British Gas Opens Direct Debit Helpline

bristolleedsfan

HELPLINE NUMBER: 0800 048 0101

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/bills/article.html?in_article_id=458642&in_page_id=510&ct=5

1carminestocky

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

HELPLINE NUMBER: 0800 048 0101

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/bills/article.html?in_article_id=458642&in_page_id=510&ct=5

And the energy company, Britain's largest, has called in 300 staff to address problems with energy payments.

Exactly the point I was making in another thread - if only they published how they arrive at their revised DDs, i.e. the formula they use, maybe they wouldn't have to spend so much time/money putting stuff like this right? And there are some people who claim that privatising an industry inevitably leads to improved efficiency. All we have now is 6 sales depts we wouldn't need, 6 retentions depts we wouldn't need, 6 teams of door knockers we wouldn't need, 5 hugely expensive supercomputers we wouldn't need (one of which is reportedly so unfit for purpose the company who supplied it are being sued). Just a ridiculous situation.

wakeupalarm

Maybe we should all be asking for the calculation method when querying our DD increases. Then question why they refuse to provide it when they attempt to fob us of.

1carminestocky

Incisor wrote: »

Wot 1carminestocky says. They should all publish exactly how to calculate the monthly DD with sufficient detail that you would get the same answer from your own account information.

But, I imagine that when the point finally penetrates, they will not actually publish, they will put up an online calculator. Why? because if they publish, it will become possible to show that they are helping themselves to cashflow at customers' expense.

Mark my words, we will see online calculators before we see the methods published. The fact that they will bring in 300 call centre staff to deal with a problem before publishing how they do the calcs is a fair indication that they do not want to publish the methods.

Totally agree. It's obviously far more financially advantageous to them to pay 300 people to answer queries for God knows how long than to publish the EXACT method of how the DDs are calculated. Suspicious behaviour indeed.

bristolleedsfan

wakeupalarm wrote: »

Maybe we should all be asking for the calculation method when querying our DD increases. Then question why they refuse to provide it when they attempt to fob us of.

You could ask Sam.


Centrica / British Gas Sam Laidlaw, Chief Executive [EMAIL="sam.laidlaw@centrica.co.uk"]sam.laidlaw@centrica.co.uk[/EMAIL]

I'll_Be_Frank

A couple of years back BG put my Electricity DD up by
39%. Astonished, I asked to see the formula they used to
calculate the new DD requirement, but I wasn't shown it.
They just apologised, saying they'd made a mistake
with the 39% one and changed the rise to just 7%.

logie28

on the helpline number they ask if you want to fix till 2012,, automated idiots

1carminestocky

logie28 wrote: »

on the helpline number they ask if you want to fix till 2012,, automated idiots

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: What a total shower of &*^% this company are....

duggie1982

So other energy companies dont ask this question? People would bit there hands off for this offer before the last increase!

I think last year BG got about £33 profit per customer per year! I would not say thats a great profit considering other companies out there. Or maybe thats just me.