British Gas Electricity meter rip off - help please!

Kinnairdy

:j Thank's for the advance warning Moosetastic, been waiting for this since reading your post and lo and behold it dropped through the letter box this morning.
I signed up with B.G. in January 06, arrived home on 27 April 06 to find white van man had been sent to change the meter, checked his id and said it would have been nice to have been pre notified, he said letters had supposedly been sent out but no one he had been to so far had received the letter from B.G. Anyway he changed the meter for this key model and said he had adjusted the rate and had rounded up the balance, I asked what would happen if there was a deficit between the old and new rates, he replied there won't be as the old meter rate was accurate. Did'nt think any more about it then but now guess he was spouting waffle.

Have reproduced the entire letter below for anyone who is interested although I cannot imagine anyone finding it that fascinating. LOL
Will follow some of the suggestions on this thread and see what they have to say for themselves, have just applied to Equipower so should be changed over in about 6 week's so it's bye bye from me to B.G.:D


British Gas Getting in touch
Phone 0845850 8264
Opening hours Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Write to
P0 Box 316
Manchester
M16 OXP
Customer Reference Number
We sent this letter on
Thursday. 06 July 2006

Your electricity prepayment meter
Outstanding balance now payable : £24.14
Dear
As you know, we have recently changed your meter for a more advanced” one. This will enable us to provide a better service with less inconvenience to you. We hope that you have adapted to your new meter and payment device without any difficulties.
We previously wrote to you about the change in unit rate on your former electricity prepayment meter. As your meter was one of the older style token meters, it could not be adjusted without a visit to your home. This means that although you have been purchasing credit through your meter, unfortunately you were not paying the correct tariff for your electricity.
We have now calculated the amount that you had credited your old meter, and how much you should have paid in total. As a result of the inconvenience we may have caused you, the outstanding balance has been reduced to £24.14, this Is now due for payment in full.
We understand that you could not have been able to anticipate this situation. As such there are two different methods by which you can repay this deficit:
• Payment in full by debit card or cheque
• Balance added to your meter
If you choose to make the payment in full by using your debit card, please call on 0845 850 8264. If you prefer to pay by cheque please, post it to the address shown above. Please bear in mind that it will take up to 14 days for us to credit a cheque payment. If we do not hear from you we will automatically add the outstanding balance to your meter. The meter will deduct £5.00 per week and will continue to do so until the outstanding balance of £24.14 has been repaid.
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this has caused. If you need any clarification, or this causes you any difficulties, then phone our Customer Service team on 0845 850 8264 who’ll be pleased to help.
Yours sincerely.
Any questions?
If you have any questions or this causes you any difficulties, please phone our customer Service team on 0845 850 8264 who’ll be pleased to help.
Ways to pay
You can make payment by phoning the above Helpline number with your Switch / Maestro, Solo or Delta card details.
You may write to us at the following address, however it can be up to 10 days before you receive a reply to your query. It is usually quicker to phone us or email e
‘Your calls may be monitored and/or recorded for quality assurance.
Joe Dyer
Director of Customer Service

moosetastic

Hi Kinnairdy,

Yep thats the letter they sent to me. I have just phoned BG to tell them that I am not paying this amount as it wasnt my fault that they didnt reset the tariff on my old meter.

Their response? -
"We changed the tariffs at the beginning of the year and tried to reset the meters remotely (??!! when the letter says they cant) and this failed. Therefore you were on the lower rate and we are now reclaiming this back."

I said, "Ive just said to you that I am not paying this money back is it not my fault that you did not reset the meter properly."

She said "If you cant pay then we will add it to your meter"

I said "I'm not saying I cant pay, Im saying Im not paying. I have taken advice from Energywatch, and I have to give you 10 days to give me a response"

She said "We will still add it to your account regardless"

"Is this your response then?" I said.

"yes" she said. ............................:mad: :mad:

I then realised that I hadnt brought up about the meter taking £9 while I was on holiday last week with only the fridge freezer plugged in. The guy I spoke to was really helpful and said "we could send an engineer to fix your meter rate (thought they could do the new meters remotely, they can add money on but not slow it down??) but this will cost you £70. Do a self assessment for a week and then ring us back."

"ok I said, do you think this has anything to do with the outstanding balance letter Ive received, and do you think they've added the balance to it?"

"lets look, he said. yes a message was sent to your meter on 9 JUNE to reclaim this money!!!!!!!! it will have taken 7 - 14 days to action so from the 23rd June it will have been reclaiming it back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"WHAT?? I said, how can you tell me that they sent a message to my meter over a month ago to reclaim this money, when the letter I got on Saturday is dated 5 JULY"

Anyway, after checking my meter and going through the steps, luckily it has not been activated, but the b****y cheek of it!!

Needless to say I have now put in an official complaint at Energywatch and Ill be contacted in the next few days. mad does not even come close! :mad:

Kinnairdy

:mad: Thank's for that Moosetastic, I had better go and sit in the cupboard and watch my meter to see if it too has been remotely programmed to nick my money without telling me, the B******s, apologies for that but I am really very :mad: now.
I have just sent them a recorded delivery letter today requesting full and itemised details of this alleged debt otherwise I will ask the Energy Supply Regulator to investigate, now you tell me they have already instigated measures to reclaim this money without the customers knowledge. So the letter is merely a token measure to be seen to comply with regulations, I am assuming that the customer would be unlikely to know when the meter signal was sent unless they too asked the same question as you have so B.G. could then say 'but we wrote to you with this information on xx July 2006' and one could not prove otherwise without prior knowledge. Devious, deceitful and underhanded methods indeed.:mad:
Friend told me today she had a bill from them for £6000, she phoned to say not possible and was told ' don't worry about it, they (Billing Dept) are always getting it wrong and lot's of people are getting bills that they do not owe'. Not a very reassuring attitude from a B.G. staff member is it?.
Anyway don't know about you but I am in it for the long haul, until I get itemised details they can whistle for their alleged debt, not saying I won't pay but I do want to compare their readings against the duplicate ones I took at the time of the switch and the meter change plus the rates quoted in earlier correspondence to make damned sure I owe this money before I hand anything over to B.G.
Right I'm off to sit in the cupboard with one eye on the meter, it's going to be a very looooooooooooong night methink's. :rotfl:

moosetastic

:rotfl: :rotfl: dont do that!!! hahaa

the guy at BG said that if a debt has been put on your meter, if you press the blue button continuously you should get a menu beginning with S, this apparently shows any debt. I went through the menus with the guy on the phone from BG and there wasnt any menu S, so that meant the debt hadnt gone on. Far better than sitting in the cupboard all night!!! :rotfl: :rotfl:

I'm gonna wait and see what Energy watch do now, they were really helpful and said someone will get back to me in the next few days to confirm all the details and to contact BG.

Bogof_Babe

I'm :mad: too, having spent the morning trying to give them my meter reading (they left a card yesterday when I was out). Their online meter reading service was out of order, as was their automated phone service ("there is a technical fault, please try later"). I refuse to ring an 0845 number and listen to a load of recorded garbage while I wait, and the card they left has no postal address on it.

They can sing for their meter reading, and can't say I didn't try.

Kinnairdy

:T Phew thank's for that M, my bum was going numb, I was loosing all feeling in my leg's and my eyes were hurting from squinting at the darned meter by candle light, You surely did'nt expect me to sit there with a light on wasting electricitynow did you? :rotfl:
No sign of the dreaded S on my meter yet either so will wait and see if I get a fast response to my letter.
All the best with Energywatch, hope you will let me know how you get on incase I have to take that route too.
Am off to bed now, exhausted from sitting in the cupboard.

EasilyAggravated

as ive said before, this happened to me and british gas refunded the money. its their fault and they know it. its just a case of pushing hard enough to get the money back. stick with it!

moosetastic

moosetastic wrote:

:rotfl: :rotfl: dont do that!!! hahaa

the guy at BG said that if a debt has been put on your meter, if you press the blue button continuously you should get a menu beginning with S, this apparently shows any debt. I went through the menus with the guy on the phone from BG and there wasnt any menu S, so that meant the debt hadnt gone on. Far better than sitting in the cupboard all night!!! :rotfl: :rotfl:

I'm gonna wait and see what Energy watch do now, they were really helpful and said someone will get back to me in the next few days to confirm all the details and to contact BG.

Just been to my mums and she said to check the meter thoroughly as the debt could be there, just not on the menu the guy was spouting about.

I have just come home and on menu F (which does sound like S) it says Tariff Charge / Week £5.54!!!!!!!!!! does this mean what I think it means???? :mad: if so they can get ready tomorrow!!!

moosetastic

right ok, now i am fuming!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

have just been to British Gas website to see what all the screens mean, and guess what??

Screen S only shows up when you have the key inserted!!! Was never told that yesterday. And guess what? Lo and behold, the debt has gone onto my account and they are deducting £5 per week!!!! AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHH *^%$@)(!!?? :mad: :mad: is all I can say at the moment!!!............

danio_2

moosetastic wrote:

right ok, now i am fuming!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

have just been to British Gas website to see what all the screens mean, and guess what??

Screen S only shows up when you have the key inserted!!! Was never told that yesterday. And guess what? Lo and behold, the debt has gone onto my account and they are deducting £5 per week!!!! AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHH *^%$@)(!!?? :mad: :mad: is all I can say at the moment!!!............

if F is £5.54 then that would indeed include a debt that BG have put on your meter. There is no debt on my meter and my F (charge/week...which i guess is like a standing charge) is 51p


BG shouldn't do this tho NOT if they are aware that Energywatch are involved, I got energywatch involved with BG for exactly the same reason as you (except BG wanted £600 repaid...because of their own incompetence) and Energywatch got the debt wiped...So i wish you the very best of luck...BG are low life