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British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

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  • British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

    Hi,

    I am new to this site so hello and I would appreciate your help on my problem....

    My partner and I signed up for a new boiler last year with British Gas. We required a new boiler straight away as ours had been condemned and was leaking so it had to be switched off. We have two young children so were desperate to have the hot water back on so we signed on the dotted line within the hour on a promise they would get us up and running again.

    We paid £2k upfront and I said we could put the rest on a 0% apr credit card (we are both professional working people and have a very good credit rating). The sales guy said there was no need to do this as they have 0% apr so he would take care of it. He said it would take 4 years to pay back (I think you know whats coming..)

    A year later, just last weekend we received a letter showing statement of arrears... Overall amount we should owe is £2280.07 minus any payments made. We apparently owe a whooping £3856.88. The finance company have added a credit charge upfront at 19.9% Apr and this means we are paying an additional £2075.45 for the privilege of finance.

    I have given British Gas the opportunity to remedy this, this week and I have had the run around from the Regional Sale Manager so I have contacted Citizens Advice to document before going to Trading Standards. They have advised me to put my complaint in writing to British Gas and this is covered by Mis-Representation Act 1976 which may go to court. They also said its basically our word against his.

    To be honest I am rather nervous about going to court. I have never sued anyone before but cannot believe the Sales Rep has conned us like this. We feel extremely stupid and that he has taken advantage of our urgent need for their services.

    Can I ask if you have any further advise on this of how we proceed. And also what to do to prepare to go to court. We cannot afford to lose but we are of the opinion they can't take what we haven't got.

    Hope you can help me.

    Kind Regards
    Lynsey
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

    First off hi and welcome.
    Second, did you get all of that in writing from the rep, or did he just say it ?

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

      Hi Sapphy,

      Thanks for your reply, he just said it:tinysmile_hmm_t2:. I know, I know we feel we have well and truley been stitched up

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

        Hmmmm not sure, but I think your best bet is to find out who's in charge of him and make a written complaint, its a shame he didn't put it in writing though. When I had mine done two years ago the guy left a folder with all the details in it, don't suppose you kept it ?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

          yes we kept it. He has even circled the amount he showed us we would be paying which is on the Quote and also wrote the figure we should be paying next to it. Unfortunatley the credit agreement which he didn't talk us through shows the additional £2k credit charge

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

            Ouch, that will be the defence then, I'm hoping someone else will pop along and be able to throw some more light on it, in the meantime I think you'd be wise to start drafting a letter of complaint, make sure you put everything in as much as possible.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

              Thank you for your help Sapphy.

              I've now reported them to Trading Standards and I will be sending them a letter after still no solution or reply from them. I just wonder how many other people this has happened too who haven't noticed they are actually paying 2k for finance and not 0%. There are other issues we had with the selling but the major one is we want our 2k back. Citizens Advice have said it is a long way from court just yet and are guiding us through. I am determined not to give up as we have been conned most definitley

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

                I can't help on this, but my sympathies - British Gas tried to pull the same one on me two years ago - quoted me £6k for a new boiler and 0% interest. I was in similar straights in terms of the old bolier (not quite dead, but next door to it), but fortunately I wouldn't sign anything on the spot, and I had cash to pay the full amount so I told the salesman who was utterly insistant that I sign then and there to take a hike. I called a local firm the next morning, and by teatime had a quote for £1700! They told me the BG quote for the bolier itself was massively inflated, and that it included an entire series of things that I didn't even require. They installed the new bolier the next day and it took a total of four hours, including relocating the boiler and removing the old one. It is criminal that BG can get away with this sort of behaviour.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

                  We didn't go with the BG credit idea either, we paid £3k for ours in total, we do however have their homecare cover and to be honest its saved us a fortune in repairing things that have gone wrong.
                  Please keep us informed as to how you get on Lynsey.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: British Gas - Mis-selling Boiler - Help Please

                    I have had a similar thing happen to me, I had the entire amount to pay for the boiler & was told by the rep that I could have 0% finance on any balance if I wanted to spread the payments - for borrowing £2000 I have had to pay £1000 in charges, crazy! These reps should be struck off, it's cost/costing me a fortune and unnecessary one too. So angry :-(

                    Comment

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