Advice on how to increase my Gas and Electricity Bills pleas

Fire_Fox

It's perfectly possible to condense a long-winded and complicated situation into one or two pages of A4, using bullet points and dated headings! I am the queen of complaints letters, I write an essay as I find it cathartic then edit, edit, edit. Even your subject line is ridiculous! Any sentences that begin with the word 'why' are questions and so need to terminate with a question mark. Use proper paragraphs, full stops and commas - you have sentences that go on for three lines without punctuation and they are migraine inducing!

Lube

I doubt many people would read the letter, its too much hard work

Penfold321

you say you never signed any thing from what i can remember door knockers have to get your signiture on a contract. Unless you got a call from BG a few minutes after the sales person ticked you with his pitch? i would ask to see a copy of the agreement.

fnc6810

Putting aside any useful information I might derive from your posts for a moment, I did point out at the start of the letter about grammar and spelling mistakes. I think I mentioned in this vast, jumbled up, Enigma coded, Bayeaux tapestry sized, mammoth effort of a correspondence attempted in the English language, about the time I arise from my slumber, to partake in a ritual commonly known as work, this being 1 am. The am being ante meridiem not after Monday. This early re-entry into the conscious world can have side effects if not controlled by stages of hibernation through-out the remainder of the day. One of these side-effects is a dormant grammar gland, which then increases the flow of the body's sarcasm cells.

I think what I’m trying to say is I just put everything down and sent it,

For some reason I thought this site was for advice and maybe a little comfort from people in the same sort of situation. I guess I was wrong I didn't realise we had an English teacher checking up on our grammar and punctuation. The reason being clear now why I only have 1 star next to my name and Fire fox you have 4. (Intended as a bit of humour).

On a serious side I do thank you all for you comments, criticisms and helpful suggestions, all have been noted. If any of you would like to go all the way and mark my essay and arrange it in the way it should have been presented, mark it with the appropriate D - and post it in my inbox, feel free to do so. I'll send that one to British Gas as well.

Cheers fnc6810

CharlieBilly

No but when you want help at least make it easy on eyes, after all if we ignore it I am sure the energy company will too

I often find in life if you stick to the facts and keep it brief and always be polite and not aggressive (not aiming at you) you get better outcome

CharlieBilly

Oh and never send your first response because often it is full of errors, hard to read or may come across as aggressive again not all of it aimed at you. Make several drafts and get someone to read it first before sending

Fire_Fox

fnc6810 wrote: »

Putting aside any useful information I might derive from your posts for a moment, I did point out at the start of the letter about grammar and spelling mistakes. I think I mentioned in this vast, jumbled up, Enigma coded, Bayeaux tapestry sized, mammoth effort of a correspondence attempted in the English language, about the time I arise from my slumber, to partake in a ritual commonly known as work, this being 1 am. The am being ante meridiem not after Monday. This early re-entry into the conscious world can have side effects if not controlled by stages of hibernation through-out the remainder of the day. One of these side-effects is a dormant grammar gland, which then increases the flow of the body's sarcasm cells.

I think what I’m trying to say is I just put everything down and sent it,

For some reason I thought this site was for advice and maybe a little comfort from people in the same sort of situation. I guess I was wrong I didn't realise we had an English teacher checking up on our grammar and punctuation. The reason being clear now why I only have 1 star next to my name and Fire fox you have 4. (Intended as a bit of humour).

On a serious side I do thank you all for you comments, criticisms and helpful suggestions, all have been noted. If any of you would like to go all the way and mark my essay and arrange it in the way it should have been presented, mark it with the appropriate D - and post it in my inbox, feel free to do so. I'll send that one to British Gas as well.

Cheers fnc6810

Thanks for your PM. We aren't trying to get one over on you, we are pointing out that your letter is completely unreadable as it is! My first attempt at a letter of complaint are often just a long-winded structureless rant but I save for later, edit and then ask my trusted associate (!) to reorganise it before posting. The posters on MSE are not paid for giving advice or support, why should we have to decipher your letter because you simply can't be bothered?

fnc6810

Dear
Your Gas Customer Reference Number:
Your Electricity Customer Reference Number:
Re: Direct Debits
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in my reply and for the increase in your
direct debits.
Upon checking your electricity account, I confirm you have been receiving your dual fuel
discount for having gas and electricity with British Gas. This shows on your electricity bill
only. On your online bill it shows under your discounts. (this took a year to answer)
Gas
I’m sorry you weren’t expecting the increase in your Direct Debit, but we want to make sure that your monthly payment accurately
reflects the cost of the energy you use. We review your payment regularly to ensure that there’s no excessive credit or debit
balance on your account at the end of your payment scheme year.
When your payment scheme was recently reassessed the debit balance from your last statement was included in the calculation
of the new amount, as well as your predicted future usage. This is based on your previous consumption and any price changes
that have occurred since your last reassessment.
I’ve reviewed your account after you raised concerns about the increase in your payments and included a breakdown of how your
new monthly payment has been calculated.
Debit balance included: £178.39
Predicted annual usage 07 October 2009 to 29 September 2010: £788.24 (Inc VAT)
Instalments made on current payment scheme: 1 x £50.00 = £50.00, 1 x £83.00 = £83.00. Total payments
£133.00
Remaining balance: £833.63
Remaining instalments: 10
New instalment amount: £83.36
As you can see from above if you use the expected consumption above your payments need
to pay £83.00. However, upon checking your last four gas bills you have used the following
Debit balance included: £178.39
Usage based on last four bills from 22 November 2008 to 06 October 2009 incl VAT =
£698.63
Instalments made on current payment scheme: 1 x £50.00 = £50.00, 1 x £83.00 = £83.00. Total payments
£133.00
Remaining balance: £744.02
Remaining instalments: 10
New instalment amount: £74.40 (rounded to £74.00)
Unfortunately, I am unable to reduce your monthly payments back to £50.00 based on the
above information. However, I have reduced your payments to £74.00 and this will take
affect from your December instalment. You will receive a letter by Wednesday 9 December
2009.
Electricity
Debit balance included: £594.34
Predicted annual usage 07 October 2009 to 29 September 2010: £1,119.78(Inc VAT)
Instalments made on current payment scheme: 1 x £33.00 = £33.00, 1 x £153.00 = £153.00. Total
payments £186.00
Remaining balance: £1,528.12
Remaining instalments: 10
New instalment amount: £152.81 (rounded to £153.00)
As you can see from above if you use the expected consumption above your payments need
to pay £153.00. However, upon checking your last four gas bills you have used the following;
Debit balance included: £594.34
Usage based on last four electricity bills 18 November 2008 to 06 October 2009: £970.48(Inc
VAT)
Instalments made on current payment scheme: 1 x £33.00 = £33.00, 1 x £153.00 = £153.00. Total
payments £186.00
Remaining balance: £1,564.82
Remaining instalments: 10
New instalment amount: £156.48 (rounded to £156.00)
Unfortunately, I am unable to reduce your monthly payments back to £33.00 based on the
above information. However, based on the above information used in your last four bills your
payments should be £156.00. I have kept your payments at £153.00.(maybe if they did the correct calculations it could be reduced by taking of what i've already paid and then divide by 10)
I am sorry that our Sales Rep advised you to reduce your payments with ourselves.
Thank you for contacting British Gas.
Kind regards
Samantha Kay
britishgas.co.uk - Looking after your world

We're open 7am to 11pm, 7 days a week

This is a response from them I have to read. But I can't get my head round how many times I have to be nice, how many times you have to be brief but to the point, am i allowed to think of their correspondence as to long winded and ignore it without being penalised. The way I'm interpreting the responses I'm getting back is when a problem occurs is to be submissive turn around, bend over so they can kick you right in the dangley bits that hard it looks like you've got 3 adams apple's.

Happy new year
fnc6810

Fire_Fox

As you refuse to put your initial complaint into a format that average Joe can read or understand, I haven't the foggiest why you think their calculations are wrong. I don't find the BG response too long winded - all the information seems relevant and the language is professional. I also don't understand why you think you are being done up like a kipper when BG have agreed to reduce the payments on one account. If you are so unhappy with the service why don't you vote with your feet?

fnc6810

Fire_Fox wrote: »

As you refuse to put your initial complaint into a format that average Joe can read or understand, I haven't the foggiest why you think their calculations are wrong. I don't find the BG response too long winded - all the information seems relevant and the language is professional. I also don't understand why you think you are being done up like a kipper when BG have agreed to reduce the payments on one account. If you are so unhappy with the service why don't you vote with your feet?

1.Their rep Offered a deal of cheaper gas and electric which could also reduce our D/D payment
2. This deal was not so much a reduction in cost of p/per unit but a reduction in primary KWh.
3.He said there would be no duel fuel discount as each bill would be calculated seperate, but reduction in primary kWh would more than make up for this shortfall.
4. This deal was matching what we were paying but a reduction in the D/D payment meant a little bit more in our bank each month.

The outcome was..
More expensive gas and electricity. We have used less than the previous year but paid more.
No direct debit discount
D/D payments lowered to much that has now left us in Debt.
A year to reply about my question about duel fuel.

So this was not the deal i was promised and it has put me into debt with them and writing short medium or long letters with or without proper spelling seems to get either no reply or replys explaining incorrectly how they have calculated everything and came up with the wrong answer.....full stop ....no doubt you would rather pick up on my puctuation than even attempt to read through anything i have writted whoops another mistake must correct that...WRITTEN.

Lets start again

Advice on how to increase my Gas and Electricity Bills please
No I didn't make a mistake I would realy like advice on INCREASING my Gas and Electricity bills.
This is what i did last year according to British Gas...I was offered a deal that did not give a Direct Debit discount but reduced the D/D payments well below what would have covered the bill, and a price increase that would see me pay about £600 a year more for using less. And i said yes to this so lets see if there is a worse deal i can sign up to ...

Hi fnc6810
I had the same problem and after being criticized about my punctuation and none of my issued addressed, i was finaly advised to vote with my feet, before this priceless advice it never occured to me to move suppliers.

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Wow great advice that must have come from someone with a lot of knowledge of the etymology of such idioms

thanks for the advice
I'm just of to visit my grandchildren now to tell them what i've learnt
cheers fnc6810