Absolutely fuming (long one)

[Yvonne]

I am after advice really as to what i can do.

Its started in November (middle of) when i called British gas to enquire about changing from the prepayment meter (pay as you go) to a credit pay quartely meter.
They told me i couldn't do it as they owe me money from them over estimating my charges, it was £96 and said i should get a cheque through in a week. Once i had received the cheque i could then swap over.

Called back after 2 weeks as it hadn't come and they said that it can take 28 days and to call back again in the exta 2 weeks if it hadn't arrived but it is being sorted.
Called back on monday and they said that there has been a delay as they had mixed meter readings and that they had to estimate which takes longer so i gave him a meter reading and he said from that it shows the money i am owed has gone to £137 and i should receive that withing a further 28 days!

I topped up the credit today and it took a chunk of it off me, so i rang and waited for my call to be answered for 45 mins! when i finally got through he dealt with my enquirey then i asked just by chance whether the problem with my cheque had been sorted..... He said that it is showing on my account as i am owed no credit So after putting me on hold for a further 15 mins he came back and said that he had spoke to the relevant dept and they said once i had given my meter reading on monday then it actually showed i was owed nothing!

I am fuming, trying to speak to a manager and got told one would ring back within 4 hrs (that was 4pm) so called at 7.30 as one hadn't rang and Andy is still on the phone on hold!

So all the costs of the 0845 calls, when i have been told if this cheque hasn't arrived to give them a call, all the time sat on the phone waiting which is 45 mins each time. and the thought of having a nice cheque for christmas is out of the window. I am going to claim compo!

 

[Jo]

Oh FFs sake they are a***holes
They wouldn't have given you 28days if you owed them money!!!!!

I would call back tommorow if Andy gets no Joy and ask to speak to a manager and tell them about all the times you have been on hold and that you expect reimbursing for it, if the say no you can go to the ombudsman i think or even better The Daily Mirror have a consumer section in it and so does Thats Life magazine

Make a point of telling them the different convosations you have had and i would demand they go back through the call( as they are usually recorded) and listen to what the halfwits have told you

Also i would ask what they have done to your account to make it eat all that money you have just put on!

It is obvious someone needs retraining somwhere

 

[Arcanegirl]

Ugh i hate when they do this to you.

I personally havent had a problem getting money owed to me back from scottish gas (British Gas). They owed us a whopping £500 and we called to get a cheque and it was sent with no problems

 

[Yvonne]

Jo.... When Andy called the complaints department earlier she said she can't make head not tail of the notes on my acount as there is only half sentances on there! Thay are not writing the full conversation down.

I really am pissed off with it all now, And when you have 2 young children running around i don't have 1hr to wait on the phone.

When i complained about my meter eating my credit they said it is probably set too high and they sent someone out last week to re-set it, but when he came he said he didn't have a clue what i was on about, he can't check the meter settings as such he just resets it to 0!

What annoyed me most is that i have chased the imaginary cheque for 2 months now! Being told the money i am owed has gone up blah blah so the mistake has dragged on for this long! What a BIG mistake and all the guy on the phone could say today was "Sorry, you have been mis-informed, they should have told you first that it needs checking over first!"

 

[Iwantone!!!]

tahts is riduolous babe they cant withhold what is ur go to the CBA or trading standards 45mins to wait write a letter also teh teh head office if they receieve a written complaint they they have to follow complaint procsdures say that u haev top up 3 time and waiting for an answer for 45mins and earing you creit explain u understand that they have busy times of the day but no one seem to be doing anything and you were expecting that 96quid or 137quid to help pay for xmas hope this helps

 

[Yvonne]

Do you reckon i could get them to small claims courts if they don't do anything!!
Thousands would be nice, i have a wedding to pay for!!

 

[weestar21]

OMG hun cant believe what they have done to you

im sorta in the same psistion although we dont know who the hell our suplier is we went from scottish power to Hydro electric as they were cheaper, we were told the pre pay meter would be taken out and replaced with a dry meter on the 10th of november. The day came and we were told on the 9th that an engineer would be with us between 8am and 1pm. 3pm came and no one came, so i rang them up to find out what was happening to be told i wasnt in for a engineer and would take another 6 weeks to organise another appointment got pissed off and told them to fuck their stupid meter.

Hap a letter from Scottish power last week saying im in credit of £54.38p so i rang them up and asked how could that be as im a pre pay customer and was told that i should recieve a call within 24hrs as they were really busy at the dep i was supposed to have called
24hrs camea nd went and no call, rang them bk and was then told that it was based on an estimat and would take up to 8 weeks with teh holiday period for them to deal with it to see if its me owed money to them or them owing money to me

So now we still have this stupid key meter and were spending at least £35 a week on it because we get charged £1.50 a day just for having the privalede
of using a key meter


When we moved in the meter was £60.98 in debt and took me 48 hours to convince scottish power i was a new tenant and had to get the council to fax the missivs to scottish power before they would send a new key out to re set the meter.

Scottish gas came to teh door last week and was asking us a few questions ect and we have now signed up with them they said they can put a new meter in, in aprox 8 weeks time but as of the 24th all our charges should be taken off, he says were prob eating through money because were paying off the old tenants debt

we have they silly storage meters but its not so bad as they charge over night and we have a 2 rate meter but its just the fact were eating through it like chocolate biscuts. Im on my £5 emergancy money as we speak as im skint till tomoz



Hope you get it all sorted soon hun and sorry for my rant on your post
xxxxxxxxxx

 

[ImTheDaddy]

Do you reckon i could get them to small claims courts if they don't do anything!!
Thousands would be nice, i have a wedding to pay for!!

You can't get anything if you have nothing in writing!

SORRY!!

 

[KX]

That's terrible. Take it all the way hun and definitkey claim back the phonecalls

 

[Yvonne]

Do you reckon i could get them to small claims courts if they don't do anything!!
Thousands would be nice, i have a wedding to pay for!!

You can't get anything if you have nothing in writing!

SORRY!!

What would i need in writing?
i have only tried to make the complaint today so you never know whats going to happen in the future.

 

[Lauz_1601]

SWITCH FROM BRITISH GAS ASAP! I had a pre pay meter when I moved into this house and like you had problem after problem, was on the phone on hold all the time which cost a fortune! Everytime I added credit it took a chunk out of it, the person before me had debt and I was paying for it so I let them know, they siad it would be sorted but it continued to take money off me!

Then I got a bill for about £160 .....after 3 weeks!!!!!! Again this was the other persons debt! so I rang they said it had been sorted and Id have a corrected bill, the "corrected" bill was £220! so it increased

meanwhile they meter was still taking money from me, which I was told Id recieve a cheque and I didnt.

In the end I changed it to a normal meterso thatI could leave british gas, Id never never use then again!

 

[Yvonne]

We have now changed to scottish power.

The customer service at that place is appauling.
Andy spoke to the senior custome complaints advisor and he said "we don't offer compensation or re embursement for phone calls, if you wish to take it further write to the ombudsman" When Andy said that it sounds like he doesn't want our custom and we are definately going to switch supplier he said "Whatever, thats your porogative!"

Absolutely disgusting!

 

[ImTheDaddy]

Do you reckon i could get them to small claims courts if they don't do anything!!
Thousands would be nice, i have a wedding to pay for!!

You can't get anything if you have nothing in writing!

SORRY!!

What would i need in writing?
i have only tried to make the complaint today so you never know whats going to happen in the future.

I was referring to your credit they said they owed you.

If there is nothing in writing then they technically don't owe anything!

Glad to hear you have move from them, I was thinking of changing back to BG, had no issues with them before, now with EDF, and uswitch says BG are the cheapest for us!!