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Quick recap: I work for "EnergyCompany" in the UK fielding calls from customers, in theory just regarding moving house, however i get a solid mixture of near everything mixed in. Now the vast vast majority of my callers are normal people, they are phoning for a legitmate reason and are reasonably sensible, however a few.......
Two Bills No Brain
I understand that your mother has received two bills for the same period. This is less about "EnergyCompany" trying to confuse your mother into paying twice and steal from her, and more about the bill being overdue. So it was resent in the off chance that the first bill got lost in the mail. Accusing me of harrassing a vunerable old woman won't make me give you compensation for her mental distress.
Gas =/= Electric
I know you have a final statement there proving that you paid the final bill when you sold the house. I am not disputing that. What i am disputing is that, the bill you paid says Electric in big letters and the one that is still outstanding says Gas. Threatening to go to your legal advisor to sue for £5,000 does not impress nor worry me.
BTW. The bill he was arguing about, that he was going to pay to see a legal advisor about was £17. He spent 30 minutes arguing this with me.
Stop scaring your mother
A bit of background, the person on the phone is actually the customers son, who is disputing another final bill when she moved house (about £40)
Asking me how much the previous bill was is a reasonable request, repeating the figure back to me in a loud shocked voice, so that your mother is thinking that is the size of the bill isn't. I can hear her in the background nearly crying that she doesn't owe £200. Doing this several times with different figures only makes me despise you more. I get that you want Mommy to think her little soldier is fighting the evil gas company, but all you're doing is upsetting her and annoying me.
But my aunts dead
Your aunt died two years ago, you were left the house, any gas and/or electricity used in the house since it was left to you is down to you to pay for. I understand that you're trying to sell it but it's still yours. Calling me immoral for threatening a dead person with disconnection is wrong on so many levels, not least is the fact that we're threatening you. Repeatedly stating that you aunt has died won't make a difference we know this. We had an account under her name, then we had an account under her estate name, now we have an account under your name. With bills. That need paying.
Small Bill
Sometimes (very rarely) due to small correction being made on an acocunt, we end up with a balance of a few pence, if it's acredit then no matter how small we will send it out. If it's a debit then figures less than 50p should be caught and wiped off. Sometimes this doesn't happen. So if you call to pay off a 19p bill, i will tell you i have just put 19p credit on your account to cancel it out. This makes customers happy, which EnergyCompany prefers. However this is done on agent's discretion so if you ring up screaming about a 10p bill, that was created in the first place because you miswrote a cheque, then i can quite happy force you to pay it.
This is why you should always be calm and ask politely, then you might be surprised.
A Long time ago
(I am not involved in this story at all, just relating it)
A few years back a customer calls to check whether his and his wifes accounts were shut down correctly, the customer passed all data protection. The agent not only informed himt hat it was but also double checked the forwarding address by telling the husband who confirmed it. The husband then goes to the address finds his wife, who is hiding from him and puts her in hospital.
This is why we neevr give you any information, we ask you to confirm your phone number, address, etc by telling us not the other way around, because doing it the wrong way just once can have serious consequences.
Two Bills No Brain
I understand that your mother has received two bills for the same period. This is less about "EnergyCompany" trying to confuse your mother into paying twice and steal from her, and more about the bill being overdue. So it was resent in the off chance that the first bill got lost in the mail. Accusing me of harrassing a vunerable old woman won't make me give you compensation for her mental distress.
Gas =/= Electric
I know you have a final statement there proving that you paid the final bill when you sold the house. I am not disputing that. What i am disputing is that, the bill you paid says Electric in big letters and the one that is still outstanding says Gas. Threatening to go to your legal advisor to sue for £5,000 does not impress nor worry me.
BTW. The bill he was arguing about, that he was going to pay to see a legal advisor about was £17. He spent 30 minutes arguing this with me.
Stop scaring your mother
A bit of background, the person on the phone is actually the customers son, who is disputing another final bill when she moved house (about £40)
Asking me how much the previous bill was is a reasonable request, repeating the figure back to me in a loud shocked voice, so that your mother is thinking that is the size of the bill isn't. I can hear her in the background nearly crying that she doesn't owe £200. Doing this several times with different figures only makes me despise you more. I get that you want Mommy to think her little soldier is fighting the evil gas company, but all you're doing is upsetting her and annoying me.
But my aunts dead
Your aunt died two years ago, you were left the house, any gas and/or electricity used in the house since it was left to you is down to you to pay for. I understand that you're trying to sell it but it's still yours. Calling me immoral for threatening a dead person with disconnection is wrong on so many levels, not least is the fact that we're threatening you. Repeatedly stating that you aunt has died won't make a difference we know this. We had an account under her name, then we had an account under her estate name, now we have an account under your name. With bills. That need paying.
Small Bill
Sometimes (very rarely) due to small correction being made on an acocunt, we end up with a balance of a few pence, if it's acredit then no matter how small we will send it out. If it's a debit then figures less than 50p should be caught and wiped off. Sometimes this doesn't happen. So if you call to pay off a 19p bill, i will tell you i have just put 19p credit on your account to cancel it out. This makes customers happy, which EnergyCompany prefers. However this is done on agent's discretion so if you ring up screaming about a 10p bill, that was created in the first place because you miswrote a cheque, then i can quite happy force you to pay it.
This is why you should always be calm and ask politely, then you might be surprised.
A Long time ago
(I am not involved in this story at all, just relating it)
A few years back a customer calls to check whether his and his wifes accounts were shut down correctly, the customer passed all data protection. The agent not only informed himt hat it was but also double checked the forwarding address by telling the husband who confirmed it. The husband then goes to the address finds his wife, who is hiding from him and puts her in hospital.
This is why we neevr give you any information, we ask you to confirm your phone number, address, etc by telling us not the other way around, because doing it the wrong way just once can have serious consequences.
I wonder if most places treat information that way (as in having the customer recite versus the employee providing), because I can see this happening with almost any type of bill. Scary.
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