British Gas - No VAT

Haarlem

Just had a guy at the door from British Gas saying he was here on a fact finding mission. He asked me to confirm my name as displayed his portable computer.

Q1 - I need to find out who supplies your gas?
Q2 - Why did you move to them?
Q3- When did you move to them?

At this point I told him that I wanted to finish the conversation.

He said but you are a "P" customer, and entitled to pay no VAT.
I said what is a "P" customer, and he said he didn't know, but it was better than an"EF" customer who had to pay VAT.

I made the point that there were no exemptions to having to pay VAT for fuel to a domestic property, and insisted he left.

I then asked him to go and shut the door

I have since found out there is a British Gas offer of refunding the VAT on your first bill you receive from them. The guy never said this in his approach, and really made it sound as if I should not be paying VAT

One point, I have never been supplied by gas since the old area Gas Board days. The Data Protection Act says that no information should be held without the organisation having a good reason to. So do British Gas have justification to hold even my name and address? Just a thought

BruceyBonus

Did he carry any British Gas ID?

Premier_2

Was his name George, and did he also ask for your bank account number and sort code ...?

BruceyBonus

Premier wrote: »

Was his name George, and did he also ask for your bank account number and sort code ...?

In case anyone doesn't understand ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=372Ah0Z_L1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGjeAPrLog

But more relevant to this thread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGBwDX7oGH0

JasonLVC

Haarlem wrote: »

Just had a guy at the door from British Gas saying he was here on a fact finding mission. He asked me to confirm my name as displayed his portable computer.

Q1 - I need to find out who supplies your gas?
Q2 - Why did you move to them?
Q3- When did you move to them?

At this point I told him that I wanted to finish the conversation.

He said but you are a "P" customer, and entitled to pay no VAT.
I said what is a "P" customer, and he said he didn't know, but it was better than an"EF" customer who had to pay VAT.

I made the point that there were no exemptions to having to pay VAT for fuel to a domestic property, and insisted he left.

I then asked him to go and shut the door

I have since found out there is a British Gas offer of refunding the VAT on your first bill you receive from them. The guy never said this in his approach, and really made it sound as if I should not be paying VAT

One point, I have never been supplied by gas since the old area Gas Board days. The Data Protection Act says that no information should be held without the organisation having a good reason to. So do British Gas have justification to hold even my name and address? Just a thought

Yes, a somewhat underhand sales tactic by the sound of it.

BG paying the VAT on your first gas bill is hardly exciting, 5% of one quarters worth of gas is going to be the equivalent of say £20 - hardly an incentive to switch suppliers - you'd probably get more savings using a cashback website like Quidco.

To reiterate, there are no VAT free supplies of domestic gas/electric. It is a 5% VAT rate for domestic and 15% for commercial users. Any business can offer to pay the VAT on your brhalf but is simply te equivalent of giving a 5% or 15% discount on the headline price.

Nice to see the dodgy salesmen are still at it though.

smidgey

Sounds like he is referring to customer segments. Have you ever been with British Gas before? I'm not sure how you could be assigned a customer segment if you haven't been supplied by us in the past.

CharlieBilly

Think they are telling a big fat Porkie pie

Red_Dave

I had a visit today.

Front of leaflet:

We will pay the VAT on your energy, so you could save up to £72*

Reverse of leaflet:

Terms and conditions. *Only one offer per household/customer. For customers taking gas through a credit meter, the VAT Free Energy will be shown as a credit of £72.67 on your first gas bill issued 12 months after gas Supply Start Date. You must take both gas and electricity throughout this period with British Gas and remain a British Gas customer for both fuels at point of credit. Subject to status. Excludes Pay As You Go Energy customers. Limited availability. The VAT Free Energy offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other British Gas offer.

It then shows the workings to get to £72.67.