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I have had my gas and electricity supplied by British Gas for a number of years but I recently decided to change suppliers (at a saving of over £700 per year) I have just received my final bills and have been charged a canellation fee of £70!, I have queried this with BG and this is because when my fixed price deal ran out in 2009 they transfered me to another deal without my knowledge or permission and this deal has a cancellation charge if I change to another supplier. If you decide to go ith BG be very careful of the small print and keep a close eye on what they are doing with yoru account. I won't be going back to them after this.
I heard some where that you coluld now by your electric over the internet in your own home. I have always had a pre pay meter and jumped at the chance when I heard it was now possible to do this. I was having issues with my other supplier so I made the move to British Gas who were promotting this offer in Febuary. I signed up to their pay as you go tarrif which would allow me to top up my meter key from home with the use of a box which I connect to my computer, access the internet, register and top up. Not that simple I received the meter key and was transfered over on the 2nd of March and that's been it.
On the 2nd of June it will be 3 months and still I have not received the box which will allow me to top up over the internet. I have rang them twice and both times I was told the same thing by two different people I would receive it soon, not sure when but I would receive the top up box.
Well I'm still waiiting I have emailed their customer services department I don't hold out with that. I will wait to read what excuse they have come up with as to why I have not yet been sent the box. I don't want any problems although it looks like I will be getting some if they don't stick to their side of the agreement and supply the customer me what I signed up for and is part of their pay as you go deal.
If I had known this was going to happen I would have gone else where. Only none else was offering the option to top up from home via the internet. And it now looks like British Gas are not either.
I have my electricity supply from british gas. At my previous address about 2004 british gas owed my approx £2000 as overpayments that had accrued, I asked for them to return the money which they refused, they told me to stop my direct debit and thay would take the future bills out of that £2000. I then got another bill from them for about £900, which I then asked why is it so high, they had forgot to inform me that the £2000 had been used and never told us to put a direct debit back on. I arqued about this and asked for proof of the money they owed me, they said that they could not find any evidence of this money. I then became ill with cancer and ignored letters then when I finally came round to looking through post they had court proceedings against me. I am now paying this debt off at £20 per month on direct debt, but through all of this I am have been put on bad credit. I am now receiving numerous calls from them on my mobile and home phone number from the debt collections team. I sometimes have been getting up to 6 calls a day.I rang them they apologised they can not see why I am being harrassed.
Further to my earlier posting, I would urge anyone who has had negative dealings with BG to follow this link and read the blog. If you can relate to it then please make your feelings known!!
I am hoping that if enough people comment truthfully about their experiences with this company on here, then maube, just maybe British Gas will be forced to review a number of their policies with regards to customer service. I have never been in contact with such an incredibly inept, obtuse and downright ignorant customer service department as the one in India to which British Gas are attached. The staff only have the ability to answer questions that they have covered in training, are robotic, and incapable of offering any assistance for circumstances that they are unable to understand due to their poor grasp of the English language. This serves only to frustrate and annoy the caller, fails to deal with our enquiries and costs a great deal of time, which for many of us is money. Please, if you agree with this then add your name to this website so that it can strengthen my attempts to make BG change their approach to customer service.
most unorganised company ever,
switched me over in dec 08 for no reason, appartly i entred a verbal agreement, i have asked 37 times for a copy of my conversation to be sent to me. A rude nasty lady called sarah was supposed to send me the copy in january, im still waiting, i recieved debt collecter letters for £70 electricty and £210 gas, gets better it was for business fuel, i dnt own a business and live in a 2bed appartment in sw19. paid the debt collectors so wouldnt have bad debt but will never go with them, not even energy saving and they are bad for environment, increasing their prices when eon adn edf decreased them
Phoned this excuse for a business to book an appointment for someone to come out and provide a quote for a new boiler.
On the day of the appointment, I received a call from them telling me that the engineer was ill and would not be able to attend. It was an inconvenience but what can you do when someone is ill? The appointment was rescheduled for a couple of weeks later.
The evening before the re-scheduled appointment I received a cheery answerphone message from the engineer who was due to come out. His message said that he was calling to confirm and also '"if it was convenient" would I mind texting him back to confirm that it was OK?'
Well it wasn't convenient - for one thing, I didn't get the message because it was left on my work number until the following afternoon (after the time when the engineer was supposed to have been).
Yes, that's right, "supposed" - because he basically didn't turn up.
I phoned British Gas this evening when I got home. When I got to the front of the queue and the call was eventually answered by a human being, my first comment was that I couldn't hear her very well to which she replied "Well, my volume is turned up full, so there isn't anything I can do about that, is there?" in a very sarcastic, condescending tone of voice.
Needless to say, I am less than thrilled with British Gas and am now only going through the motions of getting a quote from them so I can use it to get a cheaper quote from one of their competitors.
Given the choice I wouldn't touch this organisation with a barge pole. And if that first operator that answered that call worked for my business, she'd be spending Christmas un-employed. Not that it would do her attitude much good.
BRITISH GAS (Central Heating contracts division):-
A few years ago now I had a run in with BG over poor customer service that led me to issuing Court Proceedings against the company and, day before the hearing, they settled.
Very briefly ........ took out service contract with BG (similar to what I had had previously and at previous address) - done it online and date offered by BG for compulsory "initial inspection".
Before that date the boiler failed. I placed a service call. Company attended and inspected - said they would need to make a further call as work required estimated to be "2 hours" - new appointment made (not kept) but eventually they turned up.
Rather than do the "2 hour repair" booked in the engineer said boiler too old to be covered under contract, not safe to use in current state, would take too long to repair, needed to be replaced instead etc. then disconnected it leaving me with neither Central Heating nor hot water over Christmas (this happened on 21st/22nd December carried over to 23rd on the latest visit from BG's engineer).
I decided to seek a second opinion from independent C.O.R.G.I. engineer about feasibility of repairing the boiler - had not failed in previous 5 years after all and therefore probably just needed a "good clean2 or "service" to put right.
C.O.R.G.I. engineer came and inspected, agreed with my diagnosis and booked an appt. in for 6th January (which he kept). Did a thorough de-soot type of clean of the internal workings, re-connected the supply and away we went - been fine ever since (although this is down to him now servicing the thing annually as much as anything I think).
In the intervening period we used an electric convector heater to warm one room at a time up as we needed it and employed a separate 3rd party plumber to install an immersion heater to our hot water storage tank. As this could not be arranged immediately we booked ourselves into a local hotel for a night just so that we could have a proper wash in a bath/shower.
BG sent a sales person round early January to quote for a new "condensing boiler" re-located to our roof space (existing boiler is traditional flue jobby and located in our kitchen - the size of a base unit and noisy to boot, from all the scale that's still it its heat exchanger apparently!).
Quote for a new boiler plus associated pipework to re-route to roof, take out old boiler, and I think hot water storage tank etc. came to a whopping £3,500 (and that did not include any new radiators anywhere - I would have expected an entire system for that much - the boiler itself they quoted me was available on the internet for about £700 only I recall - yes, I checked this out too!)
I decided that rather than pay them to tear my kitchen to bits and generally make my life even more unpleasant than they had done already I would, instead, ask them to pay me back for the extra expenses they had caused me to incur as a consequence of them not fullfilling the repair they agreed to do meaning they deprived me of both hot water and central heating over the festive period in the interim.
They refused so I threatened (& did) sue in the County Court for the monies I wanted. BG still didn't settle - instructed a city-based Solicitor to "put pressure" on me and generally "scare" me about having to pay BG's Court costs as an effort to get me to drop the case.
Unluckily for them, although not a qualified Lawyer myself, I do work in that environment and therefore had some professional guidance from appropriately qualified colleagues how to handle and resist BG's approaches via their Lawyer.
Outcome was that I "called their bluff" took it almost all of the way and, as I said earlier, the day before the Court Hearing I received a cheque in full and final settlement - which I was very pleased with - a result if ever there was one I must say!
I opened my business and moved into my offices in Inverness early 2005. British Gas didn't bother sending me a bill for a whole 2 YEARS.
This was even after many phone calls from me, and members of my staff asking for a bill.
Finally the bill came last December for over £4,000 - it came not with an apology, but a legal threat that unless the bill was paid IN FULL in 10 days I would be taken to court!!
I moved house in July 2006, contacted Britsh Gas with my new address and a gas meter reading. I also toldthem that I could not give them an electricity reading as I did nothave accesss to the meter. I was toldthey would send a meter reader round as soon as possible and ask the shop own below our old flt for access to the meter.When not hearing any thing for nearly a year I thought I may have been in credit and thought nothing more of it.
I then, a year later, received a notice of legal proceedings for the outstanding amount of £124 for estimated Gas and £80 for Electricity, bothsent to my new address. I rang and told them I had moved in July 2006, they said they had no record of the call regarding Gas, although they had the reading for the electricity meter they said I had given them on the date I said I had called about the house move and the gas reading.....I had never given them a electricity meter reading as I did not have access to the meter. After several phone calls with different departments, and telling everyone of them my new address they revised the Gas bill to £70. I paid the electricity bill as they insisted I had given them a reading and I was worn down by all the arguing.They told me my address had been amended.
I gave my card details again over the phone for payment to be taken for the Gas bill, now reduced to £70, I was given a payment reference number, told all legal proceedings would be cancelled, my contact address had been changed on their system, my account was now CLOSED! And I stupidly believed them.
Today I recieved another solicitors letter for £194.96 for outstanding Gas bills addressed to my new address. I phoned BG and was told it was all a mistake and my account was closed and there was not a problem. I phoned the solicitor who would not believe me or contact BG temselves to find out. I phoned BG again and was told the employee I spoke to earlier was mistaken and payment was not processed as showing on the account, although the conversation I had with the employee in June was noted. My address had not been changed then either. I was then told it was down to me to contact my bank to see if the money had been paid as although the reference for payment was noted on the system they had no record that the payment was processed.
Having found that the payment had not been taken I phoned BG back and was told it was a computer error "a system failure" and it was not their responsability to contact a customer to inform them that the payment had failed. My address still had not been changed dispite this being the second time that morning I spoke to someone at BG. I gave them my card number again, was told my account was now closed yet again and a letter would be sent to me at my new address, but I won't hold my breath.
They are not willing to contact the solicitor on mybehalf to stop proceedings, as again it is not British Gas policy and the Solicitor will not contact British Gas as it is not their company policy either.
Fantastic service from both parties!!
For all the millions spent on "attracting customers back to British Gas" I for one will never use their services again.
Don't think that switching to another supplier will solve your BG nightmares. In March 2006 I switched from BG to NPower. BG continually harassed me for money that they said I owed (which I didn't) all through until the end of 2006, they kept insisting they were still supplying me, even though one of their own people had confirmed that the official register showed that they did not. Eventually they agreed that I was right and they were wrong.hooray. Until a couple of months ago when they started sending me threatening letters, now claiming that I owe them almost £600. The latest is a letter from the Debt Collection Agency they have appointed who are apparently going to get a warrant and come round to disconnect my supply. (Which they don't provide). When I spoke to the agents and told them that I didn't owe any money as BG weren't my suppliers I was told "that's your opinion" and that they are, indeed, on their way.
The most hilarious thing of all, is that while all this has been going on I actually had a BG salesman knock on my door to try and persuade me to sign up to them. He, it seems, had a list that told him who the people were in my street who weren't BG customers so that he could solicit them, and guess what? I was one of them. Amazing!
I am an employee of a major utility company specialising in resolving meter and billing probems..I am thinking of creating a website dedicated to helping the general public solve the issue without having to call the supplier (and spending hours on the phone)
wuould you all use my web site?
want he hear a good story? i tried ro register with www.britishgas.co.uk today so that we can get bills on-line and save paper bills! it transpires that british gas in their wisdom do not accept email addreses that have hyphens in them! i have been in the it industry for 20 years and never heard that one before so a warning to anyone thinking of signing up for on-line bills you need to get yourself a non-hyphenated email address first!
British Gas used to be a good utility company, but we ended up moving to Southern Electric and cancelling our account with BG.
We got our final gas and electricity bills: On the electric we owed £37.36 and on the gas they owed us £26.41.
I sent them a cheque for £10.95 and a covering letter of explanation including both account numbers and an idiot's guide to what I was doing, having first confirmed with them that this course of action would be OK.
They then cashed my cheque against the electricity bill, and proceeded to chase me for the outstanding balance of £26.41 - no mention that they owed me that on my gas account, and it should have been transferred across to close the electric account.
I phoned them. They said they'd sort it out. Sure enough,two weeks go by and they send me another letter chasing the money.
I telephone again. They apologise and "will sort it out"
Two weeks later I get a cheque from them for £26.41, and then the following day I get a letter saying that if I don't send them £26.41, they'll take me to court for it! Outstanding incompetence all round. Give them a big hand, folks!
I phoned them again and was told I had to pay the outstanding money by debit card over the phone and then cash their cheque.
Complete waste of space, they are. Couldn't organise their way out of a paper bag. Useless, pathetic, money grabbing, uncaring corporate example of the "age of customer service."
Can anyone help with a direct number to get through to this crowd avoiding press 1 for this and 2 for that phone system? spent an hour on hold and losing will to live.
British Gas ruined my day. I phoned up to pay my gas bill using a debit card. not too difficult you would think. gave my details and oh no the payment didnt go through, i knew the money was there so she tried again but still not gone through. well better get on to the bank then!
check with the bank and what do you know TWO payments to british gas and all our weeks money gone!!! phoned BG back and they were completely useless we could get our money in a couple of weeks, what a joke when you've got two kids that need feeding.
BG blame a computer error 'yes right' computers do what humans tell them.
luckily for us the bank were a lot more helpful and cancelled the payment we get our money in 24hours, unluckily for BG we cancelled our service, only to find another lie we were told we had a 14 day period to cancel our contract when we signed up, but on the phone we get told its 7 days. if you're thinking of joining DONT if your a member already LEAVE.they have no customer skills and none of the staff are properly trained what a disappointment. I feel they should not even be allowed to use british in their name they bring mockery to our country. Check out my site www.wesay.tk soon because im on a mission now to destroy the money hungry company that is ruining the british name.
BG owed me £275 October 2006. I telephoned the company regards this, speaking to a very nice apologetic lady who even won my custom back to BG.She promised that an order for a cheque was logged on the computer and would be sent out that evening in the post.
Beginning of December, i telephoned to chase up cheque. - nothing on computer system! i went through the whole story again! 3 weeks passed and same recurred and joe blogs in customer services did not exist. nothing on computer. i went through whole story again!! a couple of months later, numerous weekly calls to 3 managers, 4 sales assistants,(never able to be put through to named BG assistant or mamager and wrong extension number given to me) the story going on and on to no avail! finally at the beginning of March 2007 my cheque arrived!! - very poor service. need team building courses for staff to learn how to liase with each other, or were they just constant pathetic lies to fob me off! i have a bill now for gas/electric use for £145.00 - shame i speak no Inglis and i not understand bill !!!
I moved into my new property on the 1st July last year I rang British Gas on the same day and gave them my meter readings. They were then to set up gas and electricity accounts using direct debit. The direct debit was never set up and I recieved a quarterly electricity bill but no gas bill. I telephoned and was informed they had no record of me giving them gas meter readingas and that no account had been set up and therefore they would set up an account from the first of July based on estimated readings. I wasnt very happy with this but begrudgingly agreed. Time passed and then I suddenly recieved two bills at once one for the first period and one fo rthe second period of time that had since passed. I could not afford to pay them both at once and reang British Gas who told me I could pay by monthly payment card spread out over twelve months and incorporating future bills. I agreed and awaitied my payment card. This was in January 2007. Three weeks or so passed and I still had not heard anything so I rang again. No payment card had been arranged and apparently they AGAIN had no record of my conversation with them. Again I was told that it would be set up and a card would be sent to me so I could make my first payment on 9th March 2007 (9 months after I moved in!!) I was told my payments would be £50 a month to start with to clear the arrears. Again time passed and I didnt hear anything. I telephoned yesterday 28th March 2007 to see what was going on and was told again that they had no record of any conversation or of anything being set up and that they would set it up now but my monthly payments would now be £116 pounds a month as more time had passed!!! I was not offered any apology at all and when I tried to explain what had happened and that I could not pay such a high amount I was told there was nothing they could do and the amount HAD to be paid.
I put down the phone an immediatly e mailed a complaint to energywatch. Hopefully they will be able to help me. This awful company have caused me a lot of unneccessary stress and the CEO should be ashamed of the way his company performs. Awful awful company dont go with them!!!!!!!
Hi. I am, working for a daytime tv show that deals with consumer affairs in which we try to solve problems that consumers may be having, in this case with british gas. if this interests you then please do not hestitate to drop me an email so we can discuss this further. my email address is:
Never in my life have I resorted to posting complaints on a site or by mail, I am too lazy but I have been driven stark raving mad by British Gas!!!!! Have called 5 times today after 3 long, cold weeks waiting for a new pre-payment card!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today I was told an engineer was coming out to me on 4 different occasions. 3 weeks ago I was told that a card was in the post. On 3 occasions I was told that a card was being sent fast track and would be with me the next day. On my last call, I was told that I hadn't made any calls, that no engineer had been called out and no card had been sent out! Most days they cannot even find me on the system. I have a baby and glandular fever and this british gas lark is turning me into a mad woman, as is the cold! I am in absolute shock that a company could get it so wrong! Admittedly, all the call centre staff have been really kind and helpful, but at the end of the day if you're simply spending hours and hours on the phone for nothing other than being told you never actually called at all or aren't even a customer, then what good is that! Am off to get meself a hot water bottle! I have a baby but thankfully I can keep her safe with blankets and cuddles etc but if my grandparents were going through this with British Gas like other elderly people are, I'd take myself up the stinky BG headquarters and hold them all bloody hostage! Phew, feel better for that rant and all that typing has warmed me up some. Good luck to you all, totally know where you're all coming from. I've sat listening to those pan pipes for many an hour as you can probably tell - they've made me deranged!
We have recently seen potterton boiler malfunctions on watchdog. we have opted rather than deal with pottertons repair directly to go with this newly advertised service of one off repair with British Gas. after contacting them at the weekend to arrange an engineer we then had to call back to find that they hadnt actually booked us in to have an engineer out. so day two of time off work an engineer arrives. makes some changes to the system and £156 later and a quote for repair work the engineer leaves the boiler hasnt functioned since. i have gone from having a boiler with a slight fault to no boiler what so ever, the best british gas can offer send another engineer around on day 3. currently its day 3 they were meant to be here by 1. we have just found a card in the door stating the limp handed engineer hasnt been able to gain access to the property even though there were 2 hardly deaf 26 year old on the property and a car secured on the front drive. british gas made no attempt to contact us even though the engineer could tell were we on the property. he apparently waited the alloted time b efore leaving us again without any heating. now the promise is that on day 4 of time off work they will send around an engineer no offer of compensation or refund cause apparently british gas dont give compensation cause they are a limited company. Sal one of the managers in the leeds office confirms. me thinks someone is just trying to give excuses. fingers crossed that i will have a functioning boiler again sometime before the baby is born in the next 8 weeks. Never using british gas again and i wont be recommending any of their services either. as consumer direct have advised they are in breach of the rules regarding supply of goods and services act. british gas are aware of this but still do not see that us being left without an essential item like our boiler is breach of that rule.
My mother switched from British Gas to EDF last summer. As of the beginning of January this year, British Gas were STILL taking money from her by Direct Debit for their 'home care' service - despite the fact that a) she has now moved to another energy provider and b) BG hadn't even carried out the annual boiler service she was paying them for in two years. She has called repeatedly to attempt to sort this out, but they say that they cannot cancel the home care policy (even though she is no longer with the company) because it was set up in her ex-husband's name. Despite the fact that the direct debit has ALWAYS been paid from her account. Which is in her name alone. She has given instructions to the bank not to allow any payments to British Gas, and as a result she is now receiving demands from BG for money she doesn't owe them. These people are a joke.
An update on my efforts over the last 8 mths to move from British Gas to EDF, after loads of stalling by British Gas the move has finally gone through. Its taken over 8mths which obviously includes the coldest winter months!
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Comments:
On the 2nd of June it will be 3 months and still I have not received the box which will allow me to top up over the internet. I have rang them twice and both times I was told the same thing by two different people I would receive it soon, not sure when but I would receive the top up box.
Well I'm still waiiting I have emailed their customer services department I don't hold out with that. I will wait to read what excuse they have come up with as to why I have not yet been sent the box. I don't want any problems although it looks like I will be getting some if they don't stick to their side of the agreement and supply the customer me what I signed up for and is part of their pay as you go deal.
If I had known this was going to happen I would have gone else where. Only none else was offering the option to top up from home via the internet. And it now looks like British Gas are not either.
Further to my earlier posting, I would urge anyone who has had negative dealings with BG to follow this link and read the blog. If you can relate to it then please make your feelings known!!
switched me over in dec 08 for no reason, appartly i entred a verbal agreement, i have asked 37 times for a copy of my conversation to be sent to me. A rude nasty lady called sarah was supposed to send me the copy in january, im still waiting, i recieved debt collecter letters for £70 electricty and £210 gas, gets better it was for business fuel, i dnt own a business and live in a 2bed appartment in sw19. paid the debt collectors so wouldnt have bad debt but will never go with them, not even energy saving and they are bad for environment, increasing their prices when eon adn edf decreased them
On the day of the appointment, I received a call from them telling me that the engineer was ill and would not be able to attend. It was an inconvenience but what can you do when someone is ill? The appointment was rescheduled for a couple of weeks later.
The evening before the re-scheduled appointment I received a cheery answerphone message from the engineer who was due to come out. His message said that he was calling to confirm and also '"if it was convenient" would I mind texting him back to confirm that it was OK?'
Well it wasn't convenient - for one thing, I didn't get the message because it was left on my work number until the following afternoon (after the time when the engineer was supposed to have been).
Yes, that's right, "supposed" - because he basically didn't turn up.
I phoned British Gas this evening when I got home. When I got to the front of the queue and the call was eventually answered by a human being, my first comment was that I couldn't hear her very well to which she replied "Well, my volume is turned up full, so there isn't anything I can do about that, is there?" in a very sarcastic, condescending tone of voice.
Needless to say, I am less than thrilled with British Gas and am now only going through the motions of getting a quote from them so I can use it to get a cheaper quote from one of their competitors.
Given the choice I wouldn't touch this organisation with a barge pole. And if that first operator that answered that call worked for my business, she'd be spending Christmas un-employed. Not that it would do her attitude much good.
A few years ago now I had a run in with BG over poor customer service that led me to issuing Court Proceedings against the company and, day before the hearing, they settled.
Very briefly ........ took out service contract with BG (similar to what I had had previously and at previous address) - done it online and date offered by BG for compulsory "initial inspection".
Before that date the boiler failed. I placed a service call. Company attended and inspected - said they would need to make a further call as work required estimated to be "2 hours" - new appointment made (not kept) but eventually they turned up.
Rather than do the "2 hour repair" booked in the engineer said boiler too old to be covered under contract, not safe to use in current state, would take too long to repair, needed to be replaced instead etc. then disconnected it leaving me with neither Central Heating nor hot water over Christmas (this happened on 21st/22nd December carried over to 23rd on the latest visit from BG's engineer).
I decided to seek a second opinion from independent C.O.R.G.I. engineer about feasibility of repairing the boiler - had not failed in previous 5 years after all and therefore probably just needed a "good clean2 or "service" to put right.
C.O.R.G.I. engineer came and inspected, agreed with my diagnosis and booked an appt. in for 6th January (which he kept). Did a thorough de-soot type of clean of the internal workings, re-connected the supply and away we went - been fine ever since (although this is down to him now servicing the thing annually as much as anything I think).
In the intervening period we used an electric convector heater to warm one room at a time up as we needed it and employed a separate 3rd party plumber to install an immersion heater to our hot water storage tank. As this could not be arranged immediately we booked ourselves into a local hotel for a night just so that we could have a proper wash in a bath/shower.
BG sent a sales person round early January to quote for a new "condensing boiler" re-located to our roof space (existing boiler is traditional flue jobby and located in our kitchen - the size of a base unit and noisy to boot, from all the scale that's still it its heat exchanger apparently!).
Quote for a new boiler plus associated pipework to re-route to roof, take out old boiler, and I think hot water storage tank etc. came to a whopping £3,500 (and that did not include any new radiators anywhere - I would have expected an entire system for that much - the boiler itself they quoted me was available on the internet for about £700 only I recall - yes, I checked this out too!)
I decided that rather than pay them to tear my kitchen to bits and generally make my life even more unpleasant than they had done already I would, instead, ask them to pay me back for the extra expenses they had caused me to incur as a consequence of them not fullfilling the repair they agreed to do meaning they deprived me of both hot water and central heating over the festive period in the interim.
They refused so I threatened (& did) sue in the County Court for the monies I wanted. BG still didn't settle - instructed a city-based Solicitor to "put pressure" on me and generally "scare" me about having to pay BG's Court costs as an effort to get me to drop the case.
Unluckily for them, although not a qualified Lawyer myself, I do work in that environment and therefore had some professional guidance from appropriately qualified colleagues how to handle and resist BG's approaches via their Lawyer.
Outcome was that I "called their bluff" took it almost all of the way and, as I said earlier, the day before the Court Hearing I received a cheque in full and final settlement - which I was very pleased with - a result if ever there was one I must say!
This was even after many phone calls from me, and members of my staff asking for a bill.
Finally the bill came last December for over £4,000 - it came not with an apology, but a legal threat that unless the bill was paid IN FULL in 10 days I would be taken to court!!
I've since changed my gas suppliers
I then, a year later, received a notice of legal proceedings for the outstanding amount of £124 for estimated Gas and £80 for Electricity, bothsent to my new address. I rang and told them I had moved in July 2006, they said they had no record of the call regarding Gas, although they had the reading for the electricity meter they said I had given them on the date I said I had called about the house move and the gas reading.....I had never given them a electricity meter reading as I did not have access to the meter. After several phone calls with different departments, and telling everyone of them my new address they revised the Gas bill to £70. I paid the electricity bill as they insisted I had given them a reading and I was worn down by all the arguing.They told me my address had been amended.
I gave my card details again over the phone for payment to be taken for the Gas bill, now reduced to £70, I was given a payment reference number, told all legal proceedings would be cancelled, my contact address had been changed on their system, my account was now CLOSED! And I stupidly believed them.
Today I recieved another solicitors letter for £194.96 for outstanding Gas bills addressed to my new address. I phoned BG and was told it was all a mistake and my account was closed and there was not a problem. I phoned the solicitor who would not believe me or contact BG temselves to find out. I phoned BG again and was told the employee I spoke to earlier was mistaken and payment was not processed as showing on the account, although the conversation I had with the employee in June was noted. My address had not been changed then either. I was then told it was down to me to contact my bank to see if the money had been paid as although the reference for payment was noted on the system they had no record that the payment was processed.
Having found that the payment had not been taken I phoned BG back and was told it was a computer error "a system failure" and it was not their responsability to contact a customer to inform them that the payment had failed. My address still had not been changed dispite this being the second time that morning I spoke to someone at BG. I gave them my card number again, was told my account was now closed yet again and a letter would be sent to me at my new address, but I won't hold my breath.
They are not willing to contact the solicitor on mybehalf to stop proceedings, as again it is not British Gas policy and the Solicitor will not contact British Gas as it is not their company policy either.
Fantastic service from both parties!!
For all the millions spent on "attracting customers back to British Gas" I for one will never use their services again.
The most hilarious thing of all, is that while all this has been going on I actually had a BG salesman knock on my door to try and persuade me to sign up to them. He, it seems, had a list that told him who the people were in my street who weren't BG customers so that he could solicit them, and guess what? I was one of them. Amazing!
And now I must confess
I've praised you on this site before
But now you're just a mess.
You said on Friday you would come
But then you had the cheek
To tell me that the deal was off
And you would come next week.
On Monday? No. On Tuesday? No.
Wednesday is the day
That you will mend my washing machine.
Well, that is what you say!
I'm so glad I don't work for you
I'd hang my head in shame
To have to give your customers
Excuses that are lame.
Your so called 'service' is a fake
You break appointments that you make
Clean up your act for pity's sake!
wuould you all use my web site?
We got our final gas and electricity bills: On the electric we owed £37.36 and on the gas they owed us £26.41.
I sent them a cheque for £10.95 and a covering letter of explanation including both account numbers and an idiot's guide to what I was doing, having first confirmed with them that this course of action would be OK.
They then cashed my cheque against the electricity bill, and proceeded to chase me for the outstanding balance of £26.41 - no mention that they owed me that on my gas account, and it should have been transferred across to close the electric account.
I phoned them. They said they'd sort it out. Sure enough,two weeks go by and they send me another letter chasing the money.
I telephone again. They apologise and "will sort it out"
Two weeks later I get a cheque from them for £26.41, and then the following day I get a letter saying that if I don't send them £26.41, they'll take me to court for it! Outstanding incompetence all round. Give them a big hand, folks!
I phoned them again and was told I had to pay the outstanding money by debit card over the phone and then cash their cheque.
Complete waste of space, they are. Couldn't organise their way out of a paper bag. Useless, pathetic, money grabbing, uncaring corporate example of the "age of customer service."
If you didn't laugh you'd cry!
check with the bank and what do you know TWO payments to british gas and all our weeks money gone!!! phoned BG back and they were completely useless we could get our money in a couple of weeks, what a joke when you've got two kids that need feeding.
BG blame a computer error 'yes right' computers do what humans tell them.
luckily for us the bank were a lot more helpful and cancelled the payment we get our money in 24hours, unluckily for BG we cancelled our service, only to find another lie we were told we had a 14 day period to cancel our contract when we signed up, but on the phone we get told its 7 days. if you're thinking of joining DONT if your a member already LEAVE.they have no customer skills and none of the staff are properly trained what a disappointment. I feel they should not even be allowed to use british in their name they bring mockery to our country. Check out my site www.wesay.tk soon because im on a mission now to destroy the money hungry company that is ruining the british name.
Beginning of December, i telephoned to chase up cheque. - nothing on computer system! i went through the whole story again! 3 weeks passed and same recurred and joe blogs in customer services did not exist. nothing on computer. i went through whole story again!! a couple of months later, numerous weekly calls to 3 managers, 4 sales assistants,(never able to be put through to named BG assistant or mamager and wrong extension number given to me) the story going on and on to no avail! finally at the beginning of March 2007 my cheque arrived!! - very poor service. need team building courses for staff to learn how to liase with each other, or were they just constant pathetic lies to fob me off! i have a bill now for gas/electric use for £145.00 - shame i speak no Inglis and i not understand bill !!!
I put down the phone an immediatly e mailed a complaint to energywatch. Hopefully they will be able to help me. This awful company have caused me a lot of unneccessary stress and the CEO should be ashamed of the way his company performs. Awful awful company dont go with them!!!!!!!
dougsy28@hotmail.com
dougsy7 at 19th Mar 2007, 03:50PM
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