British Gas screwing me over!!!

[alloy36]

Hi all,

I've been a long time lurker (over 2 years) and have finally had to post to ask for some advice.

I had fantastic credit history and moved to a rented property which had a gas and electricity meter from British Gas. I asked for a conventional meter to be installed and these to be removed as I was constantly running to and from the post office.

Anyway British gas did a credit check and installed the new meters. Then after a month I got a bill for £300+.

When I queried this I was told that it was something to do with the meter not being updated previously and me being on the wrong tarrif.I was only there for 3 weeks.

As I've not been there for even a month, and had even paid a lot of money for the tokens, I knew this was nonsense. But british gas would not change their mind.

Times were hard, I was being made redundant so I got my better half to call up and transfer it on her name and basically decided that I would not pay this as I am 100% convinved I do not owe it.

The trouble is this has gone down as an associated address on my credit history and I can't get any credit. I will be looking for a property to buy soon and I fear that this will result in me losing out on the good deals.

So guys, what do I do?? Can I do anything?? or do i have no option but to pay British Gas £300 + for three weeks of energy + the tokens?

[bogwoppit]

I think your only option is to sort it out with them, dispute the amount, threaten to go to the regulator, etc. If it doesn't get sorted out, take it to small claims court. If you're 100% sure, then you'll win. I'm not sure whether it's better to pay the bill first then try to get the money back, or vice versa. Being a faceless company you will have to be very patient either way. Talk to CAB. At the end of all this, you will be able to get your credit file corrected. In the meantime I think you can also put a note on indicating the default is disputed.

Did you also look into whether the type of meter has been recorded correctly? Some people have been getting massive bills because of metric conversions being applied erroneously. You can probably find some more info with Google, I think Watchdog did a feature.

[Anthony Micallef]

I had an 18 month running battle with them over my DD. I finally got it sorted by emailing the MD. Send me a message and Ill give you the details if you want to pursue it in this way.

[natnik21]

talk to ofgem who are the regulator for gas and electric suppliers sounds like they are trying to bill you for previous occupier ta\lk to them and they will look into it and throw it out

[cheadle hulme]

Most likely is that the new meters they installed are refurbished. They've assumed they were installed at 00000, but in fact were reading a bit higher.
When the reader takes you're reading at (say) 00500, they bill you from zero to 500 instead of (say) 00450 to 00500.

[hairyben]

British gas are monumentally useless, complain to them then escalate via the regulator ofgas or ofgen or whatever.