Angry Bradford families are flooding customer helplines with complaints about high pressure sales tactics from gas companies - only a week after deregulation.

And one couple have won an apology and offer of compensation from a company which signed them up to its new supply without their knowledge.

Pensioner Norma Gill, 64, of Copgrove Road, Holme Wood, said she and her husband Kenneth, 65, had been left bewildered following a series of visits from doorstep salesman from several rival gas companies.

She said: "We told them we were quite happy with our existing arrangements.

"Then we received a letter saying our arrangement with British Gas was at an end. My husband's nerves are terrible and he was dumbfounded."

A spokeswoman for Middlesex-based Beacon Gas which triggered the letter said: "There has been a mix-up, an inputting error resulted in the wrong meter being targeted.

"She will be receiving an apology and £14 to cover the cost of the calls. We have a very high standard of training. She has spoken to us and been transferred back to British Gas."

British Gas says it has been inundated with queries from worried customers who believe they may be cut off.

Spokesman Bridget Batty said complaints had been running at about a dozen a day.

A woman from Low Moor, who did not want to be named, also complained of the doorstep selling tactics used by some companies.

She said: "While I was out my husband signed up after accepting all these flash leaflets. I wasn't happy and cancelled it.

"The thing I was most upset about was one of my neighbours telling me this salesman had been brandishing our personal details to people saying: 'if it's good enough for them why not you?

"There is an awful lot of confusion at the moment."

An Ofgas spokesman said: "A lot of salesmen have been fired for not doing their job properly but we need people to get the name of the company, its postcode and time of day of the call."

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