have BRITISH GAS gone totally mad ?

ivanhoew

Good morning to the collective ,

Having just read this thread ..

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6616171/british-gas-rebilling

And this one ..

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6616254/british-gas-back-billing

i realised , somethings gone very wrong for British gas .

my situation is,

 i left BG last jan 2024 , and went to octopus , who have been fine , this coencided with my fitting panels batteries heat pump etc .

a couple of months ago i received a letter ftom british gas demanding 715 quid, for electricity costs from my buying this hs, jun 2022 , to now .

considering i left BG  , and had a refund from them then .there's no connection to bg anymore .

also the letters , of which i have now had several , are addressed to the occupier , not to my name.

I chatted to the Bg rep on the message box 14th june ,, and he assured me ,it as all fixed and no more letters . being a bit cynical by this time , i think it was my second time of asking , i took photo's of his assurance .

and yes ,a new demand arrived .

this time i spoke to a chap on the phone , barely understandable he was , but in theory it was all now fixed ...

new demand letter arrived ..

So , once again , i was on the phone to another hard to understand person , and she was adamant that due to her superior knowledge , regarding the old sysem , the new system , and a  second meter discovered that had been removed, and not registered as removed , when i moved in , it was all fixed , and i asked, can you send me an email showing what we have found and what you have done about it .

email arrived saying none of those things , just that she was my contact , and sorry, and you'll be fine now robert .... or "ribert" as she coyly nicknamed me.

lo , and yes, behold , yesterday , not one demand for 715 quid, to the occupier , but it also had a freind  !

a new 47 quid bill , also to "occupier" , with a different account number .....oh ,in fact the earlier bills had a "customer number' , not a customer account number , so slight variation in the madness there .

i wrote to them,last night , on my new freind  "Rahul"s email adress , that it was now ombudsman time .

so for anyone else going through this situation ,which for those of us on universal credit and no income, is very vey stressfull , your not alone .

apologies for my poor typing .

regards

robert

TheMilkmansDad

To clarify, where any of the letters addressed to you? You keep referring to “occupier”. If there not addressed to you then they’re not yours….

t0rt0ise

TheMilkmansDad said:

To clarify, where any of the letters addressed to you? You keep referring to “occupier”. If there not addressed to you then they’re not yours….

But he is the occupier!

 To the OP.. I get these all the time for a meter that isn't mine. They know they aren't my bills and tell me to ignore them but they don't seem able to stop them. Seems they have lost control of their computer system and it calls the shots. Threarening them with the ombudsman made no difference and I haven't bothered to follow through on my threat. If you do then do let us know what happens.

wrf12345

AI run system maxing out revenue as the bosses feel a bit hard done by, need to get their income up to Trumpian levels?

twopenny

If you want to progress go the old fashioned route.
It's what I did both times they accused me of not paying and put debt collector onto me. I'd paid, gone through almost exactly what you have.

Photocopy the bills, add copies of the online responses, paper work on transfer and send with covering letter to customer services.
2 weeks later an apology and sorted.

Going online used to be great when it first started. It's not fit for purpose now.

The further away these companies can get from their customers the more they can ignore them as they rake in the profits.

ivanhoew

Hello chaps ,

Thank you very much for the answers , it sounds like ,sadly , im not the only one to have this expereince , but its re assuring to hear about possible solutions .

 i did get a reply from british gas , sending me a case number , and "someone is looking at it" ......

beleive it when i see it ,was my reaction .!

regards

robert

ivanhoew

update time .

this morning i got a call from a heavily accented lady , not quite sure, either african or indian ,who was intending to solve the problem .

if she spoke quickly i could not understand her , if she spoke slowly i could just about get it , so i knew she was deff from BG .

she asked me to read out the numbers on the two bills , i did so .

number one , was a number from the old billing system , and she was not able to work with that system .

number two was an acc number she could look up ,she then told me it was because a active account was running from my house ,to which i aswered no there is not .

not since jan 24.

she continued to insist there was , i calmly stated , no there isnt , the louder and faster she got , the quieter and slower i got .

in th end she went off the check stuff , and said she would call me back .

i contemplated blocking the number .

bear in mind , the call before this i was told it was all cleared up , the old acc meter would be noted as not here because "i know how to work with the old system"

but now instead of clearing away the old meter  ( that had been removed when i arrived here) , not only is that meter still showing, thry have added another meter showing as now live !

yes its live...... but its with octopus since jan 24 , and i even got a refund from BG at that time .

i read up on the ombudsman , and it appears i need the problem to be there for 8 weeks befire initiating defcon 1 ,and as im not sure when all this started ,  i am waiting till the end of the month to be sure i have enough weeks .

regards

robert

MACKEM99

t0rt0ise said:

TheMilkmansDad said:

To clarify, where any of the letters addressed to you? You keep referring to “occupier”. If there not addressed to you then they’re not yours….

But he is the occupier!

 To the OP.. I get these all the time for a meter that isn't mine. They know they aren't my bills and tell me to ignore them but they don't seem able to stop them. Seems they have lost control of their computer system and it calls the shots. Threarening them with the ombudsman made no difference and I haven't bothered to follow through on my threat. If you do then do let us know what happens.

The computer needs a smacked bottom.😐

Uriziel

If someone told you that you're good and you have this in writing I would give this a rest. It looks like they are now going to chase this up only because you keep calling them. You literally have an email from them to ignore the letters and yet you have now made it an issue which they will probably try to make you pay for.

ivanhoew

well ,today my new British gas friend , khusi , called , and we went through alll the acc numbers and bills once again. .

afrer a fair old chat , she assured me it would all be fixed , which made a nice change from the lady a couple of days ago who insisted one account was still active , and, assumably ,payment was owed .

i am also, in theory, recieving a 50 pounds pressy as compensation ..

time..will.tell..!

i should point out , she was soft spoken , polite , efficient , and impressive .

she also sent me a detailed email putting down the whole details of our convo .

at the end she asked me if i was satisfied with the complaint and could it now be closed .

i said , "no , i would like to see if the bills stop now.".. i think she was slightly nonplussed by this , and thought she had it in the bag .

au contraire young/middle aged lady !

regards

robert

Descrabled

My experience with B Gas is that the complaint handler always, but always, wants to close the complaint. It's their job to get you to close the complaint (rather than to solve the problem). If you persist in keeping the complaint open then they will try again next day, and the next to try to persuade you to agree.  The present may get bigger. My advice is to keep the complaint open until you're happy with the result.