British Gas prices to rise by up to 60%??????

stressfulife

Hello all,
This is my first post so forgive me if its a bit rambling......
I have just recieved a cold call from British Gas.
They said they were offering a deal to ex British gas customers (I'm with EDF at moment on a standard rate (EEK!!)) to get me to come back to British gas.
It turned out to be the standard FIXED PRICE until 2011 deal that you can find on any of the comparison sites. Having looked at this product before I asked if it had a premium over the standard prices, the caller assured me that there was not and now all the other major gas/electric suppliers had put there prices up that the 2011 deal was coming out top of the lists on comparison sites.
Now I did a comparison only 2 days ago and the BG 2011 deal was coming out at least £70 a year more than my current supplier EDF's 2009 fixed price deal.
But the thing that REALLY ANNOYED me was the scaremongering that the caller was employing saying that bills are "guarenteed" to go-up up to 60% over next couple of years.
I asked who was "guarenteeing this"? The answer was that was not actually guarenteed to go-up that much but the figures came from a recent report from CENTRICA. He made no reference to the fact that CENTRICA is the company that owns British Gas so could hardly be considered an independant unbiased source!(I also found out after internet search that the report was published about time that the fixed til 2011 scheme was introduced).He also intimated that as oil prices were going up again this would force a big increase in gas prices next year.
I was seriously considering signing up to this British gas fixed til 2011 package(even with the premium) as I really cant afford any more increases.But after this scaremongering phone call today I am so furious i will probably look for a better deal. I just wondered if anone else has had same sort of figures quoted to them?
One final bit of info the British Gas telesalesman gave was the fact that the 2011 deal was "likely to be coming to an end soon" although I cant help thinking this may just have been more sales patter!
What I didnt tell him is that I even if I decided to go for this fixed 2011 package I would do it through one of the comparison websites to get some cashback NOT over the phone to a sales rep on commission!
You taught me well Martin!

Andy

DGJsaver

scumbags pure and simple

1carminestocky

I await the usual BG apologists' (code word for employees) intervention with bated breath...

Dreamnine

Just tell them to £uck off - I do.

Jules22

i had a similar call from BG and they offered me a 15% discount on top of the capped rate.

i told them to call me back when they could offer me at least a 60% discount.

funny, but i've not heard from them since.

SuziQ

Oil prices have recently gone down.

Maybe prices for gas and elctric will fall (hahahaha)

If everyone cuts their energy consumption as advised by the govt I am sure the prices will increase again to make up their lost revenue!

backfoot

Isn't there some sort of regulations covering this kind of cold calling? As the majority of the content was complete lies surely they must be in breach of Trades Descriptions or another regulation.

Does anybody know?

stressfulife

Mmmm.didn't think about that Backfoot...I'm registered with the telephone preference service(not sure if its still called that) so they(british gas) shouldn't have been calling me in the first place!
Maybe I should report them........
Andy

backfoot

You would imagine that they must be given an outline script to follow which no doubt gets distorted along the way. The shame of it concerns selling energy in this way to uninitiated people over the phone using scare tactics. It should be stopped immediately as it could throw many new people into fuel poverty unnecessarily. The doorstep salesmen have to follow a code of practice for doorstep selling (which they largely fail to do) but nevetheless this should come under the same sort of governance.
The COP is organised under the auspices of the Energy Retail Association (a trade body for the big six). Perhaps they would be a good starting point. I referred a matter to the Code Manager once and found it very beneficial.Also Ofgem should be involved of course.

maka_2

i work for BG as a TM if you have there details i would like to have them so i can listen to the call and deal with it as this should not be happening. pm is you have the details

backfoot

What's a TM? Obviously in this example correct procedures are not being followed. Doesn't it go much further than this.Why is energy being 'sold' over the phone. It really has reached rock bottom and as BG's fixed deal is probably the most expensive of its type,this type of marketing needs to stop,don't you think?