Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello brainy chums,

I've kind of got to my wits end with this, so thought I'd throw it out to the general brains here as to what we can do next.

We moved to Walsall two years ago now, and had a phone line installed and number set up. For the last two years we have had daily nuisance calls from British Gas. These calls always ask for a Mr Hammond. As I have explained so patiently so many times, this person does not live here and, as far as we are aware, has never lived here. The person who lived here before us lived here for many years and was an elderly woman.

In fact, I am certain he didn't live here, as once one of the call centre employees read out the address and it wasn't anything close to our address, number, street or anything.

Anyway, whether it was a falsely given phone number or a recycled phone number, they seem to be chasing a bill of £20-something. But no matter what we tell them, and how many times we have been lied to by just about every department in the business that they have removed our number from the account and that we'll never be called again, we still receive at least one call per day, and it's got to the point where it is really upsetting to me as I can see no end.

I have complained so many times, but nothing ever happens, and it is getting me down.

Do I have any rights here? I'm not a customer of British Gas, and there is nothing more I can think to do, and I am just so so so fed up of it.

This isn't a very brainy answer, but would getting your phone number changed be an option?

You could try TPS, but then as these aren't marketing calls it probably won't help.

You're sort of left nowhere, really.

One option is to get BG's number blocked by BT or whoever your provider is.

Another possible route is to threaten British Gas with a Harrasment Act action if they don't feck off.

Move house?

Write a letter of complaint to the CEO of british gas at his home address.

http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=9519

Tell British Gas that he's dead. That's what I do whenever I get cold calls as eventually, they'll update their database to reflect this.

It is, but I'd be really annoyed at having to pay for a number change because of British Gas's behaviour. If I could bill then for it...

That's brilliant

Really? I shall try this.

I sang them the 'Hang Up and Fuck Off' song yesterday.

Do what Zoidberg says. Try to document as much as possible the harassment and all that.

Ask for compensation.

Await results.

I tried having a number blocked by BT once, for something like this, but the calls come from so many different source numbers that it didn't really make a difference. We get calls from all manner of depts and countries about this, so I'm not sure it would work, plus I think you need to pay an ongoing subscription to a blocking service.

Generally, I try to be more reasoning/informative.

Shall document as much as possible. I put together a good summary in the complaint email

Recording of Russ singing the Hang Up and Fuck Off Song please.

Request to be Craster's Secret Santa, please.

I bought some phones that let me block numbers locally. Not an ideal solution, but it is better in the long run than paying BT every month for the same service.

Have had a reply off the customer service bot on Twitter. Not holding out much hope, as we already spoke to a real person in Accounts who assured Mimi it was removed, but you never know !

Good luck.

Years ago in a student house the phone would ring every Tuesday asking for a Mr So-and-so. Eventually, I got so annoyed with these calls, I said 'No, he's dead' and hung up. The calls ceased after night. Might not work if BG are chasing a bill, however.

I am going to say this when they call next. Shall try it for a month or so snd see what happens

I've also complained to the ombudsman via Ofgem, just to see if it counts and will book a word with Citizens advice when I can get a half day.

Anyway. Gngh.

Good for you Meems, it's definitely harassment.

British Gas are utter wankers so good luck with whatever you do. When I moved house I thought I was still under contract with them so arranged for them to supply the new house. They screwed that up and logged 5 missed payments on my credit file. They kindly gave me £50 off my bill that I couldn’t use for 6 months, even then I had to chase them for it.

Then I had their shit boiler cover, they came around to look at my old boiler and refused to fix it, they had all the parts but they were lacking a part number for a rubber washer. A local plumber said this cost him around 5p when I had him around to fix it.

I also get calls from when I rented a house 7 years ago, the landlord set up the homecare, gave me the details and told me to call and pretend to be him if I had any issues. After explaining that I’m not Mr Khan about 10 times I just hang up when they call now.