A woman has gone to her MP in a bid to get compensation for months of harrasment and stress over a bill, which caused her hair to fall out.
Valerie Saunders, 68, a retired emotional counsellor, started having problems with British Gas shortly after she moved into her flat in Peterborough Road in January 2006.
She phoned to complain after receiving her first bill which was calculated on five people living at the address, instead of just a single person, and was sent a revised bill which she paid in February that year before switching provider.
advertisementHowever, in November 2006, she received a threatening letter from a debt collection agency telling her she owed £121 to British Gas, although she had received no bill for this.
Mrs Saunders said: "I rang British Gas and was told the debt was cleared. I went into a shop and was told I could get 20 per cent off my bill if I paid on one of their credit cards, so I decided to apply.
"But when the woman rang to check my credit rating with Experian, they told her my rating was as a bad debtor, and that I owed British Gas £121."
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Mrs Saunders rang the customer services department on a number of occasions and eventually managed to get a bill sent to her home address in September 2007.
The top of the address was right, but the postcode was wrong, which was why original bils had not arrived, and the suppliers blamed a letting agency for supplying the wrong address, but refused to tell Mrs Saunders who they were.
She paid off the bill immediately, but continued to receive threatening phone calls and letters from Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd, including daily automated phone calls, despite Mrs Saunders repeatedly phoning British Gas to ask them to call the bailiffs off.
The contact from debt collectors eventually stopped in November 2007, but by this point she was so sick with the stress her hair was falling out in clumps. She has only been given £30 in compensation to date.
She told the Harrow Times: "I resent being made to feel like a crook and liar by these people who promise you one thing but then do nothing about it.
"They have lost me as a customer for life because of the terrible way they treated me. When I phoned to say they still had not sorted my credit rating they suggested I must have a debt with another company, but I have never been in debt in my life.
"The amount of compensation they have offered me so far does not even come close to the amount I have spent on countless letters and phone calls, as well as money I have lost because of my credit rating.
"That is why I have got Mr Thomas involved to try and help me resolve my problems."
Gareth Thomas, MP for Harrow West, said: "I think British Gas have not behaved well. They treated her with a degree of arrogance and I think they should offer her a proper level of compensation."
Emma Powell, a spokesman for British Gas, said: "We apologise once again to Ms Saunders for the inconvenience caused.
"The original issue was caused by supply of an incorrect address for this customer by her letting agent. The matter was rectified and brought to a close last November."
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