Tariff whilst switching suppliers

CashStrapped · 17 March 2017 at 2:09PM

This is the key paragraph

24.10 This paragraph applies where one of the following conditions are satisfied:

(a) no later than 20 Working Days after (but not including) the date on which the fixed term period of a Fixed Term Supply Contract ends, the licensee receives Notice under the Network Code by way of the Relevant Gas Shipper that another Gas Supplier will begin to supply the Domestic Customer’s Domestic Premises within a reasonable period of time;

I am trying to decipher if this means that if they should receive notification up to 20 days after the tariff ended, the tariff should be maintained.

System · 17 March 2017 at 2:39PM

CashStrapped wrote: »

This is the key paragraph

24.10 This paragraph applies where one of the following conditions are satisfied:

(a) no later than 20 Working Days after (but not including) the date on which the fixed term period of a Fixed Term Supply Contract ends, the licensee receives Notice under the Network Code by way of the Relevant Gas Shipper that another Gas Supplier will begin to supply the Domestic Customer’s Domestic Premises within a reasonable period of time;

I am trying to decipher if this means that if they should receive notification up to 20 days after the tariff ended, the tariff should be maintained.

I believe that your last sentence applies. Indeed, this is how E.oN interprets the SLC as posted many times on this forum by Malc and Helena. I confess that I haven't read BG's ts and cs and contractually it would need a lawyer to advise on what has the greater standing in law: that is, does a contract t and c trump a SLC?

c_smith · 17 March 2017 at 2:44PM

I've just emailed BG and told them i've been incorrectly billed from 1st March, asking them to review and revise it.

CashStrapped · 17 March 2017 at 3:08PM

Indeed @c_smith, if you quote 24.10, it does seem to suggest, that even if notification is within 20 days after the tariff ended, the tariff should be maintained.

The problem is that none of the British Gas call handling staff I spoke to were aware of it as a policy.

CashStrapped · 17 March 2017 at 3:52PM

Update:

As this was an issue regarding Ofgem policy, I rang them to speak to their policy enforcement team. They were very interested what I had to tell them.

They were pretty clear that we are correct in our interpretation of the policy. They intimated they would look to formally clarify the policy with the company in question.

As I resolved my issue over the phone, I had no correspondence to forward to them.

If you have correspondence of Britsh Gas misinterpreting the policy, I would forward it to ofgem along with a letter explaining the issue.

Don't ask Ofgem to deal with the complaint. That is not their job. Do that individually with British Gas.

But....write an email raising concerns that British Gas are not following ofgem policy and you wish to make them aware. That, they are interested in.

c_smith · 17 March 2017 at 4:15PM

I'll wait and see what there response is to my email and then forward it to Ofgem if there's a contradiction of policy. I quoted BG's own terms and conditions and mentioned that it was as per the Ofgem "price protection window" policy, but I didn't actually quote the Ofgem document as I don't know and couldn't find what the document is actually called. I'm aware it's sections 24.9 and 24.10.

If someone could clarify this and ideally provide a direct link to the document in question, I'll quote it if I receive a negative response from BG.

CashStrapped · 17 March 2017 at 4:23PM

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/102056

Page 38/39 - Termination of a domestic supply contract. Points 24.9, 24.10 etc

CashStrapped · 17 March 2017 at 5:48PM

The problem is that if British Gas is not applying the correct charging policy when switching, and only correct the issue if a complaint is raised (and even then reluctantly), it is a pretty serious issue, both now and for all future (and indeed past) switches.

Anyone who has this issue should flag it with Ofgem as the policy needs to be re-clarified with some companies.

A resolved complaint will usually just stay internal.

My resolution for example will not even be logged as a complaint as it was resolved as a gesture of good will, i.e not our fault but here is the money anyway.

So, to clarify, even if a company gets notification of a switch after a fixed tariff has ended. As long as it is within 20 days of the tariff ending, you should be charged for any use during the switching process at the original fixed tariff rate and not a standard rate.

SnowMan · 17 March 2017 at 6:29PM

CashStrapped wrote: »

Update:

As this was an issue regarding Ofgem policy, I rang them to speak to their policy enforcement team. They were very interested what I had to tell them.

They were pretty clear that we are correct in our interpretation of the policy. They intimated they would look to formally clarify the policy with the company in question.

As I resolved my issue over the phone, I had no correspondence to forward to them.

If you have correspondence of Britsh Gas misinterpreting the policy, I would forward it to ofgem along with a letter explaining the issue.

Don't ask Ofgem to deal with the complaint. That is not their job. Do that individually with British Gas.

But....write an email raising concerns that British Gas are not following ofgem policy and you wish to make them aware. That, they are interested in.

I contacted OFGEM a number of days ago. They were quite helpful and seemed to think that 24.9 should be interpretated as we all think it should. They said they were passing it to their compliance team and asked me to forward BGs response to my complaint when I received it to help as evidence as to what BG policy is.

It's great that you have now done the same, the more who do that, the more OFGEM should realise this is a real issue of overcharging (and it appears to me to be blatant and deliberate overcharging, but that's just my view based on how it appears from this thread, and that is something that OFGEM should look at also to see if that really is the case or not)

Femstar · 17 March 2017 at 11:26PM

A promising update it seems:

"Thank you for replying to our email about your tariff.

I'm sorry that our previous email response didn't appropriately address your complaint and you had to contact us again for the tariff issue.

We are aware of the OFGEM regulation which states that the higher rate will not be applicable if you are changing suppliers within 20 working days of your tariff end date. Since we stopped supplying at your property from 13 March 2017, your final bill should be based on the Collective Fix February 2017 tariff rates which ended on 28 February 2017.

We'll not be able to amend your final bill to reflect the correct tariff rates; however, a credit amount will be added to cover the difference in the tariff cost. Once the credit amount has been added to your account, we'll send a confirmation letter to you explaining the reason for applying it.

The current debit balance on your closed account is £23.35. As your account is on Variable Direct Debit (VDD), this amount will be taken from your bank account on or within 3 days of 28 March 2017.

At the moment, I don't have a timescale by when the credit amount will be added so I'll contact you again on 31 March 2017 to give you an update on my progress.

If you’d like information about our complaints handling procedure you can view a copy by either going online at britishgas.co.uk/energycomplaints, or by getting in touch and one of our advisors will arrange to send you a copy free of charge. "

Tariff whilst switching suppliers

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