Two women have been bombarded with 20 letters and four threatening text messages as they try to sort out the final energy bill for their mum, who died aged 89 in July.
Catherine and Jo Montgomery have been sent 11 different bills, some with penalties applied, solicitors letters, letters threatening debt collection, letters from debt-collection agency and four text messages threatening action.
After Mrs Montgomery died, Catherine was tasked with sorting out and paying the final energy bill, but she says after eight months of wrangling with British Gas, she was at the end of her tether and had to pass the job onto her sister Jo in the hope that she might be able to get the energy supplier to 'see sense', reports ChronicleLive.
The bills have demanded amounts ranging from £310 to £1,600 while the debt collection letters have demanded different amounts or no specified amounts - one asked for £249.27.
British Gas has also sent the sisters a refund cheque for £42.03.
"The whole thing has just been utterly ridiculous," said Catherine. "British Gas have a bereavement support line manned by the most unsympathetic and rude people I've ever spoken to and I feel that overall the way they have dealt with me, a bereaved person, has amounted to harassment. I've received more than 20 letters and bills from them and every single bill was wrong so it was impossible to pay it.
"Our mother paid her bills religiously by direct debit for 18 years and was never in debt to them. I am sickened by the announcement of their profits. Every single bill they have sent me has been wrong, despite sending them three meter readings, and it has been impossible to pay it. We just want the bill sorted and paid so we can move on.
"Clearly we were devastated by the death of our mother, and this episode has just dragged things out for us. Our mum was a loyal British Gas customer for years and she was never in debt to anyone. She would have been in such as state if she had to face threats of debt collection and legal letters. I know she would have just paid the bill for £1,600 when it came in as she would be too frightened to do anything else.
"We feel harassed by British Gas and have no intention of ignoring the bill, which is why we have been trying to sort it. To make things worse, some of the letters are written to our mother as if she was still alive and is refusing to pay, which is extremely upsetting to us. The final straw came when we started to receive solicitors' letters accusing us of being in dereliction of our duties as executors of our mother’s estate. These came after we had been in touch with British Gas's bereavement team.
"I am still struggling to understand why we couldn’t have a final bill for my mother’s account and to have paid this straight away. Receiving correspondence such as this would have terrified our mother and would have been impossible for her to resolve – it’s proving very difficult for us."
A British Gas Spokesperson: “Our Bereavement Team were there for Ms Montgomery when we were informed that her mother had sadly passed away. However, multiple bills based on estimated readings were sent by mistake. We’ve reached out to Ms Montgomery to say sorry for any upset caused during this difficult time and we’ve sent a new bill that has been adjusted to accurate meter readings.”
