Calor Gas Direct Debit Problems

[murphy05]

Hi all,
6 months I received a letter from Calor Gas stating that they would cut me off unless I paid my bills. Bit of a shock considering I had a direct debit set up when I joined them 12 months previously.
Had to cancel direct debit and get a new set up. The form was sent to Calor along with a cheque for outstanding bill.
Yesterday, I recieved another letter from them, again, threatening to cut me off.
At this stage I don't know what to do. The cheque from 6 months ago was cashed and the direct debit does not seem to be active.
Bank says the direct debit is active.
Again, I have my cheque ready, but what do I do about the direct debit.
My only contact from Calor is bills and threatening letters.
A new direct debit and a threatening letter 6 months down the road?
Any advise......

 

[mathepac]

You have my sympathies. They are a nightmare to deal with and I have been having problems with their accounts department and their customer services department for some time.

I pay by cheque and would never countenance setting up a direct debit with them as they can't seem to post cheques with Calor account numbers written on them and remittance advices to the correct customer accounts.

Having spoken with their customer services representative and voiced my concerns, his suggestion was to set up a direct debit. "No way, Jose" was my response and suggested that they get the current method of payment working (and also educate their staff in appropriate telephone skills) or subcontract out the work to a payments processing firm. He said he would take my concerns / suggestions to the "management team" and get back to me. I haven't heard a thing since and that was 8 months ago. Mind you, my cheques get posted to the proper account now...

 

[mct1]

Calor drove us nuts after we moved into our house ten years ago. They tried to insist that we pay for the gas that was in the tank before we bought the place! We kept refusing, they kept insisting, so we told them to remove the tank and we had an oil tank put in its place. Even after that, they would turn up from time to time to fill the gas tank they'd already removed. And the bill for the previous owner's gas kept arriving even though by then they'd agreed we didn't owe it. Now we have solar panels and a wood pellet boiler (with the oil kept as a back up). Clearly, Calor's customer service department hasn't changed much over the years.