Paid into a closed Scottish Gas account

MimosaMeem

Dear all I hope you can give me pointers.

My question is can I have the outstanding payment bill waived by Scottish Gas? 

The reason for the above question. I received a sorry to see you go letter from Scottish Gas in Oct 2023. My account was closed online Sept 2023 by an anonymous individual citing a house move.

I promptly contacted Scottish Gas to confirm I am not moving and I did not initiate a closure of my account. The advisor assured me my account would be reopened and I would receive conformation via a bill statement. I received nothing.

From November 2023 to January 2025 I had to actively contact Scottish Gas (British Gas) customer service to provide meter readings and to push/persuade them to send me my bill for that quarter in order to make payments (to prevent it all adding up in one lump sum) because I simply was not getting my bill statements in the post.

Long story short. Six months of continuously contacting Scottish Gas, receiving debt collector letters and speaking to so many customer service agents, who all gave me small bits of information, I was finally able to piece together what had happened.  It turned out the tenants of the business below me had closed my account online and were using my home address as the supply address. My residential account was turned into a business account and had been transferred to British Gas Light (BGL).

Finally in the end I was left with little choice but to contact the energy ombudsman business as no one in the call centre could liaise with BGL to investigate this matter.

Finally, my account was returned to me end of January 2025. I provided the up to date meter reading thinking I only have a small balance to pay. It turns out it is now a substantial amount. The money I did pay into my closed account had been returned (via a cheque) by Scottish Gas in November 2024. I did not deposit the cheque at all. As Scottish Gas could not locate my money in their system they requested/advised I deposit the cheque into my bank account and then make a repayment. I have deposited but have not paid them

When I finally managed (beginning of January 2025) to get through to an agent who knew what they were doing and she told me up front on the first call my account was never reopened and has remained closed since September 2023. Although she did her best to get my account back from BGL she could not. The only reason my account was released was due to the energy ombudsman investigation proving my home address is not the supply address of the business below my property.

I am frustrated, absolutely furious with Scottish Gas for their negligence. For almost two years I was at my wits end trying to sort everything out, worried I would be blacklisted due to debt collectors. On my part I followed due diligence the whole time and kept contacting customer services to provide meter readings (although it states estimated reading on the bills), and continued paying into a closed account.

So my question, again, can I have the outstanding payment bill waived by Scottish Gas due to their (customer service agents) mismanage and continued negligence. Customer service are supposed to be your first port of call but they were so hopelessly clueless or outright unwilling to help.

I am considering taking this to the energy ombudsman as domestic energy issues.

Appreciate any advice on this matter.

Best wishes.

gm0

All sorts of things going on here.  Cancel/Rebill.  Closed account.  Payments applied but then refunded.  An outstanding (final) bill still open as debt being chased.  A bill which is wrong.  Front line CS agents will be baffled and their predecessor's confused notes over two years won't necessarily be adding clarity as some terrified noob sits on the phone with the clock running - wishing fervently they hadn't been allocated you.

They possibly can't easily create new bills (closed account) - cancel/rebill processes and metering adjustment running it again over tariff data may be blocked as an easy action by IT limitations at this point.

Write offs of billed energy always need approval and a clear justification why it's happening. 

The back billing time limit may force SG to write off the early part of the period.  And the systems may be restrictive of cancelling old disputed bills for the same reason.

Yet for practicality if not penny accuracy - it may need scrubbing off via cancelling the bill and debt.  And "manual billing" at some level.  To create a clean edge. 

The challenge being to get to the team responsible for the "worst of the worst" screw ups which have a) skills b) delegated authority to take abnormal CS actions -  actions which common or gardent cs agents don't get to play with for very good reasons (financial impact and further chaos so generated)

They net the manual billing estimate with some compo for your hassle. 
Agree that with you.
Issue some form of bill.
You pay and the past is settled.

A new account is created with a nice clean opening read. On the product of today that you choose.

Both of you move on.  Once settled - perhaps you switch away and try your luck elsewhere.  Final bill. No debt blocking.

That's the easy way.  Getting referred to the right place - billing specialist/ceo complaints/complex cases whatever it is.  Not metering specialist in this case. And not debt management advice.

The "hard way" is if they refuse to engage sensibly to let you be referred to the right place.  Is disputed bill. Complaint.  Deadlock.  Ombudsman etc.

It is normal for small skilled specialist teams to generally be "off the phones" - or they would do nothing else.  CS policies may prohibit or severely restrict the ability to transfer to them.  There will however be a method or channel by which your case can come to the correct attention.  Paper/Email and workflow as it may be. 

On one of your attempts to talk to them - you need to be lucky and be connected to an old hand.  Who knows the old magic. And the org structure.  They may not solve it on the call but may be able to arm you with what you need to get in front of the people who can