Shock gas bill - £737! Please can you help?

Scrumshie

Hi Redmandarin
How did you get on with gas company?
Hope that it all worked out ok for you, a phone call stating the facts should do the trick.

redmandarin

Hi Scrumshie/notbritishgas, sorry for the late update!

I rang BG, who took 45 minutes to deal with this! I purposely mentioned BBC Watchdog, but it made no difference. I was informed by a less than friendly call centre "advisor" that I would need to be put through to "escalations", which could only be done if I supplied the new meter serial number, which I did. "Escalations", then requested the date the meter was replaced, the old meter final reading, the new meter initial reading and the new meter current reading! I was told that it was not BG's fault, but that of the National Grid who had not told BG they had installed a new meter and that it could take up to 28 days for them to verify the information from NG. Once this was done, I would be sent a replacement bill for the correct amount.

At no time was I offered an apology by BG, for sending me a bill that is almost three times the correct amount. I therefore suggested that it would have been nice if someone had apologised. The "advisor" said it was not BG's fault, but that of the National Grid (implying that he was therefore not going to apologise)! I said that if BG and the NG fail to communicate with one another, then it is not my fault and that I would still expect BG to apologise for the inconvenience and distress caused in sending me the incorrect and highly inflated bill. Still no apology! All he would say was "I'm sorry you feel like that!". :mad:

My real concern is for all the vulnerable people (such as the elderly) who may not realise that their bill is incorrect and think that the high amount is a result of last year's many price increases. They could start paying inflated gas bills, (for goodness knows how long) get into debt as a result, turn off the heating in the winter or be forced cut down on other essentials (like food and rent)!

Vestra

redmandarin wrote: »

Hi Scrumshie/notbritishgas, sorry for the late update!

I rang BG, who took 45 minutes to deal with this! I purposely mentioned BBC Watchdog, but it made no difference. I was informed by a less than friendly call centre "advisor" that I would need to be put through to "escalations", which could only be done if I supplied the new meter serial number, which I did. "Escalations", then requested the date the meter was replaced, the old meter final reading, the new meter initial reading and the new meter current reading! I was told that it was not BG's fault, but that of the National Grid who had not told BG they had installed a new meter and that it could take up to 28 days for them to verify the information from NG. Once this was done, I would be sent a replacement bill for the correct amount.

At no time was I offered an apology by BG, for sending me a bill that is almost three times the correct amount. I therefore suggested that it would have been nice if someone had apologised. The "advisor" said it was not BG's fault, but that of the National Grid (implying that he was therefore not going to apologise)! I said that if BG and the NG fail to communicate with one another, then it is not my fault and that I would still expect BG to apologise for the inconvenience and distress caused in sending me the incorrect and highly inflated bill. Still no apology! All he would say was "I'm sorry you feel like that!". :mad:

My real concern is for all the vulnerable people (such as the elderly) who may not realise that their bill is incorrect and think that the high amount is a result of last year's many price increases. They could start paying inflated gas bills, (for goodness knows how long) get into debt as a result, turn off the heating in the winter or be forced cut down on other essentials (like food and rent)!

To be fair though it's not really British Gas's fault, it was national grid for not passing on the meter exchange details. So why should someone apologise for someone else mistakes?

Cardew

If the Utility Company formally apologise for something that is clearly not their fault, then they are admitting liability.

filmnoir

Cardew wrote: »

If the Utility Company formally apologise for something that is clearly not their fault, then they are admitting liability.

Quite true, also as in electric and gas a supplier is responsible for the ensuring the agents it appoints ensure that these mistakes are kept to a minimum. This is part of the supplier license for trading, end of the day the mistake although created by a seperate company falls on the supplier.

Even though suppliers are indirectly out of the sphere of influence, they do impact on how they manage that agent and how quickly when problems arise they are sorted out and communicated to the customer. At the end of the day its humans entering data at a chainmany miles away, mistakes will happen just how they are handled when they arise.

Cardew

filmnoir wrote: »

Quite true, also as in electric and gas a supplier is responsible for the ensuring the agents it appoints ensure that these mistakes are kept to a minimum.

Ah but there ain't a huge choice of agents is there?;)

They are not happy with National Grid(who is?) - so what do you suggest is their next course of action?

redmandarin

filmnoir wrote: »

Quite true, also as in electric and gas a supplier is responsible for the ensuring the agents it appoints ensure that these mistakes are kept to a minimum. This is part of the supplier license for trading, end of the day the mistake although created by a seperate company falls on the supplier.

Even though suppliers are indirectly out of the sphere of influence, they do impact on how they manage that agent and how quickly when problems arise they are sorted out and communicated to the customer. At the end of the day its humans entering data at a chainmany miles away, mistakes will happen just how they are handled when they arise.

The BBC Watchdog programme highlighted this issue on 12 January and according to their website it " has led to customers being overcharged by thousands of pounds". So it's not as though British Gas are unaware of the problem.

Although the mistakes are not being made by British Gas directly, they do share some responsibility for this situation. As a service industry it would appear to be a matter of common courtesy (not to mention good practice) for British Gas to have instructed their staff to inform customers that they recognise that there have been problems and that they apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Scrumshie

Redmadarin
I am so pleased that you managed to get some action on this and at the end of the day got your bill to where it should be.:j :T

It is a disgrace that National Grid are not keeping correct records of new installations and sending this information through to the gas suppliers. The Watchdog programme highlighted that it was happening in many different areas with manay different suppliers. The central link was always whoever changed the meter box.