Charles Moore’s notes: People want revenge on energy companies

Friends of mine called Georgiana and Mouse Campbell recently bought a new house. In the period between completion and moving in, Mouse arranged for British Gas, who supplied the electricity, to switch the account to his name. British Gas said that this involved changing it from a business account to a residential one. While this was supposedly in progress, BG’s business division sent Mouse a bill for £299.80, although the Campbells’ actual use of electricity was virtually nonexistent. Despite many calls to BG, and its promises to sort things out, the company pursued Mouse for the fictional bill with threats of a debt recovery company and damaging his credit rating. No one seemed capable of solving BG’s self-created problem until Mouse wrote to BG threatening legal action and saying that if the dispute involved any more trouble for him, ‘My time shall be charged at my normal charge-out rate [sum specified]…’.