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Jessica Investigates

£5,000 bill for Mexico ambulance

In 2015 I was on holiday in Mexico and a drunk driver hit the car I was driving. It went off the road and collided with an electricity pylon. I had to be cut out of the car and was taken to hospital with a broken vertebra, broken femur and a severe head injury.

I nearly died and was airlifted home to the UK and remained in a coma for weeks. It was months before I could leave hospital. I spent the remaining part of the year recovering at home. My travel insurance was a Silver policy with Insure and Go.

More than two years on, the insurer paid most of my travel expenses. The personal accident injury payout is still being challenged and I am not asking you to help with this aspect.

What I do hope you can resolve for me is a bill for $6,700 (£5,209) from the ambulance company, which took me to hospital in Mexico. As far as I am concerned I am not in any way liable for this fee. I previously forwarded this bill to Insure and Go a year and a half ago. It is causing me a huge amount of stress that the ambulance company is still chasing me.

Please can you put an end to this. RW, LONDON

The latest notification from the ambulance provider suggested you pay by credit card and interestingly offered a 40pc discount if you settled within five business days.

It said that, because Insure and Go had paid nothing, in accordance with an agreement signed by you, this amount had become your personal responsibility. It mentioned potential debt collection activity if you did not comply. I spoke to Insure and Go and it reassured you and me that you are in no way liable for these costs. It said the ambulance company shouldn’t be pursuing you directly. It has now instructed it to cease all contact with you and only deal with the insurer.

BT overcharged me by £459

Three years ago I closed my home office and the phone was disconnected. BT told me that a £195 fee would be charged for breaking the contract. It was cheaper to pay the line rental until the contract ended and so I did. The following year I discussed with BT a new contract that was conditional on the old phone being officially discontinued. This was confirmed and BT Infinity broadband was arranged and a hub installed that was tied to my home number.

However, bills continued to include the rental charge for the old phone. Please can you help with getting the money accumulated from repeated wrongful billing refunded? RV, GLOS

You have had serious health issues and have clearly found this BT episode an additional strain.

Just under two weeks after I received your letter and contacted BT it apologised for not stopping the line when you had requested it to do so. It cancelled the phone and assured me it sent you a cheque for £459 for rental wrongly charged since this happened. Also, as a goodwill gesture, it credited your account with three months’ line rental worth £57. Additionally, it has given you a discount on broadband that will save you £168 over the year.

Why is Scottish Power billing us?

My wife received a demand for more than £2,000 from a debt collection agency whose client was Scottish Power. This related to an unpaid bill at a property with the same postcode as one we moved from two years ago.

My wife wrote back stating she had never lived at the address in question. Nor have either of us ever had an account with Scottish Power. Anyway, all our energy bills are in my name alone.

The debt collection company held back and we thought that was the end of it. Then we heard from a different one that demanded payment for the same account but for a slightly higher amount.

My wife wrote back to it and to Scottish Power stating the pertinent facts but this had no effect. AR, NORTH YORKS

Scottish Power had been supplying a property for which it had not set up an account. It arranged a trace and a credit reference agency came up with a lead that appeared to be what it was after.

It implied that the supply was being provided to your wife when in fact the householder is someone with a surname similar, but not identical, to yours.

Further to my involvement, Scottish Power removed all details from its system regarding your wife. It sent £100 as a gesture of goodwill.

I have given you contact details of someone at the credit reference agency so you can clarify the situation and prevent something similar happening again.

Does NatWest owe you a payout?

You may wish to highlight to your readers the possibility of compensation for a product mis-sold by NatWest.

I bought an investment called an Autopilot International Issue 6 from a NatWest financial adviser on behalf of my wife in June 2011. I complained to NatWest when the product disappointed but was fobbed off. I went to the Financial Ombudsman Service about this and it upheld our case and awarded us compensation.

I know from my research that it was sold to more than 20,000 people many of whom will have no idea that they can get compensation. PG, HERTS

I understand that 20,000 investors were written to some time ago.

A NatWest spokesman said: “Autopilot was a sophisticated product. In the past we offered it to a number of different customer groups. Where we identified customers who were less experienced investors, its complexity may have meant the product was not appropriate.

“We have proactively communicated with those customers offering options to set this right.”

Now it is reviewing 4,000 more cases that involve sales through its independent financial services and private banking teams, which served customers more likely to have relevant investment experience. It is checking to ensure they received suitable advice.