were some issues with a new system and the phone lines were really busy would take literally hours to get through, and you'd get to a certain point in the conversation, the customer services person would concede they couldn't work it out either, say they'd have to get a specialist department to give you call, you'd agree, hang-up then never get the call. After a reasonable wait I'd start the whole process of phoning them, hours on hold, get through and there would be clearly no notes on a computer, no history of conversations and I would just have to go back and start the whole conversation right from the start. 

Here's where I made an error - I gave up. BG weren't supplying my power so I just left it, assumed I'd done my bit and they'd send me a proper bill at some point, but they never did and I just moved on. I never heard anything from them again. But then when my debit card was due for renewal my bank said they couldn't give me one because of an issue with my credit record. When I sent for the record to find out what that was, it turned out BG had registered a default against me. No correct bill, never a red reminder or anything, they'd just gone straight to default. Fortunately for me they must have had enough of a record of what had been going on that when I sent an angry letter they immediately cancelled the default - including getting it removed from all the credit agencies, cancelled the bill, embarked on a fairly extreme grovelling apology including really nice flowers delivered to me. HOWEVER, I think you are doing the right thing and not being stupid at all by keeping paying them some amount of money to ensure they can never claim that your account is into arrears. Also I would say, definitely take the advice above to raise the complaint to the highest level asap. Make sure you keep a record of all these engagements you have with them, these companies can screw you over even when you are entirely in the right, so you need to be ready to prove everything to the ombudsman or any other body.

Country_adjacent

I had a similar fiasco when I was transferred to BG from Bristol Energy. 

I got sucked into an absurdity vortex because they set up an account in the name of the person who lived in my house before me. This meant they stopped taking my money through DD and wouldn’t let me pay them because I didn’t have an account. No letters came to the house. I assume they were emailing the previous resident. 

Eventually BG would have sent debt collectors because they weren’t getting paid. But they wouldn’t let me pay them. I couldn’t even raise a complaint because they said I didn’t have an account with them. You can’t go to the ombudsman unless you have raised a complaint. 

It only got sorted when I found the CEO’s address online and emailed him direct. Got a call from the executive office who sorted it out the next day.

Cariboudle

Okay, hopefully this is the last update.

As I said above I got through to their facebook messenger and was assisted there.  Since then I had no further letters.

Prior to contacting them on Messenger, I had submitted a complaint on their website form (17th October).  1st November I got a text message apologising for the issue and noting that I had been assisted on the 17th via their messenger services.  The text message re-itterated my credit balance and assured me the issue was resolved.  They asked me if I was happy to close the complaint case now.

I responded asking how they could be sure this time it had worked.  Since I had addressed the issue with several agents via several platforms and all of them had assured me the same way that the issue was resolved and I had been in credit throughout so what had changed to make her feel so confident I would get no more letters.  

The agent just confirmed I am in credit and so I shouldn't get letters.

WHICH IS WHAT I'M SAYING THE WHOLE TIME WHY IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT?

*cough*

Anyway, who knows.  I'm going to be hopeful that I don't get any more threatening letters or a black mark on my credit file.  Fingers crossed.  

dander said:

I feel your pain and it's quite shocking to see British Gas still up to this kind of crap. I got stung by them back in 2006 when I moved into a new place and pretty immediately tried to change suppliers. I didn't have a DD set up so I just needed a bill from them to clear my final balance - couldn't get a bill, then would get multiple bills for the same period but with different amounts - where the £ value didn't match the usage listed. Back then they were claiming there were some issues with a new system and the phone lines were really busy would take literally hours to get through, and you'd get to a certain point in the conversation, the customer services person would concede they couldn't work it out either, say they'd have to get a specialist department to give you call, you'd agree, hang-up then never get the call. After a reasonable wait I'd start the whole process of phoning them, hours on hold, get through and there would be clearly no notes on a computer, no history of conversations and I would just have to go back and start the whole conversation right from the start. 

Here's where I made an error - I gave up. BG weren't supplying my power so I just left it, assumed I'd done my bit and they'd send me a proper bill at some point, but they never did and I just moved on. I never heard anything from them again. But then when my debit card was due for renewal my bank said they couldn't give me one because of an issue with my credit record. When I sent for the record to find out what that was, it turned out BG had registered a default against me. No correct bill, never a red reminder or anything, they'd just gone straight to default. Fortunately for me they must have had enough of a record of what had been going on that when I sent an angry letter they immediately cancelled the default - including getting it removed from all the credit agencies, cancelled the bill, embarked on a fairly extreme grovelling apology including really nice flowers delivered to me. HOWEVER, I think you are doing the right thing and not being stupid at all by keeping paying them some amount of money to ensure they can never claim that your account is into arrears. Also I would say, definitely take the advice above to raise the complaint to the highest level asap. Make sure you keep a record of all these engagements you have with them, these companies can screw you over even when you are entirely in the right, so you need to be ready to prove everything to the ombudsman or any other body.

This sounds like a legit nightmare.

Country_adjacent said:

I had a similar fiasco when I was transferred to BG from Bristol Energy. 

I got sucked into an absurdity vortex because they set up an account in the name of the person who lived in my house before me. This meant they stopped taking my money through DD and wouldn’t let me pay them because I didn’t have an account. No letters came to the house. I assume they were emailing the previous resident. 

Eventually BG would have sent debt collectors because they weren’t getting paid. But they wouldn’t let me pay them. I couldn’t even raise a complaint because they said I didn’t have an account with them. You can’t go to the ombudsman unless you have raised a complaint. 

It only got sorted when I found the CEO’s address online and emailed him direct. Got a call from the executive office who sorted it out the next day.

Absurdity vortex is right.  I was also on the verge of finding someone on linkedin or whatever so that will be my next step if the issue arises again.

P1Fanatic

This ineptness reminds me of many years ago closing my BG dual fuel account in joint names and opening a new on in my name only (after splitting up with my ex). It took me 7 months to get the credit balance paid as the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. They kept telling me payment was sent by cheque but it never arrived. When it finally did the cheque was written out to my ex - not both of us just her. I swear they did that last part on purpose