British Gas Small Print - read it or double it!

Keith_Martin

WARNING CHECK THIS UTILITIES INFO! if u have a fixed price year contract for all your gas and Electric with BRITISH GAS, read right through ANY letters from them including the small print, a friend of mine received a letter about renewing his contract 7 MONTHS BEFORE it was up, the letter didnt appear to need immediate action. the tarrif had DOULED to an extortionate amount for the next year. The customer has checked - even tried to buy out of the contract... CANNOT get out of the contract in any way!
Apparently a lot of other people have been done by this method WATCHDOG and Martin should be informed of this -
sharp practise?

Meepster

Yeah and don't eat yellow snow...

Premier_2

Keith_Martin wrote: »

...Apparently a lot of other people have been done by this method WATCHDOG and Martin should be informed of this -
sharp practise?

Hi Keith Martin, and welcome to MSE :hello:

Unfortunately Martin is primarily interested in consumer revenge (as in the website header), rather than business customers who should be more aware of the contractual obligations they enter into; that's the opinion of most watchdogs too

dogshome

Hi KiethMartin - As Premier has posted, 'Commercial' supply contracts don't have the level of protective legeslation that covers Domestic users

The way that suppliers have deliberately set out to fleece small businesses, who by their nature will not have dedicated staff to deal with energy supplies, is a scandal that has been tackled to a small extent by Ofgem, the regulator - For more information visit Ofgem's web site and enter microbusinesses into the search window in the top R/hand corner of the opening page

undaunted

Premier wrote: »

Hi Keith Martin, and welcome to MSE :hello:

Unfortunately Martin is primarily interested in consumer revenge (as in the website header), rather than business customers who should be more aware of the contractual obligations they enter into; that's the opinion of most watchdogs too

A bit harsh though surely? EG if we assume that British Gas, BP, Ford Motor Company and "Fred & Bill the Plumbers" are all businesses should they really all be expected to have the same awareness & ability to understand legal contracts?