British Gas & 0845 numbers

Grumpy_Old_Duffer

Had my quarterly bill yesterday with the 'regular' "Important notice Payment reassessment" at the bottom saying, not asking, that they will be increasing my monthly Direct Debit payment by 66%.

In the past British Gas have tried this and I've always called them on 0800 numbers to tell them that I don't accept this increase but I'm prepared to increase by, what I consider, a 'reasonable' amount.

I made the 'mistake' of calling one of the 0845 numbers on the back of the bill, and after a couple of minutes of listening to all the 'blurp' I finally got to the dreaded menu "press 1 for ..... press 2 for ..... etc. etc.", only to be told by the robotic voice that "all our advisors are busy" and if I were to hold-on my call would be answered in approximately 10 minutes!!!!!

Now 'steaming' mad I found the 0800 300100 number on http://www.saynoto0870.com/ to be told that "this is a password protected number", whatever that means, and after a couple of minutes I was eventually put through to the correct number, and told the advisor that I was not prepared to pay the 66% increase, to which she said she would recalculate, and lo & behold, she came up with a 32% increase figure, which I rejected eventually settling for a 20% increase.

The issue I have is not with the monthly increase, but the fact that now all numbers are 0845 numbers, 'premium' rate numbers to the likes of us that use 18866/1899 call providers. I asked (the humans I eventually spoke too) for a geographic number but was informed that all customer numbers are now 0845 (except for the 0800 emergency numbers). What a lovely cash generator!!!

These companies only use 0845 numbers because of the revenue they generate for themselves, which we as customers pay for, hence the lack of geographic phone numbers that they now use.

Having asked for a Customer Services number (to complain) I was told that British Gas do not have a telephone number (not even an 0845!!!) and I would have to write to them at:

British Gas Trading
Admail AAC 119
Southampton
SO14 0NU.

May I suggest (tongue-in-check) to British Gas that they would generate £000's if they had an 0845 number for Customer Complaints;)

shammyjack

All BG services are available at

http://www.house.co.uk

If you need to phone house.co.uk use this geographic number

01133 381022 when the automated voice answers just ignore everything and in about a minute you will be put through !

shammy

Grumpy_Old_Duffer

Thanks Shammyjack, useful information.

I did try the website but just couldn't be bothered to be burdened with yet another password to remember;) and I did try that phone number, but wasn't aware that if I ignored 'everything' I'd be put through. Useful to know;)

Voyager2002

Yet another reason for switching away from British Gas.

Grumpy_Old_Duffer

Voyager2002 wrote:

Yet another reason for switching away from British Gas.

Surely you're not suggesting PowerGen

smartie1976

08457 is a lo-call number, roughly the same as making a local call.

So I fail to see why it makes a difference.


If you have agreed a DD amount below the current increase you risk falling into arrears.

Grumpy_Old_Duffer

smartie1976 wrote:

08457 is a lo-call number, roughly the same as making a local call.
So I fail to see why it makes a difference.

Noo Noo Noo Nooo ... not when you use call providers like those mentioned. Say, 1 min of 'blurp' before you get to the 'menu' then to be told you will have to hang-on for about 10 minutes = 11 mins @ 4p minute, against 3p connection charge and free calls ..... no brainer!!;)

smartie1976 wrote:

If you have agreed a DD amount below the current increase you risk falling into arrears.

Noo Noo Noo Noo .... money is better off in my account than theirs. Been in Credit before with the Utilities and it takes upto 14 days to get this money back from the Utility Companies, in cheque format, so then another couple of days for the cheque to clear.

I always make sure I'm in arrears (not by much) with the Utility Companies, but the 66% increase was ridiculous, when the 're-calculated' figure was 32%, and taking into account the bill was to cover the Winter period, there was no way I was going to pay them the increase that they initially wanted.

funnyguy

all these companies seem to be robbing us with 0845 numbers now....Ntl which is a Phone provider anyway,is having the cheek to move from 0800 to 0845 from monday..