British Gas say they will charge extra £50 unless i pay remainder of bill today isn't

furball

Thankyou for your reply swanjon, we are looking at changing suppliers, i hold my hands up and say it's entirely my fault the bill is so late being paid but we showed willing by paying £90 last week, and i arent arguing about the £14( not £16 as i originally posted sorry) costs, i just think that sometimes it would be nice if it was understood by these big firms that if a person is struggling, piling £50 charges on top is not going to help a person. I think adding a further £50 is just a way of making money out of other peoples hardship. Oh still haven't heard back from BG will ring them tomorrow and find out what they say about me changing suppliers and if anything has happened about the £50 charge.

dogshome

Hi furball - Maybe you can find enough charity to forgive Kimyeovil - It must be very lonely on the planet she's on, because the rest of us live somewhere else.

However, what interests me is the part of your reply post to Kim in which you explain how the debt to BG occurred. Bit confused with reference to n'power, but for this post I'll ignore it

Is it the case that BG, for 3 years, ignored the readings taken by meter readers, (And also those given by your self ?), and issued bills based on meter readings that they themselves had under estimated, and then in Dec 09 when they realised which way way was actually up, they issued a bill for £566 which was in addition to the bills you had recieved and paid over a 3 year period ?

THE BILL - The Utilities have a duty to present accurate bills THIS BG HAVE NOT DONE

THE DEBT - The Utility companies in cases of debt are supposed to set re-payment installments at an agreed level the customer can afford THIS BG HAVE NOT DONE

On these two counts you not only have just cause for complaint, but a good chance that the One Year only Back-billing rule should be applied.
As you have found, in this situation phone calls to the Customer Service Desk are rather less then useless - the poor bloody foot soldiers at the other end of the phone are schooled to react when a Debt shows on their screen, only with the words GIVEUSTHEMONEY.

You must WRITE to BG, heading the letter COMPLAINT - Just like that in bold - Pointing out that for a 3 year period they have failed to produce accurate bills and that whilst you accept that you you should pay for power consumed, it is entirely thier fault that this situation has occured and the One Year only Back Billing rule should apply - Also that their threatening demands and added fines without any conversation with you as to your financial circumstances and what arrangements could be made for you to pay off an entirely unexpected bill for £566, is in breach of Ofgems guidelines

You seem seem to be working thro' financial difficulties with good sense and endeavor, and I wish you all the best

mandi

Dont take any notice of Kim OP , she is one of the resident trollls in MSE

Antispam

Agreed know one takes her seriously she must have a perfect life

mandi wrote: »

Dont take any notice of Kim OP , she is one of the resident trollls in MSE

furball

Hi dogshome i brought up the Npower bill to see if troll thought the way they had treated us with regard to our £566 bill was his idea of fair as well. We refused to pay the amount they wanted as all the bill would have been paid off in 8 months, i told them the amount we were willing to pay and said they were lucky we didn't make them wait 3 years to pay it. They told us they had knocked over a thousand pound off the bill that they had worked out due to the 3 years estimation difference and i told them straight they hadn't knocked it off that by law they weren't allowed to backdate more than a year, good old Martin Lewis. They were fine about our payments till Feb when they sent us a letter telling us they had renegotiated payments and they had more than doubled. I rang them and said renegotiated with who, i am the paying customer and was more than a £100 in front untill they sent me the £566 bill, they could accept my payments or see me in court as i was more than happy to tell the courts about their !!!! up. Paying the Npower bill is what got us behind the gas bill. Hope its a bit clearer now. Thankyou for your post, we learn a lot on here and great minds think alike.

specialsparky

Furball. look sorry you are having problems with BG. I am pretty sure thye can not just add charges to your account unless they have notified you that they intend to charge you and when,you have protection under the Cosumer Crecit Act.
If you have made a promise to pay and they have accepted that they cannot now threaten to charge you. You must log a complaint and if neccessary complain to Ofgem and Consumer Focus. They ar ethere to protect you and will help.

However beware if you are not 100% accurate with what you are saying they will not assist you.

Good luck, hope this helps

Freddie_Snowbits

undaunted wrote: »

The poster comes here asking for help & gets this? The "tone" of some of the replies is unbelievable. I wonder whether some of you have ever hit misfortune / had to struggle & what your reaction will be in the future if you ever do.

The advice is for OP to py bills by DD and learn ho to budget. If OP cannot add up, perhaps they should go and find a solicitor so they can sue their school.

dogshome

Hi furball - Strewth ! So you did come to an agreed repayment plan with BG, which they then just tore up ?

OK - If BG want to play really hard ball, so can you
You are entitled to a new set of fully detailed bills covering the whole period over which BG have adjusted the amount of useage, so ask for these in WRITING

Now with this demand you are not just being awkward - Three years billing takes the problem back to around Dec 2006, a time when tariff rates were a lot lower than they are now, and you have the right to be able to check what power they are chargeing for, at what period and at what price. In fact it is your duty to do so

Armed with these figures, you can make a fact based claim as to how much you should pay on the One year Backbilling rule and also check the veracity of their entire demand.
All the best

KimYeovil

As I asked in my second reply, "where was the codemnation"? My first reply was entirely proper.

The OP's op suggested that late charges were unfair. I suggested that they were not. I find it very strange those of you who think uninvolved parties should carry the costs of such late payments are claiming the high ground. Why do you want to push up the prices of fuel?

SwanJon

Dogshome - I get the impression the three year issue was with npower. Happy to be corrected. Furball's issue with BG is that charges are being added to the account.

Furball - I can understand that the charges seem like a penalty, but they are there to protect most customers. These charges are not applied if a payments scheme has been agreed and stuck to, and so in the majority of cases they affect won't pay rather than can't pay. If suprised that a payment scheme wasn't offered when you called BG when you first became aware you wouldn't be able to pay the bill on time
If any customer has cash flow problems I would always recommend some way of spreading the payments - even unofficially by sticking them in a separate account until the bill arrives