British Gas messed up and now it's on me.

[ColouredPolkaDots]

Need to rant, and I'm so very fed up.

I'm a single, disabled parent. Been a single parent since September but ex always used our money on crap when we were together, and things are financially always tight.

So, I moved house in June and the house was with British Gas on pre-payment smart meters. I'd never been with British Gas before. I put £100 on both electric and gas, so £200 total. I then switched companies and was sent a cheque refunding me £86 that I didn't use from British Gas. Thought that was the end of it.

I've been trying to save for carpet in the house as currently the downstairs floors are concrete (yes, seriously) and upstairs is MDF, except for more concrete in the bathroom. It's very creaky and freezing cold. My DS who is one is just starting crawling and learning to cruise. I have a rug in the living room but it only covers half the room and the rest of the house has no proper flooring. However, with Christmas, switching over to benefits and ex being an arse about paying maintenance, plus huge new energy bills, I've got nothing for carpet.

So I went onto a carpet companies website and saw they offer payment plans. I've never been in debt or had bad credit so thought, brilliant, I'll give them a ring. I get through and talk to them and they say my credit score is to low for them to approve anything. I check a credit report service and apparently owe British Gas £570 and had unpaid bills going back years.

I phone British Gas and after being hung up on twice and having their automated system repeatedly telling me to enter my account details when I dong have an account, they tell me that they'd somehow transferred the previous tenants debt onto my name and that I didn't owe them anything and they'd make sure my credit report would be correct within 3 days. That was over two weeks ago.

So I phoned again today and had to deal with all the same rubbish of their automated system and being constantly transferred and having to repeat myself, all whilst struggling to keep DS happy and being on hold for forever, and they say that they can sort it out, but it will take a year (!) for my credit report to be back where it was as it needs at least 12 months since the last overdue bill was settled to reflect a true credit rating!

So now I'm stuffed and my one year old is having to learn to walk on cold concrete floors because British Gas cocked up. I'm so angry I can't focus on anything. I'm also sleep deprived and cannot see how I'll be able to afford carpet for at least six months atm so I just needed this rant.

They’re talking rubbish.

Did they’ve registered incorrect data with a CRA (like Experian) they can correct it. It may take a few weeks but NOT 12 months!

Raise a complaint and ask for the incorrect data to be deleted immediately AND compensation for the time, distress and inconvenience and threaten them with the energy ombudsman.

@PeridotPassion What is an energy ombudsman? Sorry for my ignorance! Could I even get compensation for this kind of thing? I could cry all night, I just want carpet in my home.

Thats such a tough situation op! British gas are shit. So expensive and their system is a joke. Often i have topped up smart meter and its not gone on my meter but they have taken the funds. They take ages to get a hold of and say they will sort it then they dont and you always have to chase them up. Are you able to transfer to another supplier quickly after you sort out their mess?

I have had ongoing nightmares with British Gas. I regularly complain, they are ALWAYS upheld and I regularly successfully ask for compensation

@GeePipe Luckily I switched within a month of moving in. I'm now with E-on who have been great so this was entirely unexpected.

The credit report I've checked says it's been 'settled' but that my credit score is affected by having a large unpaid bill within the last 36 months. What can I do about that bit? As it's definitely this British Gas bill, I've never had an unpaid bill before!

OFGEM is who you want

@Redkatagain What do I ask for/say? I have no idea how to go about this!

British Gas are notorious for this. Ring Citizens Advice tomorrow. They will deal with BG. They were the only people who BG listen to.

I switched from BG too as had so many problems with them including just randomly taking hundreds of pounds out of my account without notifying me.

@Greydove28 That's horrendous!! Was it even for a bill?

So who do I talk to? Ombudsman, Citizens Advice or OFGEM? Or all 3!

www.ombudsman-services.org/sectors/energy

www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/guides/energy-complaints/#step4

Make a formal complaint to British Gas first. You have to exhaust their complaints procedures before you can go to the Ombudsman

You need to raise a complaint and put a price on your time and inconvenience and insist that they cover it.
Make a real nuisance of yourself OP, you should have to but with British Gas it's the only way. I feel sorry for their frontline staff they are poorly trained and informed and often if not always now offshore.

It's bad enough trying to communicate with them as a supplier. I feel sorry for customers who are less in the know.

I'm really pleased you are happy with E.on though OP

Phone them and explain the situation. Record the call, telling them that you are doing so. Tell them you want to make a formal complaint. Ask them how they intend to remediate the situation.
Give them a reasonable deadline for response.
Tell them you want a formal response in writing.

Shame the bastards on twitter too
That is scummy behaviour and exactly why I am not with them. We moved into a house, rang them within two days. A week later we get a warning letter through for 3 years unpaid bills. The last tenants (there had been several) had never paid but the bills had been sent to "the occupier" so when I called to register they lumbered us with bills totalling £4537.
Same as you OP, I would call, be cut off, speak to loads of people who would say it wasn't their department, be cut off again, be given total bullshit and then have to ring again. It took 6 months of trying to get it sorted- in the meantime we couldn't switch as they had blocked us. They sent a letter saying they felt we had given incorrect move in dates, even though I sent my tenancy 5 times by fax as they wouldn't accept an email scan at the time.
I went to the Ombudsman in the end who read them the absolute riot act, not only was I allowed to switch companies, they also said as BG had treated us so bad, I didn't have to pay for the months I had been at the property as, due to their negligence, they wouldn't be able to work out what cost I had used.
They're literally the most shameful company.

I had a similar issue with NPower, not as serious as yours as it did not affect my credit score but they kept sending me bills for all different amounts dating back 3 years. I think I paid the first bill but refused after that. Apparently legally they can not bill you for outstanding amounts if the period of time is longer than 12 months.

After a while OFGEM sent me a letter with a cheque for £90 compensation. NPOWER must have had a load of complaints because I never contacted OFGEM and Npower have never sent me another bill. Hope you get it sorted!

Google back billing but this bill not yours so take to ofsted but go through bg complaints first. Good luck x

Ofgem not ofsted

It might be worth mentioning GDPR when you complain - you have a right to expect that the data held about you by any organisation is correct, and gave the right to insist that incorrect data is rectified. There's hefty fines for breeching GDPR!

Which credit reference agency? If the information is incorrect, and particularly if you have communication from BG stating as much, the CRA should have a dispute page on their website. They should be able to sort it out quicker than BG. Though you should indeed complain and request compensation from BG.

They’re talking bollocks.
Firstly you need to contact Experian or whoever holds the bad credit details. Tell them what has happened and raise an official dispute. They are legally obliged to suspend it from your account whilst they investigate. British Gas will most certainly not hang up on them. Then make an official complaint both to BG and to the regulator, OFGEM. But going on twitter will probably get you results just as quick-but def raise a dispute with Experian.

BG are the fucking pits!

Moved and tried to close our accounts - they wrote to us saying we owe you £9.87 (was less than a tenner) with the final then started taking £125 a month out of our account...

Apparently we owed them nearly £500...8 months later and £500 down (only paid as we didn’t want to screw our credit scores as we had moved etc) we are still fighting them as we have no idea how we ended up in debit...as I have the final bills and letter stating we didn’t owe anything, luckily I managed to download quite a few of our old ones till the blocked/closed the account. Their complaints department is a joke...

Honestly they are the most useless inept company - this thread has reminded me to chase them again and contact ofgem

Twitter is your friend here.