I phoned British Gas 2/9/06 about my gas bill I gave them a meter reading and ask them to calulate my bill. as I was having cancer treatment at the time I went into all my household accounts. they told me they owed me £208 and as I asked them they sent a chegue which they deny sending I have proof. in jan 07 they put the money back on my bill as an adjustment and has added too it ever since. i can get no sence at all apparently they changed there computer program tp S.A.P. in October 06 and its seems that who ever input the data had a field day. I have always paid by D.D but changed it to S.O and are paying them regularly each month. i recieved a red later informing that i owe more that what my bill says on line.and that the letter they sent is costing me £14.00.

My father is frail and elderly (75) and suffers from a rnage of illnesses the worst of which is lymphomatic cancer of the neck. Given his state of health and age he is easily confised and found himself in a situation where BG allowed him to amass £400 of debt. When he tried to resolve the problem with them they then reviewed his case and decided that he would have to pay £300 on top of the accrued bill in administration fees.

I have tried without success to get them to explain how they came to first the bill and then the adminstration fee. In the summer they threatened to disconnect him unless he went on to a pay as you go key. This he did and now he is paying over £60 per week for his gas and electricy on his meagre pension.

BG are also refusing to respond to me depite the fact that I have sent a letter of authority from my father confirming that I can act on his behalf.

Winter is coming and my father is no longer in remission from his cancer he cannot afford to be without heat and light - for him it is a matter of life a death. He is also very stressed by the size of this bill which doesn't seem to go down and which BG are instend he pays or else they will not let him move to a cheaper provider.

They have an obessession with threatening court action on me, despite my willingness to pay for power I have actually used. I have just paid a bill to stop them writing to me ever again. Though they havent provided any information on how they actually calculated it, and they can't provide an invoice of payments received, apparently.

I just cannot afford to waste any more of my life dealing with demotivated morons on the telephone who assure you that everything is sorted; only to get another dumbass letter a month later proving no one on the staff can carry out the simplest of tasks any longer. I must have wasted about 20 hours on the telephone plus the time composing letters and trying to fathom their billing system. I am thinking a wax doll is appropriate. I'm sure I'd find it therapuetic, maybe soak it in lighter gas... They spent 6 months trying to take me to court over gas I hadn't used. I even paid some of it as they sent such nasty letters. When I finally got an electric bill after a year and some begging from me, I arranged to pay it in installments as it was a little bit large (covering a year.) They took ages to get the card to me and started threatening to take me to court again in the meantime. I changed to powergen and they even managed to interfere with the readings I sent to powergen, by sending confusing estimated readings; then denying responsibility for the estimated readings and blaming powergen.

I'm becoming somewhat immune to the threats now, but it was a nasty shock at first.

No one has ever taken me to court over an unpaid bill.

Well I just hate them now. Been making their payments despite not trusting their bills which they refuse to make obvious like bills used to be, still got another letter from the fake solicitor with no phone... grrr grrrrr grrrrrrrrr.

When I complained to the authority I just got put onto some bg employee and what a waste of time that was...

Well hopefully will never have to deal with them again now. I feel violated and probably ripped off. I asked for compensation for the hours of my life lost on the 'phone doing their admin for them and they offered £!0 for the phone bill. I try to see the funny side but i do want to punch some1 there, anyone.

I was with British Gas 2 years ago, i moved to a different provider as they are not sending me any bills even though I tried to contact them many times.

- July 2007 they sent me a final electricity bill 0f £320 which we have settled and thought that it was the end of it, but to my nightmare they came hunting us again with their series of inconsistent electricity statement!!!

-August 19, 2008 they sent us a a final electricity statement with our final balance in credit as £0.00

-August 19, 2008 a second letter saying im sorry for the delay sending your bill etc etc., youll be pleased to learn that were not charging you for any energy used over a year ago. so As youll see from your bill your account balance is set £0.00 signed by Kevin Roxburgh, head of debt.

- and then lo and behold sept. 19, 2008 what did i recieve???
YOU STILL NEED TO PAY YOUR FINAL BILL (wtf!!!)
WE NEED TO REMIND YOU THAT YOUR FINAL ELECTRICITY BILL FOR £506.33 REMAINS OVERDUE...
BE AWARE THAT CONTINUED NON PAYMENT MAY RESULT IN SEVERE CONSEQUENCES.
signed by pHIL bENTLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR

What is this are they taking the mickey of the paying public???

I TRIED TO RING THEIR COMPLAINTS NUMBER AND WAITED FOR HOW MANY MINUTES AT 0845 RATE WHICH MUST COST ME A FORTUNE, THEN WHEN I FINALLY SPOKE TO AN AGENT NAMED MARGARET SHE INSISTED THAT WE HAD TO PAY THE AMOUNT WITHOUT EVEN HEARING WHAT I WANT TO SAY, WHAT KIND OF COMPLAINTS HANDLING IS THAT??? TO MAKE IT WORST SHE CUT OFF THE LINE WHILE I WAS TALKING AND HAD TO TRY 3X AGAIN WAITING FOR AGES TO GET THROUGH THEN TO BE CUT OFF AGAIN.

I AM SO FURIOUS WITH BRITISH GAS, I WILL NEVER EVER EVER GO BACK TO THEM AGAIN. I WILL MAKE A FORMAL COMPLAINT ABOUT THIS. i DO HOPE PEOPLE WILL READ THIS AND LEAVE BRITISH GAS THEY ARE SO INCOMPETENT AND THEY ARE NOT WORTH ANY SINGLE PENNY FOR A RUBBISH SERVICE DELIVERY!!!

I tried to take out the 5 star plan from british gas.
When the engineer came to asses the central heating, he spotted that the sight glass on the boiler was cracked.
He told me that the boiler was not safe and would have to disconnect it because the boiler was old and parts were unobtainable.
Before he arrived the boiler had been working perfectly with this cracked sight glass for about ten years.
British gas sent a rep to sell me a new boiler to the cost of £2700
Or a new system for £4800.
My son obtained a new sight glass and replaced it, but still british gas want £160 to reconnect.
THEY ARE A COMPLETE DISGRACE,
THE 5 STAR PLAN IS A SCAM TO MAKE PROFIT MAINLY OUT OF THE OLD.
As i am an OAP I could not afford either of these two costs.
Therefore I have been without hot water or Central Heating since February 2007 As the winter approches I still cannot fird the money to repalce my boiler, if there is anyone out there that can suggest anything please get in touch.