By: J.M.
My Dad is very strict about paying his gas bill as soon as it comes in the door, so when the guy that reads the meter has been and gone my Dad knows that his bill will be through the door within a week. After 10 days he still hadn’t received a bill and was starting to worry where it is.
I reassured him to wait another couple of days, but after 14 days he panics and starts phoning all sorts of numbers that he thought were British Gas, the problem he encountered was foreign based phone centres where he could not understand the operator’s accents and vice versa.
The operators tried to get him to pay his bill over the phone, but there was no chance of getting his bank details from him, so he came off the phone after lengthy discussions none the wiser as to where his bill has gone.
My dad now gets his neighbour involved who simply dialled a British Gas freephone number and explains about the bill not arriving, they promptly requested a new one for him. The person on the phone also said that British Gas would never request his bank details over the phone or get involved in extracting personal information from him unless for verification of who the caller is.
My dad should not have worried at all as a reminder would have been sent to him requesting payment of the bill. For some a reminder might bring bring shame, bur there is no shame in that as the postie simply did not deliver the original bill to the correct address.
The moral of the story is that, if you think there is something wrong with one of your bills, you should only call either the number on your bill or on the company’s website. If you’re still not sure who you should be calling- ask someone, there’s never any shame in that.