Incompetence Watch

1 June 2006

Dear British Gas,

You may recall that I wrote to you in August last year, expressing my deep unhappiness at having your agents knock on my door. To refresh your memory, I have included below my email and your response at the time.

Until now, I have been impressed with the actions taken by British Gas and its representatives, which is to say that in the past 6 months I have received no visits from any such salesmen.

Regrettably however, that came to an end after a mere 6 months of undisturbed bliss, when this evening, someone from BG knocked on my door.

As I pointed out in my previous correspondence, a series of blunders by your company a few years ago mean that I am extremely unlikely to ever to grant you my custom again. Visits from any salesmen representing yourself will only increase this negative attitude.

I quote from your reply and remind you that "[my details]..are in the process of being removed from the [BG] marketing database", a process which can take "up to 6 weeks". Nowhere in your reply does it state that after only 6 months, my details will be added back into your database so that you can continue to hound me.

Please note the following:

1. I do not wish to be contacted by BG, or its representatives for any marketing or sales purposes again. Ever.
2. I wish my name and address to be removed from any sales and marketing databases that you may have. Permanently. I do not want to have to write to you again in another 6 months or year.
3. Other than for the purposes of replying to this correspondence and making a note of my requests above, I do not want my personal details to be stored by British Gas.

Please also note that as far as I am concerned, this is your last chance. Should any representative of British Gas contact me again, I will forward copies of all correspondence to the Information Commissioner, who I hope will be able to encourage you to take a closer look at your procedures.

Yours faithfully,

Damian.

house.co.uk wrote:

Dear Mr
I write further to my email from 1 September 2005 regarding the visits you
have had from British Gas Fieldsales Agents.
I confirm a customer can request their details to be removed from our
marketing database which will ensure they do not receive any marketing
information which will include visits by Fieldsales Agents. Unfortunately, 4
years ago your details were not successfully removed from our marketing
database. Please accept my sincere apologies for this error.
When a Fieldsales Agent visits an area, they are provided with a list of
customers within a certain postcode and then the data is destroyed after 4
weeks.
I have requested your details be removed from our Fieldsales database and
any other database used for marketing purposes. Unfortunately, this can take
up to 6 weeks to be updated and it is therefore possible you may receive a
further visit from a Fieldsales Agent. Whilst this is highly unlikely, I
wanted you to be aware of this possibility and to be assured your details
are in the process of being removed from our databases.
Once again, please accept my sincere apologies for the distress and
inconvenience that this has caused.
Kind regards



house.co.uk - the online home of British Gas

We are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year

30 August 2005


Dear British Gas,

Approximately 4 years ago, I ceased to be a British Gas customer. I don't wish to go into detail at this point in time as my reasons were well explained to your customer services at the time (several times in fact, in writing and by telephone) and I have no intention of becoming a British Gas customer ever again. I have patiently explained this and many of the reasons behind my original transfer to the legion of salesmen who have knocked on my door, disturbing my private life and these have obvioulsy been ignored. (Incidentally, these salesmen have included one who attempted to get me to sign a transfer agreement in favour of British Gas, claiming that my signature was required just "some information brochures could be sent to me")

Until this evening, I hadn't heard from you for about a year. Then, this evening, my peace and privacy were rudely interrupted by a knock on the door. The British Gas sales army was back. Since he asked for me by name, and knew that I used to be a British Gas customer, I can only assume that you, as a company still hold records on me. (The alternative, that my name was found on a register or list somewhere is implausible for the reasons outlined below and the fact that he knew that I was an ex-customer.)

This is unacceptable for several reasons, chief amongst them being the following:

1. I have never, in the past several years signed anything which would allow a company to make marketing visits or even to send me junk mail. Whereever possible, I have opted out of this. (Since the option was available, I have also removed my name from the version of the electoral register sold to companies such as British Gas to be used for marketing purposes). This would almost certainly apply to the agreement I made when I became a British Gas customer at my present address, before opting for an alternate supplier. Your own Privavy Policy, found on your website states that information provided by me or held by yourselves can be used to:

"- contact you in any way (including mail, e-mail, phone, visit, text or multimedia messages) about products and services offered by us and selected partners. We will only contact you in this way if you have previously shown your consent."

I repeat above, that I am sure that I have never given my consent to this. In the unlikely event that I have, I hereby rescind and revoke any such authorisation. From this moment onwards, British Gas lack any such permission to contact me.


2. As stated in my first paragraph above, it is now approaching 4 years since I was last a British Gas customer. While I am not fully aware of the Data Protection legislation, I am aware that data can only be held on identifiable individuals for "a reasonanble length of time" once the relationship between the individual and the company has terminated. In simple terms in this specific case, once I chose to get my gas elsewhere, you had a reasonable amount of time to retain my records and then you should have destroyed them. There may be some flexibility in the word "reasonable" and I know that it can mean different things in different fields, however, for example, the company for whom I previously worked had a well defined and easily accessible policy which stated that all information on former employees would be destroyed one year after they finished working for the companyy. One year is reasonable. Two years, at a pinch could be considered reasonable. Four years is not. Therefore, I am asking you to remove any information that you may have about me as a past customer from your records. You may keep my name and address on file for two purposes and two purposes only. These are:
(i) for the purpose of replying to this email and any subsequent correspondence related to this email. This is NOT to include any form of marketing communication and is only permitted if it is strictly necessary. Copies of any correspondence held should be subject to your data retention policy (i.e. destroyed after a reasonable period of time)..
(ii) for the purpose of recording that with the exception of (i) I do not wish to be contacted or disturbed by anybody acting for, or on behalf of British Gas, it parent group, or any of its subsidiaries or agents for any reason whatsoever, unless some form of emergency or legal obligation on your part requires it. Specifically, I do not wish any form of marketing contact from British Gas. Again, this is only permitted if it is strictly necessary. I specifically wish to be removed from any mailing lists used by British Gas, its parent company, and any of its subsidiaries or agents.

I am only too well aware that in writing to you in this manner, I am forced into giving you my personal details so that my complaint can be verified, and responded to. Please note that any personal details gleaned from this email are subject to the restrictions stated above. I would like a reply to my email, detailing any responses you feel appropiate. As a minimum, I would like your agreement to never contact me again for marketing purposes. I would also suggest that you publicise your data retention policy (if it exists - if not, I suggest you create one). If such a policy exists, I would also appreciate a copy of it.

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,


Damian