British Gas Cancellation Fee?

Stronger

I have just had my "final gas bill - actual" from those wonderful people at British Gas.

I am changing supplier and this is, as it states, the last bill to them.

They have very kindly added a "Cancellation Fee" to the bill. An extra £35.00.

What!?

Do I have to pay this? I wasn't aware that I had entered into a termed agreemant or contract with them, so why the charge to cancel?
Can I fight this silly charge? Any experience on this guys, as I'm not used to such daftness and £35 may not be a huge amount, but it would certainly help this months finances if it could be avoided.

Thanks for reading :-)

Joyful

If you were on the Standard tariff you could have left without penalty so it looks like you agreed a tariff with termination fees before a certain date so yes you need to pay it.

Humph

I'm also in the middle of switching from British Gas and have received a cancellation fee of £35. I was on Price Protection 2010 which ran out in May and British Gas have "kindly rolled me over onto Price Protection 2012" which has a £35 exit fee.

The only notification I have is a small note on my Gas Bill in June with no details of the plan or prices which were very high compared to PP2010.

When I complained yesterday they said I would have received a letter late Feb/early March saying I would be rolled over unless I opted for a different plan. I did not receive any letter. This was sent then to give me plenty of chance to decide what to do. When pushed for an actual date they finally said it was sent on April 9th which was too late for the 30 days OFCOM notice to change my tariff on May 1st so they changed on May 9th and retrospectively charged me the higher prices from May 1st. I did not receive this letter.

I feel completely conned that I have been bumped into a 2 year contract by default.
Surely after 5 years on PP2010 they should put you onto a penalty free contract unless you have positively signed up to another long term contract.

The supervisor on the complaints line said nobody there could give me a refund and my best bet was to take the compaint to the next level.

Has anyone else on the forum got into this situation and did they manage to get out without paying the £35

Pincher

We need BBC Watchdog to do a piece on this.
With all these complaints about non-receipt of notice,
and automatic rollover onto uncompetitive tariffs, WITH LOCK-IN, it deserves a national appeal for case examples.

They probably use an automated mailng subtractor to send out these letters, so the subtractor should have a computer record of the letters it actually sent, since they have to pay postage and get paid by British Gas. Unless British Gas pays for non-undelivered letters, their own records will be their downfall.

The demand on British Gas should be a tick box that allows you to refuse automatic rollover. Their standard PR spiel is some people are not pro-active enough to seek out another deal, and could be unprotected against sudden prices rises when they think they are still in a protected tariff. Well, what do they call the tariff jump to 2012, a slight adjustment? I am guessing 30% hike?

If they are really doing it for the customer's benefit, they should call the customer. Their sales people spend endless amount of time colding calling people, but they can't make one courtesy call to customers they already have?

Breana

Have just had a similar problem with British Gas and managed to get the £35 refunded. I asked them to confirm the date that the alleged change of tariff letter was sent ( I did not receive this letter ). Eventually they told me that it was sent out sometime in June, at least two weeks after they had changed me over to Price Protection 2012. In view of this oversight and as a gesture of goodwill the £35 refund was made!

Humph

Just an update - complained to the next level up and have just received an apologetic phone call and a letter saying the money is being refunded. Thanks to all for their help and support:beer:

dogshome

Thus far we have two posts complaining that BG have automatically rolled customers over onto a £35 Penalty Contract as their old one expired, and both have said they did not recieve notification letters.
And the worst of it is, the roll over isn't even onto a decent tariff

Then the thread has been picked up by two more, who have told of their challange to BG which results in BG surrendering and refunding the penalty.
Frankly it appears that BG are flying a kite - those who kick up a fuss don't pay, those who don't do.

In all this, BG are relying on a point of law that says if a letter is sent, it is deemed to have been recieved - If a customer didn't recieve a letter, but when faced with the new tariff insists he did send a letter refusing the transfer, and knocks one up on his computer to send BG a copy - It would as illegal as BG sending out phantom letters after the roll-over has taken place - I as a law abiding citizen would not for a moment suggest...............

somethingoriginal

Just so you know, "uncompetitive tariffs" turn into great ones if prices go up and you've fixed, irrespective of supplier, the price protection released this year had a cancellation fee, but it protected the customer from 5 years of price rises. Initially, the price protection 2010 had a 4.9% premium based on prices in 2006 - not bad if you can think that far back! Current fixed prices are between 5 - 12% above standard prices depending on supplier. Anyway, rant over