British Gas wierd bill- anyone else got one?

[roofovermyhead]

Today I sent off all my CCCS £1.00 postal orders, came home and began to get ready for work." I thought, I'll just open this letter before I go". Very polite letter from British Gas sheepishly asking I might have forgotten to pay my gas bill. So, as you do , I rang them up.

 

No I haven't forgotten to pay anything. I paid a direct debit for both gas and electricty and I was told that amount of DD was all I had to pay for both gas and electric. Ten months later they have decided there had been a "slight administrative error" , appparently there is no record of what I agreed to . They argued the "tarrif raising" had proven difficult and taken this much time to arrange.

 

According to them I have only been paying the electricity bill. Could I pay them the better part of a thousand pounds in the next fourteen days to bring my account back into credit?

 

This is the first correspondance I have ever had on this matter.

 

Can I Cadge them on this, because it is a bit of a blow and I am sick and tired of companies taking the mickey like this. Sounds like a salesperson got "overenthusiastic" , suggested they could fix me at this rate to get me to sign up ( don't remember signing anything) and then said salesperson "forgot" to file the paperwork correctly, and all this has just come out.

 

CCA? / SAR

 

Funny it happens on the day I send out £1.00 token payments to creditors.

[nottslad]

In this instance, they can bill for a year fo any under-billed consumption.

 

If bothe fuels were on the same account, and on the same bill, the direct debit adequacy should be looked at at least every fifteen months.

 

If these minimum criterias have been met then they are able to bill for the consumption, however, they should certainly be very flexible with a re-payment arrangement as it is their error in not billing you. Obviously, your arrangement will have to increase to cover ongoing usage and repay the balance, so be prepared for your payments to be higher

[roofovermyhead]

Cheers for that nottslad.

 

They suggested I repay over twelve months. Is there any legal timeframe they can hold me to? I would prefer longer if I can get it. It's going to work our about £180.00 per month ,with the twelve months split and added to existing bill.

 

£2160 is a colossal amount to pay for gas given we spent all last winter scavenging wood and had the heating on one point above zero.

 

Don't forget they are also going to take £65.00 for electricity as well.

 

That is three grand for energy, and I guess that puts people like us deep into fuel poverty.

 

 

 

Bit of a shock.

 

Have you had hassle with British Gas?

[roofovermyhead]

Nottslad, thinking about this- if the worst comes to the worst , what's the difference between the cost per unit of gas on a meter and the cost per unit from an ordinary account paid by DD?

 

Might be worth considering if there's not too much difference.

 

Cheers again

[nottslad]

It varies depending on the company. With E.on the unit prices are at parity, even the standing charge has been removed on prepayment gas accounts, so the only thing you miss out on is DD discounts. With BG I really don't know; you'd need to ask them.

 

There is no legal time they can hold you to to repay the balance, it is just down to their own internal policies. £245 a month is an extremely high amount to be paying - don't commit to anything that you can't afford as you will end up worse off with bank charges etc.

 

Go back to them and ask them for a longer period, tell them what you can afford and threaten Ombudsman if necessary - since suppliers have to pay for every complaint that is escalated to the ESO, they will try and avoid this and spreading the debt won't cost them any extra. They should at least spread this over the period that you weren't billed for....

 

PS add to my reputation!! cheers