New British Gas Account

cliverowland

A few warnings of British Gas and the way they obviously are trying to work.
I opened a new account but was told the monthly payment was enormous (much more than it was before and it really shouldn't have been). I rang them and they said the best thing was to go onto three month payments and then the meters could be read and a more accurate DD could be set up. This was done and last week I sent them a reading.
Back comes the bill with a £70 penalty.
On contacting they tell me the previous account was cancelled and according the small print a £70 fee was due. I explained that I did not even want to change the account and it was at their suggestion AND there was no mention of it being a different account or of the penalty.
A very shirty Email but later, after a long telephone conversation, the £70 has been refunded.
The bill comes through the post looking like it's telling me my wife's had another baby with 'This is Your First British Gas Bill'. How sweet!!

KimYeovil

Move along. Nothing to see here. Completely reasonable behaviour.

reck_uk

Thanks for taking the time to post this cliverowland, something to look out for in future. I would have been a bit annoyed with that charge as well. Not sure what KimYeovil is talking about, must have posted by mistake.

smidgey

Why did you open a new account? Moved into a property or changed supplier?

The only time a charge would be added to the account would be if you have switched suppliers when you're on a long term contract.

It's reasonable that when your setting up a DD and there is no consumption history for you in that property that the past consumption is taken into consideration. Now it may have been a lot higher than what you're used to and your consumption maybe different to that of previous tennants. From what I can gather you were advised to wait a quarter before setting up a DD and supply actual reads.

It's not clear from your original post as to exactly what has gone on

Cardew

I really doubt that BG would advise anyone to go back on 3 monthly payments.

Firstly they want everyone to pay by DD and offer a large discount to customers to do so.

All paying 3 monthly achieves is the customer pays more!

cliverowland

Well the facts are that we changed from Scottish Power and we didn't want 3 monthly payments.
When the monthly figure was initially given then it must have been ready to be paid monthly. It was their decision to change the account type and, presumably, when this account was cancelled I got penalised.
With regards to the consumption history I have accurate information on kW used for gas and electricity going back five years but they didn't seem very interested.
Are you still a 'Proud Employee'?

cliverowland

Well the facts are that we changed from Scottish Power and we didn't want 3 monthly payments.
When the monthly figure was initially given then it must have been ready to be paid monthly. It was their decision to change the account type and, presumably, when this account was cancelled I got penalised.
With regards to the consumption history I have accurate information on kW used for gas and electricity going back five years but they didn't seem very interested.
Are you still a 'Proud Employee'?

smidgey

cliverowland wrote: »

Well the facts are that we changed from Scottish Power and we didn't want 3 monthly payments.

You didn't say that in your original post.

cliverowland wrote: »

When the monthly figure was initially given then it must have been ready to be paid monthly.

If you've opted to pay by DD when you signed up (again as you haven't stated I have no idea how you signed up) then it's likely the DD's have been calculated on 20,500kwh - The industry standard consumption.

cliverowland wrote: »

It was their decision to change the account type and, presumably, when this account was cancelled I got penalised.

Do you actually think that everytime someone switches payment method that their old account is closed and a new one setup??? Your payment method can change anytime but your account stays open and remains the same unless you go from Prepayment to Credit.

cliverowland wrote: »

Are you still a 'Proud Employee'?

Yes.