Dear Sirs

Re: Account Number xxx/xxxx/xxxxxxxxx

I refer to your letter of 15 August regarding my complaint against xxxxxxx, which concludes by asking me to contact you if I have further enquiries.

Too right I have! I am not in the least bit happy about xxxxxxx’s response.

First, I have to say that xxxxxxx's version of events appears to be even further removed from reality than I had previously imagined. This is what really happened.

In about May 2000 (ie last year!) when the bill was £30ish, I telephoned them because I had been redundant for a while, I got very little help from “Social Services” and had no money, and asked how I could settle this. I explained that I had only just started a new job, and asked for a payment card, or booklet or anything that might help. They were totally unhelpful, the only solution they would be prepared to accept was if I had a quantum meter fitted.

I agreed, and asked if it could be fitted in an evening or at the weekend, because I couldn’t ask my new employer for time off in the week that I started! Again they were totally unhelpful, but promised that they would guarantee a morning fitting. I was sent an appointment card promising fitting between 8am and 12 noon, so I persuaded my employer to give me that MORNING off work, amidst profuse apologies.

I waited till about 10.30ish, then telephoned and said "Are you definitely coming cos I'm a bit worried...." They said they checked with Transco and yes, they were definitely coming. I called again at about 11.30 and then every hour till early afternoon, and each time I was assured that they were on their way.

I had to ring my employer and say sorry again, they still haven't been but they promise they will.

They didn’t turn up at all. At teatime when I called they said they had run out of meters. My employer was livid! (So was I by the way but that’s another matter). I asked Amerada to write to him and explain, and they said they would. They didn’t do that either.

Then I called xxxxxxx several times over the ensuing months to ask when this Quantum meter was going to be fitted. They assured me each time that I was on the list and they would be in touch. They never did.

Then i started getting threatening letters from xxxxxx Debt Recovery (who are really an arm of xxxxxxx) and each time the “debt” figure increased due to estimated readings and standing charges, and each time I rang and said "but I'm waiting for this meter!” and each time they said "oh yeah... ok... we're still waiting for them to be available.” Rarer than hen’s teeth these meters are, apparently.

Now I should point out that I was worried about this – the apparent debt was increasing, although in the meantime, I used NO gas – so I was freezing as I’m sure you can imagine. Furthermore, they had denied me any other method of payment other than this new meter… so I was at the mercy of their meter suppliers.

Finally I called them again in February and asked them (note it was ME who took the initiative again!) to install this meter, so that I could control my costs. Their call centre again said that they would be in touch to make an appointment for this, so I waited. And waited. And waited. I heard nothing.

You will have gathered that none of this lends the slightest credibility to any attempted explanation by xxxxxxx that THEY had problems arranging to replace the meter.

Then at the start of July they sent me a letter and said that they would remove my gas supply by force if necessary on 5 July. I called another gas company on the day I got the letter, and asked them to take over my supply, and they agreed. I then called Amerada and I asked THEM how much it would cost to have their supply disconnected. They said £50. I agreed. They said they would make a new appointment to read and disconnect (but not remove!) the meter. Now you would think that was it sorted eh? I did.

So I went to work on 5 July thinking everything was sorted out. Regardless of those arrangements, however, sheriff officers, acting on behalf of xxxxxxx, entered my house on 5 July and removed the gas supply, and I have a letter from PDP Richburn confirming that they checked with Amerada in the morning and confirmed that the disconnection was to proceed. So the error is Amerada’s.

I would never have gone to work if I had even suspected that xxxxxxx might turn up anyway. I would rather have let them in than suffer the indignity and humiliation of having my neighbours watch them force entry. You cannot imagine the distress that this has caused me.

In these circumstances, I am not prepared to accept either their explanation or their “goodwill offer” because I have absolutely no goodwill towards them whatsoever.

They removed my gas meter when they had no right to do so. They entered my house when they had no right to do so. They explored other areas of the house where they had no need to be and had no right to do so.

So here’s the deal. I want the meter replaced at a time that suits me. I want xxxxxxx to pay ME for the embarrassment and distress and inconvenience they have caused me. I want a reply from THEM to my registered letter of (6 July?) to which I have not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement.

I note your comments on the role of Energywatch, and find this somewhat at odds with your Mission Statement as a “Consumer’s Champion”. I should therefore be grateful if you would clarify for me, who else should I contact to fulfil that role?

Finally, perhaps I should also explain that I have contacted my MP, the Rt Hon Clare Short, on this whole issue of “right to enter” and she has already responded to say that she will be contacting xxxxxxx directly on my behalf.

I will NOT be letting this go.

I look forward to receiving your further advice.

Yours faithfully

Then we did, again:

Energywatch have made me aware of your company’s disingenuous reply, in an attempt to blame me because you had “difficulty in gaining entry to my premises” to install the quantum meter. That’s a load of tosh and you know it. So does Energywatch now. So does Clare Short, my MP. So will half the country when I get the publicity machine rolling.

Oh and while we’re on the subject of publicity, here’s another cracker for you. I contacted a “complaint” web site, one that not only acts on the consumers behalf, but takes the mick exquisitely out of companies like yours who have no concept of the definition of the words “customer” or “consumer” and do you know what xxxxxxx told him? Ready? No you better sit down and hold the arms of your seat because this is a beaut.

You said “(client) is not an xxxxxxx customer he’s a customer of Midland Gas and that’s a completely separate company.”

Oh yeah? Is that a fact? So what, exactly, were you doing in my house if I am not one of your customers, eh? Where does that fit into “powers of entry” in the Act? Come to think of it, where does “Smooching around the house looking in all the cupboards just to be nosey” fit in either eh?

Or is that reply just another load of evasive tosh? Must be one or the other, don’t you think?

I’ve been having a clear out of all those cupboards. I’ve found lots of bits of paper that look like gas bills but, in retrospect, bear a closer resemblance to ransom demands. And you know what? Well, I’m a sad sod, and I write down things that people say to me, just for the record, and here’s a few examples of what’s written on those bits of paper.

31/7/00 - your Kelly Pettinger said you will fit Quantum meter.

9/9/00 – You said that you will notify me when meter is to be installed.

24/10/00 - spoke to "Pamela" (at xxxxxxx) and was told to ignore debt letters in the meantime.

Undated letter from you, sending quantum card for use with meter when it’s fitted.

30/10/00 - spoke to Jill in collections about debt letters again, and was told not to worry it was all sorted out.

You made an appointment and I waited in for you. You never turned up. You said that you had run out of meters and were ordering more. I phoned many many times and was told that you were still waiting for them – and not to worry about the debt.

I have waited patiently for a coherent reply from you. You have totally ignored me. You call this customer service? Seriously? If you need time to reply, could you at least write to me and tell me how long it’s likely to take? Otherwise I shall have no alternative but to step up the publicity side of this, to highlight the trail of incompetence and errors leading up to the disconnection, and the absolutely shameful way that you have failed to respond to my complaint.

Your only response so far has been from xxxxxx Debt Recovery, who I know are really just xxxxxxx with a different name (which is at least an improvement over the imperceptible difference between you and you with another hat on, when it comes to evading awkward questions). They seem to think that they can bully me into paying up for the gas I had used before you screwed up!! Gosh the nerve of some people eh?

So you can tell them from me (in addition to me telling them myself) that I am not paying one single penny or cent (for the benefit of our US readers in the Hess Corporation) towards this bill, and you can take me to court if you have the balls or stupidity to stand the publicity. Their (your) threats are a waste of time, because any semblance of a contract that I had with you ceased at the moment you broke into my house illegally. Any sympathy I had for you losing the remaining money evaporated over the time that it has taken you (since 6 July) not to bother replying. Only my determination to win compensation from you has increased, and continues to do so with each passing day that you attempt to avoid responding.

So I’m not finished yet. You were and continue to be completely in the wrong here, and you will not hide that forever.

But no. Then the gas distribution company wrote 6 months later and demanded entry to check that the disconnection had been done properly. So they got this:

Dear Transco

First, allow me to apologise for the delay in replying to your letter of 7 May, but I have been in hospital having my tits surgically reattached, after I laughed them off reading your letter.

So, you want to come and check that the meter removal was performed properly, and that the connection was left in a safe condition eh? Well of course, you are more than welcome to do so, although I would suggest that this would be a waste of time.

You see, your pals at xxxxxxx (you know, them who couldn’t guess a day of the week with a “y” in it, if you gave them 7 tries) decided to disconnect my supply, and entered my house illegally (after I had reached an agreement with them that they would not do so, because the difficulty was caused by their incompetence and interminable delays in finding a new meter, they must have been waiting to build one out of a fart machine and a burst balloon, too much time watching “Scrapheap Challenge” if you ask me). Now, they were accompanied by a man from… wait for it… Transco! who actually performed the disconnection.

So, given that Transco performed the work, I would think it pretty unlikely that you would find now that the work had been performed incorrectly and left my home in a dangerous and potentially life-threatening state for 9 months, don’t you hmmm? People less forgiving than me would look up the word “litigious” and have your wotsits for garters, hmm?

So I think I could guarantee almost certainly that you would find nothing wrong with the work. You are welcome to come and check though. I would add that, if you do, I will have an independent gas engineer present to ensure that it WAS safe all this time, and that it is at least left safe this time. You can’t be too careful, that’s my golden rule.

You also refer to me contacting my current gas supplier. The point is, I don’t have one. You are more than welcome to contact xxxxxxx, the last incompetents incumbents, but if you are able to extract one iota of sense from them in the inevitable flurry of confused correspondence, you’re a better man than me, Ghunga Din’t

Please let me know how, or indeed if, you wish to proceed.

Never heard a sausage from them after that.

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