I’ve just been housed. Now I’m paying someone else’s debt on my prepay meter
In her final Your Problems column for the Observer, Anna Tims hears from a refugee suffering at the hands of British GasBritish Gas is causing me mental breakdown. I am a refugee and was grateful to be given a social housing flat. I duly informed British Gas, which supplies the gas on a prepayment meter and electricity, which was supposed to be billed. They sent me a new code and top-up card and I paid in £60. It turned out the previous tenant had left a £236 debt, presumably on the electricity account. British Gas siphoned off £54 and left me with £6 worth of fuel. Over the following weeks I questioned my sanity because every time I rang customer services, it kept telling me over and over to do the same thing, kept claiming that the matter was resolved and kept refusing to register a complaint. One adviser told me the only solution was for me to pay the debt. When my gas supply twice cut out, I called the emergency line and technicians visited to apply an emergency credit. I was assured the debt had been decoupled from my account and was told it would take up to 42 days to refund me the money they had taken. I had to spend Christmas and new year without heating or hot water. Continue reading...
In her final Your Problems column for the Observer, Anna Tims hears from a refugee suffering at the hands of British Gas
British Gas is causing me mental breakdown. I am a refugee and was grateful to be given a social housing flat. I duly informed British Gas, which supplies the gas on a prepayment meter and electricity, which was supposed to be billed. They sent me a new code and top-up card and I paid in £60. It turned out the previous tenant had left a £236 debt, presumably on the electricity account. British Gas siphoned off £54 and left me with £6 worth of fuel.
Over the following weeks I questioned my sanity because every time I rang customer services, it kept telling me over and over to do the same thing, kept claiming that the matter was resolved and kept refusing to register a complaint. One adviser told me the only solution was for me to pay the debt. When my gas supply twice cut out, I called the emergency line and technicians visited to apply an emergency credit. I was assured the debt had been decoupled from my account and was told it would take up to 42 days to refund me the money they had taken. I had to spend Christmas and new year without heating or hot water. Continue reading...
