British Gas Smart Meters have issued a safety warning regarding the Power Adaptor for their Smart Energy Meter. The letter states the following; It goes on to say, that the actual Energy Smart Meter is NOT affected & you are to keep that aside. A replacement adaptor will be sent out within the next 8/9 weeks, along with a envelope for you to send back the old adaptor. Once the new adaptor arrives, plug the Energy Smart Meter back in. The letter does not state any kind of serial/part number or area, I live in Essex, so I've no idea who may be affected or not by this. Contact 08009806121 Mon - Fri 8am - 8pm. Sat 8am - 6pm.

Hi CAGgers, Since having left BG early 2015, I seem to have had a charge added toy account. Prior to moving I confirmed that my account was up to date (bar about £20 usage for the 2 weeks before I left). After leaving, I was initially bombarded with calls from foreign call centres chasing a new debt for £140. Despite disputing this and reminding them that there's an open dispute from a few years earlier I was blatantly ignored. In short: Every call I made to BG was logged (transcribed against a date and time with persons name etc...). At some point in 2013, it was noted that I was quoted one set of unit rates, but when I checked my bills a year or so later, I was getting a whole other set of rates (about 70% more expensive). The actual call dating the unit quotes, reference number and persons name is logged... As at the time I was a user of theirs, and had some debt, the relied on that to pursue the debt rather than address the issue at hand. The temporary outcome for the price dispute came to a £50 refund (which is about £200 short of what I was missing). I contacted BG's CEO thanks to ceoemail's website and got a fairly friendly person to approach the situation. Despite trying he still insisted that £140 was outstanding. I contacted him again after discussing this after leaving, (sept 2015, also logged with the rest), I literally get no replied further from them... As it stands, They've put a nasty marker on my new squeaky clean credit record which I managed to get back to health and no matter what I do i.e. call them, contact the CRA's, nobody is budging. What's the best way to approach this? I was hoping that my clear and concise logging of each and every call, email and letter would clear the way for an easy transition but things still seem a bit grim. It was suggested that i send the CEO a daily email to literally bother them into resolving the situation, but I feel that this could amount to harassment. Any ideas as to how to dig my way out of their hole? Cheers, A

Hi Folks, I notice that I have a mark on my credit file for circa £250 from British Gas! The default was posted Mid 2013. I have had a couple of emails from some DCA saying that if I pay they will reduce by 50% and update my credit file etc, however as a current British Gas customer (and have always paid my utilities) I thought I would contact them direct to discuss this because I am pretty sire that I don't owe this or even know about the £250 alleged outstanding. Normally when you move / change address they update internally blah blah. So.... I email British Gas and they tell me it's for a previous property back in 2011, however this is when it gets confusing:- Bill date December to March 2012 and invoiced to the wrong address and wrong postal code (property around the corner) I was in a new build. Bill date was January 2013 when I had been moved away from the property for over 6 months. They are telling me that it don't matter that the address is wrong because the bill matches the property's Gas Meter Point. I said I understand that, however how can I know about a bill if it's years ago, invoiced to the wrong address and a property that I don't reside at anyway? I explained I am still a British gas customer and in no arrears, however we are still going round in circles... I said that I will pay the alleged bill and dispute later if I feel it's invoiced wrong (I need to dig back and see what provider I was with etc) on the basis that they remove default from my credit file (they manage to get that address right!) and then invoice me at my current address for the consumption at the correct old address. Do you think this is fair? Should I take this further? Thanks, Flappy

I'll try to condense this. Last year I contracted a Gas Heating Engineer (registered) to fit a new boiler in my daughters flat. Unbeknown to me and my daughter, he In fact, he sent an unregistered unqualified plumber (his friend) in his place as he was 'hung over' from the night before..as was this plumber, but not as bad as the Gas Heating Engineer and apparently 'drew the short straw'. Only registered engineers are legally allowed to work on the gas. The plumber made a complete hash of the work that he did, did not complete all the work, caused damage to my daughters property, and then used the Gas Heating Engineers reg number to fill in the paperwork, filled in his own name, but signed it as the G Engineers name??. When I found out, I called Gas Safe and reported an illegal gas fitter. Gas Safe inspector came round and said the job was poor and to get a 'proper' Gas Safe Heating engineer to come and complete the job and rectify all the mistakes so that building regs could be applied for and the boiler to be register for a guarantee. The boiler manufacturer refused to give a guarantee until this was done. The Inspector gave us a list of reputable people. The Gas Safe Heating engineer told the inspector that he did not send anyone else in his place, but he came himself. The inspector showed my daughter some photo's of the engineer, my daughter said it was not him. He then found a photo of the guy that did the job..daughter confirmed that he was the guy and the inspector said that he was not registered, the installation was illegal as this guy had been struck off. The Inspector then said in an aside to me, that I had a contract with the heating engineer who had not done the work, not a contract with this rogue plumber..I hope you have not paid him! The Gas Safe Heating engineer then sent me an invoice for full payment which I questioned and also asked why vat had not been added as he was a Vat reg company, and was told that it was a private job so not collecting the Vat. I phone HMRC and questioned this and was told he had to collect the vat or be responsible for it himself. I was also asked to pay this invoice to a third party..a plumbers merchants that he had bought goods from. HMRC said this was probably money laundering? Anyway, I paid the bill in part, in 'full and final payment' which he accepted at the time (last Feb). I deducted from the invoice the cost of finishing and rectifying the job and to put right the damage that was caused to my daughter property. Have the invoices to prove these amounts. Yesterday, dropped through my daughters door, a summons for her..who had no contract with him. He is now claiming for the money that I had deducted from his invoice. There was also a summons for me, to her address. I have never lived at her address. I have no financial connection to her address, so why send a summons to her address and not mine? Now for the questions: (1) She had no contract with him at all. I was the one who contracted him..how is she liable? (2) My summons is to her address with which I have no connection...is this legally served? (3) My contract was with him, not his friend..he did not fullfil his contract with me but sent an illegal worker who should not have set foot in my daughters property. I am legally responsible to pay him? (4) The summons is being brought in the name of the Gas engineers "company," not privately. This company is now 'Dissolved', so how can a summons be brought by a company that no longer exists? We are not sure how to respond to these summonses. If anyone can help, it would be appreciated.

Hello Everyone, On completion of my house purchase I arranged to change gas and electric supply from British Gas to Eon. When I moved in I called BG to advise of meter readings and that I didnt need the tarriff info etc as I had already instructed Eon to arrange transfer. BG advised they hadnt received the transfer notification so I contacted Eon. They advised that they had no record of transfer but I could set it up again online- which I of course did. A month or so later I received a letter from Eon stating BG had refused my transfer. A call to BG was made and they stated this was because I had a debit on the account for the first month - I set up a dd to cover this and any time in between transfer. I then set up a supplier transfer for a third time. I didnt receive any letters from either supplier and BG cancelled my DD so I presumed I was in the midst of the transfer process. Move forward several months later (today) and I come home to what I initially thought was a burglary. My dogs had been let loose and my internal doors were open. There was a letter placed on my sofa with an incorrect date 08/01/2015 stating BG had entered my property after obtaining a warrant and fitted a prepayment meter to recover non payment. The electric supply was in the room that my four small dogs were in and they decided to let my dogs roam free to get access and my sofa and kitchen were subsequently damaged severely by my very upset dogs. We had not received any letters from BG or given the opportunity to contest the warrant .I can not believe that this has happened. Can you please advise if this is legal and offer any advice how to proceed with a complaint. Your advice would be hugely appreciated. Thanks

Hi Please can someone offer me some advice on this matter. I have been living in my Housing Association property since 2011 which I rent through my LA. I have been receiving letters from British Gas addressed to "The Occupier" saying that money is owed for gas supply to the property. I have called them on several occasions informing them that I do not have a gas supply to my property, I only have an electric cooker and the heating is included in the rent. Despite me calling them several times to let them know this, I am still receiving letters addressed to "The Occupier" saying that £301 is owed. I have just come to know about the 26p standing charge for just having a meter, when I called them this evening and I even had to force this information out of them as I am not the registered occupier (according to them) I had no idea about this and it was not made known to me when I took on the tenancy nor when I have called BG, I have always been told it was for gas supply to the property. My main concern is that they have sent a letter saying that they have a warrant to gain access to my property, they will change the locks and I will have to contact them for access. I just want to know if they can do this, do I need to prepare myself and take the day off work. I have not seen any warrant. Will they send this to me?

First of all, not sure where to put this. I did look for a forum specifically about gas/electric suppliers but couldn't see it. Apologies if I missed something obvious. Ok, I was with Scottish Power for Gas and Electric. They were great, then my gas metre (prepayment) stopped working. I put my card in, it beeped, and the liquid diode screen stopped showing anything. We were worried. It was getting close to Christmas (2013) and we had a 3 year old son, it was cold, he had asthma and could do without the chance of catching anything. I suffer from really bad anxiety, and had setup my Scottish Power account on the internet. I spoke to an online help assistant, who assured me that their online help was fantastic, and whilst phone calls usually got an immediate answer, an email through their accounts page would be far quicker than post and still get a response ASAP. so I emailed, and waited. And waited. And Emailed, and waited. And posted letters, and waited, and emailed and posted and waited. I tried to phone, but I was just a jibbering mess. With me worried about my son, it just made my anxiety worse. I tried to top up £5 on card, just to see if it beeped so we knew we could put money on but nothing happened. We knew it accepted our last £40 top up, so we just hoped that we would get an answer before it ran out. Over Christmas we put extra electric on, we never used the central heating. Our gas just warms the water and heating, everything else is electric. So we got a couple of electric powered oil radiators. They did the job of keeping our small house warm, but we were still worried that the gas would run out. We kept water use to a minimum, baths mainly. We took to doing dishes with water pre-boiled in the kettle. After Christmas I kept sending requests for help. 1 letter by post, 2 via their email service, every month. Still no answer. By february, we'd still not run out of gas and came to the conclusion that the meter must be broken, but the supply is still permanently active. We'd got used to how we were doing things, so we didn't suddenly use as much gas as possible. We carried on as normal just happy to know that we wouldn't run out of hot water for baths and if we REALLY needed to, we could put the heating on for a bit. We still kept emailing every couple of weeks, explaining the situation. Eventually in June, we got a response. Someone would come and help, and an appointment would be made and a letter sent out. We never got a letter. No one showed up. In August we did get a bill. £227 for gas if I remember (cant access it now, as my account is closed and it was online) I immediately emailed a complaint. Obviously, never got a response. Throughout all of the end of 2014, I continued to complain, and try and get help. At the same time, I was also getting treating for my anxiety which wasn't going to well. By the end of 2014 I was beyond annoyed with Scottish Power, another bill turned up. £313 Anxiety be damned, I got the phone and made a call. I stammered and struggled through an argument about the service and the account. I got an apology and the promise someone would be out to fix the meter that week. Sure enough, they came and replaced it. I got back to paying for my gas. A month later, a reminder bill was emailed. £313 again. I was annoyed, I phoned up and complained and left for another company, who have been great. But Scottish Power, of course, still wanted their money. In May they contacted me for this £313. I said I cant afford it, and I dispute the amount. Apparently they read the meter when it was returned and £313 was accurate (somehow matching exactly their estimated bill) I said I would pay £1 a month, it's all I can afford now I'm paying Electric and Gas to a new company who actually give me working meters. Not good enough, they want at least £40 a month or they will pass it to a debt collector. I told them I still dispute the bill and think £150 would have been a fair final bill, which is 356 days of standing charges, even though I spent every day wondering if I actually had it standing or if it would vanish. Nope. £40 or it goes to debt collection. I couldn't afford it, so had no choice but to let them pass it on. I was told it would take 30 days to lapse allocated payment time, and then go to DCA. In November, I got a message from LCS, collecting on behalf of Scottish Power, they'd added an extra £50 to my bill as Admin charges. They seemed to agree that if I dispute my bill, it should not have been passed to them so easily, but they still need paying. I offered £1 a month, they agreed as long as I send the income and expenditure proof required. Which I have done. Now, I suppose I should be happy. This BS with SP has helped me beat some parts of my anxiety, but it's been a ton of stress I did not need. My question is though, is where do I stand here? is there anything else I can do to dispute this? Is there a higher up in Scottish Power I can send a complaint to. Are they within their rights to pass the bill off for collection when I disputed it? Thanks for any help/.

hi everyone just wondering if anyone can advise how i can be owing scottish power 500 pounds "standing charges" seeing as when i last used said meter i only owed a tenner. roughly three years ago. the meter was eventually "capped" as i stopped using it and now they are billing me for that amount! how can that be right? should i complain to ofgem? this just is not right at all! i didnt want the pay as you go meter in the first place. some silly youngster from the debt collection company told me that pay as you go is actually cheaper. i tried to make a deal with them to pay a certain amount per week but i cant afford what they are asking. if i switch suppliers will the gas be back to normal? i.e. will i be able to start using it again? im sick of cold winters with no hot water! seems very unfair! a rip off no less. im not bothered a jot about debt i just need the gas back on which i am willing to pay fair and square for. seems very unjust. thx for reading.

Hi, I have a very long ongoing problem with British Gas regarding my electricity account & I was now wondering if I can take them to court, so I'm hoping I might get some advice. Here's the problem..... For many years (at least 6yrs) I have been receiving large electricity bills, which I have queried with BG, as I kept getting bills with multiple readings & charges for my single electric metre. The problems started after BG wanted to change our old meter for a newer up to date metre back in 2009. We had an engineer turn up on the agreed morning, but he wasn't qualified to change it, so he came back in the afternoon with another engineer, who again was not qualified, so a third engineer came the next day & he did change the meter. So we had 3 engineers come out but only only one metre was replaced, by one engineer, but it turns out that the other 2 engineers, who were unable to change the metre, were logged as having changed the metre, so according to BG we had 3 electricity meters, but only actually had 1. We never noticed that our bills were wrong at first, but we had a G4S metre reader ask to read the metre, which we allowed, but he then asked where were our other 2 meter's, just to then say they all had the same metre number, so just put the reading in 3 times. He then suggested that we check our bills as he thought we would be getting billed too much, which we were. I rang BG at the time but I kept getting told that they had sorted the problem & our future bills would be correct, but they never were. I rang back at one point & spoke to a Customer Service Manager, who went on to call me a liar & told me I was 'Sub-letting' our property & that we did have 3 meters, this was even after him seeing photo's of our metre, he even told me to 'f-off' at one point & refused to take my calls. So I have kept on for years calling & emailing BG regarding the problem & I eventually got speaking to someone, back in July this year, who admitted I was being wrongly billed & that also admitted I was being billed for 3 meters not just the one. This person has now after a couple of months got our bills showing as just having a single supply, after having 2 removed from the National Database, which is great. However BG are still dragging there feet about confirming how much they owe us & are telling me I shouldn't expect much in the way of compensation. I was told by this person in an email that they would have the figure sorted out by 21st September 2015, but it wasn't, they decided they needed it confirmed by G4S that we did indeed only have 1 metre & that someone would be out to confirm this on the 30th Sept, so I said ok.....the person never turned up. I spoke rang again on the 2nd Oct, when I was told they never got the confirmation, so they had to again arrange for someone to come out on the 23rd Oct & they did indeed turn up this time. I had to ring back on the 30th Oct., a date confirmed via email, but the person who made the appointment, the person I had been dealing with for months, wasn't there, he was on holiday & wasn't due back until 9th Nov., so I saw red & was furious & ended up getting his manager involved. The manager tried to dodge helping me by saying he was unable to access details of my problem & could not get the confirmation email regarding my single metre, but I kept on at him & he ended up finding a way of getting the information after a couple of days. I was told by him that they had the confirmation & now they needed to workout the over payments, less VAT (which I have overpaid), so asked if I could ring back on 9th Nov., when they should have the amount......still no figure when rang. I was asked to ring again today, 20th Nov. & was told they would have the figure sorted, but also said I was only able to expect £20 compensation, for calls not resolved & that I shouldn't expect anything else. Now I know that's all long winded, but in all the time this has been going on I have been called a liar, been told to 'f-off', I have had to change all our phone numbers as BG passed my account on to Lowell's debt collectors, who rang loads & also sold our ex-directory number to others & they would not accept the account was in dispute. I have had someone from the courts out threatening to cut off 'ALL 3' electricity supplies, but who only found 1 & couldn't disconnect as I am disabled & so is one of my children. BG have destroyed my credit rating so much I couldn't get credit anywhere, so I have to save to buy anything we need. they have also said that any money owed is repaid less the VAT we paid at the time & we cannot have any interest on the money, even though we would have gained some interest over the years. So back to my main question, Can I take British Gas to court? I'll try to answer any questions that might help you give better advice, if you have any questions that is. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi, I have been receiving annual statements from BG for a couple of years now. Although it shows my annual usage (previous year) and expected usage for the coming year, it does not show any readings they have based this on or the amount of credit put on my meter via my card. I have e-mailed them twice requesting this information and both times they say it is impossible to give me this information. I have now just discovered when going through the screens on my meter, that although there is zero debt showing on screen 27 there is £4 wkly debt recovery showing on screen 26. Does this mean this mean this is being collected? I have never been in debt to BG the meter was in the property when we moved in and just decided to keep, that was 11 yrs ago. I have e-mailed BG 3 days ago regarding both but all i have received is the standard "we have received your query and will get back to you" so much for their 24 hr response. I also read on the BG watchdog sticky something about checking the time on the meter, what problem would the time being wrong on the meter cause as mine is totally wrong? Thanx in advance for any responses x

hiya im in Scotland if that helps...... i stopped using / topping up my pay as u go gas meter 2 yrs ago as i walked miles to *local* shop , got a tenner top up, inserted in meter and it took it for debt. was very infuriating. since then the meter was capped but i am now getting harassed for 418 pounds. just for "standing charges" scottish power have made a supposed deal with me to pay 37 quid per month but i cant afford that as i am on ESA and only get 100 pounds per week. i find this VERY unfair. can anyone offer any advice on what to do? to me this a real con. i switched to EDF to see if i could "wangle" my way out of the debt and get gas back on the engineer came out thursday and told me i need to have credit in said meter to get it uncapped. he also told me he has been dealing with a lot of similar cases recently. i personally think this is totally wrong the this supposed Great Britain. just wondering what to do as its rather cold up here just now and its make my already depressed life even more miserable. thankas for reading guys.

Hi, I moved into a new house in July 2014 which had BG as the gas and electricity supplier. At the beginning of Sept I changed supply to another company. Shortly afterwards I received my final bill which for July and August amounted to £308 for gas and £90 for Electricity. they wanted £400 for 2 months supply in a new build house. I queried this and they stated the meter readings were correct and somebody had been to our property and manually read the meters. long story cut short, they weren't telling the truth after 7 months of wrangling and speaking to 2x DCA, taking my complaint to Centrica and providing a photo of my meter in February (which was still way below there supposed read) they agreed there was a mistake. All good final bill adjusted to £120 for both + £60 compensation and still ended up with a £35.17 refund! Finally the end of the matter or so I thought... In mid April I contacted the bank to take out a loan for £12k. Over the phone they provisionally approved me based on their internal scoring system but declined me based on my credit score. I queried this and was advised to take a copy of my credit report to the branch. I printed off my Experian credit report and met with the adviser to go through the finer details they couldn't see anything array and eventually agreed to lend the money by turning it into a joint application and at a high interest rate (18.9%!). last night I checked my free credit report with Noddle and saw 4 months missed payment on both of my old BG accounts. whilst I was disputing the final bill with them they logged missed payments on both accounts until I settled in April. So two questions I have: 1) Will BG remove these based on the fact they upheld my complaint? 2) Can I pursue BG with regards to the higher interest rate on the loan? as without the missed payment showing I would have had a lower interest rate. Any help will be really appreciated Thanks,

hi there, looking for some advice, i moved in with my girlfriend recently, when going over her credit file, we have noticed 2 x defaults from British Gas, i was with edf energy and they never reported to my credit file, I didn't think this could be done, is there any way this can be removed?

Hi folks. I'm new here. Hope this is in the right section. In short, I rented a shop and ran a business. I signed a lease for 2 years, commencing April 2012. At this time, I opened an account for supply of gas and electricity with British Gas. By April 2013, I decided to close the shop. My landlord agreed that I could vacate after just 1 year as we came to a financial arrangement. At this time, I contacted British Gas to advise them that I was closing up and asked for my account to be closed. I was issued a final bill in May 2013 and I paid in full. The account was closed. Recently, I've received a DCA letter at an address I now have a new business at, chasing £1400+ on behalf of British Gas. I called British Gas and, apparently, in September 2013 my ex-landlord called them to state that I was actually still occupying the premises and that the account should be re-opened in my name (and not put in to his name by default)! British Gas apparently did as the landlord requested and so from September 2013 until now I've apparently been accruing standing charges for a premises that I vacated a long time ago. British Gas are telling me there's nothing they can do, it's a "third party dispute" between myself and the landlord. I don't understand how an account can be opened in my name without my knowledge, for a property I don't occupy, on the say so of an apparently rogue landlord. Any ideas guys?

Hi all When I moved my mentally disabled son into his flat in 2008, I contacted all utilities to register him. Eon took on the electric but said no gas was registered there. I knew gas was supplied to the flat as there was a boiler. Eon gave me a Gas number to ring saying that held all records of properties listed as being supplied with gas. I rang them and they confirmed they had no gas registered at that address. Moving on to 2013, the gas board heavies turned up at my son's flat, threatening to break in if he didn't let them in and installed a pre-pay meter and made him sign something. He was so distressed and confused, as was I. The gas man said an error had been made and that his gas was registered at another number. He now owes around £1500. He is on benefits and couldn't afford the gas so his flat got very mouldy and he recently moved out to live with his friend. He gave no forwarding address but Pastdue have just sent him a letter saying British Gas have past the debt onto them and now he needs to pay. We don't know how they got his new address but that's beside the point. The point is, I don't know what to do to help him. He is registered as mentally disabled and lives on benefits. I have taken this on because he can't cope with things like this. Do we contact Pastdue and offer £1 a month or something or do we contact British Gas and dispute the bill? Hoping someone in the know will be able to help. Thanks in advance

I have an ongoing complaint with British Gas in which they have failed to respond to within 8 weeks. The last letter received from BG Customer Relations basically apologised for the delay in their investigations and that I was entitled to refere complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. I responded given them another 14 days to reply but as of today no reply not even an acknowledgement. I tried phoning the Customer Services but was told that it was still being investigated and a response will be forthcoming. Do I refer my complaint to the Ombudsman or shall I contact the CEO first ? If the latter would someone have the appropriate e-mail address ? I do have a complaints e-mail address but I would rather go straight to the top directly if possible. Thank-you

]Hi, I live in a top floor flat with 2 other people, and there is a lower flat with 4. There is only one electric and gas meter between our two properties, and have been told that we have to set up an account with the other house to pay the bills. The landlord has refused to split the meters into one for each house as it is not "economically viable". I am worried that if the other people do not pay their share then our house will be liable to pay this. We were not told about this before signing our tenancy agreement and neither were the other house. The lettings agents are unwilling to have the accounts in their name and for all of us to pay them directly. What can we do? Is this legal or is there something that can be done, or do we have to deal with this? There is nothing in our contract about situations like this! Can someone help?

today I arrived home to find a notice for my attention in the main foyer of my block of flats from the company who do my annual gas check service. They have turned off my gas supply at the meter because it is at risk as my appliances have been unserviced. My gas appliances were last checked in September last year (so ten months) and all was OK. I was told to expect to hear from them in August this year. They normally send out a letter a couple of weeks beforehand saying when they will be coming out. I have not had anything through the post. They usually stick a card in the main foyer if they have been out and were unable to gain access with details of how to get in touch. I have not seen a card saying they have been prior to today (not that I have been expecting one but I normally check the foyer most days just in case). As far as I am aware this was their first attempt. I have checked my meter and they have stuck a "do not use" sticker on it. A quick check suggests that I do indeed have no gas and no hot water (as that runs off the boiler). So my question is can they do this and where to go from here? I can't do anything tonight as they only work office hours but I am really annoyed. For all they know, I could be vulnerable or have small children. Any help would be much appreciated.

British Gas have not submitted me a bill for 17 months due to them saying my account moved elsewhere which it didnt and now its back with them. Under the back billing code of practise I believe they cannot charge me for anything over 12 months. Ok - my account was closed Feb 2014 but they still collected my direct debit payments until Dec 2014 when they decided to send me a final bill closing my account at Feb 14 and I was in credit so they refunded me my credit balance. So from March - July 14 they cannot charge me for the gas? July 14 - to date I agree is chargeable. Can anyone help me or tell me how they work out the back billing as the chap I am dealing at B Gas is only offering a credit of £ 2.50 for back billing when I have calculated the units to be over £200. I feel he is calculating this incorrectly to their advantage. Can anyone help - I have the Citizens Advice on the case and am now considering the Ombudsman Thanks

When I first moved to this flat three or so years ago there was a card meter and I asked my electric company of twenty years, British Gas, to alter it to a 'normal' direct debit one. When their engineer came, he said that he couldn't because this meter and the other three flats' meters were all interconnected (back in the 60s) in such a way that to replace it correctly (& legally) meant ripping the whole wiring system up, which, he insisted, would entail a massive job because the whole apartment block and most of the road would have to be ripped up too. he instead tampered with my card meter a bit (not sure how legal that was) and said it was now direct debit. Since then I've received electricity no problem, but every bill has registered zero usage. Into the bargain, British Gas never sent someone to read the meter, despite my asking them to. After, say, 12 months, I was contacted by "Face2Face" (British Gas enforcers) who said they'd been trying to get access to the meter cupboard but insisted that I kept missing their appointments - totally not true. I actually sent them the key to the meter cupboard (situated outside the flats) and told them to access it whenever they wanted without needing me. Did that happen? No . During the last two years I received nothing but regular "We will get a warrant if you don't let us have access" letters, to which I always replied "YOU HAVE THE KEY", and then they'd apologise, but then a couple of months later I'd get another "We will get a warrant if you don't let us in" letter, and everything would be repeated. Moving forward to about two months ago, some Face2Face bully boys came around out of the blue saying they had a warrant. I pointed out that "YOU HAVE THE KEY", which resulted in their company giving me £150 as an apology after I complained, and also because management then admitted they had lost the key. The management then asked if I would grant their engineer access to the meter cupboard to change the meter today, which I of course agreed to. When their engineer and site foreman arrived, I discovered that they wanted to change the meter to another pre-payment meter, which I told them I preferred not to have thank you very much (and for reasons not worth going into, we luckily couldn't get into the meter cupboard anyway). The result of this was that they said that they'd come back in month, and that I should try to ask their management to ask British Gas if I can have a normal meter. The problem is, they said that they doubted British Gas will agree to that because there will be a large backlog of money owed on this meter. But I haven't caused that, they did. I'm also worried that they'll want any money owed at a rate of return that exceeds my meagre incomings. Any thoughts? Additionally, remembering that the last engineer who tried to change the meter said that doing so would mean a massive "knock down the building and tear up the road to do it properly" job, I'm assuming that the only way they can change the meter this time (without knocking the building down) is to, again, do a makeshift 'dodgy' job. But I suspect that this time they will set it up heavily in their favour!

Hi caggers, wonder if anyone can help me, ive just started renting a property. (yesterday) I need to sort out the gas, electric, water and council tax (council tax paid up until 01/08/15) I've never done this before. Do i simply go on a comparison website and find the cheapest quote? also is fixed rate better and do i need to know current readings? your advices would be very much appreciated

This may be of some use to consumers when dealing with complaints made to their energy suppliers: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1898/contents/made

Hi, Since leaving British Gas, I called them up as soon as I moved, gave them my new address (logged the call, and the transfers thereafter as usual) and voila, was presented with a bill (just £150). 6 Weeks later, I get Moorcroft on the blower (some girl called Scarlet)... Heh, well I have fn flirting with her... In short, they didn't get too far with me... I got back to British Gas gas with a big "?" asking where the bill was so I could factor it into the other wads of monthly paperwork that I'm subjected to. Anyhow, They "didn't realise that I had left"... *sigh*.... so I had to go through a load of people to explain that I've moved, that they were called in time (weeks before I moved even as I was going to take them with me!) and they just never bothered to either call back or answer when i called. After moving to another company , I get "Moorcroft" on the phone again.. Despite all my pleasing and begging, Scarlet was busy and wasn't able tot make the call (BAH! Just my luck!)... Anyhow, I explained the situation to them ALL over again, who... mysteriously have amnesia and have no record dog contacting me at all. Despite reminding them of the dates, time etc.. of the calls, (the jokes we shares about Scarlet) they had no record. So this went back to British Gas. On to the Chairman! So i sent a stinking email to the chair (which of course was intercepted by his diligent "flack managers" and one of which called me up. Hours later, and weeks of frustration, they FINALLY took my details, (my actual new address), my new phone number, etc... and voila... I was given @20 which I was thankful for at the time. I triple confirmed with the manager at the time (although I think it was just a title they give their staff to keep people happy), that they would send me the bill (as I had a few if's about the final readings) and was guaranteed that I would (this came from the Execs office).. Now... 6 Weeks even further on... (today... well last night)... I got Moorcroft on the phone again. And seeing as the somewhat enchanting Scarlet wasn't available.. nor was I *click*... I'm at a loss as to what I can do about this. 1) British tarnishing the credit record that I've been bloody working hard at to keep clean 2) Moorcroft aren't helping (yet Scarlet dampened that blow) Literally all in all this has taken up a full day (working hours) to get to this point and I have a sh***y feeling that it will for a while longer. Any tips as to how I should approach this? Cheers, A

I have a couple of hundred pounds owing to British Gas which I have been late paying and now I have received a threatening letter headed "British Gas" and "Richburns Ltd", addressed to the The Occupiers or Occupiers. The letter says, Removed indentifying info ] They intend to visit the house this week and are threatening to apply for a Warrant of Entry if I do not comply. This is causing me a lot of worry as I already suffer from anxiety and am diagnosed with two chronic conditions. I have been paying the gas bills but on the last two quarterly bills I paid £100 less than the amount asked as I had to prioritise my debts. The problem is I don't have a tenancy and I don't own the house. I don't want to give my details as I have agreed to leave the house on very short notice due to a domestic situation and don't want to risk bills being racked up in my name (which unfortunately has happened to me in the past). My Questions are; 1. Am I obliged to register my details with the utility company because I still pay the bills, even if not always on time? 2. Can they legally break into the house and fit a prepayment meter, which I don't want, as I have young toddler and I will struggle to get out and buy prepayment cards? 3. How should I deal with Richburns, as I have hardly slept for worrying, since receiving the letter from them? please ask me any questions and I will be as honest as I can.

Hi Years my bills have always been around £300 from October - December. However according British Gas they last recorded actual meter reading from my property since September 2013. Since September 2013 all my gas and electric bill has been based on estimates. For the period of October - December 2014 my bill has been £707 which is double the amount what I would normally. In the past I have always called up to make payments and at the same time giving actual meter readings. There has been no changes in my life and I have been using the central heating periodically similar for the past four years. The BG advisor calculated and worked out that I am using 2.2 units of gas per day. I accept that during winter times the heating is on more during summer, however a good portion of the day we are all out. Kids at school, I'm at work. My wife does the house errands and teaches during the evening time. Each time the central heating is being used we only leave it for an hour then its switched off. I suspect it could be the meter but if the meter is not at fault I end up paying a call out charge. It seems so harsh that British Gas never leave calling cards and they expect you to do all the chasing. I dont have the money to pay such a high bill. Can anyone advice how I can challenge this. Best Wishes