gas payments

[poochie]

can anyone help on this please?

i was with british gas for gas and scottish hydro for electric....
i then moved to n-power fro dual fuel and it turned out they were ripping us off so i phoned british gas and asked to go back to them for dual fuel.
this all happened within space of 5weeks.

anyways, wen i got final bill from british gas, i contacted them and said i would pay by debit card on the friday of that week wen wage was in bank and they said that was fine.
I had set up direct debit the next day which was wednesday to start paying for new dual feul bills.
I phoned on friday to make debit card payment for previous gas supply last bill but they said they started direct debit on new account straight away and so took the £73 we owed them out our bank.
I was not happy with that and contacted the bank and asked why they were allowed to do that and the bank said they must have went for it under the direct debit they re-instated which was for previous supply because my new dual fuel was in different account number and a seperate direct debit.

Are they allowed to do that without permission?..... and without notifying me in writing?

I am angry that they done this without permission and without written notification.

[WendyB]

Re: gas payments

Have you actually lost out on any money because of this? Or incurred any charges? If not, then what's the problem?

[pompeyfaith]

Re: gas payments

Wendy,

Come on be fair, that is not the point companies cannot run riot with a customers funds and agreeing to one thing and doing something else is the route cause of customers miss trust in banks.

The money they took could also have been budgeted for something else. the fact remains they where given clear instruction which they agreed to.

[poochie]

Re: gas payments

actually yes i was out of pocket because they have actually taken 2 payments and not the one payment as i first thought. I thought 2nd payment was for electricity but it was actually them.
and i got 2 phonecalls today after recieveing an e-mail last night tellin me i have not actually set up direct debit for my gas account which is why im recievin e-mails to pay gas bill of £1072 now.
Now this doesnt make sense because i have e-mails from them saying thankyou for setting up your online accounts and variable direct debits etc etc......
I also have e-mail from one man who replied wen i queried how they could take the one payment i first suspected without permission and he said it automatically happens wen you set up direct debit...... yet last nights e-mail from someone else stated that i am recievin alerts to pay gas bill because i only set up direct debit for electricity supply so how does all this make sense.
today i got call about dinnertime from lady at gas company and she took details of my complaint and after i mentioned I now know its 2 payments you took without permission, she offered me £50 credit on my gas account as an apology.
I am not in this for monetary reward.... I am just sick of them doing as they please wen it suits despite them havin notes on their computer system of how a customer wats to pay outstanding balance and future payments etc.
They owed me over £100 last year coz i had paid monthly direct debit and ended up bein too high in credit with them so they sent letter sayin i will recieve refund into my account..... it took 3mths and many calls and e-mails to them to finally get that money.
they cant have it all their own way and i would like to know i am dealing with a company that is trustworthy and wont try to fiddle me....... i have had enough of that.
if they are offering me money then they know they are in the wrong.....
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
sorry that was meant to say £10.72 gas bill