British Gas rip off again!

adrian_seager

I expect others will know this, but its not fair.

The last quarterly bill was deemed to be 85 days, and during that time the gas price went down. having an actual reading at the start and an actual reading at the end clearly showed I used 367 imperial units, and here is where British Gas do the con, they alter the unit price on the 18th of feb and estimate the usage up to that point, and estimate the remaining usage.

Now I am not a statistics geek, but anybody can recognise that 367 units over 85 days works out to be a n average of 4.31 units per day, so if BG were playing fair they should have estimated 323.25 units before the increase(75 days x 4.31) and 43.75 units post increase, to be fair on us both, but no, "the computer" estimated 333 units at the higher rate, and 34 at the lower rate. Consequently we are charged for more first units at the higher rate, based on a biased estimate in BG's favour.
I know the amounts here are cpmparatively small, but multiply them by the number of customers, and it quickly becomes a rip off.

Rusty!

In fairness to BG, I bet you used a lot more gas during the pre-18th cold snap than you have after it, your method takes an average over the whole period, and that is very unlikely to reflect your actual usage.

KimYeovil

As has been repeatedly pointed out, suppliers have to use a centrally-gathered weighting to estimate bills. The total number of units can be made up by British Gas' computer but the way the units are distributed are not dictated by British Gas.

Customers can always dispute this automatic estimate and supply their own figure. It will invariably be accepted.

There is no rip off and no con, other than by fly customers who provide made-up readings that are not worth the suppliers' time challenging.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

KY above is exactly correct.

This has been covered scores of times.

The algorithm for the computer that calculates the estimate of consumption at any given date is quite sophisticated and includes data from the Met office.

The algorithm is also independently audited.

There are plenty of ways all the Utiliity companies can 'rip us off', however what you are alleging is conspiracy to defraud - criminal activity.

What boss at any of the Utility companies would dare to instruct the person writing the computer program to fudge it to the company's advantage.

As a point of interest I have been on a BG fixed rate for over 3 years. Although it makes no difference to the price we pay, fixed rate customers still have an estimated reading on the day of the price change. For me those readings are remarkably accurate.