I had a glorious 90 minutes there after I finished writing a letter to a mediator about talktalk but before I saw the email from british gas where I had no outstanding arguing with utility companies to do

You'll all be delighted to know the DWP are chasing me for £20 I don't owe them too

british gas are now trying to bill me oct-jan for £300. this is despite the fact they claimed they can't bill me for dec-jan because I had already settled it with the previous supplier. and obviously before december i was still with that previous supplier. yikes

the mediator for the talktalk issue are asking me to resubmit the complaint on their broken online form (I had posted it in)

It's not even the time cost, it's the attention cost that gets me. I'm convinced that's part the reason these companies either want to phone or if not send an email. There's no ignoring it the same way you can ignore post and it makes it difficult to handle the various disputes on your own terms

british gas have emailed me to acknowledge my complaint and put a similar but wrong street address on the email

@nuala they added it back in after already trying for oct-dec and failing? omg, this whole situation sounds frustrating and ridiculous

@nuala I hope it all works out in the end, one way or another. Unfortunately it looks costly either way.

@calculsoberic @nuala
Sadly I have also ended up with British Gas!
So far so good but I have questions to which I am finding it tricky to receive answers.
How are you managing to email them? They tell me they do not use email to communicate with customers. All I can find is a telephone waiting line...never answered, a live chat...not so live...and Twitter which is entirely unsatisfying for this type of issue!
There is no obvious way out of this that I can see.

@Jkp @calculsoberic

My condolences!

Your best bet with British Gas will be by post, and signed for delivery if possible. I think their address is British Gas, PO Box 227, Rotherham S98 1PD

I've also seen this email address floating around but haven't tried to use it:
servicescustomerteam@britishgas.co.uk

In general with this sort of thing it's always best to use post/recorded delivery, it shits them up a bit because it looks like you're collecting evidence to escalate it further

@nuala @calculsoberic Ha, thanks very much for this info.
I've had a lifetime of using recorded delivery letters with my employers so I an familiar with this requirement 😄
Email isn't too bad as a paper trail either though as long as they reply but, I will likely resort to letter writing.

@nuala @calculsoberic I sent E.mail to that address and, so far, it certainly hasn't bounced back yet therefore someone has taken delivery of it. I only asked if it were a valid address to save wasted effort :)

@nuala @calculsoberic
Thanks for getting in touch, but we no longer deal with this type of request via email. The quickest way to get help and advice is by starting a live chat with our friendly team – they’ll be happy to help.
Visit our online Help and Support page to start a live chat. We’re available 7am – 10pm Monday to Friday, and 8am – 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Or you can search our Help and Support page for more information and find answers to most frequently asked questions.
Thanks

@nuala @calculsoberic
So there we have it. It IS a real address but no one they will engage with customers through!

@Jkp ok, glad that was (kind of) resolved! @nuala

@nuala are you going to have to go to court over this? it sounds nuts

@calculsoberic probably not, I'd have to just pay it because I'm getting ready for a mortgage and I can't risk the court judgement on my credit check. I think Ican escalate it to an ombudsman though if I can't get it sorted, that should be free but probably time intensive

@nuala
Every time I read this stuff I want to slap myself for continuing to live on this stupid island.