Despite leaving my contact number with British Gas with a request to call me back once they had investigated what may have occurred I instead receive a letter this morning from Revenue Assurance, their debt collection agency. I am not really surprised, in fact, when I first spoke about this in May I ended the blog with "To be continued....".

The debt collection agency are looking to recover a debt of £743.67 from a dormant company which has never traded and which doesn't even have a bank account. The company was incorporated in July of last year which is clear to anyone who looks up the records at Companies House.

The billing period for the amount they are trying to recover is from November 2004 to October 2006. If the company was incorporated late July of 2006 how on earth could it have been using a gas supply at an office in Cambridge since November 2004?

The annoying thing about the letter I receive is that it doesn't have a contact name. It's signed off  "Recoveries Team", above which is stamped, some standard signature which gives an initial rather than a name. In fact, it appears to signed by an A Frankenstein.

I call the number on the letter and after I quote the account number am told the person I need to speak to is on the phone. I leave my details. Now I am beginning to fume. 

A quick Google on British Gas Billing and the results returned include headlines such as, British Gas swamped by billing complaints, My British Gas nightmare: Customer Service Hell, British Gas: awful on every level, British Gas sets complaints record, Surge in British Gas Complaints, British Gas Complaints Soar, Billing Chaos at British Gas seemingly ad infinitum.

In fact, the Times, this morning, breaks another story reporting that back in February British Gas cancelled the direct debits of  45,000 of its customers, just weeks after Phil Bentley, MD of British Gas, promised to cut complaints caused by a new £400 million billing system. 

Photo: British Gas gets a £400 million makeover.

To be continued ......

I completely aggree that British Gas truly are the most incredibly inept, incompetent, unprofessional company I have ever had to put up with. They truly are sh*t.

We have had an ongoing problem with them for almost a year now. They seem completely incapable of sending us an accurate bill - instead we recieve demands and threats of legal action for amounts which are 3 times what we actually owe.

Everytime we phone up - we have to explain the whole situation again to their brain dead call center staff (they never seem to have any record of our previous calls). Everytime they admit that they sent the wrong bill, and that a new one is "being sent out now" - yet they go an send an inaccurate bill again!!! Unbelievable!!

All we want is to get an accuarte bill, pay it, and then ditch this sh*te company and never ever give them our businees again.

I don't bother phoning BG anymore - just go straight to EnergyWatch.org.uk - as they seem to be able to apply pressure more effectively.

My advice is: BRITISH GAS SUCK: don't ever switch to them - or you WILL regret it.