How much S*** can I give to British Gas on Tuesday?

[ELF1981]

History:

Was with BG on pay-as-you-go gas & electric, we changed to quarterly bills a while ago. Got first gas bill, £150 for Oct, Nov & Dec. This was higher than what we'd usually pay on pay-as-you go but we paid right away.
Never received an electric bill.
Few months later, got another gas bill, £170, despite the fact the boiler broke for 3 weeks so we did not use gas (our gas is only for heating, everything else is electric).
We questioned the bill, highlighted we'd had no electric bill. They said was done on estimates so gave them the new readings for both, they said they'd send a new bill to cover both, to pay that and ignore the 170 one.
Few weeks later, reminder letter on the 170. Rang again, they admitted they had not changed our contract properly and were still going off old meter readings & not the new installed meters (ie reading was given at 20000 when we only have 700 on the meter). They admitted their mistake, promised to phoen me within 14 days to give us extra details & send us a new bill.
This morning, got up to a disconnection letter for the gas. Not only will they disconnect us if we do not pay within the next 10 days, they'll charge us £20 for the letter, £200 for the disconnection and are threatening to take to court.

How much can I yell at them on Tue, or should we have just paid regardless and tried to get a refund from them?

I have a history with British Gas - they took direct debits out of my account despite the fact that I had cancelled my contract with them, then tried to take me to court when I stopped the payments.

They weren't trying to claim that I should be paying them the money for cutting the contract short or anything, they just seemed to think that they should be paid because they felt like it.

After numerous tries at sorting it out, and having numerous salesmen ringing up to try to get me to switch my electric back to them, I agreed to have a chap call round. When he got there, I handed him the file of stuff, locked the door and told him I would open the door when he had made some calls and sorted it all out.

I bottled it, opened the door after 10 seconds and let him go, and it never did get sorted out. The debt collection agency they set on me refused to take things any further after I showed them the file, but officially, I still owe BG a few hundred pounds for..... well, nothing, I think.

So give them shit on Tuesday, give them so much shit that they can't handle it any more and have to call out shit-busters.

twunts.

(sorry this was so long)

No, just one person to say yes was good enough for me!
I have told DH that my conversations may go something like this:

• cut me off, I'll go to energy watch, watch dog and any chavtastic papers necessary to report the fact that they have cut off gas to a house who has no other heating means with a toddle who has asthma

• cut me off, take me to court, I'll highlight all the phone calls I have made to resolve and the fact they were so incompetent they could not sort it out

• cut me off, 'cause then they may stop focusing on the gas and actually send me my electric bill.

Sorry you had such a bad time squonk

Always keep a diary of every phone call that you have had with BG (or whoever).
Get the name of the person you spoke to, and the time and date.
Also, get them to confirm in writing.

Problem is simply that one hand does not know what the other is doing....

DH is excellent at this and it has helped us many a time with several utility companies.

Yell lots.

I'm just so MAD with them!

Elf - just seen this and thought you might like to read it before ringing them tomorrow.

Yep, BG are f*ing wankers, have had loads of problems with them in the past. Give 'em hell!

I am going to start my phone conversation off with

"please put me through immediately to a supervisor or manager, I've had four days to simmer about the complete incompetence of british gas employees who clearly do not know their arse from their elbow, and I dont think you get paid enough to deal with the amount of yelling I am going to do"

sounds good to me.

Let us know how you get on.

LOL elf, i think that's a good opener.

Don't forget that you can change supplier as easily as flicking a switch .

Give 'em hell elf!

We had problems

they owed us money
and fibbed about it

Threatened to report them.....

They coughed up some of it .

Good luck!

they refused to speak to me, said they needed to speak to DH as the acc was in his name and they had no details of him giving authority for me to speak.
which I said was to be expected as they didn't have any other records about the acc. She did tell me they were trying to resolve the issues, I asked why they sent me a disconnection letter and she said they do as standard

dh's opening line will be "you really should have spoken to my wife as she would have been more restrained than me"

they really are a bunch of tossers.

Complete bunch of "£%£$%^!£$. And yes, I now believe that to be the technical term to use when referring to British Gas or any of their employees.... Had my own thread about this group of incompetent, thieving "£$"£$%" not too long ago - is it showing ???

now i'm angry again too.....
makes me want to phone them for the rest of our money...

Actually, I might just ring up and abuse them for the craic of it....

They really are a bunch of jobsworths aren't they!

Hubby was on the phone for AN HOUR AND A HALF last night to BG.
Complained merry hell.
They said they were going to send a disconnection letter re the electric as we hadnt paid (when we havent had a bill)
They said the electric was £500 for 2 quarters (were used to pay that a year!).
After a LOT of shouting, they admitted it was all estimates, they have no details on the past three phone calls we made, and somebody should be phoning within 48 hours to resolve.
Sigh

We reguallry used to get bills for a meter that did not exist After months of phoning up and telling them that, (which they ingnored) we gave up and they eventually sent someone round to disconnect.

Imagine our smugness when he was not able to find the meter!