British Gas or the Inquisition - is there a difference?

You will recall, that I have made passing reference to those halfwits at British Gas, in the past, well F**k me sideways with a sledgehammer if they are not at it again.

In 2011 we discovered that they had been charging us for a sub meter.  Now a sub meter is, and forgive me if you knew this already, is one that is drawing power from the main meter.  The main meter is the one that the utility company bills on and the sub meter is usually the one that the tenant has installed to check on usage of a particular system or to recharge a sub tenant, but not to my knowledge, never billed by a utility company!

Anyway we took them to the Ombudsman over this, won our case and had all monies plus a small compensatory sum refunded.

Thirteen months later I open the post and get a letter from them about the self same  meter;  This is my response;

13^th July 2012

British Gas

Business Renewals Team

Spinneyside

Penman Way

Grove Park

Leicester

LE19 1SZ

FAO: Alan Moody, Head of SME Sales

Dear Sirs,

SITE ADDRESS: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I am in receipt of your letter dated 30^th June 2012 in regard to ‘ RENEWING YOUR FIXED TERM ELECTRICITY CONTRACT’.

You then go on to state in the opening paragraph of the ‘Renewing’ letter that, “We value your business, and our products, services and customer benefits all reflect our commitment to putting our customers’ needs first.”

The only problem with that statement is that it is bland and so full of buls**t that only the people making it can really believe that there is any truth in it.

You say, “Thank you for being a British Gas Customer” If it was a choice between being your customer and being a victim of the inquisition, where I would be stretched on the rack, have hot pokers stuck into orifices and sharp sticks poked in my eyes, I think the inquisition would be the less painful option in the long term and more preferable too

 

Come on, really!  It doesn’t matter how big an organisation is; there really must and should be systems in place to prevent you from screwing up all the time, but if you have them, either you and or your staff are ignoring them, as you really don’t give a fig about the misery you inflict on customers and or potential customers, or, you just have no idea how to manage your own systems.  I’m leaning toward both points actually; you don’t give a fig about customers and you have no idea what you are doing!

In regard to this renewal of ‘our’ fixed term contract against reference number xxxxxxxxxx,

WE DO NOT HAVE A CONTRACT WITH YOU ON THIS PROPERTY.

We took you to the ombudsman over this property, case ref xxxxxxx, in 2011 AND WON.

Your own Mrs Beverley Booth, based in Leicester, wrote to us on 6^th May 2011, full of apologies and to discuss a total refund, and here we are 13 months later with you chancing your arm again attempting to hijack another account that now doesn’t even come under our remit in terms of utility bills, as the property is leased, and by the way I speak with the tenant, who is contracted to another utility company, so you will be getting the same response from him, if you attempt to blag your way there!

Do try getting your house in order, please!

Yours sincerely

They really do make you want to KILLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE: 19th July and I still want to kill!!!!!!!!!

Just received a call from Reagan, who sounded as if she was possibly North American, but you know me and accents:

Anyway Reagan, from Customer complaints, who after reading my vitriol laden letter above, took it upon herself to phone me and to apologise personally for the original letter being sent out and to assure me that in regard to the property in question, that it was not under contract between XXX and British Gas and to further assure me that nothing like this will happen again.

Oh dear! Now I know what you're thinking....... well suffice it to say Reagan was left in no doubt what I thought about her assurances as I pointed out I have had these on numerous occasions in the past from British Gas employees and all it does, is make 'personal liars' out of the people making them.  Why, even although you work for an organisation would you offer your personal assurances, when the A***holes you work for are not capable of keeping them.

Why on reading what this guy thinks of you as an organisation, would you take the decision to phone him, rather than just send a letter with a meaningless apology?

I know I shouldn't react to them in the way that I do, but they are just so appalling in their customer service that the thought of actually talking to them, even when the individuals themselves are probably nice people, the company name in itself is just enough to make me want to lash out at them......

She is now going to send me a letter confirming that there is NO ACCOUNT and no doubt make a file note marked in bold DO NOT F*****G phone this man EVER....         

Another Reason Why I hate British Gas /Centrica (swear alert)

Received this letter in the post from British Gas, addressed to UNKNOWN, informing Unknown that electricity prices are going UP and the new prices are enclosed.

1. It is addressed to UNKNOWN
2. No NEW Prices were enclosed, and
3. It was sent in 'April 2012' *

* I want to see a frigging date on post, an actual day date, not a vague sometime in the month date.  

And let's not forget that the bloody thing was sent out to UNKNOWN in the first place, how can you send to a letter to unknown.  I accept that commercial properties may have changed hands and the previous tenant may have had an account with one utility company, but all of the utility companies and I deal with most of them, seem to have no trouble in tracking down the telephone Number of premises.  If it is a multi tenanted building the office suites either have their own metered supply or are re-billed from the landlord through a sub meter, the first option means that the tenant is billed direct and therefore the meter is attached to an individual address within the building, which they, the utility company must have had in the first place, don't you think? And if it was re-billed through the landlord and they had changed companies they wouldn't be unknown in the first place, now would they? Arrrrgggghhh     

And why can't someone phone and say something like, 

Hi, sorry to trouble you, but British Gas here, we previously supplied electricity to the property you are in to the previous tenant and to meter number so and so.  We don't seem to have your details on file and would like to get it sorted out for you ASAP, before you run up a big bill.  Can you give me your company details so that we can log you on to the system. Oh and by the way as you are a new customer, these are the types of deals we can offer you........

But no,  this is a letter to UNKNOWN, and Unknown does have an account Number!!!!! stating that you have a contract with us, but as you have not renegotiated it with us, so we are increasing your prices

OR IS IT JUST ME BEING FUCKING OBTUSE, AGAIN! 

Oh and by the way I do not have any electricity contracts with British Gas at this time or in recent past.......

It's a bit like the heating instructions on the back of a packet of hot cross buns I noticed the other day, which were also rather stupid, like the letter above, and the instructions were these:

Best enjoyed hot, for best results,  

To Toast: cut in half and place under grill until golden brown, remove and butter.
To Grill: cut in half and place under grill until golden brown, remove and butter.

I kid you not, those were the actual instructions on the packet, and so I ask,

IS IT ME?