Response from British Gas to A4V...?

[deethebee]

So I paid the final gas bill by A4V last week and was expecting a reply along the lines of, "We don't accept this as a form of payment..." with my promissory note enclosed. However, the reply I received today is a standard complaint response letter. Somehow they've turned my payment into a complaint, but I am unsure if I just ignore them or write back and what am I supposed to say to that? I don't see how they can even deal with a "complaint" where I've not given them anything to investigate or what exactly it is I've brought to their attention...

"Dear ******

Thank you for your letter of 21 March 2012. I'm sorry that we're not meeting your expectations at the moment and that you've had cause to complain. I would like to reassure you that we take all complaints very seriously and that yours is currently being investigated and will be dealt with as quickly as possible.

The details of your complaint have been allocated to a dedicated account manager. They will keep you fully informed of its progress, and will contact you directly within the next 7 days.

If you'd like to know more about our complaints handling procedure you can get a copy of our complaints leaflet by either going online at britishgas.co.uk/codesofpractice or by calling us on 01784 874994.

Please be assured that resolving your complaint is extremely important to us, so thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Yours sincerely,

Shane Bonney
Customer Relations Manager
Managing Director's Office "

[ceylon]

watch this

[exdrogadgy]

So I paid the final gas bill by A4V last week and was expecting a reply along the lines of, "We don't accept this as a form of payment..." with my promissory note enclosed. However, the reply I received today is a standard complaint response letter. Somehow they've turned my payment into a complaint, but I am unsure if I just ignore them or write back and what am I supposed to say to that? I don't see how they can even deal with a "complaint" where I've not given them anything to investigate or what exactly it is I've brought to their attention...

"Dear ******

Thank you for your letter of 21 March 2012. I'm sorry that we're not meeting your expectations at the moment and that you've had cause to complain. I would like to reassure you that we take all complaints very seriously and that yours is currently being investigated and will be dealt with as quickly as possible.

The details of your complaint have been allocated to a dedicated account manager. They will keep you fully informed of its progress, and will contact you directly within the next 7 days.

If you'd like to know more about our complaints handling procedure you can get a copy of our complaints leaflet by either going online at britishgas.co.uk/codesofpractice or by calling us on 01784 874994.

Please be assured that resolving your complaint is extremely important to us, so thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Yours sincerely,

Shane Bonney
Customer Relations Manager
Managing Director's Office "

same response that i got and they deal with the so called complaint by sending you more bills

[deethebee]

I have watched that vid before, but don't recall him saying anything about what to do when you get a response like this. I would watch it again but it's quite lengthy and this freeman business takes up a lot of time!

If anyone could just give me some idea of whether I should ignore this or if I have to send a response then that would be great.

Exdrogadgy, did they not say anything about the promissory note? Or did they send another letter after this one?

[exdrogadgy]

deethebee

no mention of the prom note or remittance bill. What it seems is their objective is to cash as many prom notes as possible. Check my "Billing or prepayment meter" thread for updates.

exdrogadgy

[deethebee]

I have been checking out your thread

But I am confused because if they never clear your account and just keep adding the balances to the new bills then your bills will just get bigger and bigger and eventually they'll pass it on to debt collectors etc. So whilst they may be accepting the payment, they aren't applying it to your account and behaving like you're refusing to pay. I'm going to find that stressful on top of all the other companies I've got chasing me. Starting to cost a lot in postage too...I feel like we may as well just be refusing to pay because they treat us that way anyway. I suppose the only positive is that if they ever tried to take us to court we could say, "We told them to return the giro slip and prom note if they don't accept this payment and yet they did not, so this must mean they've accepted the payment."

I'm just confused as to what A4V actually does if they never allocate the payments to your account and keep chasing you.

[exdrogadgy]

I have been checking out your thread

But I am confused because if they never clear your account and just keep adding the balances to the new bills then your bills will just get bigger and bigger and eventually they'll pass it on to debt collectors etc. So whilst they may be accepting the payment, they aren't applying it to your account and behaving like you're refusing to pay. I'm going to find that stressful on top of all the other companies I've got chasing me. Starting to cost a lot in postage too...I feel like we may as well just be refusing to pay because they treat us that way anyway. I suppose the only positive is that if they ever tried to take us to court we could say, "We told them to return the giro slip and prom note if they don't accept this payment and yet they did not, so this must mean they've accepted the payment."

I'm just confused as to what A4V actually does if they never allocate the payments to your account and keep chasing you.

They do what they normally do, they don't admit that A4V works and all these bills they send is just a smokescreen to hide their guilt. They are committing fraud, they are never going to admit it publically. They will always keep chasing you, once you have lost the fear then you can start laughing at their process. The problem of postage is a big problem especially for those who are unemployed or those that have very little spare money. Are you in the position to apply for a credit card which you could use for expenses?

[deethebee]

Yeah I know they'll never admit it...I'm just not sure what use A4V is then. Perhaps they're not allowed to take you to court? It'd be good to have this stuff explained in detail

No way can I apply for a credit card. My credit file was poor when I wasn't using any credit and then it got worse because I WAS using credit..so I could never win. But now, I've defaulted on a LOT of debt so there is absolutely no way anyone is gonna give me anymore credit

I really do need to find a way of making some money though...it's getting quite stressful!

[exdrogadgy]

Hi deethebee

I wonder if any of the service providers ever pay your charges, i.e. your fee schedule? Maybe you could bill them for your expenses? A4V probably makes you debt free and you avoid court, hopefully.

Gadgy

[hermajestythequeen]

Dee

Have you read the bills of exchange act 1882 ?

If not then please read it and get an understanding of what a promissory note,bill of exchange and negotiable instrument is.

This will help you understand that what you have given them IS payment.

Any corporation that has more than 2 million in fixed assets can have the above monetised, so you have paid them.

If you can find the corps memorandums and articles of association it will almost certainly say that they deal with promissory notes,bills of exchange and negotiable instruments.

And loose the fear