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Original poster

So p**sed of with British Gas!!!!!!!

28 replies

Charlee · 09/08/2006 10:17

I was woken to a lovley letter this moring, it was from Westcot Debt Collectors working on behalf of British Gas. Apparently we owe £600 gas bill for a flat we havent lived in for a year!

Also whats funny is we were on a card meter all the time we lived there so we payed as we used it.

I phones Westcot and got the most misrable cow on the phone ever who told me that i had to sort it with British Gas and then promptly hung up.

I phoned British Gas who wont speak to me as the account is in DP's name. (which i can kind of understand)

Anyway im totally peeved about it as i used to pay £10 weekly streight onto the card, and if i was able to gain a debt this big why did no one tell me sooner!

OP posts:
charliecat · 09/08/2006 10:33

What MIGHT have happened, is you were using a key/card for another company, but were british gases customer...and BG never sent a new key out...so they want thier money, but would need to claim it from whoevers the keys was.
I had this for an old address, i lived there for 6 years and BG NEVER sent a new card out and so I kept using the old one.
If I hadnt, I would have had no gas...I rang loads of times...yes we will put a new one in the post...never ever turned up
So my BG money went to seeboard instead.

Nemo1977 · 09/08/2006 10:46

british gas are rubbish..we had problems when we lived in a 2 bed flat and they said that for 2mths use when we were out from 8-8pm we owed £500. It was rdiculous and even now they continue to chase us around and it is 7yrs later. When we complained they said the bill wasnt ours and charged it to one of the other flats..then continued to charge it to every flat in the building until it came back to us. We would never use british gas again.

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 10:47

We swapped to BG about 3 months before we moved we DID have a card with them and they came and set up our meter so we could use it! When we moved we sent the card back with a meter reading, they sent a letter back saying thanks and they had closed the account.

Although when we first swapped to them we recived a hefty bill and rang up and found out it was becuase when we had been handing money over in the shop to top the gas up, the shop hadnt been passing it on to BG but we were still getting the gas. We were told to keep our reciepts for proof we had been paying which we did but like i say we havent lived there for a year and i got rid of all that stuff a few months ago.

Think i will have to see what they say to DP later when he phones after work and if need be contact the CAB i cant afford to pay this back even in installments all my moneys accounted for!

OP posts:
charliecat · 09/08/2006 10:51

If there was a meter there all the timee you lived there they cany argue with that can they?
Stupid buggers
What are the dates on the bills? are they for the time you were there?

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 11:18

Thats the thing Charliecat i never got a bill! All the time i lived in the flat i only had that one i mentioned earlier that i got sorted. When we moved they just sent a letter saying the account had been closed and thanks for sending the card back. I dont know the dates there not on the debt collection letter!

I thought the whole point of a card/key meter was so i could pay as i used it so NOT to get in debt, BG said on the phone it IS possible to get in debt on a card meter but wouldnt tell me how.

Im not bloody paying though i dont owe them naff all!

OP posts:
charliecat · 09/08/2006 11:30

ahh yep, gotcha now....can you ask the debt company when this debt is meant to have built up?

airy · 09/08/2006 11:34

It is possible to get into debt on a meter, happened to me. Something to do with standing charges, can't really remember sorry!
Not much help am I!

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 11:34

I did the woman was so rude she hung up on me even though i was being polite! She clearly didnt want to be at work this moring! She just said its for Sept 05 which was the month we moved out shes didt say if it was from Sept 05 or to Sept 05! Then she said it must be a legit debt and i need to sort it with BG and hung up.

I will have to get DP to ring up BG and have it out with them. sigh..........

OP posts:
Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 11:36

Surley not £600 worth of charges! i dont think i even used that much gas the whole year i lived there! unless they carried on billing us standing charges when we left??????

OP posts:
charliecat · 09/08/2006 11:38

standing charges are today about 18p a day x a week...that 1.20 ish a week x a year x 52 is only about 64 quid or there abouts. and the Standing charge has gone up.

airy · 09/08/2006 11:41

Meant to say would be pretty impossible to have run up that debt on standing charges alone
But maybe thats what they were referring to when they told you it is possible. I argued with them about my magically appearing debt aswell, after being on a card meter for three years.
They're completely useless, they really are.

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 11:43

Well im standing firm!

After having a similar argument with the tax credits about a debt that wasnt our fault i gave in to them and am now paying £20 a month i cant afford im NOT doing it again!!!!!!

Charlee bares her teeth in what she hopes is a fierce scary manner............

OP posts:
Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 11:45

i also seem to remeber that we used to get about £1.50 a week deducted from our credit on the meter for charges............ robbing bas**rds!

OP posts:
hellywobs · 09/08/2006 15:34

phone their head office at Stockley Park in Middlesex and ask to speak to their high level complaints team.

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 17:45

DP phoned BG, they cant tell him anything about it becuase its been passed onto a debt collector and the computers locked the account info out! FFS i rang the debt collector earlier who said to sort it with BG!

Bunch of useless bas*ds!

OP posts:
charliecat · 09/08/2006 18:12

OMG Back to the debt collectors then? Thats crap.

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 18:21

Yep on the phone to them now, there saying they have no idea how we can be in debt with a pre pay meter and there now ringing BG to have it out with them! good i suppose except weve been told to hold while the lady ring's and sorts it out.

OP posts:
charliecat · 09/08/2006 18:27

Oh great Cant they ring you back? Its after 6 though so should be cheaper on your phone bill.

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 18:33

One step ahead of you! I got them to ring us back which they did, the woman from the DC is in a que waiting for BG to answer the phone!

OP posts:
charliecat · 09/08/2006 18:41

OMG...typical LOL...wonder what tune shes listening too

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 18:41

AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH! after waiting god knows how long the lady at DC put us through to BG who said

'We have investigated your case and..............'

Line went dead, ringing back BG now hopefully to speak to TOm in the pre payment dept.

OP posts:
Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 18:43

We are in a 30 min que!

OP posts:
charliecat · 09/08/2006 19:56

Did you get it sorted?

Original poster
Charlee · 09/08/2006 20:07

Nope there saying there's deffo something wrong on the account aparently they say thats there is no way we used the amount of gas thats showing on our account - no duh!

But they have stopped the debt for 30 days and need to set up an account balance enquiry which they were going to do but we got cut off again so im going to ring back again tomorrow as i have to wait for 30mins everytime i ring back.

OP posts:
lunavix · 09/08/2006 20:30

don't say that! I've jsut swapped to british gas!

I had a right run around with npower. This is for electric btw as gas on on a prepayment doodah. I've looked over my npower bills and they're just so random. In the year and a half we used them, the amount of time each bill was for is totally random (2 months, 3 months.... seems whenever they wanted money!) and swapped and changed such random amounts.... over christmas (ie extra lights, heating etc) I had a bill for £11 for a month, during the summer a bill for £111 for two months... nothing was the same, and everytime I phoned and complained they asked for a meter reading which always seemed fairly spot on. However the prices were getting ridiculous (every bill seemed to go up £30) so we swapped to british gas.

Just got my first paper bill - odd as I opted for the green energy account where they email you bills to save money.... - and I've made two payments one on 30th june, one on 2nd august... odd seeing as they set up a monthly direct debit for the 5th of every month!

My bigger problem is I told them our useage, and we chose them as their quote was quite low (£21 a month direct debit.)

And my first bill? £29! But apparently I'm in credit (?) from these random payments... so it's okay???

What worries me more is I thouhgt it was meant to be lower over summer to pay for it being higher over winter... if I have a direct debit of £21, and my summer bills are above this, I'll be bankrupt by winter...

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