British Gas failed to inform me of price increase in Click 5 tariff

dealy95

Last summer, as all the energy providers were increasing prices, I decided to switch to the British Gas Click 5 energy tariff and switch both electricity and gas supply.
On 4th September I received a confirmation letter listing the energy tariffs.
The direct debits were set up and the switch eventually happened on 18th October with no problems. I received my first bills in the November covering the 5 week period since the switch and didn't really check the bill in detail, just the bottom line charges.
Just this week I have received the bills for a full winter quarter and the gas used was a whopping £285, leaving me in significant arrears against the direct debit account. After closer investigation of the bill I noticed that the unit prices for both gas and electric were significantly higher than the rates I had originally signed up to. In the case of the gas tariff, this was some 40% higher. I was never informed by BG of the tariff changes and am especially angry because these new rates effectively put me on a higher tariff than that of the supplier from whom I switched. I haven't contacted BG yet but have now learned that the Click 5 tariffs were increased on September 30th but I was never notified, either in writing or by e-mail. Has anyone else had this experience? What are my options of redress?

Premier_2

Contact BG and ask when & how they issued you a notice of your contract price revisons.

dealy95

Thanks,

That will be my first question when the BG customer helpline opens tomorrow morning.

linda-ann

Ask to go on click 6 which replaced click 5 this is the cheapest

Neelie

A letter will have been sent and a price increase will have been publicized by the press - don't play dumb - energy suppliers always notify customers of price changes in the news.

DirectDebacle

Neelie wrote: »

A letter will have been sent and a price increase will have been publicized by the press - don't play dumb - energy suppliers always notify customers of price changes in the news.

Oh yeah? Have a read of this.


http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/MoreInformation.aspx?docid=225&refer=Media/PressRel

zzzLazyDaisy

That comment is not only unhelpful, but it is also incorrect. BG have a long history of bringing out a click tariff to get to the top of the comparison charts, only to quietly replace is with the next click incarnation, whilst at the same time increasing the cost of the previous one.

BG does not notify the customer in writing of this change because the click tariffs are online only - so BG will simply say that the change was published on their website and it is up to the customer to notify them that s/he want to change to the new cheaper tariff.

I am with click 6 now, but missed the start by 4 weeks, which meant that I was hit by the 40% increase on click 5, when click 6 was introduced.

It is, in my view, a shameful and underhand practice, and the regulator should stamp it out.

EDIT - crossed with the above post

Plushchris

linda-ann wrote: »

Ask to go on click 6 which replaced click 5 this is the cheapest

This wont happen, Click 6 has now been removed from sale it was replaced with Websaver, which in turn was replaced with Websaver 2

You need to keep up if you want to be on BGs cheapest tariff.

1carminestocky

linda-ann wrote: »

Ask to go on click 6 which replaced click 5 this is the cheapest

This post sort of backs up the argument I've put forward on here many times in the past regarding BGs dubious practice of continually superceding its online tariffs. By my reckoning linda-ann is far more 'energy supplier savvy' than the average person on any Acacia Avenue in any town/city in the UK. But even she is actually 2 incarnations of BGs online tariff behind the times! Click 6 was superceded by Websaver1 on 18/12/08. When was Click 6 introduced? 10 weeks before. IRRC Websaver1 didn't even last that long! Ridiculous. This wholly dodgy practice should be stopped and would be stopped by any regulator who had the consumer's real interests at heart.


Couldn't agree more with zzzLazyDaisy on this one!

doctor_benway

+1 on carminestocky

the op's timeframe is very similar to mine, and they did not notify me either of the new Click 6 tarriff, or the increase of the click 5 :T

I only saw that the tarriff had changed because of the problems BG had in setting up the accounts, and changed to click 6. [actually before my supplier was changed]

indeed, like the OP, click5 no longer existed by the time the accounts were finally transferred [well outside the 28 day timeframe]-- but instead of going to the latest and cheapest tarriff [which is what you had originally signed up for] BG kept you on the extinct click 5 and bumped the price of it up 40%, before they even supplied it.

I bet if the click 6 had been more expensive than the click5, BG wouldve put you on the click 6 :rotfl:

BG are just a dreaful company.

Why doesnt Parliament do what the do in the US and drag some of these [STRIKE]coroporate scumbags[/STRIKE] captains of industry, in front of a public commons committee and ask them to explain their business practices?

clearly the ombudsmen does nothing

rant off...

Premier_2

zzzLazyDaisy wrote:

...BG does not notify the customer in writing of this change because the click tariffs are online only - so BG will simply say that the change was published on their website and it is up to the customer to notify them that s/he want to change to the new cheaper tariff...

According to British Gas terms & conditions for supplying you with gas or electricity (or both)

7.1 We can change the terms of this contract (including price and payment methods) at any time (unless we have agreed otherwise with you) and we will make these available online at www.britishgas.co.uk. We will let you know in writing if we make a change. If you are not happy with the change, you can end this contract as set out in clause 8.1c.

7.2 If we raise your prices or make a change to this contract that puts you at significant disadvantage, we will let you know in writing within 65 working days of the change. The price rise or change will not affect you as long as you:
(a) tell us that you want to end this contract within 10 working days of the day you receive notice from us of the price rise or change; and
(b) arrange for another supplier to supply your gas and electricity and we receive notice of this from your new supplier within 15 working days of the day you gave us notice that you wanted to end your contract.

Now whether a message sent to the account holder online constitutes "in writing" is debateable - I suspect it probably is as emails can now be considered "in writing". But simply publishing it on a website is probably not considered "in writing"

Or are there different terms & conditions for BG Click tariffs?