[chrysostom]

The lawyer closest to me says as the initial contract was solely in your name, you are liable to pay the outstanding amount - and the responsibility to pursue the outstanding bills/notify them of you leaving the property was with you.

You could pursue a civil case against your previous co-tenants, but the costs would be greater than the bill itself.

[bmstinton93]

It wasn't solely in my name as it was joint but I still think I'm fighting a losing battle if I'm honest. The tenancy agreement was set up in everyone's name and the agency were the British gas account holders. When I phoned British gas about the account they couldn't even find my name anywhere on the account.

[chrysostom]

Oh that's odd, I take back my point. Usually there's a lead account holder - but it should be the agent!

[Nicola_Red]

After Ben tweeted about this the other day, I replied to him briefly mentioning my British Gas horror story - about 12yrs ago they broke into my flat and fit a prepayment meter to recover debts held by the previous tenant, even though I had proof that they knew he'd left. They claimed that they had warned me it would happen, but strangely enough could provide no proof of that (because it was a lie) and I never even got an apology. Shortly after the tweets, I had a tweet from British Gas' twitter apologising to me! It was somewhat hollow after so many years and the trauma of being broken into, but still. I wonder if things would have been different if I could have made a fuss on social media back then...

[dimtimjim]

Simple Ben, if account in your name you're liable. If not, you're not and don't stress about it. And T is right, ALWAYS refer back to who you hold the original debt with and pay them directly - do not hand money over to a debt recovery agent unless your original creditor refuses to accept payment (if you deny all knowledge of debt recovery agent, they usually accept to close the account their end - they don't care if the DRA has lost his 'purchase' fee for buying the debt).

EDIT: and I don't think Nic should get any satisfaction from an apologetic tweet from british gas. Employing a small team of people at £15,000 p/a to monitor BG's bad name in social networking and try to impress a falsely apologetic persona. F*** you british gas and your gestapo tactics.

[bmstinton93]

Well I actually appear to be getting somewhere with British Gas!

[The Deadly]

Had a massive row with the operations director at work today. I won battle but will lose the war due to them being dramatically higher up than me. One of those situations when I could have said nothing and have an easy life or mercilessly attack them and their values system. Never was one to stay quiet and settle.

[neilt0]

I don't think I posted this before? I have found you get better results on The Tweeter because it's so public.

--------------------------------------------------

Why is it big companies (The Man!) don't give a shit about their customers until you get to shame them on Twitter or The Facebooks?

I know I get a better response through Twitter, but decided to go through official channels anyhoo:

July 2: Email from me: "Hi, Large Utility Company, it appears I've overpaid you by about £700. Can I have it back, please?"

July 8: Email from Large Utility Company: "We just read your email, sorry we were busy looking at porn. We'll get back to you by June 22!"

[They wrote June 22, but meant July 22, unless they have H.G. Wells on their staff]

July 23: Email from me: "It's now the 23rd of July and there has been no response. Please can you escalate this."

July 23: No reply.
July 24: No reply.
July 25: No reply.

July 25: 11:08am: Tweet to the Large Utility Company.
July 25: 11:39am: Reply back.

....blah blah, escalated -- someone actually is now looking at it... blah blah...

August 6: Email from Large Utility Company agreeing to repay in full (the total was actually well over £800).

[chrysostom]

There is a culpability to your direct managers/stakeholders with public messages that doesn't exist with private messages.

[dimtimjim]

I don't think I posted this before? I have found you get better results on The Tweeter because it's so public.

--------------------------------------------------

Why is it big companies (The Man!) don't give a shit about their customers until you get to shame them on Twitter or The Facebooks?

I know I get a better response through Twitter, but decided to go through official channels anyhoo:

July 2: Email from me: "Hi, Large Utility Company, it appears I've overpaid you by about £700. Can I have it back, please?"

July 8: Email from Large Utility Company: "We just read your email, sorry we were busy looking at porn. We'll get back to you by June 22!"

[They wrote June 22, but meant July 22, unless they have H.G. Wells on their staff]

July 23: Email from me: "It's now the 23rd of July and there has been no response. Please can you escalate this."

July 23: No reply.
July 24: No reply.
July 25: No reply.

July 25: 11:08am: Tweet to the Large Utility Company.
July 25: 11:39am: Reply back.

....blah blah, escalated -- someone actually is now looking at it... blah blah...

August 6: Email from Large Utility Company agreeing to repay in full (the total was actually well over £800).

Private customer service, no, no, no. Public customer service - oh yes. "see how great we are". f*** off. The ability to receive good customer service should not depend on your ability or willingness to use twitter. Poor customer service makes my blood boil.

[Nicola_Red]

Exactly my point about why I never got so much as an apology when they screwed me over - there was no social media to shame them on. Grr.

[chrysostom]

Didn't the paper run an article about it? (Or did I just make that up!)

[Nicola_Red]

No, a crappy local paper did. But still nothing happened. I think they just took the attitude that if they ignored it I would eventually go away - which of course I did cos I just got too exhausted by the whole thing to carry on fighting them. No doubt with legal advice or something I could have got further than I did, but there we go. The only outcome is that I've lived in three different flats since then and when I sign on one of my first questions is always who supplied the electricity, and if it's British Gas I make sure that it's changed immediately. They're never getting another penny of my money. But it's small comfort - I still shudder remembering the day I arrived home from work to find they'd broken in. Urgh.

[chrysostom]

Gosh, looks like it's standard practice for them http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bill ... locks.html

[Nicola_Red]

Well, at least they didn't change my locks! With me, they claimed they had sent a card telling me it was about to happen if I didn't contact them - I wonder if they told her that too. I'm pretty sure at some point they did admit that the alleged card was actually never sent, but I threw all the correspondence away in the end cos it was clearly just a waste of time pursuing it. The most telling part of that report is the quote from BG: "We appreciate this has been very upsetting for the customer, and we apologise for the difficulties she experienced in resolving this." They aren't actually apologising for breaking in, or admitting any responsibility at all, or even committing to help her. It's just a meaningless sentence.

[neilt0]

There is a culpability to your direct managers/stakeholders with public messages that doesn't exist with private messages.

That's my point.

[dimtimjim]

^^^ Exactly, British gas are COMPLETE arseholes.

Remember, it 'guilty until proven innocent'... oh, hang on... That's not right...

[Nicola_Red]

In other news, my specially supplied office chair has a broken valve and it's had to be taken away for repair. I'm using one of the normal ones and it is so uncomfortable! My hip is aching already. I realise that sounds like a bit of a "oh poor me I'm disabled" problem, but yeah, I kind of am. I have no idea how long before my beloved chair will be back. *sniffs*

[The Deadly]

Best advice I can give is to get over it. Don't mean that in a nasty way but I just mean thinking about it is only going to make it worse.

[dimtimjim]

In other news, my specially supplied office chair has a broken valve and it's had to be taken away for repair. I'm using one of the normal ones and it is so uncomfortable! My hip is aching already. I realise that sounds like a bit of a "oh poor me I'm disabled" problem, but yeah, I kind of am. I have no idea how long before my beloved chair will be back. *sniffs*

Some smut about having something else you could sit on...

[Topher]

Best advice I can give is to get over it. Don't mean that in a nasty way but I just mean thinking about it is only going to make it worse.

I'd have thought sitting on it would be more advisable.

[The Deadly]

Touché.

[dimtimjim]

We had a drawing needing producing for a meeting at 09:00 this morning, so I did 12.5 hours yesterday and have already been at work for 4 hours today...

Soooooooooooooooooooo tired, but got it done and issued. Tim wins.

Going Zzzzzzzzzzzz in a bit!

[chrysostom]

Our estate agents are notifying us of our Deposit Protection renewal 3 months after they were supposed to, with the policy stated as starting today - as such, our deposit has been unprotected for the last 3 months.

They are asking us to sign a letter saying they have complied with their statutory obligations (which they haven't) - what should we do?

I found this online:

The changes, which come into force on Good Friday, will give landlords and letting agents 30 days to protect their tenant’s deposit, an increase from the current 14 days.

Crucially, the tenant must be provided with proof of the deposit protection and the Prescribed Information by the landlord or agent within this 30-day limit.

If the deposit is not protected, courts will be able to order the landlord or agent to pay the tenant between one and three times the deposit amount as penalty. They will also be unable to seek possession of the property using a Section 21 notice until the penalty is settled.

mydeposits has announced that it will accept the late protection of deposits by landlords and agents after the 30-day period. However, it warns that the tenant can still seek compensation even if the deposit is protected after the 30-day period, but before going to court. Tenants can also make a claim after they have left the property.

Does this mean we are entitled to compensation purely for the estate agent allowing our deposit to be unprotected? (I hope everyone understands that we dislike our estate agents, as they charge us lots of money for doing very little - and they do it badly, and rudely)

Answers on a postcard!

[The Deadly]

I have a massive crush on my sons teacher. Obviously she is professional and I'm not stupid enough to think anything is going to happen but it doesn't stop me wanting to bend her over her desk and boning her.