Driven crazy by faulty van
I bought a diesel van. It had low mileage and the seller told me he’d never had any issues with the diesel particulate filter. But, a week later, a warning light came on and wouldn’t go off. The garage say it will cost at least £1200 to put things right. I am furious. What can I do? Not a lot as it appears you purchased privately and, as such, it’s a case of buyer beware. So unless you can prove the seller had been having problems with the DPF and misrepresented the situation, there is little you can do. Contact Trading Standards if need be. The couple, who run their own bedroom business, haven’t had a bill for eight years after British Gas claimed they’d switched to another supplier. Margaret , 57, said: “We probably use more than £1000 a year but we haven’t had a bill since 2010. British Gas won’t entertain us as they claim we are no longer their customer.
“And other suppliers want to know who our provider is before they will discuss anything.”
The Laffertys, of Perth, have been trading for 39 years, with 20 years at their current premises.
Their problems began when they received a letter from British Gas saying another firm had applied to take over their account.
Margaret said: “That was in 2010. We hadn’t asked to change suppliers and we told them that.”
British Gas said they would prevent the transfer as she and Gordon, 67, were still in contract with them.
But by June 2011, they hadn’t received a bill. The energy giants apologised that the complaint was taking so long to resolve.
Margaret said: “We were then told our meter number was no longer registered at our address. British Gas said it was allocated to a business in Southampton.”
A meter reader arrived at the shop out of the blue and told them their account had switched to TOTAL Gas & Power.
But Margaret said: “The account was in the name of a business called Dreams at our address. That wasn’t us.”
They reported this to British Gas, who said the account would be returned to them and it would take 60 days. But Margaret said: “It never happened.”
They got in touch with other suppliers to resolve matters. But she said: “No one could find our supplier or identify the meter number as being at our premises.”
I got on to British Gas, who said they hadn’t made an error – they had acted on information from the national industry database.
While they still couldn’t work out who the supplier was, they had managed to acquire the meter and agree a new contract.
The firm added: “We stopped billing in 2010, at which point we believe an erroneous transfer took place. The supply never returned to us despite our attempts.
“But we will supply Mr and Mrs Lafferty going forward.”
Ofgem have banned firms from backbilling customers for energy used more than 12 months ago in any case.