british gas bringing in penalty charge from 1st March

[zenith101]

Here is my complaint letter to BG, i will let everyone know of what i receive back as soon as i do

Complaints Management Team

British Gas

Admail 3112

PO Box 927

London

WC1V 7QZ

Ref: ****************

I am writing to you in order to register my disappointment and to state that I am no longer prepared to keep paying your estimated bills for gas and electric that I might or might not use in the future, which in effect are loans from myself to you on which I am probably entitled to charge interest on.

Gas and electricity meter readers as far as I remember were at one time quite a frequent sight roaming around the streets of England. In recent years however they seem to have become a rare sight and it is my opinion that you have over many previous years begun to overestimate more and more bills and abuse your right to do so, which in itself is a huge privilege and is strange to understand its legality.

Nothing would please me more as a proprietor of a small plumbing and heating business than being given the right to issue thousands of bills to the general public for work which I “estimate” I might undertake for them sometime in the near future and then sit back a make a lovely little living on the interest. Perhaps I could rent a nice beachfront property in the south of France and use it for the purpose of “estimating” how much to put at the bottom of each of my invoices!! I could probably even claim tax relief on my new sun palace!!

It appears that the high street banks have recently come unstuck in quite a big way as it has come to light that many of their charges and practices probably wouldn’t stand up in a court of law, and although to my knowledge a legal precedent has not been set they are falling over themselves giving money back to anyone who asks for it in an attempt to keep their practises from coming under the justified scrutiny of a few judges who don’t necessarily have the banks interests closest to heart.

The systematic abuse of privilege by “big business” has in my opinion now gone quite far enough and I therefore remind you of the FACT that “what goes around comes around”. You appear to have recently featured in the news yourselves by receiving a record number of complaints so here is another one!.

Please contact me to arrange a meter reading and provide me with an exact statement of energy used and therefore money owed to you. Should there be any money owed from you to me as a direct result of your incorrect estimates then I will require repayment of that money in full within 28 days of statement. It is my belief that such a timescale is reasonable for a company like yours.

Should you wish to install a token meter I will be perfectly happy for you to do so when we are both happy that no unfairness/overpayment is apparent.

Yours truly,

[buzby]

Er, as noted earlier in the thread BG are NOT going to apply this charge.

[Pliny the Penuriosus]

No but BT are they think!

 

Also zenith token meters are the most expensive forms of receiving gas but what do you expect many who use them are amongst the poorest in our society Profiting from Poverty I think it's aptly called

[gondukin]

Zenith, have you considered simply providing them with a meter reading yourself if you get an estimate? Before you worry about queuing or the cost of the call, they have a freephone automated meter reading line you can use Also they are only legally obliged to read the meter every two years, perhaps a letter to the regulator encouraging to increase the frequency of meters readings would have more effect.

 

I do agree meters should be read more often, but unless the regulations change your complaint will achieve very little I'm afraid.

 

Funnily enough, I've seen two meter reading vans in the last fortnight, don't know which company they were working for though (one accuread, the other metering services).

[wilbur]

We were charged £10 for paying last month BG bill late and this month £14 despite the fact that this charge arrived the day after I had sent the payment for our gas. i paud the first £10 but they can take me to court for the second of £14!!

[buzby]

You might want to query this, as they stated nearly 2 months ago that they had abandoned plans to charge this penalty.

[wilbur]

Writing to them as we speak. Thanks for that.

[wilbur]

Do you think this is OK?

 

 

 

Dear Mr. Roxburgh,

 

 

I have today received my second Telemessage from you regarding late payment of my Gas bill. This latest charge arrived after I posted payment for my bill.

 

The first Telemessage I received had a charge of £10 applied to it, which I reluctantly paid alongside my bill. This second has a £14 fee applied which I have no intention of paying.

 

My understanding is that within the past two months British Gas had decided to abandon plans to impose this charge so why have I been charged. Also I have attached details, which say that the fee that was to be applied was £5. How then have I been charged £10 and £14 respectively?

 

If this in fact a penalty charge that has been applied to my account then you must be able to justify it as only covering liquidated losses, if this is not the case then like all such charges it is unlawful. And I would also request a refund of the £10 I have already paid within 28 days.

 

 

My second point is I would like to know how British Gas arrived at these figures for sending out an automated letter and how they increase in price when no more work is involved in sending them.

 

I have been with British Gas my entire working life and am quite frankly appalled at measures such as these that are being introduced. As a result I shall be looking into switching my energy supplier.

 

Yours sincerely

[JonCris]

You need 1st to ask them to clarify their position as you understood, as you beleive did other consumers through the press, that they had decided to drop these penalty charges.

 

After receiving a response to that letter is the time to take them to task. In other words let them shoot themselves in the foot before you act

 

Wil Keep us informed

[wilbur]

Many thanks JonCris. Will do.

[JonCris]

Great & don't forget to express surprise as in

 

Dear Sir

 

In view of very recent reports that you wouldn't be imposing penalty charges on customers I'm somewhat surprised to discover that etc etc;

[tiddlypeep]

Hi,

I have both my gas and electric provided by British Gas. I cancelled my direct debits with my bank as they were charging what i thought were large monthly payments. However BG charged me for 4 direct debit representations to my bank (2 for the Gas and 2 for Electric.) totalling close on £180. Has anyone had this before? Is there anything i can do about it?

[buzby]

You cancelled your DD and your bank still paid out? I'd contact your bank and remind them you require the debits reversed. Yes, it's very common, and the way to avoid it is to switch suppliers, then DON'T give them a DD.

[Pliny the Penuriosus]

Did they charge you for the unpaid D/D's or are these your actual monthly charge which the bank have paid in error?

[gondukin]

The £5 late payment charge which they were to bring in this year was scrapped (this was to be applied after 28 days), however the charges when you haven't paid your bill after an extended period of time have been increased, presumably in part to offset this.

[Sirensinger]

Hi all,

 

I've been paying off arrears on British Crap bills for a year or more - original bill was £300 I think, which I started to pay off at the post office weekly/fortnightly/monthly according to when I got paid (was in huge financial difficulty and also went self-employed so am paid irregularly anyway), then other bills got added so I was quite confused about what was owed for which bill and how long for!

 

I spoke to people at BG on several occasions, also wrote to them to explain the situation - they kept sending me letters which said I needed to 'make an arrangement' to pay - the only trouble was, this 'arrangement' always involved paying £40-odd a month, which I was probably achieving anyway, but in a more intermittent fashion owing to my intermittent income - so I didn't sign their form, just let them know that I was still continuing to pay. They also kept telling me that my payments weren't going to be enough to cover gas which would be used in coming months - to which I replied that it was now summer, and I was no longer using my central heating, which was what had run up the huge bill in the first place - so I pointed out that within a few months, my vastly reduced usage would catch up and the amount would be paid off.

 

During all this time, BG kept sending me Telemessages and charging me £10 for them - although they knew I was paying all the time. I've apparently had six since July 2006. I've now almost paid off the original bill, but BG are chasing me for £77, £73 of which consists of telemessage charges! I have refused to pay them - but I'm not sure what to do next - can I take them to Court in the same way as the banks? How do I avoid having my gas cut off? I understood they couldn't do this while I was paying, but the CAB has told me they can 'restrict my service'.

 

Does anybody have any advice?

 

Many thanks in anticipation,

 

Sirensinger

[Surfer01]

The main thing to remember is that it will be impossible for them to enforce any changes until they are able to read your meter on a monthly basis. Reasoning is that bills are estimated and on domestic are only read once every two years therefore althoughy you may be late in paying the bill, it may already be paid as the supplier may have overestimated the bill. To get around any late payment charges which will be illegal anyway this all you need do is ask them to resend the bill with an up to date reading. This means that they will need to send a meter reader around and if you requested this I think that they are obliged to do this so it may not be worth the effort by them.

You can also cause them a lot of hassle by asking for a copy of the contract even if it is verbal and they are obliged to send it to you. If they can't, then no contract, no contract may mean that they have to bill you at the last rates supplied which could be in 2004/5 when costs were lower thus significantly reducing your bill anyway but you will have to argue the toss on this and back it up with your own calculations. I did and my bill was reduced by over £100!

[Sirensinger]

Re penalties, more details in my earlier post on this thread, I'm now planning to take BG to court. My penalties are for a situation where I paid off an outstanding bill over about a year, but didn't pay in the way they wanted, ie 'making an arrangement' by filling in a form which asked me to pay a regular and fixed amount. I didn't do this because I have an irregular and intermittent income, so couldn't guarantee how much and when I could pay. However, I paid something every month, and in many months it amounted to more than their requested amount. I also kept in contact with them repeatedly telling them what I was doing, and asking them to check that my payments had been received, and I kept proof of posting for each payment. After a year I had cleared the bill, but had amassed over £100 in charges, which I refuse to pay. Anyone else in, or been in, a similar situation?

 

Sirensinger

[RGS1]

Slightly off the point but i phoned BG on behalf of my company today as we have outstanding invoices, the lady on the phone told me that it would cost £4.70 per copy invoice, is it me or is this a ridiculous price for a copy.

[patrickq1]

we got our bill on monday from british gas,CHEEKY BAR STEWARDS, ,there was no discount as promised ie £25.00 this is because we have option 200 where they service our heating system,when they came last year to service the boiler we told them that the switch over valve was sticking,well he checked it and said it was ok,next day it started sticking again and has been like this for the last 9 months,so when we got the bill we asked why there was no discount they said it was because we had a callout,we never had a callout this was a service of the system under the contract...we explained this to british gas so they waived the call out charge but they then added £12.00,reason FOR INFLATION,,,,WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP 18 years we have been with them and this comes up INFLATION what a shower of greedy people they are DISGUSTED????and bloody angry with them now so we have sent a complaint through energy watch asking for the full refund of £196.00 for failure to service our systen correctly and also for compensation for inconveinance of no hot water for days on end every week and for their cheek we have also asked for interest on the compensation for their deceiptful ways of trying to obtain more money for nothing

so we await the outcome they have ten days

patrickq1

[angristeve]

There is something we can do. The online petition at the Downing street link below is trying to get these companies regulated so that they can no longer RIP us off. If you want to do something, sign this and tell others to sign, too. We really can make a change if enough people sign.:

 

Petition to: regulate domestic energy prices.

 

Really,

Power to the People...

[RedVixen]

I have just had a £14 late payment charge added to my bill - the person on the end of the phone laughed when I said I would not be paying it and said it was entirely legal and it was just an administration charge - bearing in mind as I gave them the last meter reading in October they can't prove I used the gas on the bill

 

What adds insult to the this is that until a couple of weeks ago - my gas blls included gas used by the guy that lives upstairs and although this has been explained to British gas neither they, centrico (meter people?) or my local council has offered any real assistance with this situation - thankfully his gas has been removed now but there is no way he will pay for what he has used

[patrickq1]

well i paid what i thought i owed them and switched suppliers imediately and still not heard a word about the difference,but i presume they will no doubt be adding up the charges to the final bill,te he just wait for it to arrive then let the FUN BEGIN ,dammed greey money grabbers just think of the million or so pensioners who await state pensions and miss because of late payments of their monies from the gov...see them in court first fore i pay a penny more than i think is right plus i want interest on the non service charge ,i aint paying 200 quid for 40 minits work that they did not do..?

patrickq1

[Surfer01]

Doesn't penalty charges work both ways. If you request a meter reader appointment or a repair and they do not appear on time, surely you as a consumer has the right to pursue them for penalty charges? In a way this is actually written into their T & Cs, i.e. compensation clause. I think the actual term is called "liquidated"` damages.

[meagain]

The whole point is that penalty charges are unlawful, and that you would be no more entitled to enforce an arbitrary penalty than they.

 

The point of liquidated damages is just that - a liquidation (i.e. cash value) of the actual damages caused to you. Since they would summarily ignore any invoice you were to send them for this, they would defend in court on the same basis as we pursue them now - that if you want to bill them £100 you must prove it has cost you £100.