Problems with British Gas.

arte

Hello

I moved house last week and ended my contract with British Gas.
When I went to do the final meter reading I found out that I made a mistake on the previous one I gave to BG. I had given them a higher reading than it actual was, overpaying the bill.

I gave the new and correct reading to BG and told them that I had overpaid and what they did they recalculated the entire bill from last April charging me the whole amount at a premium rate and asking me to pay more money on the top of what I already paid. I called BG and the guy who answered told me that because they had to change the bills the system considered like I didn't give any reading since April, that's why the premium rate calculation. So not only I overpaid the bill in July but now I have to pay even more despite the meter is actually at a lower reading that I gave a few months ago.

Any suggestion on what can I do?

Thanks

ollski

Well I'd ring them back and tell them to recalculate it based on the tariff you were on...that's what you were on and thats what you owe.

arte

Might do that yes. But I was wondering, shouldn't I be on credit with them since I overpaid last time. I explained that to the guy on the phone who kind of told me that by logic yes but not by their logic.

t0rt0ise

Once they calculate using the proper tariff you should have credit on the account. If you get no joy from phoning, write to the complaints department using 'signed for' mail and state the facts. They will contact you and hopefully sort it out.

Cardew

BG are correct I am afraid.

You don't say if it is electric or gas but the same principle applies to both. Let us assume it is gas:

BG charge for 2,680kWh a year at the higher Tier 1 rate. Those tier 1 units are charged pro-rata daily i.e. 7.34kWh a day. Your mistake giving them a higher reading in April meant all the additional units would have been paid for at the cheap tier 2 rate.

If they allowed that mistaken April reading to stand, it would mean that in the period from April until you left(7 months) you would have paid for no high priced Tier 1 units. You should have paid for around 1,560 high priced Tier 1 units.

arte

It was for gas. Basically on my previous bill I gave them a reading that was of 0880 units and when I did the final reading I was at 0870 units so lower than I previously paid. They haven't done a reading by themselves since them so it's also their mistake for noticing the misreaded meter.

Cardew

arte wrote: »

It was for gas. Basically on my previous bill I gave them a reading that was of 0880 units and when I did the final reading I was at 0870 units so lower than I previously paid. They haven't done a reading by themselves since them so it's also their mistake for noticing the misreaded meter.

Don't understand the bit in bold. - do you mean 'not noticing'?

However the 'mistake' is not the point here; you are now being charged correctly. so any mistake has been corrected.

As I expalined above, unless they recalculate from April you will not be paying for any high priced Tier1 units in the 7 months from April.

If they didn't recalculate, every savvy person with every Utility company send in a too high meter reading and escape paying for loads of tier1 units.

t0rt0ise

I'd ask them to explain it to you using the actual figures. I'd want to see it written out before I believed it!

Cardew

t0rt0ise wrote: »

I'd ask them to explain it to you using the actual figures. I'd want to see it written out before I believed it!

Can you not understand what happened?

The OP wrote:

Basically on my previous bill I gave them a reading that was of 0880 units and when I did the final reading I was at 0870 units so lower than I previously paid

The mistaken 0880 reading was in April(The OP has admitted he gave the wrong reading) and the 0870 reading was last week.

So if they left matters as they were and gave him a rebate for 10 gas units, it would have meant he would not have paid for any Tier 1 units in the period April until Nov.

arte

Yes I was meaning 'not noticing' in the previous message, sorry.

I kind of understand their system and that they need to do in this way to correct my mistake. I find it unfair though that with a mistake like mine where I have actually overpaid the bill I get asked to pay even more money to make their system happy. At least they should have told me that the final bill would have been zero.
It would have been better then if I wouldn't have told them about my mistake and give a reading of 5 extra units as final bill.

Maybe I should write to their complaint department to try to explain the matter. What do you think?

t0rt0ise

Cardew wrote: »

Can you not understand what happened?

Yes I do. It's an annual charge worked out quarterly isn't it? So there's bound to be times when it doesn't work. What happens when people have very low use one quarter.. say go away for a long holiday to Australia? Would they then recalculate at the end of the year or change the calculation on the next quarter or what?

How does it work with the PPMs?