A Gateshead woman claims she has 'become paranoid' about a bill that British Gas said she owed and she has insisted for the past nine months is wrong.
Diane Frith, of Birtley, says she virtually stopped using gas and cancelled her broadband to save money when she was landed a £215 bill, even though she had prepayment meters fitted to try to keep track of her energy use. And British Gas has admitted there was a fault on her meter all along and have agreed to waive the bill, although a spokesman said it was accurate.
Ms Frith says her problems started when she decided to switch her energy to prepayment meters in May 2021, after she felt she was not given enough time to pay her bills when they arrived from her credit meters. "The crunch came when I received a bill on the Easter weekend with just four days before it fell due, which were all over a weekend or on a bank holiday," the 55-year-old carer said. "I thought enough was enough and at least with a prepayment meter, there would be no bills so things should be easier. I was wrong about that though."
Read more: Warning that families with smart energy meters could be switched to prepay
Once the prepayment meters were fitted, Ms Frith reported a catalogue of errors, including:
- A mix-up over a bill which was generated for 12 days estimated usage before her prepayment meters were fitted, which Ms Frith said was written off by British Gas only be be loaded onto her prepayment meter as a debt three months later;
- Discrepancies between how much she tops off and how much her meter accepts. Ms Frith says that when she tops up in large amounts, substantial sums are disappearing from her balance;
- A bill a year after her prepay meters were fitted claiming saying that £167 bill from her credit meter had been added as a debt to her prepay meter;
- Her standing charges coming out twice - once mid morning each day, then seven days worth on a Friday, according to Ms Frith;
- British Gas refusing to give her a full account breakdown and has also refused to send the same to the Energy Ombudsman when she raised a complaint;
- 'Rude' call centre staff who Ms Frith claims suggested she was lying, with one saying 'I am not just going to take your word for it'.
- A 'goodwill payment' from BG but with no explanation what it refers to.
"I was absolutely fed up and just felt I was getting nowhere with British Gas, so I decided to switch my account to Octopus just before Christmas," she said. "I had been told my account was clear and I had received a goodwill payment from British Gas, so I decided to start again with Octopus. Then I got a final bill from British Gas for £215.37 - even though I had been on a prepayment meter!
"This bill is now in debt collection with British Gas, and I am absolutely paranoid about it. There was a British Gas van sat outside my house for two hours the other day and I was panicking about it. British Gas collections has said that they will send bailiffs out to make me pay. But I can't possibly owe this money."
British Gas has since apologised to Ms Frith and said that the outstanding balance had been cleared from her account. A spokesman said: "Ms Frith's outstanding balance was accurate and was based on meter readings given to us by her new supplier. Her gas meter had developed a fault and no payments were received from 23 May 2022 to 13 December 2022. We’ve spoken with Ms Firth to say sorry for not fixing this sooner and confirmed that we’ve cleared the balance from her account.”
Although Ms Frith said she was pleased the outstanding balance had been removed, she remained sceptical that would be the last she would hear about it. "I have been here before and the bill reappeared a year later," she said. "I will see what 2024 brings. I am also annoyed that British Gas are not communicating with the ombudsman about my complaint."
However a spokesman from British Gas said the company had already worked with the Energy Ombudsman to look into Ms Firth’s complaint and wrote to her on 8 February 2023 to confirm that, whilst the bill was correct, it had cleared the outstanding balance on her account.
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