British Gas raising money?

**gwenlillian** · 30th October 2019, 10:15:AM

I have an update on this fiasco. A man at British Gas rang and said that they made a mistake when they fitted my payasyougo meter and put a credit on it instead of a debit in 2012....?! Have no idea what he is talking about or when the meter was fitted, or if I was with BG then, so have done a Subject Access Request. This has been met with prevarication ever since but I will still be escalating despite their requests for my address, clearly on the same email that they are responding to. I am therefore still being debited monies for an alleged debt where no data whatsoever has been provided to me, no acccount, no meter readings, nothing, and this also begs the question as to what route they would have taken if I had changed supplier again and not had this BG smart meter which they have utilised to effect the transfer of debt to me. I am outraged that they have done this and think this is a huge warning to anyone thinking of having a smart meter!

**Amethyst** · 30th October 2019, 10:45:AM

Oh my goodness. How much was this alleged 'credit' ?

The SAR should help. You want full transaction lists from pre and post the prepayment meter being installed as well as all meter reads. Do you remember why you changed to a prepayment meter intiailly or was it just in when you moved into the property ?

When did you change to a smart meter?

Are they taking money for this alleged debt each time you top up the meter?

**gwenlillian** · 30th October 2019, 11:29:AM

HI - you know it is so long ago I don't really know at the moment who I was with in 2012, or when the prepay meter came, I have both gas and electric prepays and have kept with these for at least 5 years, and had the smart meter covering both for over a year. I have no debt whatsoever with either account, but did have some on gas years ago which I paid off, funnily enough, with a cheque from HSBC, who made me pay other accounts with my Penalty Charges Refund monies. (That is another issue for another day). I can't get a clear picture til I receive the data, however, man on phone: stated that they didn't have anything going back further than six years.....so will be interesting to see what they provide as they say this from 7 years ago.
And, if this is from an old credit account as stated, the process would have been to add any debt to the prepay meter, but they are saying that they made a mistake and gave me a credit of over £60. Well, if I was in hardship at that time and ended up with the prepay meter that far back, I think I would have noticed a huge credit advance applied to my gas meter, for some strange reason - here Madam, you owe us money but we are giving you £60???

Yes, I am paying it every second of every day thanks to this strange, and I would have thought, unlawful behaviour of BG. They have just dumped £960 debt on me with no explanation or warning via their SMART meter system. There is probably an internal process that they have to get permission somehow to do this, and I have asked them to supply their internal memos etc, meter serial numbers and readings, which they said they don't have already, so it will be very interesting to see what arrives.

**Amethyst** · 30th October 2019, 11:49:AM

£60 or £960 ? and yes, you would have noticed either, probably even a tenner.

You're right they can't just stick it on without any evidence whatsoever. Once you have the info make a formal complaint and take it through the ombudsman. If they did cock up it was over 6 years ago and they are subject to statute of limitations as much as everyone else is.

Let us know what they do come back with.

**gwenlillian** · 30th October 2019, 12:27:PM

Hi and thanks. So, they say they 'gave' me £60, no evidence etc, and also say they 'found' a debt of £960, no details, and whacked that on my smart meter. Just been in to my online account, had trouble accesssing it, changed password and eventually got in to find details, and the smart meter data is only downloading with zero bytes in the folder, and cannot be opened, I have no problems opening any other document, and the remaing British Gas links for billing etc just come back with a message : "we are sorry we are unable to show you that information" - so it rather seems that they are obstructing the info access for me now. Will update when I know more.

**gwenlillian** · 28th November 2019, 17:34:PM

Hi - quick update - still no DSAR complied with and BG now out of time - still no apology or redress - escalating this week which I could have done sooner if they had made any effort to provide the evidence that both I and the Ombudsman will need.Â* Grrrr.Â* It is simply stealingÂ* I want to move my account but guess what - this Company has stopped me doing that - can't move away with this ridiculous debit on the smart meter -- too smart for their own good. Wonder how smart they are going to be with the Ombudsman and then a County Court.

**charlesfury** · 30th April 2020, 09:48:AM

British Gas raising money?

British Gas raising money?

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