Word of Warning - British Gas Online + 1 month free electricity

ffym

jem16
were you on that tarriff before the Sept price rises? If so did your price per unit go up then or was it frozen (until 2006) at the pre increase price? If you are still paying the old prices then that would confirm what BG have told me. If your price did rise in Sept then that is worrying.
As I am a prospective new customer the price they have quoted me is the price valid now, not pre Sept.

jem16

ffym wrote:

jem16
were you on that tarriff before the Sept price rises? If so did your price per unit go up then or was it frozen (until 2006) at the pre increase price? If you are still paying the old prices then that would confirm what BG have told me. If your price did rise in Sept then that is worrying.
As I am a prospective new customer the price they have quoted me is the price valid now, not pre Sept.

As I said before, this tariff is based on September 2004's standard prices. I have officially been on this tariff since 3rd October but my initial enquiry was made before 19th September. I was quoted 11.6p(Tier 1) and 6.452p(Tier 2) which is what I'm paying now. I have been told that I will always get a discount of 8.6% on the standard electricty prices until April 2007 whether they rise or fall. I have also been told that my price will remain frozen until 2006.

It's the "until 2006" that's the confusing part. This could mean January 2006 or infact anytime in 2006 if BG pleases.

ffym

jem16 wrote:

As I said before, this tariff is based on September 2004's standard prices. I have officially been on this tariff since 3rd October but my initial enquiry was made before 19th September. I was quoted 11.6p(Tier 1) and 6.452p(Tier 2) which is what I'm paying now. I have been told that I will always get a discount of 8.6% on the standard electricty prices until April 2007 whether they rise or fall. I have also been told that my price will remain frozen until 2006.

It's the "until 2006" that's the confusing part. This could mean January 2006 or infact anytime in 2006 if BG pleases.

jem16
Apologies, I see now what you've been saying, the link on house.co.uk to the standard electricity prices hasn't been working for me for the last few days but I can now see what thier standard prices currently are.
Like you they have quoted me a discount (11.7%) on the old prices! Their support staff have told me porkys that the Sept price rise has been included in this tariff - now that I can do the Maths it obviously isn't. The rate I have been quoted is the current standard rate less 14% (the Sept increase) less 11.7% (my quoted discount)!
How can I now trust that the "fixed until 1st April 2006" that I was told is true!
It's not all bad news for me though as my current supplier (Swalec) has just announced a 13.6% rise so the saving I thought I'd make will still be there once my current prices go up - my savings comparisons have been old BG vs old Swalec.
Thanks for persevering with me on this one, I now totally agree. The prices on this tariff WILL go up by 14% in 2006 - GUARANTEED!!

jem16

ffym wrote:

jem16
Apologies, I see now what you've been saying, the link on house.co.uk to the standard electricity prices hasn't been working for me for the last few days but I can now see what thier standard prices currently are.
Like you they have quoted me a discount (11.7%) on the old prices! Their support staff have told me porkys that the Sept price rise has been included in this tariff - now that I can do the Maths it obviously isn't. The rate I have been quoted is the current standard rate less 14% (the Sept increase) less 11.7% (my quoted discount)!
How can I now trust that the "fixed until 1st April 2006" that I was told is true!
It's not all bad news for me though as my current supplier (Swalec) has just announced a 13.6% rise so the saving I thought I'd make will still be there once my current prices go up - my savings comparisons have been old BG vs old Swalec.
Thanks for persevering with me on this one, I now totally agree. The prices on this tariff WILL go up by 14% in 2006 - GUARANTEED!!

No problem at all - however I'm not pleased at all to be proved correct. It is misleading and I feel a lot of people will be caught out with this. I didn't realise that you weren't able to get a hold of BG's current standard prices.

My dealings with BG recently have been totally frustrating. I used to get an answer to emails fairly promptly - now it's at least a fortnight before I get an answer. I get conflicting advice, like you on this changeover. It took me 5 weeks to switch to Discounted Electricty. During those 5 weeks they even mistakenly put me on the Price Freeze 2010 tariff :eek: When I phoned about it, I was passed from dept to dept - some told me there was no such thing as Discounted Electricity!

After almost five weeks of getting nowhere, I emailed them to tell me not to switch me onto the Discounted tariff as I had decided to switch supplier - 3 days later I got an email to welcome me to the Discounted Electricity tariff! I am still waiting on an answer to my email telling them not to bother putting me onto it - that was 3 weeks ago.

I have now applied to join London Energy as it will save me about £160 ( based on the Discounted Electricty tariff) and more when BG put up their prices in 2006. This is taking into account London Energy's price increase of 31st October.

I wish you well in your dealings with BG - hopefully they will be better than mine.