Current British Gas customers switching to Energy Smart - BEWARE

Widgel

Hi All,

Just wanted to make people aware who are current British Gas customers and are currently on fixed price to 2011 or 2012 and are currently changing to Energy Smart.

When British Gas told me and my partner about Energy Smart, we were very interested and decided to move to this tariff. We were told that we would have to pay of any debt that we had on either of the accounts which was fine as are Gas was in credit and are electricity was in debit by about £30 which we paid off, we were told that there would be no other charges.

On receiving our next bill we found a £70 cancellation fee on our Gas Bill & a £30 cancellation fee on our electricity bill which caused us great concern. We phoned B Gas to query this amount and was told that there had been a "technical fault" and the customer service advisor had by mistake cancelled the fixed price tariff which generated the cancellation fees. (Regardless of switiching to Energy Smart, you remain on fixed price if you signed up for it). They have apologised and are in the process of revising our bill.

I just wanted to bring this to peoples attention in case no one has challenged any cancellation fees on their account, call me suspicious but I suspect that this was not a technical fault and that B Gas were trying to get away with adding fees to our bills.

markharding557

Just a administative error on their part,nothing sinister.

kjsmith7

Very likely the person just clicked the wrong button They are revising the bill, doesn't appear to be a problem, I think you are worrying too much. Cancellation fees are only upheld when you cancel the rate you're on, by going to another tariff (which EnergySmart in itself is not I don't believe, just a monthly online bill with a monitor chucked in) or going to another company. You aren't charged if you move house usually either. Good thing you noticed though!

smjxm09

I changed from Websaver 4 to Websaver 5. Even though it now said Websaver 5 at the top of the bill they changed my tariff to a standard tariff so my bill shot up. Pure luck that I spotted the tariff error

Antispam

I recently joined energy smart. I just sent my 2nd lot readings on 25th but haven't as yet got a bill, 1st time I got bill 2 days later, is this normal

kjsmith7

Antispam wrote: »

I recently joined energy smart. I just sent my 2nd lot readings on 25th but haven't as yet got a bill, 1st time I got bill 2 days later, is this normal

Depends on what day you have chosen to be billed. You get reminded 7 days in advance, so say your bill was due on the 30th of the month, you would be reminded on the 23rd. If you put your meter readings in on the 23rd, it would be a week before you had your bill. If you put your meter readings in on the 28th, it would be 2 days before you had your bill.