Verycrossindeed, hi - scousegeezer here. To cut straight to the chase, Buchanan Clark and Wells, wont pay any attention to what you say. If you read my thread, Buchanan are the latest company to get instructions frpom BG to recover monay from me; money I do not owe incidentally. I received a letter from them at the beginning of December I contacted them and advised them I do not owe any money. I also advised them that they should check with BG what the money is for etc. They did not know at the time. They paid no attention. I then received a further letter from them and wrote to them as a consequence, again advising that they check things out. No reply, they deny receiving the letter. Then a third letter received stating someone is going to call at my home to recover the money - very threatening I think. Three letters within a month. I have therefore issued proceedings against BG. It appears that these companies just have blind faith in what they are told by the utility companies and wont believe anything we say to them. As you are not the person the letters are addressed to, the only thing I can suggest is to visit the CAB or a solicitor and get them to write to Buchanan. Whether it will do any good or not, I cant say. Cheers - Scousegeezer.

Just a quick update - I have now issued to British Gas. I have also written to the company that are handling the so called debt for British Gas- surprise , surprise - they say that have not received my letter. I have received a letter from them stating that they are sending a personal caller to collect the debt. Why do these companies act on the utilities behalf when they do not have ny evidence of the debt. I have asked the debt collection agency what its for , but they cannot tell me. They dont have the info, not just that they wont tell me. WORDS FAIL ME. - BLIND FAITH.

Surely if the timing chain had jumped - it would have been loose first. In which case the garage should have noticed the timing was out when they plugged it into the diagnostic computer. I understand that all main dealers now have these computers for their cars and should plug your car in when servicing it - just to see if something major is starting. THAT should have picked up any problem with the timing being out. In my opinion if they did not plug your car in they have failed in their duty and if they did plug it in and didnt notice a timing problem or there wasnt one, then they are just conning you. Anyway , a timing chain on a Merc should not go in 34k miles, should last about 60 - 70 k . Good luck

Connif, Yeah, the car I am buying is coming with a music pack ( nine speakers, Ipos connector, multi play cd etc.) To buy it through a dealer would cost £3,500 more than I am paying on line. I understand what Freakyleaky says about test drivcing , but I have done that through a local dealer. You can never test drive the car you are buying unless it is a second hand one. Buying a new one you have to see what its like when you get it, thats why there is a three year warantee. I have checked out a few on-line dealers and Autobytel were by far the cheapest. Cheers - scousegeezer

Illuminati, Many thanks for the advice. No, I havent done that yet. I am waiting to see what BG do when they get the county court papers. If they decide to defend, then I will take that course of action ( advance info etc). I suppose at the moment it is a case of suck it and see. Some how I think they will settle, given that they have withdrawn their instructions twice from previous collectioin agencies and have admitted to those agencies that the debt is not mine and the instructions were forwarded in error. Cheers - scousegeezer.

Mr Shed, Thanks for the advice . Will update later. Cheers - scousegeezer

OK EVRY1, I need some advice by 3pm - I have to leave home to go to my daughters house. The landlord is attending at 4pm to carry out an inspection - but I dont think that is the real reason. STORY- My daughter moved into a property at the beginning of October 07 - she has paid the deposit and a months rent in advance. Private landlord as you may have guessed. Five weeks ago the central heating packed up and she reported it to the landlord. It has still not been fixed. As the heating had packed in, my daughter slept on the sofa in the living room and had the gas fire on. Ac ouple of days later an engineer from BG attended to carry out the usual tests. He condemned the gas fire . Upshot is no heating whatsoever. A week after the heating packed in, my daughter paid her rent as usual, but as the heating is still not workingshe has refused to pay the current months rent. The landlord has told her on two occasions that an engineers is attending the property to carry out repairs. But he failed to attend, she waited in all day; but no show. There have been other occassions that the landlord states that an engineer has attended but got no reply. My daughter was not at home, but at work and the landlord did not advise her that anyone was attending. But we do not believe the landlord sent anyone as he knew my daughter would be at work and we think he is just saying that he sent someone. Questions :- Is she entitled to withold her rent until the heang is repaired Who should we threaten the landlord with, Health and Safety etc for no heating.

Hi, I am thinking about buying a new car and have been looking at on line suppliers - autobytel to be exact. Anyone with any experience of this company - or on line buying a car in general. Do they deliver on time etc. Cheers - scousegeezer:confused:

Tim1983, Hi, scousegeezer here. Retired Policeman. Sounds a bit sus to me. Dont want to frighten you, but the first question I would ask - is - how do the DVLA know its been registered with the wrong chassis number. You can do an HPI check on line - it will cost you though. As for getting your money back, that ones a bit tricky - depends on what was wrong with the vehicle and why it failed its MOT. If there are serious problems with the vehicle, chassis collapsing etc, then you can tackle it from the sale of goods act angle- basically the goods have to be fit for purpose. If the chassis is collapsing then its not fit for purpose - or merchantable quality as the law states. Then you can go through the small claims process. Its simple dont worry about it. You can either buy the book off this site or the staff in your local county court will advise you on the prodedures. The thing you have to note about the MOT test is that it only says that the vehicle is roadworthy on the date of the test. So you will have to prove that the fault with the vehicle was serious and would have been apparrent at the time opf testing - therefore a dodgy MOT. Let me know how you get on. Cheers - Scousegeezer.

Just for info - BT appear to have got their avt together. I wont bore you all to death with the details - not like my last thread - to cut a long story short- I changed from BT to Sky last September - BT sent me an incorrect bill. I e-mailed them and waited over a month for a reply - its taken since then to get satisfaction - but I have- However, I received a bill yesterday , which was supposed to get my account straight , but it included a late payment surcharge. I e-mailed them yesterday afternoon and they got back to me straight away. They needed my account number which was in the attached previous e-mail - never mind. So I replied straight away with the account number. I got a reply this morning stating that the late payment surcharge had been removed and my account would be straight as long as payed the outstanding balance, which had been agreed. The customer care centre is in India - didnt we all know that - but they now appear to be acting swiftly. Their e-mail address is - residential.billing@bt.com. Hope someone finds this useful. Cheers - scousegeezer.

Wino, Many thanks for your good luck wish. My opinion is that it is a case of "res ipsa locutur" (excuse spelling) - in other words the facts speak for themselves. They have withdrawn the file twice - because of their mistakes - I dont owe any money - and then re-instated the file twice - I dont think they can have a defence - its pure negligence and I have suffered because of it. I cant see a district judge accepting any defence. Chjeers - Scousegeezer.

Hi evry1, new to this; thought I would offer my experience of British Gas and ask for your thoughts etc. Story :- In September 05, I moved house. BG were my dual fuel suppliers for the old property. I therefore telepohoned them and advised that I was moving. I gave them my new address and also the meter readings. The previous bills had been estimated. After a few months when I had not heard anything from them, I thought that my accounts were straight. In other words the previous estimated bills were over estimated and I didnt opwe them anything. I almost threw away the previous bills but at the last moment decided to hanng onto them - JUST IN CASE. Good job I did. In February 06 I received a notice from BG central collections , stating that I owed themm £16.70p. The letter had been forwarded to my new address by the new occupant of the property. The letter stated that they were going to send a debt collector to my old address to collect the money , unless I contacted them on the phone and made arrangements to pay the bill. I duly rang on 22/2/06. I spoke to a lady, who would not give me her name. I explained what had gone on and she checked the drreaded computer. She came back to me and told me that there had been a mistake. There was a couple of pounds owing but as they had my new address and they had not sent me the bill at the new address, they would cancel the bill and nothing would be owing. I ensured that they had my new address. She told me that the electricity account had been updated but that the gas account had not, but she would do it and cancel both accounts. Before the end of the conversation, I advised the lady that if I heard anymore on this matter; that I would sue BG. She said she would make a note of the comment by me. Time passes without any further communication from BG. The thirteen months later, in March 07; a threatening letter lands on my doormat. From a company called Wescot Credit services. I am now informed by them, that I owe BG £419.38p. I received the letter on 19th March and the letter stated that unless I cleared the debt by 30th March, they would start court proceddings. On the evening of 19th March, I rang the company and expolained my side of the story. I spoke to a young lady called Louise. I asked her why I owed the money. She told me that she could not tell me. I then asked if she had the information or not and was it just a question that she would not tell me. She advised me that she did not have any information. I then pointed out that she was asking me as BG agents to pay money that she could not justify. She replied that was correct. I then told her that her comapny sgould check with BG why I owed the money and then get back to me. Her reply was that it was up to me to sort it out with BG. I pointed out that they were acting on BG behalf so it was up to them and not me to justify the bill. However, after finishing the telephone conversation with Louise I e-maild BG customer services. Explained everything to them and requested they sort this out. Once again, I advised them that if this continued I would start legal proceeding of my own aginst them. I received an automated e-mail reply stating my e-mail had been received and I would receive a reply in so many working days. I NEVER DID. On 10th April 07 I received a final notice from Wescot, stating legal proceedings would be commenced. However, on 14th April 07 I received a letter from Wescot telling me that the case had been put on hold and an investigation started. After anoither phone call to Wescot, I found out that BG had withdrawn their instructions to Wescot as the file had been forwarded in error and that I did not owe BG any money. Once again I advised Wescot as BG agents that if this matter continued; I would start legal proceedings of my own against BG. On 12th December 07 I received another threatening letter from a different debt collection agency - this time Buchanan Clark of Glasgow. On that day I phoned them and explained that I did not owe BG any mmoney. Again I was told that they did not have any details of the debt. So I ended the conversation by telling them I would see them in court. I then wrote them a letterexpalinging everything and also telling them I would sue BG after the court hearing regarding the "alleged" debt. I did not receive a reply. Today 9th January I have received yet another letter from Buchanan saying they are perparing to commence legal proceddings. Now to the crunch, I have just rreturned from my local County Court; where I have issued proceedings against BG and am seeking damages for the stress that all this has caused me. I will keep you all updated as to what happens. The basis of my case is that they are harassing me and also under Human Rights Law; I am entitled to live my life free from persecution. What they are doing to me is persecution and harassment. I have tried to sort this out without reverting to the law, but even after a supposed investigation by BG and the withdrawal of the file, it has continued. As a cpmpany their customer care stinks. This matter will not end until it has been to court. Has anyone else sued BG - what was your outcome. Take care - Scousegeezer

Hi evry1, new to this; thought I would offer my experience of British Gas and ask for your thoughts etc. Story :- In September 05, I moved house. BG were my dual fuel suppliers for the old property. I therefore telepohoned them and advised that I was moving. I gave them my new address and also the meter readings. The previous bills had been estimated. After a few months when I had not heard anything from them, I thought that my accounts were straight. In other words the previous estimated bills were over estimated and I didnt opwe them anything. I almost threw away the previous bills but at the last moment decided to hanng onto them - JUST IN CASE. Good job I did. In February 06 I received a notice from BG central collections , stating that I owed themm £16.70p. The letter had been forwarded to my new address by the new occupant of the property. The letter stated that they were going to send a debt collector to my old address to collect the money , unless I contacted them on the phone and made arrangements to pay the bill. I duly rang on 22/2/06. I spoke to a lady, who would not give me her name. I explained what had gone on and she checked the drreaded computer. She came back to me and told me that there had been a mistake. There was a couple of pounds owing but as they had my new address and they had not sent me the bill at the new address, they would cancel the bill and nothing would be owing. I ensured that they had my new address. She told me that the electricity account had been updated but that the gas account had not, but she would do it and cancel both accounts. Before the end of the conversation, I advised the lady that if I heard anymore on this matter; that I would sue BG. She said she would make a note of the comment by me. Time passes without any further communication from BG. The thirteen months later, in March 07; a threatening letter lands on my doormat. From a company called Wescot Credit services. I am now informed by them, that I owe BG £419.38p. I received the letter on 19th March and the letter stated that unless I cleared the debt by 30th March, they would start court proceddings. On the evening of 19th March, I rang the company and expolained my side of the story. I spoke to a young lady called Louise. I asked her why I owed the money. She told me that she could not tell me. I then asked if she had the information or not and was it just a question that she would not tell me. She advised me that she did not have any information. I then pointed out that she was asking me as BG agents to pay money that she could not justify. She replied that was correct. I then told her that her comapny sgould check with BG why I owed the money and then get back to me. Her reply was that it was up to me to sort it out with BG. I pointed out that they were acting on BG behalf so it was up to them and not me to justify the bill. However, after finishing the telephone conversation with Louise I e-maild BG customer services. Explained everything to them and requested they sort this out. Once again, I advised them that if this continued I would start legal proceeding of my own aginst them. I received an automated e-mail reply stating my e-mail had been received and I would receive a reply in so many working days. I NEVER DID. On 10th April 07 I received a final notice from Wescot, stating legal proceedings would be commenced. However, on 14th April 07 I received a letter from Wescot telling me that the case had been put on hold and an investigation started. After anoither phone call to Wescot, I found out that BG had withdrawn their instructions to Wescot as the file had been forwarded in error and that I did not owe BG any money. Once again I advised Wescot as BG agents that if this matter continued; I would start legal proceedings of my own against BG. On 12th December 07 I received another threatening letter from a different debt collection agency - this time Buchanan Clark of Glasgow. On that day I phoned them and explained that I did not owe BG any mmoney. Again I was told that they did not have any details of the debt. So I ended the conversation by telling them I would see them in court. I then wrote them a letterexpalinging everything and also telling them I would sue BG after the court hearing regarding the "alleged" debt. I did not receive a reply. Today 9th January I have received yet another letter from Buchanan saying they are perparing to commence legal proceddings. Now to the crunch, I have just rreturned from my local County Court; where I have issued proceedings against BG and am seeking damages for the stress that all this has caused me. I will keep you all updated as to what happens. The basis of my case is that they are harassing me and also under Human Rights Law; I am entitled to live my life free from persecution. What they are doing to me is persecution and harassment. I have tried to sort this out without reverting to the law, but even after a supposed investigation by BG and the withdrawal of the file, it has continued. As a cpmpany their customer care stinks. This matter will not end until it has been to court. Has anyone else sued BG - what was your outcome. Take care - Scousegeezer