British Gas Debt Collectors... help!

Powapa

Hello, I applied for a homecare gas boiler service last August with British Gas I received an e-mail saying I would get everything such as my agreement pack within 14 days but never did, they never took any money out of my account so I presumed they couldn't process my application and thought nothing else of it. 

Fast forward to today and I have had a letter through the post saying I need to pay £49 within 7 days or my debt will be going to a debt collection agency.. huh?! I have just got off the phone with British Gas who aren't friendly at all saying I need to pay this as the work has been carried out. 

I explained that nobody had been to my property to carry out any work and that British Gas have never sent me anything after my initial application. It turns out that they got an e-mail mixed up and were sending all my details to someone else regarding my agreement, direct debit issues and chasing up the debt. Luckily whoever they were e-mailing got in tough with them and said you are e-mailing the wrong person to which prompted British Gas to send a letter out to me.

The person I spoke to at British Gas said he would raise it to customer relations which could take up to 8 weeks but in the meantime the debt needs to be paid or it will be passed over to debt collectors, I tried to get my point across but he just wasn't having it and said the engineer has a work sheet proving they had been to my address (no signature or images of anything just a work sheet). 

Do I just pay the £49 to stop the hassle of the debt collectors and wait up to 8 weeks for British Gas to resolve and refund me or hold my ground and not pay it knowing I'm right?

Ectophile

Raise a formal complaint with British Gas, and don't let them close it until it's been resolved.

If you hear anything from any debt collectors, tell tham that the bill is in dispute, and they must refer the matter back to British Gas.  Refuse to discuss anything further with them.

born_again

If they pass it to debt collectors. Just tell them the debt is in dispute with BG.

fatbelly

Don't pay.

They will probably put it to debt collectors because they are too dim and incompetent to consider anything else.

The debt collection agency will run through their stupid letters and return it to BG.

No-one will be starting a court claim for £49

BobT36

Make sure that you complain that this is a data breach, too.