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My best friend of 33 years died suddenly in June. Tragically, he suffered a stroke just 13 days after his 50th birthday.
His children had banded together at Christmas to buy him two weekend tickets to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July. They had planned it as a gift as part of his 50th birthday celebrations. He was thrilled beyond words and I was lucky enough to be his chaperone.
His family and I are absolutely devastated by his death. Their distress was compounded when his children contacted Silverstone to explain the situation and request a refund.
They were stunned when they were told there would be no refunds and tickets could not be transferred or sold. It’s a disgrace that they were so cruel. The owner of the Airbnb I had booked for the weekend refunded me the full amount, so why can’t Silverstone? GS, Kirkcaldy, Fife.
Sally Hamilton responds: I was saddened to read about your friend’s death at such a young age and, like you, I was shocked that your children were denied a refund for the special gift they had planned for your important birthday.
One of her daughters tried to recover the not inconsiderable sum of £538, but was left confused when she was told that the main ticket holder had to keep one ticket, while the other could perhaps be gifted to a family member.
She felt this was inappropriate as no one in the family was in a position to attend the event, including you.
Annoyed by the response, she decided to leave the matter at that as she was in no mood to fight.
But you were so angry when you heard what happened that you took action and contacted me.
I have contacted Silverstone to express my concern about the situation.
I am pleased to say that he immediately saw that something had gone wrong and his resolution was swift.
She contacted her friend’s daughter the same day to apologize and arrange for a refund.
She said her daughter had received a standard response regarding refunds from an inexperienced team member who did not escalate the matter to a more senior decision-maker.
A spokesman said: ‘As soon as we were made aware of the situation, we called (the customer) to express our sincere condolences and apologise for our oversight.
“We would not like to contribute to their discomfort in these difficult times. Of course, we agreed to return the tickets to them immediately.”
British Gas wants £5,858 from my son…
My son has had a terrible two years dealing with British Gas.
She had billing problems which, after much back and forth, she believed had been satisfactorily resolved. British Gas confirmed that her bills were up to date, refunded her £590 of her money and paid her £30 in compensation.
He then switched to Octopus and thought his troubles were over. But then he received another bill from British Gas for almost £4000, which he disputed again. They then reissued it for £5858. Please help him. House, Stourbridge, West Midlands.
Sally Hamilton responds: You told me how the stress of trying to resolve your billing nightmare for over two years has taken a toll on your son and his wife.
While he was struggling to prove he did not owe the huge sums demanded by British Gas, the couple were trying to have a baby. But with no luck, they made an appointment for IVF treatment.
By pure chance, they finally managed to conceive naturally. Their son believes it is no coincidence that this happened shortly after they thought the alarming gas bill had finally disappeared.
With this financial worry seemingly over, everything seemed to be going well again, until recently when they received a £5,858 gas bill on their account. Their son burst into tears when he saw it.
You came to me hoping I could get British Gas to see reason over this crazy bill and stop the torture of your son.
The energy company agreed to investigate and, a few days later, responded to me with an explanation.
His son had been thrown into this purgatory, it emerged, because his previous energy supplier was Bristol Energy, part of Together Energy, which went bust in January 2022. British Gas was designated a “supplier of last resort” by industry regulator Ofgem and took over Together’s customers.
Clients are expected to experience a smooth transition under such circumstances, but I’m afraid it didn’t work out that way for your son.
After I got involved, British Gas eventually launched its investigations and discovered that Together had provided it with the incorrect metering details for its son’s supply, triggering the catalogue of errors in its billing. It has now established the correct metering credentials and put the account on hold while it determines how much its son actually owes.
It has also taken into account official rules on retroactive billing, which state that you cannot be charged for energy used more than 12 months ago if you have not had an accurate bill before, even if you have requested one.
It is a shame that British Gas did not discover this meter error during your son’s numerous interactions with customer services.
This could have saved her more than two years of torment. Instead, she was constantly told that the bill reflected her usage, and British Gas added to her financial woes by tripling her quarterly direct debit to £424 while the account was “under review” from February to May this year.
His son and I waited and waited for British Gas to resolve the matters, but it turned out that they had trouble resolving their case because their son is now with Octopus Energy.
I was not entirely convinced by this explanation, but the good news is that British Gas eventually took a pragmatic approach and removed the erroneous bill of £5,858 and, as an apology for what her son had been through, also removed the real bill, which turned out to be £2,291 for both gas and electricity. Very true.
A British Gas spokesman said: ‘The customer came to us through the supplier of last resort process after their previous energy supplier went into receivership.
“We were given the wrong meter details when we took over his supply, which caused the problem with his bill. We have spoken to him to apologise for not having resolved the issue when he first contacted us.”
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