British Gas electricity bill advice please

[summer30]

Weve had an ongoing issue with our account payments but all throughout last year since a meter was changed we had provided readings online for our electric account and as far as I know BG read our meter as they did our gas meter. Our gas account is fine

 

Our electric account was standing at £600 in January, they hadnt set up a direct debit as requested as we couldnt afford the full amount but had previously stated they would allow us to pay less monthly. The person setting this all up disappeared and then we started being told to set up a DD or pay it in full.

 

Yesterday we got the pay now or warrant for meter. So rang up they refused payments we could afford monthly and said really we must have a meter, to which we reluctantly agreed. However when we gave our meter reading they said there was an error and we were moved to another department

 

All of a sudden our bill doubled! to over £1k but the lad on the other end said that it was a technical error and it would be sorted but not till Monday. Me being me didnt trust this so rang again today

 

Now I was being told that actually we do owe that amount of money and it was because all the reads were estimated only and that they had no record of my submitted meter reads or that they had taken any last year at all

 

But I said when did you last take a meter read from us, they said December, so obviously Im arguing the fact that if they took the read then why was it wrong, but they they backtracked saying it was December 2010!

 

The very lengthy conversation was left with us being offered a small percentage off and possibly being able to pay a lower DD monthly will know this next week, but I just feel its all wrong.

 

Any one had any experience with this? am thinking I should do a complaint letter to? Although I was told I should have noticed the bills said estimated, because I was doing my reads online and getting a confirmation via email back, I thought it was OK. Not to mention the last person saying it was a technical error.

 

Any help appreciated as now we have such a high bill

[summer30]

Have had enough, these people are turning my hair grey! causing me sleepless nights and stress I do not need.

 

We have had so many problems, mainly down to one person saying they will set up our direct debit and not doing, and then cancelling the DD i did have set up and reinstating it but then emailing saying I owe all the money and pay it now as theres no DD,

 

A large lump sum was paid off the electric on 28th feb because our bill suddenly doubled! and they said they didn't receive any of the meter reads id given in 2011 over the phone or via email. We were told a DD was being set up for us.

 

guess what, it wasnt!! and today we are told not only do we have a huge bill that we are outstanding £80odd how come its not even a month since that large payment was made.

 

This has been going on since December yet when I call (mostly email so I have copies but this way no one knows what the previous person said, and if i ask to get a reply from that person it gets ignored) I get spoken to like an idiot and talked down to.

 

Is there another body I can make the complaint to as well? really really had enough.

[Conniff]

Why not go right to the top - [email protected]

 

Let us know what the response is please.

 

I would say ofgem as well, but like all these bodies they are more than next to useless, in fact they even admit they have no interest in you whatsoever, as long as they get their paypacket every Friday that is all they care about:

 

"Ofgem does not deal directly with consumer complaints or enquiries. If you are a domestic or commercial energy consumer, please contact your energy supply company or network operator"

 

When you have a complaint about a company, whats the point of asking that company to sort it out.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Conniff

[summer30]

Yes I agree I did miss out the first port of call which was just talking to their customer service again and went straight to the complaints department,

 

It gets worse over the weekend they set up a DD on our gas account for double the amount I authorised! then emailed me telling me they had done it and again saying I had to ring ref the electric.

 

Isnt there something ref the DD guarantee which means they cant do things like that without my say so?

[jb05041969]

Well my solution would be to set up payment via internet banking / standing order and pay quarterly, so when you receive the bill / meter reading on your statement or online account you can check actual meter read against it.

 

If your under the meter reading then resubmit and wait for it to be amended and then wait a further month to pay them.

 

I've tried many attemps to get a complaint resolved i.e. missed appointment and the excuses they gave me was "we sent the engineer to the correct address, but it wasn't yours" or "

we do not guarantee appointment made by letter or text message".

 

And you know how they're going to prevent this in future?

 

A: Remove my contact number from their system

 

"D'oh!" as Homer Simpson would say.

 

So I've too have been passed arround Manager's that don't know what they are doing and they definately don't want to pass your complaint onto Phil Bentley.

 

I've even tried him direct on his email and guess what he only delegated me to another Manager.

 

I think we need to get Anne Robinson, Dom Littlewood (BBC Watchdog) on the case.

[jevs87]

Hi iv got a complaint for british gas, heres the complaint i sent them. ul get the gist

 

Im moving out after 7 months of living here, so contacted British gas to cancel my bills.

 

I was told that i actually owed £219 as my monthly direct debit was underestimated!? When i questioned the person on the phone they said i was actually underestimated by half of the countrys average.

 

First of all, why are my monthly bills underestimated? The reason i pay a monthly direct debit is so i know how much money is going out each month and if im spending too much i can cut down.

 

Second, why was i underestimated by half of the countrys average and never told that i was going over so much? To keep me spending and simply be hit with the bill later on?

 

This seems like your fault, but now you want me to pay!??

 

How long was they going to keep letting me pay the underestimate for? how big would the bill have been at the end of the year??

[summer30]

I have an old bill from a previous address which I wanted to make payments towards not being able to afford to pay it completely.

 

British gas have put Moorcroft onto it but

 

I rang BG today asking if I could instead pay them rather than deal with a DCA,

 

they refused several times payment of any sort and kept telling me to ring Moorcroft.

 

The debt has not been sold.

 

Can they do that?

 

I really dont want to deal with them and had my card ready to make a payment to BG today

but they wouldnt take it then started saying Moorcroft will put charges on the account if payments arent made direct to them.

 

Do I not have any rights with this?

 

can I not pay BG sorry hope that makes sense after an hour on the phone Im pretty stressed.

[Surfer01]

Pay it Online?

[summer30]

yeah I said that but they said it wont get recognised and Moorcroft will still put charges on?

[dx100uk]

moorcroft cannot add anything to a debt they do not OWN.

 

pay BG online and forget about it.

 

how old is this debt ?

 

dx

[summer30]

I thought that too dx, it is 4 months old.

[dx100uk]

ok just make sure they aare using the correct vacancy readings

 

then just pay them.

 

the dca can do nowt

 

dx

[summer30]

brilliant thank you very much

[summer30]

to add you were right gas was estimated not the final read we gave making it higher

[SWLABR9]

I went through something like this with BG. The DCA assured me I'd have to pay them and couldn't possibly pay BG online. I paid BG a tenner online, just to see, and it went through as it should. These DCAs are bull****ters, pure and simple.

[dx100uk]

to add you were right gas was estimated not the final read we gave making it higher

 

oh oh

 

why i said it

 

they do this with almost everyone that vacates a property for some reason

[summer30]

electric is fine but gas did look high so glad you mentioned to check it.

 

Ive sent an email re that and a complaint, will see if I get a reply then make a payment online , thanks again everyone SWLABR9 will do that and see what happens

[summer30]

well I cant pay it online either it wont accept it , theyve really locked me out forcing me to go to Moorcroft which I will not do. I can only assume they dont want paying!

 

Sigh

[dx100uk]

if you know your customer number then use YOUR internet banking site

pay bill option.

 

they CANNOT refuse it that way

 

dx

[summer30]

oh duh yes good idea, just need to find their details, im not paying the gas yet though as disputed that and waiting for a reply , funnily enough its taking them longer to do that. But I worked it out and its a good £100 over with their estimate .