British Gas holding on to credit

claudius451

Has anyone successfully managed to retrieve credit stuck in their British Gas account?  I’m acting on behalf of my mum as her attorney since I have power of attorney.  Mum moved into a care home in February having built up around £1000 credit by overpaying monthly.
I have contacted British Gas on numerous occasions to try to get her credit back. They told me that a cheque was sent out in July which never arrived despite having her mail forwarded. After I told them the cheque never appeared they allegedly cancelled the first cheque and sent another.  I raised a complaint at this point but I subsequently found that the complaint was instantly assigned as resolved since “the refund was issued”.  That second cheque never arrived so I chased again and was told that that would also be cancelled and another sent out. There is a 10-14 working day cheque cancellation service level agreement and a 14-21 working day service level agreement for the new cheque to be “sent out”. I asked for all my voice recordings from the numerous conversations I’ve had on this issue but this was initially ignored. I tried again and this time I received them so I now have evidence of what they have told me and when. 

British Gas appear to be lying to me and seem unwilling to refund but I’m fighting on. Does anyone else have a similar experience?  If this is endemic this is quite scandalous. 

EssexHebridean

If there is no reason to do otherwise, then if you change supplier, the credit will be returned. BG seem to be gaining an increasingly grim reputation about this sort of behaviour at the moment, and on the thing of closing complaints before they are actually resolved, too. 

Gerry1

claudius451 said:

I raised a complaint at this point but I subsequently found that the complaint was instantly assigned as resolved since “the refund was issued”.

That's equivalent to a deadlock letter so you can now raise a complaint with the ombudsman.

Largs

There is another thread from last week about it....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6559831/british-gas-withholding-account-balance#latest

Either they are liars or they are not understanding the computer system.  I too was told a cheque was sent and it never came.  I feel this is just to get out of paying the compensation.