British Gas - I'm fuming

[bram stoker]

:mad:So is Seminole. Our first British Gas statement shows 3 payments of £35 totalling £105, against gas actually used (they read the meter) of £91.62, an OVERPAYMENT of £17.98.

 

You'd think they'd give us a cheque for £17.98 and reduce the payments to £30 a month, well guess what.

 

We've adjusted your direct debit payments to make sure they cover the cost of the gas you are using. Your new payment is £59.00 a month starting from 1 Jul 2007.

 

I can't find the words to describe this kind of behaviour.

[Seminole]

In the words of the song...

 

Na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

 

[fade in]

Hey hey-ey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

[Bookworm]

3 words:

 

Standing Order.

 

Sorted.

[bram stoker]

Agreed. I'll ask when I call to complain and see if I lose my DD discount. Grrrrrr.

 

Am ready to kick up big fuss on this before we change suppliers.

[Seminole]

DD discount- surely you mean the penalty that we have to pay if we choose to pay by a means that isn't the most efficient for the supplier? And, of course, the penalty is disproportionate to the actual cost.

[bram stoker]

Nice blazing row - she almost put the phone down on me.

 

First she said she could get it down to £53!!!! I think she was calculating based on previous circumstances I'd had with that company - which were a totally different set of scenarios.

 

I expressed my anger at the implication that I wouldn't pay my bill when I was being told they like to build up a surplus of credit to cover winter months bills.

 

Apparently I don't understand their direct debit system. Grrrrrrr. I told her I wanted to decide how much I'd pay each month and will be cancelling my DD and paying by standing order. I asked about the discount.

 

For BG electric the discounts for paying by DD and SO are the same, but for BG gas, the discount for paying by DD is greater than the discount for paying by SO. I expressed my amazement at their logic in that. Poor woman.

 

I said forget the SO and the DD. I'd be changing suppliers and the next bill she'd be issuing would be a final one. She's sorry if that's the way I feel but I'll find that all companies operate in a similar manner with the DD scheme. She is very aware now that I will gain back on lost discount through cheaper suppliers bills. I know it's not her fault it's company policy.

 

Companies that operate in a manner of taking your money in advance of billing because a) they want your money to make money and b) they assume you can't pay heavier bills in winter really really p*** me off. Especially when they state they do it to assist the customer, well it doesn't assist ME.

 

Whatever happened to the customer being right!!!!!

[bram stoker]

Letter going off to Customer relations this weekend.

[Seminole]

As Vamps says British Gas and its ilk do not have the slightest understanding of customer service. Moreover, these penalties for not paying by dd impact the poorest customers the most.

 

BT is another culprit. They charge £7.50 if you pay your bill two weeks after they say that you should. We're just about to pay our first bill deliberately slightly later than they say that we should. When they charge us the £7.50, they're in for a surprise.

[lorn250]

Complain to the regulator, I did then rang BG and told them I was going to Atlantic which works out much cheaper.

 

Lorn250

[Seminole]

Right British Gas and EDF dumped in favour of a dual fuel deal with Scottish Power. Let's see how long it takes them to cheese us off

[IdaInFife]

It won't take long !!!!!!!!!

 

Scottish power change my dd every 3 months!!!

 

They sent me a statement sayng going up £20 per month. Next day getting letter saying@ Yes it's true your energy bills are going down???????????????

 

 

I need to go back to school"

 

 

Idax

[2Grumpy]

April - June is a fairly light quarter in terms of heating so you should expect payments to be higher than your usage.

 

With a monthly payment plan I think that its fair to be in credit over the summer and then to be in debit over the winter by the same amount.

 

Trouble is I think that BG would like you to be in credit in the depths of winter. They need reminding that their crystal ball for estimating usage (they should be experts) is cracked and opaque and quite frankly, wrong in lots of cases.

[emmaf01]

Considering the weather, I'd say that bills won't be that much lower than winter! In fact, if you add in tumble dryer costs in our house, I think our electric will be higher.

 

I think its the first time I can remember when I've had to have the heating on in late June.

 

But energy companies are too dumb to look at the weather and figure that into energy consumption...

[ICY]

Glad to see i am not the only one having major problems with the incompetent idiots,BG dont have a clue what they are doing

[Leo1]

I cannot stand utility companies. Today I find out United Untilities had upped my direct debit payment from £12 to £17 and I have absolutely no idea why?

 

In my last house, we completely gutted the place and whilst we were re-doing it up I received a bill from British Gas for £60-odd quid and we weren't even connected to the gas mains!! A little old lady lived in it before we did and all she has was an electric heater in one room, the house never had gas at all when we got the bill, unbelieveable!!

[RichardM]

Atlantic sent me an estimated gas bill despite having been provided with readings, and tried to put up my direct debit as a result.

 

Unfortunately for them, I have now found out that they charge the same tariff for online direct debit and quarterly billing.

 

Guess who'se cancelled his direct debit and gone back to quartlerly billing?

[uriel]

Lol the whole thing with a 'fixed' direct debt is that its the same ammount EVERY month so hell yeah you will build up a substancial credit during the summer.

You use that during the winter months when your gas useage increases threefold.

From my expirence most decent companies (bg excluded) issue credit back once per half year and I get a cheque back from my provider twice a year but I happily continue paying them the same ammount every month.

[ICY]

WE still built up £170 OVER THE WINTER PERIOD dont forget they are earning interest on all this money so it is in their interest to overcharge

[badmuthar]

WE still built up £170 OVER THE WINTER PERIOD dont forget they are earning interest on all this money so it is their interest to overcharge

 

The bastards.

Happens to me every year.

[emmajnich]

British Gas will average out payments over a 12 month period. Some time you will be in credit and sometimes in debit.

 

I have found that if you tell them to cancel the DD and then give them a meter reading, your account is up to date. you should then request the refund. If you have any difficulties, ask them whos money it is. Legally it is yours and they have to refund it to you. Then Set up a standing order. This is an arrangement between you and the bank. Whereas the DD is an arrangement between BG and the bank.

[MEOB]

I was paying £100 per month to BG, but they wrote to me in May to say payment was increasing to £256 per month.

At the time, there was an arrears of £256 on my account, so I called to query the change.

Was told its all done automatically and they couldn't change it. I then asked how much gas I used over the last 12 months? £890 (ish) so I said fine, 890 + 256 = 1146, so new payment should be less than £100 per month. Sorry, cant change it, it will stay at that for 12 months.

So I cancelled my DD. Got a letter confirming that I was now paying my bills normally then a letter stating that I still hadn't paid £256. Didn't do anything as I was waiting for bill.

Bill came for new gas (£150 for quarter) + £256 = £416 balance at the end on June. Figured I'd pay half at end of July and half at end of August, but now they are threatening court action for outstanding £256! All because I didn't want to pay them £2000 more than they were due! Talk about retaliation...

[Dispirited]

In the words of the song...

 

Na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

 

[fade in]

Hey hey-ey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

 

 

 

Nice one.

[Dispirited]

I was paying £100 per month to BG, but they wrote to me in May to say payment was increasing to £256 per month.

 

At the time, there was an arrears of £256 on my account, so I called to query the change.

 

Was told its all done automatically and they couldn't change it. I then asked how much gas I used over the last 12 months? £890 (ish) so I said fine, 890 + 256 = 1146, so new payment should be less than £100 per month. Sorry, cant change it, it will stay at that for 12 months.

 

So I cancelled my DD. Got a letter confirming that I was now paying my bills normally then a letter stating that I still hadn't paid £256. Didn't do anything as I was waiting for bill.

 

Bill came for new gas (£150 for quarter) + £256 = £416 balance at the end on June. Figured I'd pay half at end of July and half at end of August, but now they are threatening court action for outstanding £256! All because I didn't want to pay them £2000 more than they were due! Talk about retaliation...

 

Pillocks. Similar happened to me. I've moved to nPower, and BGas have added two lots of £14 charges on my account for telephone messages.

I owed £405, so paid £250 last month and planned to pay the remainder within 4 weeks. Just had a threatening letter from them. Pathetic.

[staz]

I'm glad to have left British Gas. The short time I was with them was mistake after mistake and generally all of it required loads of time and effort to sort out. We switched after a couple of months.

 

Don't tell them, but the hilarious thing about it was the final statement, I called up to pay it and they said "that account number doesn't exist" so I gave them the address and postcode and my name and they said "we don't have any record of an account at this address?" so I never paid the final bill. I argued about paying it but in there words "there is nothing they can do".

 

Npower do this to me every time they estimate a bill.

 

1) We have estimated your usage as xxx (about 4 times what we use, they've not figured this one out even after two years)

 

2) We have set your payments from £12 a month to £89 a month to compensate for this.

 

Every single time I have to call, give a reading, get the amount adjusted (they have no problem with this) and request a refund. They do the same thing "ohhh! you want to think about the winter months! THEY'LL be expensive!" yeah whatever. We have this invention called clothing here in this house. At the moment they owe me £80+ on the electric and about £4+ on the gas. They say they'll send me a cheque for the electric.

 

I'm interested in what you'll do if BT charge you £7.50 previous poster. Virgin media charge £5 for not using direct debit and £10 if you are late paying. We've fallen foul of it a few times but each time we've argued until they took it off. Nice to see a bill of about £7 jump up to £22 if you decided to post a cheque in instead of doing in their way.