I'll try to keep this short.

A week ago a letter arrived with my address but a person I've never heard of from Eon energy saying 'in order to transfer your gas supply we need a meter reading from you'

Yesterday I got an email from British Gas saying 'we're sorry to hear you're leaving us'

So I rang British Gas and explain I'm not leaving and I have no idea whats going on. They say 'oh, this happens a lot, someone has probably filled in a form online to transfer their gas supply and got the address wrong. We'll just have to fill in a form at this end and you can carry on with your supply from us'

So I had a good moan at him for making me put up with this bullshit and he starts taking name, address, email etc. Then he wants my bank details over the phone. So I say 'look mate I've been very patient this far but there is no way on earth your getting my bank details (lets ignore the fact I'm happy to give them to any tom dick or harry who sets up a fantasy football league for now ) as I've already supplied them in the past.

After a brief discussion he says they will send me a mandate to fill in through the post.

Does this sound normal and has anyone else had a random stranger cancel their gas supply for them?

Not happened to me but IIRC it does happen and sometimes in dubious circumstances (although whether more due to companies on the make rather than fraud I couldn't say).

Have you looked on moneysavingexpert? Prob got info there.

I once had an office at which a "final demand or else" letter arrived from British Gas.

As I didn't have a gas supply,I just ignored it.

In due course,after a couple of red reminder letters,a man arrived in a smart blue uniform to disconnect my gas supply.

I invited him in,and told him to go ahead.

About 10 minutes later,having gone through all the rooms,he came to ask me where the gas connection was.

I calmly repeated what I'd told them over the phone when the first bill arrived - that I was "all electric" and there had never been a gas supply to the premises.

He blushed,muttered something about the people in his office which was very rude,so I asked him to repeat it. He apologised profusely and left.

British Gas were heavily fined...£millions by "Of....." recently for their failure to provide satisfactory customer service.

I could tell you of another experience,but you said you wanted to keep this short,as you're keen to continue your search for a 5th member of your FPL 5AS poker team,the Nuts,and I don't wish to delay you.

I now have a final demand from Eon for £33.29 which will be passed to an External Debt Collection Agency if I don't pay within 7 days

Its dated 4 Nov 11

grrrrrrr

Nobody should be able to transfer a Gas or Electricity account without an MPR number(meter point reference)for Gas or S number(Supply number) for Electricity, these are only found on your bills or in your suppliers system.

It could be that one of your neigbours has decided to switch and their number has been similar if not consecutive, this can happen in new build flats, houses or factory units.

Contact Ofgem and explain your situation, it`s not uncommon, either because of clerical errors or shady sales people, but they won`t give up and you will be billed by both.

Since privatisation the energy industry is basically legitimised organised crime.

Good luck, but look who I`m talking to

I had exactly the same thing a couple of years ago - kicked off with British Gas for cancelling my gas with them, kicked off with Eon for transferring it and British Gas covered the cost of the gas for the two months it took them to sort it out so I was quite happy with the result in the end!

There should be no way to switch an account without signed paperwork to support it but it appears phone sales are different and open to abuse - did EON contact you recently.

We had a similar issue with British Gas Business telling my supplier EDF that we were transferring when all they'd done was contact us to tell us we could get electricity cheaper and would send us figures to compare but the next letter we received was EDF saying "sorry you're leaving us". I had to take this to the chief officer of British Gas' complaints department to get this overturned and it took about 6 weeks of aggro. to get it done. The worst part was that there was no way of stopping the transfer once their sales rep. had initiated it, even via our existing supplier EDF who could not stop it, despite it being done without any authorisation from us. I then had a fight to get EDF to transfer all the nectar rewards we'd built up on our old account once they'd switched us back as we then had a new account number. The whole thing was a complete scam.