British Gas threatening elderly neighbour with debt collectors for non-existent job.

anotherbob

I have just spent two hours trying to help an elderly neighbour who has received an invoice from British Gas saying that she owes £74 for "on demand" work. She had emails previously but had ignored them as a scam. Her energy supplier is Octopus and she has never had an account with British Gas.
Because she doesn't have a British Gas account it has been impossible to speak to a real person. We tried a chat bot which provided us with details of work done on a date last year and a "work order number". She is certain that she had no work done by British Gas on the date given. She uses an independent gas engineer for boiler servicing and any emergencies.
The Chat Bot provided a phone number to contact which was for "invoice queries" but it proved impossible to speak to anyone because the account number the Bot provided "did not match our records".
The letter says that if she doesn't pay within seven days the matter will be passed to a debt collection agency.
I cannot find any way to speak to a real person and my neighbour is distressed at the possibility of debt-collectors calling on her.
Can anyone suggest what we can do to resolve this matter please?

Mark_d

Firstly - "on demand" work is unlikely to do with energy supply.

She needs to write to British Gas and request an explanation of the charges.  If BG are unable to explain then they will not be able to recover any money from your neighbour.  Perhaps it's worth making a formal complaint to BG regarding how difficult it is to speak to a real person.

elsien

First of all, reassure her that debt collectors  have no power at all. She doesn’t need to speak to them, and she certainly shouldn’t be letting them into her house.
sometimes if you either don’t answer or keep pressing zero the chat bot gives up and put you through to a human.
Otherwise, she could write to them to complain. 

Write to us

Services Customer Relations
PO Box 699
Winchester
SO23 5AR

elsien

Or try New customer option, Then that you don’t have an account number yet, then When they ask you what you’re phoning for, say it’s for a dispute.
That got me on hold  for a real person via 0330 808 3880. Although I then hung up before getting any further.

Gerry1

Call 0800 072 8625.

Enter # repeatedly when asked for an account number.

Eventually you'll be prompted 'If you or anyone in your household...'.  Press 2.

anotherbob

Thanks for your responses.
My neighbour has just called to say she believes she might have solved the problem.
She decided that the only way to speak to British Gas would be to pretend she wanted to buy something from them.
She said she selected something like "Sales" from options on the phone and simply kept pressing option 1 until someone spoke to her. Happily this person was able to connect her to the department responsible for the threatening letter and she says she received an apology and the invoice has been cancelled.
There was no explanation as to how someone who has never dealt with British Gas might be invoiced for work that was never done, but at least if she gets any more invoices she has found a way of speaking to someone!