British Gas Billing

shoutyman

Quick bit of context, our mother died in early September last year. In dealing with her estate, I found that BG had ignored actual readings provided by myself and used estimates. Apparently my actual readings had been "missing" during the transition from old to new billing systems. The bills received were incorrect. Long story short, after the agony of dealing with their call centre and complaint team, I received a letter of apology and compensation in December.

Moving forward, my brother in law is now the Account Holder pending sale of the property (and as the property is empty, energy use is minimal). I am apparently still named as the secondary account holder (depending on who you talk to there). My latest interaction was triggered by me receiving SMS texts (but addressed to my brother in law) saying there was an outstanding bill. The last bill was paid on 8 December, based on actual readings provided on 13 Nov. I've had it confirmed by their billing staff that there was no debit on the account at that time.

When I queried the texts with their billing team I found that the account was in debit to either £489 or £576 depending on who you talk to. Actual readings had been provided in early February and on 6 March. They sent a bill to my brother in law for £444. I've raised a complaint and asked for a detailed breakdown of their numbers and how they have calculated the bill (I strongly suspect they have ignored actual readings and are using estimated readings). Based on actual readings, I've calculated the bill is out by about £250.The largest proportion of what I consider the correct bill is standing charges.

They have not replied to my request for more detail. An email I received from the complaint handler on 13 March, confirmed me as the secondary account holder (good, for now), but did not provide the details I requested and said the account was being referred to a debt collection agency. I asked for an immediate callback to discuss and despite several chasing emails, I have heard nothing.

I placed a call with their (South African) call centre on Wednesday and asked them to confirm billing details. The agent did not have access to them, said they would generate a new bill and said they would email it to me so that we could discuss it line by line on a scheduled call on Thursday. They did not call me.

I've made several calls to their call centre yesterday and today trying to get a response. All agents are passing the buck and despite saying they would get the original agent to call me, she hasn't. Neither has the complaint handler dealing with my complaint (I've raised another complaint relating to that). Latest agent said she could not see me as the secondary account holder so could not share the billing details (despite having that confirmed in writing by their complaint handling agent on 13 March).

I'm still waiting for call backs from either the billing agent or the complaint handler. With the threat of a debt collection agency involved I'm very scared. The plus point is I have a full record of all my emails and the interactions with them

What can I do?