Bord Gais and "Data Protection"

[gianni]

I rang Bord Gais to get another person's name put on my bill. I was informed by the agent that the other person had to be there at the time to confirm the change due to "Data Protection law"... I thought that this stipulation was a bit flawed - I could easily impersonate the other person or get a colleague to impersonate them. There would be no way to verify that the person was who they claimed to be!

Anyways seeing as Bord Gais were going to all this trouble I thought the decent thing would be to follow their procedure. So I set up a conference call with me, my bill mate and a bord gas agent. But when I got through the agent made all the necessary ammendments without once mentioning that my bill mate was required to verify them. My bemused bill mate was curious as to why I wanted them to listen in to a call of me changing a name on a gas bill. I felt like a bit of a prat!


Was the first agent pulling my leg ?? Has anyone else come across this ?

 

[shnaek]

I have come across it and I pointed out to them that I could just ring them back and put on a voice and say that I was the other person. It didn't make any sense to me, but I followed procedure and after about 3 calls the matter was sorted.

 

[Graham_07]

Have encountered exactly the situation as the OP mentioned when changing details for an elderly relative. The other person had to be there so arranged this then on 2nd call BG never asked for them. SO at least they are consistent in their inconsistency.