r Am I The Only One To Read B/Gs Bills

Ken68

Probably a response to Ofgems probe as outlined here..

http://www.which.co.uk/about-which/press/campaign-press-releases/other-issues/2009/05/energy-companies-plug-for-confusion.jsp

Cardew

Ken68 wrote: »

Probably a response to Ofgems probe as outlined here..

http://www.which.co.uk/about-which/press/campaign-press-releases/other-issues/2009/05/energy-companies-plug-for-confusion.jsp

I think everyone would agree that the complexity of gas and electricity tariffs with every company is a nightmare.

The reason for this is surely that the profit margins, in relation to the overall price, are so small. BG for example make 2% profit,* so even if they made zero profit it would not have a significant effect on overall prices.

So BG, like every other company resort to 'confusion marketing' to make it as difficult as possible understand which tariff is best for any given customer; there is no 'one size fits all' solution.

However getting back to the OP's post. BG have simply given a breakdown of various elements of the cost to customers of their gas and electricity and I don't understand what the OP wants.

* The additional complication is that some of the Utility companies are owned by the energy producers - Centrica in BG's case.

Ken68

Fet. has spotted the injustice of a sliding charge to billing.
It has not been discussed before as far I know,
and 2% profit margin seems reasonable considering the competition.

fethiyeman

Hi All,
A few issues to sort out in this respnse,i feel that C and S-G have tryed to hijack this thread bringing in all sorts of different items subsidise kilowatts paperless billing etc etc which i had not mentioned in my original posting nor had any intension of doing. I believe that the breakdown on the bills started in January this year,my first bill came in March with it on.I then asked B/G why was the cost to produce a bill was on a sliding charge (it has been said in one of the answers on the thread that it would be for general running costs ) but i suggest you get out a dictionary or thesaurus and read the meaning of ACCOUNT and then the same for SERVICE and apply them to the words "To Service your Account" . This was the heading B/G had in use in March, 4 months later B/G had altered it to " Operating Costs"!! and i want to know why?,( also brings up an interesting question of how many thousands of the bills were scrapped due to the change of wording?) The heading " Operating Costs" would cover everything ( including producing bills) other than the Actual gas, so why is there a separate delivery cost shown, and not included in Operating costs?. Among the millions of customers B/G have, i am like a speck of dust so why was i offered a sort of sweetner to put it bluntly shut up if i was not distubing something B/G does not want disturbing?. I still feel the B/G is trying to wriggle out of admitting they make money out of producing the bills and not just the cost of same
Fethiyeman

KimYeovil

No, Fethiye, you r Are not the only one to read them. You r Are the only one who thinks everyone should have their own unique bill and pay the actual costs of service. Most of us think it is a reasonable and fair enough compromise to have a bit of an almost flat rate standing charge (paid for via Tier 1 units) and a small element that is pro rata to the rest of our usage (via Tier 2 units.)

British Gas and other suppliers are not wriggling out of anything.

fethiyeman

Hi All,
KY what are you babbling on about,everyone DOES have their own unique bill, no two bills are the same.Standing charges where are they on the B/G site then? i think you must be looking at your water or sewerage bills ,i can not remember gas or electric having them, .In the old days you were given one price plus vat,
Fethiyeman

kippen_noedel

KimYeovil wrote: »

No, Fethiye, you r Are not the only one to read them. You r Are the only one who thinks everyone should have their own unique bill and pay the actual costs of service. Most of us think it is a reasonable and fair enough compromise to have a bit of an almost flat rate standing charge (paid for via Tier 1 units) and a small element that is pro rata to the rest of our usage (via Tier 2 units.)

British Gas and other suppliers are not wriggling out of anything.

tut tut Jelly, you're at it again, you have to stop assuming things,

How rude and presumptuous, how do you know hes the only one, have you carried out your own survey ?

& For your information, most people do NOT think it is reasonable that low usage customers pay more for their energy on a prorata basis than high usage customers. Front loaded tier rates are inherently unfair on everyone except high users.

galba

kippen_noedel wrote: »

& For your information, most people do NOT think it is reasonable that low usage customers pay more for their energy on a prorata basis than high usage customers. Front loaded tier rates are inherently unfair on everyone except high users.

....particularly in the midst of the current mood of fuel conservation and CO2 reduction.

It makes no sense to reward those with a high consumption and penalise those who take the trouble to reduce their consumption.

That would be a good govt. slogan - "Reduce you energy usage and pay more for it !"

Our present govt, probably don't even realise this is what happens.

SwanJon

I work for BG, and (as you can probably tell from the fact I am on here) I'm a bit geeky about stuff like this. I thought I understood before I read the email reply. Whoever wrote that needs some serious help.

fethiyeman wrote: »

"To Service your Account" . This was the heading B/G had in use in March, 4 months later B/G had altered it to " Operating Costs"!! and i want to know why

Probably because it was confusing customers like you. I'd like to think that all the CSAs (like me) that manage accounts, speka to customers, resolve problems etc would be counted as 'servicing your account'.
Operating Costs does sound more accurate, but surely you woudl have realised there was no place in the original list for salaries, or other bits and pieces (subsidising/writing off debts for example)

KimYeovil

fethiyeman wrote: »

KY what are you babbling on about, everyone DOES have their own unique bill, no two bills are the same.

The 'uniqueness' I was referring to was, clearly, that everyone does not have their own bill detailing each and every phone call, letter, meter reader visit, outgoing call, fuel infrastructure transport to their front door... etc. They just take various totals and differences and divide them by the number of households they serve.

fethiyeman wrote: »

Standing charges where are they on the B/G site then? i think you must be looking at your water or sewerage bills ,i can not remember gas or electric having them

It is quite simple to navigate British Gas's site and find the page where the tariffs are displayed. Some tariffs have a daily standing charge and others cover the standing charge in their two tier structure. Of course, this charge does not cover 100% of the incidental costs of supplying your fuel. This is also covered by the per kWh unit costs (and, consequently, high users DO pay more to subsidise low users.)

fethiyeman wrote: »

In the old days you were given one price plus vat

I am unfamiliar with such times. In my olden times, the one price tariffs always had daily standing charges.