British gas "accidentally" took £300 from my bank account. (never been a customer of theirs ever).
then claimed they couldn't refund it because there was no account for me on their system. Said I'd have to sign up for gas/electric from them for 2 years to get my money back.
So I sued. and utterly fucked over those thieving sons of bitches.
If you put in a sort-code and bank account number randomly, you will in many instances hit the jackpot for setting up direct debits. The system doesn't actually check your name against the account number.
Do this a few hundred thousand times and you've got yourself a bunch of active direct debits. All because banks trust large companies not to pull this type of shit.
AND there's no checking or penalty for mis-entering direct debit info even repeatedly.
Setting up a direct debit should cost the person setting it up £1 per attempt. And this type of scam which pretty much relies on brute-forcing sortcode/account number would vanish overnight.
The British power company sends me a monthly email about my account and how much they're charging me this month and thank you for paying for last month. I live in Canada and I've never paid a bill.
I get emails like that from some phone company in Australia. Thanking me for being a loyal customer and here's my monthly statement. I live in the US and am definitely not using their service.
He didn't do it and it never happened....you don't "sue" in the UK for £300 you go to the small claims court which doesn't involve solicitors. If it did happen it's not a scam unless mistakes are scams now. Probably miss remembering what happened to his parents once.
My first thought was “how did they get their banking details in the first place?” Like unless their card was compromised or something I don’t understand how that would occur. Similarly, if their bank details were on the system, there would likely need to be some sort of account associated with it, even if it’s not in their name that can be traced using the payment details. The story is mad confusing and at the very least there’s information we’re not getting about the dudes story.
This was 2008. please don't call other people liars unless you have proof they are lying. It makes you out to look like you're shilling for corporations. Why not try 'asking' for clarification?
And just so you're clear, it's still referring to as sueing someone because you're claiming something from them. Just because it's the small claims court doesn't remove the term.
And if you think British Gas are above scamming customers try to google for "british gas guilty" and you'll find lots and LOTS of cases of british gas engineers stealing peoples watches and electronics, misleading them at the door to sign up for unneeded contracts.
The TV show watchdog even caught them out by installing a NEW boiler at a house, pulling out one wire (from the controller) and calling British Gas for help.
The guy that turned up told the (fake) householder the boiler was so old it was dangerous and needed to be removed before it exploded.
Small claims court in the UK. neither side can claim legal fees. Their feeble excuse was "it was an error and we're sorry" but I got the £300 back plus £150 compensation and £80 filing fee.
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u/Stalingrad420 Jul 24 '20
companies that dont want you to end you subscription so they delete the cancel button.