To think "British" Companies are a load of bastards?

[DiddyFace]

I am in financial difficulty and have had to reduce payments to the few creditors I have and re-negotiate the payments I make to essentials such as British Gas, British Telecom and TV Licensing.

Everyone has been great except for the 3 named companies above who have refused to budge one inch.

British Gas, after explaining I had been nursing a dying relative and wasn't aware I was in arrears, wouldn't wait until after the funeral for payment. They demanded FULL payment or I would have to PAY for a pre-payment metre to be installed.

British Telecom, increased my bill by almost 300% because I fell in arrears and would not reduce my monthly payments unless I could pay them in full.

TV Licensing, just bloody horrible! I forgot my licence had expired and, as soon as I realised, phoned them to get a payment card. The assistant kept on repeating that I was liable to prosecution. She must have said it 10 times! FFS, I am phoning YOU to pay, there's no need to be so threatening.

On the contrary everyone else has been helpful: landlord, Council Tax, 3 Mobile, Capital One etc.

BT, BG and TVL have made me fear answering my door/phone.

British Gas are the worst company I have ever dealt with. I ended up having energy watch intervene on my behalf. I believe they are regularly voted the company that have the worst customer service in Britain and I can see why.

BT are the MOST horrendous company on the planet. I cannot stand them. They made me pay for a short circuit on a phone socket (they had installed) because I "hadn't maintained my phone sockets". When I asked them to explain what sort of maintenance I was supposed to do, they just kept repeating that I "hadn't maintained my phone sockets......" When I said I wouldn't pay because I thought that it was outrageous that within a year a socket they had installed had failed, the supervising manager said they would take me to court. The second my contract with them is up, I am leaving them....(although not sure where to flee to next, they all seem as bad as each other).

It may be worth contacting a debt charity (StepChange or CAP) who negotiate directly on your behalf.

British Gas nearly caused our house purchase to fall through at the last minute. They cocked up the billing from our previous property, said they'd sorted it etc., (we had letters) but the put a default notice on my husband's credit report. Refuse to deal with them now, even if they are cheaper.

Gary & Whats I'm with StepChange now so things are settling down

BT are awful - we had to go through the Ombudsman to get them to agree a correct bill and even then we have had problems with payment.

At least you are not with EON (rolls eyes at on going saga) YANBU OP, sometimes circumstances in our lives are difficult, why make it worse for someone if they are trying to get straight again?

Adds EON to list of Bastards

Never had issues with EON... now EFD is a different story... they randomly upped the final bill for a property, gave us different readings and would not tell us how they got those figures... only efficient thing was the weekly threatening letters.
took a mention of the ombudsman and papers to get them to say things were settled

What is tv licensing?

Steff, assuming from your flag you are not in the UK

In the UK to have a TV you need to pay a license. they are aggressive twats and like to send threatening letters

Once my husband bought a tv card for his computer and got it delivered to work. a while later he got an aggressive letter from TV licensing at his WORK address saying he needed a license for the equipment he just bought!

D'you mean EDF Tiny? Didn't they used to be London Electricity another British Company?

Steff Assuming you're not in the UK or you'll get PROSECUTED, TVL is something you have to pay if you watch or record live TV.

"In the UK to have a TV you need to pay a license. "

Not technically true. You need a licence to receive any live broadcast TV. This includes watching it online.

If you only use catch-up TV, DVDs, etc., you don't need one.

No TV licence in our house!

X posted with Tiny.

Do they ever hassle you Aga?

They do send letters yes, but I just bin them unopened. If they come round I will tell them to get lost. They are salesmen on commission they get £30 or something like that for getting you to buy a licence.

Yes, EDF! Yuk!

British Gas are appalling. Dp and I regularly consider billing them for the amount of time we spend during working hours on the phone to them trying to sort out THEIR cock-ups. They must owe us thousands by now by my reckoning.

I get a gas bill every quarter and don't even have gas. Had a metre reader the other day. Yep I've used 0 amount of gas. I have called to request the pieces of paper saying i own nothing to be stopped but I can't so ever quarter th bill for nothing comes.... Now don't get me on bt. 6 months of hell us was glad yo pay to go. Their broandband never worked despite getting through three boxes and phoning at least 4 times a day. Kept a record and complained I had to pay £60 to leave them but complaints fell on deaf ears and now it's too long ago.

British gas is actually a French company!