It's never welcome news when the utility bill drops on the doormat, but when it's a bill for gas or electricity that you haven't even used, you'd think it should be easy to have it written off.
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
British Gas has been sending bills to three Watchdog viewers by mistake. In each case, the bills have led to threats from debt collectors and in each case, it has taken years to stop the bills from coming...
When Sarah-Jane Borradaile moved into her property in July 2004, she started receiving British Gas invoices for a company at a nearby industrial estate. With the bills being addressed to 'the occupier', Sarah initially just popped them back in the post - marking them 'return to sender'. When this failed to stop the invoices, she called up British Gas but they still kept coming and only now they were in her name.
"About three months later after the call I got another invoice through, but only this time it was addressed to me personally, so instead of the occupier it was me and now my name was attached to these bills."
British Gas has now apologised, but it took years and many emails and letters for Sarah to sort it out.
"It's been nothing but trouble and an extra thing in my daily life that I've had to deal with, that needn't have been ever there in the first place," says Sarah.
Another viewer, Brian Street, switched his electricity supply to British Gas in 2000 but while British Gas started to take money out of his bank account for the electricity, he continued to get bills - and then debt collector demands - from his previous supplier.
It wasn't until 2004 that British Gas worked out the problem - there had been a clerical error and in fact he was not being supplied by British Gas at all.
British Gas apologised and refunded his money but that wasn't the end of it and for another six years, despite Brian not being a customer, he continued to get bills and debt collection letters from British Gas.
"You get a letter of apology off British Gas and then it'll start up again, as soon as you get the apology, it's followed by bills. And it just infuriates... You get irritated so much so that sometimes I'm walking up and down the garden screaming to myself because I just get nowhere with these people."
In the end, Brian got the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) to help him stop the bills and he hasn't had one since February.
Another viewer who had to get the CAB involved is Richard Phillips. Richard's mum passed away over three years ago and British Gas closed the account in January 2009 - refunding him money that he was owed. However, 18 months later, Richard received a new bill for the closed account and despite him informing British Gas, it was also followed up by a demand from debt collectors. In August, over three years since his mother's death, he finally got an apology from British Gas telling him the account is now inactive.
"When I first received this bill, I blew a gasket - it was incredibly frustrating to hear from them three years after my mother's death for something that had supposedly been dealt with."
British Gas:
"We fully appreciate these customers were left frustrated by their experiences, and that our standard of service fell short of what we'd expect at British Gas. We've sorted it out and have sincerely apologised in all three cases.
"By way of background, in the energy industry, there is a central repository for meter data that is shared with suppliers - if the source data is wrong, as it can be on rare occasions, it may mean that energy suppliers chase the wrong debt from the wrong customer. This was the root cause of the problems experienced by Mr Street and Ms Borradaile. In the case of Mr Philips, a number of human errors combined to cause the problems he experienced.
"At British Gas, we look after half the homes in Britain. We don't always get things right - but, when we do make mistakes we apologise and get it sorted out as quickly as possible. We've taken huge strides in improving our customer service over the past three years - that's why customer complaints have fallen by 90%, while we've grown our customer numbers by more than 350,000 this year."
Watchdog viewers' responses:
Hi,
We were paying someone elses bill for 2 years. it took a further year to sort out.
In the end they paid us back all the money we had paid and wrote off our bills for the two years. RESULT!
Jon, Mitcham
I switched my electricity to british gas in January after being advised that there would be no standing charge on my prepayment meter. I did end up paying a standing charge which they have since taken off but there is no sign of a refund for what I have already paid that I shouldnt have. They are quick enough to chase customers for money but dont like to give it back.
Stacey in Sunderland.
Hi there,
I have the same problem with British Gas .They sent a bill for an account I never had with them.The debt collectors were after me and when I stood my ground,they took the bill back to British Gas who are still after me for an account that never existed.
We are still waiting to hear from them
What a shame!
Kind Regards
Abigail
We have had the same problem with British gas. We moved into a new house over 3 years ago and after about 8 months we got a letter from british gas to "the occupier" demanding 30 odd quid. I explained that I can't have owed it and gave them meter readings from when we moved in. They said that they would send us an amended bill showing the account settled but a month or so later we got another bill for 40 odd quid. I contacted them again and was assured that it would be sorted. A few months later we received a debt collectors letter demanding the payment so I explained it all to them again and they said they would contact British gas. 12 months later we received another debt collectors letter from a different company so I explained it all to them and they said it would get passed back to British gas. That was around a year ago so I am probably due another letter. Watch this space.
Mark chapman. Rochdale.
Hi Watchdog,
We had the same problem where my wife received a bill for an account she never held at a previous address. They threatened legal action if the account was not settled. The bill was for dates after we had moved from the address. We suspected a case of stolen identity first but after a lot of exchanged communication, it appears they got her name off some database and decided to charge her for it. Luckily, we produced evidence of our tenancy agreements at the new house nearly 200 miles away proving we were not living at the address they wanted to charge us money for and British Gas decided to 'close the account'.
M Parack
You may lose the will with your British Gas bill...
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
British Gas has been sending bills to three Watchdog viewers by mistake. In each case, the bills have led to threats from debt collectors and in each case, it has taken years to stop the bills from coming...
When Sarah-Jane Borradaile moved into her property in July 2004, she started receiving British Gas invoices for a company at a nearby industrial estate. With the bills being addressed to 'the occupier', Sarah initially just popped them back in the post - marking them 'return to sender'. When this failed to stop the invoices, she called up British Gas but they still kept coming and only now they were in her name.
"About three months later after the call I got another invoice through, but only this time it was addressed to me personally, so instead of the occupier it was me and now my name was attached to these bills."
British Gas has now apologised, but it took years and many emails and letters for Sarah to sort it out.
"It's been nothing but trouble and an extra thing in my daily life that I've had to deal with, that needn't have been ever there in the first place," says Sarah.
Another viewer, Brian Street, switched his electricity supply to British Gas in 2000 but while British Gas started to take money out of his bank account for the electricity, he continued to get bills - and then debt collector demands - from his previous supplier.
It wasn't until 2004 that British Gas worked out the problem - there had been a clerical error and in fact he was not being supplied by British Gas at all.
British Gas apologised and refunded his money but that wasn't the end of it and for another six years, despite Brian not being a customer, he continued to get bills and debt collection letters from British Gas.
"You get a letter of apology off British Gas and then it'll start up again, as soon as you get the apology, it's followed by bills. And it just infuriates... You get irritated so much so that sometimes I'm walking up and down the garden screaming to myself because I just get nowhere with these people."
In the end, Brian got the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) to help him stop the bills and he hasn't had one since February.
Another viewer who had to get the CAB involved is Richard Phillips. Richard's mum passed away over three years ago and British Gas closed the account in January 2009 - refunding him money that he was owed. However, 18 months later, Richard received a new bill for the closed account and despite him informing British Gas, it was also followed up by a demand from debt collectors. In August, over three years since his mother's death, he finally got an apology from British Gas telling him the account is now inactive.
"When I first received this bill, I blew a gasket - it was incredibly frustrating to hear from them three years after my mother's death for something that had supposedly been dealt with."
British Gas:
"We fully appreciate these customers were left frustrated by their experiences, and that our standard of service fell short of what we'd expect at British Gas. We've sorted it out and have sincerely apologised in all three cases.
"By way of background, in the energy industry, there is a central repository for meter data that is shared with suppliers - if the source data is wrong, as it can be on rare occasions, it may mean that energy suppliers chase the wrong debt from the wrong customer. This was the root cause of the problems experienced by Mr Street and Ms Borradaile. In the case of Mr Philips, a number of human errors combined to cause the problems he experienced.
"At British Gas, we look after half the homes in Britain. We don't always get things right - but, when we do make mistakes we apologise and get it sorted out as quickly as possible. We've taken huge strides in improving our customer service over the past three years - that's why customer complaints have fallen by 90%, while we've grown our customer numbers by more than 350,000 this year."
Watchdog viewers' responses:
Hi,
We were paying someone elses bill for 2 years. it took a further year to sort out.
In the end they paid us back all the money we had paid and wrote off our bills for the two years. RESULT!
Jon, Mitcham
I switched my electricity to british gas in January after being advised that there would be no standing charge on my prepayment meter. I did end up paying a standing charge which they have since taken off but there is no sign of a refund for what I have already paid that I shouldnt have. They are quick enough to chase customers for money but dont like to give it back.
Stacey in Sunderland.
Hi there,
I have the same problem with British Gas .They sent a bill for an account I never had with them.The debt collectors were after me and when I stood my ground,they took the bill back to British Gas who are still after me for an account that never existed.
We are still waiting to hear from them
What a shame!
Kind Regards
Abigail
We have had the same problem with British gas. We moved into a new house over 3 years ago and after about 8 months we got a letter from british gas to "the occupier" demanding 30 odd quid. I explained that I can't have owed it and gave them meter readings from when we moved in. They said that they would send us an amended bill showing the account settled but a month or so later we got another bill for 40 odd quid. I contacted them again and was assured that it would be sorted. A few months later we received a debt collectors letter demanding the payment so I explained it all to them again and they said they would contact British gas. 12 months later we received another debt collectors letter from a different company so I explained it all to them and they said it would get passed back to British gas. That was around a year ago so I am probably due another letter. Watch this space.
Mark chapman. Rochdale.
Hi Watchdog,
We had the same problem where my wife received a bill for an account she never held at a previous address. They threatened legal action if the account was not settled. The bill was for dates after we had moved from the address. We suspected a case of stolen identity first but after a lot of exchanged communication, it appears they got her name off some database and decided to charge her for it. Luckily, we produced evidence of our tenancy agreements at the new house nearly 200 miles away proving we were not living at the address they wanted to charge us money for and British Gas decided to 'close the account'.
M Parack
You may lose the will with your British Gas bill...