negotiating compensation with british gas

Mihangel

I switched my suplier to british gas in nov 07. My gas currently gets supplied via a independant supplier and have been told there was a backlog with the switchover. I have been calling (0845 number) every week/other week since I have today just been set up and been given a £255 bill and been told to call them and negotiate compensation. Any ideas what i should aim for?

any help appreciated.

thanks
Mike

Premier_2

They are perfectly allowed to back bill you for up to 12 months.

In your instance they are only back billing you for 7-8 months and remembering that back billing for 3 months is the standard anyway.

Any 'compo' you might get would purely be a goodwill gesture on behalf of BG. If you get offered 20 quid, grab it, you'll be 20 quid better off than you should be.

Mihangel

I know they are perfectly allowed to claim up to 12months back.

i have not mentioned compensation on the phone they brought it up, they have already put £15 into my account so something seems strange the way they are throwing money at me.

SwanJon

What are you expecting to be compensated for? Are you out of pocket becasue of this?
IGTs have long been a problem in the industry as none of them use information the same way as the major (ex-Transco) distributors, and they are all different to each other.
Were you asked to call in each week? Did they give you an idea of how long it would take (difficult with an IGT)?

As Premier said, they may offer you a goodwill gesture to cover the cost of your calls, but I can't see where compensation comes into it.

Did you sign up online? They have offered a £15 credit for doing so in the past so could be that - not at all suspicious. When you signed up, did you ask to go onto DD? Has the DD discount been included?

Mihangel

well if anyone else is in the same boat as me i ended up getting £70 off my bill which i was extremely pleased especially as I never mentioned compensation they told me to ring them when my 1st bill came in.