My wife died in April 2021. She was a Guide, Brownie and Rainbow leader, as well as the “manager” of the local Guides hall.
This entailed dealing with the day-to-day running and utilities for the hall. Unfortunately, as it now turns out, she used her personal email, home address and phone number for the correspondence.
After her death, I managed to deal with most connected businesses without any problems (cleaning, boiler service, electrical repairs, fire alarm service and so on). EDF took about a year to update its database and stop sending letters and emails.
British Gas, however, doesn’t seem to care, despite me returning numerous letters (which relate to a business account and since I’m not named on it the company will not talk to me). It continues to phone me and ask to speak to my wife.
When the emails and letters to her tailed off last year I assumed British Gas had finally got the message so you can imagine my surprise when in December I received two letters: one addressed to “Mrs CH (deceased)” and one to the “hall manager”.
I returned the first letter to British Gas and gave the other one to the new hall manager, who lives locally. Three days later there was a phone call from one of British Gas’s agents asking, once again, to speak to my wife.
When I explained the situation he was apologetic and promised to remove her from the database. Two days later, I got another call asking the same questions. I’m sorry, but I was very rude to him on the phone
At the end of December, I received another two letters. What can I do to stop British Gas pestering my wife, who has been dead now for nearly three years?
NH, Cobham
I am sorry to hear that you have been treated in such an insensitive fashion for so long, and can understand why you have run out of patience with this incompetence.
I contacted British Gas, which is part of Centrica, on your behalf and it apologised for the upset caused. It says your wife’s details have been removed from its system and there will be no further correspondence. Why this was so hard to do in the first place is beyond me.
You did not want to receive any compensation, so it proposes making a £400 credit to the hall, which will help to continue the work of the organisation she was so passionate about.
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions: http://theguardian.com/letters-terms
