British Gas owed us £1,745 - yet still sent in the debt collectors

WE SWITCHED from British Gas in November last year, but, several months later, it is still holding on to £1,745.34 of our money.

In addition it has put debt collectors on to us. We have a small debit on our electricity account, but a large credit for gas.

I was told that the debit would be offset against the credit, and then the balance would be repaid to us, but this has not happened.

I have since found out that, whoever tried to offset the debit against the credit made a mistake and doubled the amount owing on the electricity, add÷ ing £25 for non-payment. Last night, I received yet another call from the debt collectors.

This is upsetting me and affecting my sleep. I am also concerned that my credit rating will be damaged by their mistakes. Mrs V. M., Dyfed.

ofGeM guidance says energy firms should refund credit money within ten working days of sending a final bill. failure to do so triggers a £30 compensation payment.

British Gas sent you your final bill in november, then held on to your money for more than three months and set debt collectors on you.

You even received calls at home in the evening.

Centrica, British Gas’s parent company, gave boss Iain Conn a 44 pc pay rise last year to £2.4 million for ‘ showing resilience’ while ‘reshaping’ the company. I doubt that ‘resilience’ included having to field calls at home in the evening for money he does not owe.

British Gas says you owed £228.13 for electricity but were £1,973.47 in credit on gas.

It admits its operator incorrectly debited the electricity account, rather than crediting it with money you were owed on gas, prompting the debt collector to get in touch.

It says that, because of the large amount you were owed, it needed to be passed to a manager for it to be authorised.

This implies that the more money you are owed, the longer British Gas will take to pay.

There was also an issue of the meter reading sent by your new supplier, which implied you had not used any gas for 18 months. It seems British Gas did not know you were using a wood burner, and had been taking too much money from your direct debit bills.

British Gas did eventually settle its debts with you, but, bizarrely, said it wanted to be sure it really owed you the money!

It asked you to close the complaint, but you rightly raised the issue of compensation.

British Gas offered £75. This derisory amount highlights the different standards employed by financial institutions and utilities — though, perhaps, it is all it had available after paying Mr Conn’s £2.4 million.

A bank or building society that had treated a customer so shabbily would have paid around £200 compensation.

But you were happy to accept the amount in order to see the back of this episode.

MY VIRGIN Media bill suddenly crept up to £ 80 per month — too high to ignore.

I phoned the company in October last year and was persuaded to stay with them for £49 per month for six months and then £59 for the next six. The bill dropped to just over £ 49 for October, but, by December, it had leapt up again — this time to £70.

I rang Virgin, but was passed from one person to another, each time having to give repeat my details.

Eventually, I was told a manager would review the recording of my conversation and get back to me in 24 hours — but I heard nothing.

In January, I rang and went through the whole process again. I was put on hold and waited 20 minutes before I realised no one was coming back.

I’ve since tried complaining on Twitter and have filled in a complaints form on the website, but again have heard nothing. M. R, Falkirk.

I’M BeCoMInG convinced some companies have an unwritten policy of losing complaining customers on their phone systems.

The number of times you were left dangling on the phone, and the failure to address your complaint suggests a policy of keeping the customers waiting by whatever means is available.

When I made contact, the executive team at Virgin Media checked the recordings of your phone conversation.

It says the reduction you were offered was to £65.50 for six months, then £69.50 for a further six months.

They have suggested that the misunderstanding may have come because the agent told you your next bill would be £46.57, due to your receiving credits from advance billing under your previous contract.

Since october, your bills have ranged from £58.90 to £73.54.

The lower ones are due to a credit for loss of service and the higher ones because you made calls outside of your package.

Virgin has now offered a further reduction to your bill as a gesture of goodwill.

This is all very well, but the real issue is why Virgin didn’t deal with your problem in the first place. Why were you passed from pillar to post, and why were you promised calls back that were not made?

All you wanted was an explanation, but, instead, you were given the runaround.