Your web site has given me renewed hope in my complaint against BG,
at last I am not alone! Details of my complaint are below, please feel
free to contact me about this.
| 1. |
I attempted to transfer my gas and electricity to Scottish
Power in 2001, the gas account did go through after a small amount
of trouble but an objection was raised on the electricity account
'because there was a balance of more than ?5 outstanding.' There was
a direct debit in place to cover my bills. It seems I was not alone
in being caught in this trap, and I note that British Gas has been
fined ?200,000 by Ofgem for such practices. |
| 2. |
Eventually the transfer was completed after your organisation
caused me a great deal of distress. The final payment to close the
account was taken from my bank and the account was closed. |
| 3. |
Some 6 months after I had left I received a bill for ?33.17. No
one at British Gas could tell me why I had received this so long
after being told the account was closed and the balance settled. |
| 4. |
I served a subject access request on BGT but note that there
are several telephone calls missing from your diary events. Even
when I served this notice British Gas flouted the rules that are
laid down by the Information Commissioner and took longer than the
40-day period allowed under the Data Protection Act (DPA) to reply. |
| 5. |
I then received a 'WARNING OF COURT ACTION', dated 17 September
2002. I rang the number on the letter and spoke to a lady called
Maggie who agreed that it was ridiculous for the issue to have gone
on for so long and questioned the validity of the bill. The ?33.17
was written and a letter sent to me that clearly states that the
?33.17 had been written off and that my credit file would not be
affected in any way. |
| 6. |
In June 2003 I applied for a mortgage, as I had to relocate for
my job. My application was declined and the lender suggested that I
send for a copy of my Experian credit file. This caused a great deal
of distress not only to me but also to my partner and my daughter. A
copy of the notification from the lender that my application was
declined has been sent to Mark Best in your Managing Director's
office. |
| 7. |
I then had to find a new lender and had to approach a mortgage
broker. I paid out ?249 for an additional survey and ?750 for
professional fees to the broker, a total of ?999. A copy of this
invoice has been sent to Mark Best in your Managing Director's
office. |
| 8. |
Once I was in receipt of my credit file I saw that BGT had
entered a default onto my file on 21 December 2002, some 3 months
after I had received a letter from you stating that my credit file
would not be affected. A copy of my credit file has been sent to
Mark Best in you Managing Director's office. |
| 9. |
I contacted the Central Recoveries department at BGT and spoke
to Ruth Sheen who did confirm that a default had been placed on my
credit file. In fact she confirmed that my account had been passed
to a debt collection agency on 13 September and that the ?33.17 had
not been written off. |
| 10. |
I later spoke to a lady called Tina in the Debt Recovery
Department who advised me that my account was 'dormant in the
system' and that there had been a 'system error' that put the
default onto my credit file. She also said that it should have been
sent for auto write off but because the credit rating reference
wasn't done in time the default was registered. I was also told that
BGT have no means of alerting staff if their system fails in this
way. |
| 11. |
On 3 July 2003 I spoke to Irene Lewis a Debt Recovery Manager I
believe, and she advised me that the 'complaints department
acknowledge that there have been a number of computer errors
recently and there should be no problem with a claim for
compensation.' I have a witness to this conversation as I used a
conference call facility. |
| 12. |
The default was removed by BGT and a letter of apology sent to
me stating that it should never have been registered against me. A
copy of this letter was sent to Mark Best. In fact I have 2 separate
original copies of this letter as one was sent to my Wigan address
and one was sent to me a London address, which was temporary
address. |
| 13. |
I have spoken to the Information Commissioner and am submitting
a complaint to them, as it appears that BGT is in contravention of
the DPA. I am awaiting their written confirmation as I intend to
submit that with any court summons I will need to issue against
British Gas to recover my outstanding costs & expenses. |
| 14. |
Mark Best at BGT told me that you always register a default
where a customer refuses to pay. This is diametrically opposed to
the information I have been given by all the other staff within the
company and it just further confirms my thoughts that your
accounting systems are in such a state of chaos that you do not have
a full picture of your customer accounts. |
| 15. |
I have contacted Experian in an attempt to try and have some of
the credit searches removed from my file. This has only been
partially successful and I continue to have ongoing problems,
including with my own bank, as a result of British Gas. For example
I recently applied to my own bank for an additional current account,
where I have been a customer for some 20 years. Due to the notices
of correction applied to the account to counteract the searches
lenders carried out both before and after the default was removed I
had to wait 48 hours whilst their head office gave a decision as to
whether I could have the account. I am now too embarrassed to apply
for any type of interest free credit in case I am refused. Other
than the default registered by British Gas my credit file was and is
completely clean. |
| 16. |
I have now spoken to several people in the customer relations
team that deal with complaints referred to them from energywatch
including a manager, Nick Gatfield on 28 October 2003. Mr Gatfield
said there was no case for me to be paid compensation. I pointed out
that I am not seeking compensation; I am merely seeking a refund of
costs I incurred as a result of the negligence or system failure at
British Gas. Mr Gatfield seemed to be unaware of the fact that not
only did British Gas advise me that no default would be added to my
credit file but also that I have since received an apology and a
letter stating that the default was placed on my credit file in
error. This only further confirms my suspicions that your internal
communications need to be radically improved. |